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today at plushcare.com/weight loss.

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That's plushcare.com slash weight loss.

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That's plushcare.com/weight loss. This

1:19

is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World

1:21

Service. I'm

1:24

Nick Mars and at 13 hours

1:26

GMT on Tuesday the 25th of

1:28

June. These are our main stories.

1:31

Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, walks

1:33

free from prison after a 14-year

1:35

legal battle. Protests are

1:37

taking place across Kenya against a bill

1:40

that would introduce new taxes. Some have

1:42

entered the parliament buildings in Nairobi. And

1:45

Israel's Supreme Court orders ultra-Orthodox

1:47

Jewish religious students can no

1:50

longer avoid being drafted into

1:52

the military. Also

1:56

in this podcast... This is

1:58

the successful completion of the World Service.

2:00

of a 53-day mission to

2:03

the moon to collect a sample and

2:05

bring it back and this is not just any

2:07

sample. Find out why scientists are

2:09

so excited by pieces of rock and dirt

2:12

taken from the far side of the moon.

2:18

For some, the founder of WikiLeaks,

2:20

Julian Assange, is a hero of

2:22

free speech. To others, he's a

2:24

villain who endangered the lives of

2:26

soldiers around the world by exposing

2:28

secrets about the wars in Iraq

2:30

and Afghanistan. He's been

2:32

involved in a long-running saga with the

2:35

United States who wanted to put him

2:37

on trial for divulging military secrets. But

2:39

after a 14-year legal battle, Mr Assange

2:41

is on his way to freedom. He's

2:44

been released on bail from a British

2:46

prison after reaching a plea deal that

2:48

ends his long fight against extradition to

2:50

the United States. Mr

2:52

Assange is set to appear before

2:54

a court in a remote US

2:56

Pacific territory where he's expected to

2:58

plead guilty to violating espionage law.

3:00

He's unlikely to serve further time

3:03

in prison. After his

3:05

court appearance, the Australian citizen will then

3:07

go on to Australia where his wife

3:09

Stella Assange is waiting for him. It's

3:11

a whirlwind of emotions. I mean,

3:13

I'm just elated. It feels like

3:15

it's not real. We weren't really

3:18

sure until the last 24 hours

3:20

that it was actually happening and

3:22

we were talking about, I don't know, what

3:24

he needed to do, what he

3:26

wouldn't take from his cell. And I

3:28

also had to pack things up and

3:31

head out to Australia 24 hours before he left.

3:36

So it's just been

3:38

nonstop for the past, I think, 72 hours. Australia's

3:41

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it's

3:43

time for Julian Assange to return

3:46

home. Regardless of the views

3:48

that people have about Mr Assange's

3:50

activities, the case has dragged on

3:52

for too long. There's

3:54

nothing to be gained by his continued

3:56

incarceration and we want him brought home

3:59

to Australia. And we have engaged

4:01

and advocated Australia's interests using

4:03

all appropriate channels to support

4:05

a positive outcome and I've

4:07

done that since very early

4:09

on in my Prime Ministership.

4:12

Julian Assange's standoff with the United

4:14

States has never been a straightforward

4:16

one. He spent seven years taking

4:18

refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in

4:21

London and at one point started

4:23

an unlikely friendship with the actress

4:25

Pamela Anderson. My diplomatic

4:27

correspondent Caroline Hornley has been following this

4:29

story from the beginning. If

4:31

we look at where it first began, it was

4:33

2010 when Julian Assange's

4:36

WikiLeaks published footage

4:38

that showed a helicopter gunship

4:41

shooting Iraqi civilians. Now

4:43

that had been obtained illegally,

4:46

the US said, followed after that

4:48

the biggest leak of

4:50

US military secrets in history. So

4:54

then there was an international arrest

4:56

warrant in a completely separate

4:58

case from Sweden and this is how

5:00

his legal issues began. There

5:03

were two Swedish women who

5:05

accused him of sexual assault.

5:07

Now he fought extradition to Sweden.

5:10

He then went into the Ecuadorian Embassy in

5:12

2012. You may remember

5:14

there was round-the-clock policing at the

5:17

time, so a large cost to

5:19

the British taxpayer. Then in 2019

5:21

he'd outstayed his welcome. Then

5:24

the extradition from the US came

5:27

in and then he spent the last five years

5:29

in Belmarsh jail. So

5:32

we've been following the legal twists and turns

5:35

for many years. It's hard to believe that it's finally come

5:37

to an end, but certainly it seems

5:40

that a deal we don't yet know exactly how

5:42

it was reached has been reached.

5:45

The Australians were pushing very, very hard

5:47

for it. Joe Biden said in April

5:49

that he was considering dropping the prosecution.

5:51

This seems to be a compromise

5:54

that suits everyone. Julian

5:56

Assange wanted to be free. His

5:58

health was failing. The

6:00

Americans probably don't want to prosecute

6:02

this now and the

6:04

Australians wanted him back. So, what happens

6:07

next? I spoke to our correspondent

6:09

in Sydney, Katie Watson. So,

6:11

he will attend a US

6:13

court, 9 o'clock Australian time

6:16

on Wednesday morning. He will be attending

6:18

a court in, and this

6:20

is the bit of a curveball, Northern

6:22

Mariana Islands on Saipan, and that's in

6:25

the middle of Pacific. It's US territory

6:27

and the reason he's there is because

6:29

he's nervous about going on US soil.

6:32

It's also relatively close to

6:34

Australia and, according to documents,

6:36

that is where he's headed

6:39

after entering into a guilty plea

6:42

in the court in Northern Mariana

6:44

Islands. Now, he is an Australian

6:46

citizen. What would you say is

6:49

the range of feelings regarding Julian

6:51

Assange there from the military all

6:53

the way down to ordinary people?

6:55

I think Anthony Albanese said it

6:57

earlier, and that's something that he

6:59

has talked about repeatedly in the

7:02

White House, on a visit

7:04

to the White House in October.

7:06

He also brought the subject of

7:08

Julian Assange up. It's taken delegations

7:10

across the political spectrum, going to

7:13

Washington, again, lobbying with US lawmakers,

7:15

the Department of Justice, to say

7:17

that he needs to come back

7:19

to Australia. So, I think the

7:21

overwhelming feeling from the news

7:23

that's come out is cautious optimism that

7:25

this is a man who has been

7:28

imprisoned for a long time. And,

7:30

again, regardless of whether you believe he

7:32

was a journalist doing his job or

7:35

whether he was endangering lives as the

7:37

US has always maintained, he needs to

7:39

be back in Australia because he's an

7:41

Australian citizen. Katie Watson, to

7:44

Kenya now, where tensions are rising. That

7:51

is the sound of protesters outside Parliament

7:53

buildings in Nairobi. You can hear what

7:55

appears to be shots of some kind

7:57

as the police try to disperse the

8:00

crowd. The demonstrations are against tax rises

8:02

being debated there today. It is a

8:04

continuation of protests that took place last

8:07

week, where two people were killed and

8:09

a hundred arrested. These protesters explained why

8:11

they joined the demonstrations. A

8:30

short time ago, I spoke to our

8:32

correspondent in Nairobi, Mercy Juma. I've

9:30

actually managed to breach all the security

9:32

barriers that have been set up by

9:35

the police and mock the right outside

9:37

parliament now and they are threatening to

9:39

now go into parliament. What can you

9:41

see from where you are standing? Because

9:44

pictures I'm looking at show

9:46

what appears to be one

9:48

of the parliamentary buildings on fire. We

9:51

are getting reports from the Reuters

9:53

news agency of the bodies of

9:55

five protesters seen outside the Kenyan

9:57

parliament. It's all quite different. cancelled

16:00

because of security reasons. This one has

16:02

been allowed to go ahead today, but

16:05

it looks very different to

16:07

the march that was held in 2021 before the war, when there

16:11

was 10,000 people on the streets. Only

16:13

500 people have been allowed

16:15

to gather today. Military

16:20

campaigners are using this march

16:22

to back a new bill,

16:25

which would allow same-sex partnerships.

16:27

Around a dozen soldiers are

16:29

here in their military uniforms,

16:31

and for some of them this is their

16:33

first ever Pride march. It is

16:36

the first time that they have come out

16:38

so publicly. When did you come

16:40

out? Today? Oh, congratulations guys. The couple don't

16:46

want to give their names, but one of them

16:48

tells me he's a combat medic and he was

16:51

injured on the front line two weeks ago. Why

16:53

is this bill so important to you? Why

16:56

is it important that you are able to

16:58

have a civil partnership? I'm serving on

17:00

the front line

17:04

and my life is always in danger. I

17:07

don't know what will happen to me

17:09

one minute to the next. If God

17:11

forbid I were to die, my beloved

17:13

partner could say he was my family

17:15

and company. I don't know what to

17:18

do with this. Victor, you were the

17:20

first openly gay soldier

17:26

in the Ukrainian army and you have

17:29

since done so much to raise people's

17:31

awareness of gay soldiers serving on the

17:33

front line. We achieved

17:35

change of people's attitude towards

17:37

LGBT community. We showed that

17:40

there are LGBT defenders

17:42

on the front line and the

17:44

Ukrainians respect that. They became more

17:46

inclusive towards LGBT community. How has

17:48

society changed? What have you seen?

17:51

I remember

17:53

first marches for equality.

17:55

They were attacked aggressively,

17:58

but every year people were attacked. Hey,

18:41

I'm Ryan Reynolds at Mid Mobile. We

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like to do the opposite of what

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big wireless does. They charge you a

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lot. We charge you a little. So

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naturally when they announced that be raising

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their prices due to inflation we decided

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to deflate are prices do to not

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28:00

conference going on for the next three

28:02

days here in Berlin. It's

28:04

called Republika and as

28:06

one person's told me it's a

28:09

gathering of everybody who's important in

28:11

the digital community in Germany. Are

28:14

you Teresa? I'm Teresa, yes. Hello, how are

28:16

you? Teresa Wigloch is

28:18

the chairman of LOAD, that's the

28:21

Association for Liberal Internet Policy

28:23

in Germany. She's unimpressed by

28:25

the argument that the law needs

28:27

to change. The dangers are

28:29

to everyone's civil liberties

28:32

and what we as LOAD always say is not everything

28:34

that could be done should be done

28:37

by the police. If the police had

28:39

had access to the software

28:41

we're talking about perhaps they

28:43

would have found Daniela Kletter

28:45

significantly sooner than they did.

28:47

Yeah, maybe, but police

28:50

shouldn't be striving for being faster

28:52

than criminals but for being more

28:54

decent than criminals. And

28:56

you can hear more on this

28:58

story in this week's assignment, Germany's

29:00

AI Detectives on the BBC World

29:02

Service and on BBC Sounds. And

29:05

let's finish with a classic

29:07

sporting underdog story. While

29:10

much of the world's attention is

29:12

on football's European Championship in Germany,

29:14

Afghanistan has just clinched an unlikely

29:17

semi-final berth in cricket's 2020 World

29:20

Cup in the Caribbean. A

29:22

win against Bangladesh secured the country's

29:24

first ever semi-final appearance and also

29:27

not with the highly fancied Australian

29:29

side out, sparking celebrations

29:31

across the country. Afghanistan's

29:42

captain Rashid Khan spoke to

29:44

reporters after the dramatic eight-run

29:47

victory over Bangladesh in St

29:49

Vincent. Well, I don't

29:51

know how to describe my feeling. It's

29:53

a big achievement for us being in

29:56

the semi-finals and yeah,

29:58

I think the cricket we have played whole

30:00

tournament so far. I think we deserve to

30:02

be in the semis and everyone

30:05

took the responsibility of getting

30:08

into the game and performing best for the team.

30:10

So I don't know how I can describe my

30:12

feeling but it's a massive achievement for us as

30:14

a team and as a nation to be in

30:16

the semis and now I'm looking forward to the

30:18

semis. Afghanistan will now play

30:21

South Africa in the semi-finals while

30:23

in the other match England will meet

30:25

India. That

30:29

is all from us for now but there

30:32

will be a new edition of the Global

30:34

News Podcast later on. If you want to

30:36

comment on this podcast or the topics covered

30:38

in it you can send us an email.

30:40

The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You

30:42

can also find us on x at Global

30:45

News Podcast. This edition

30:47

was mixed by Sholata Tojimskah and

30:49

the producer was Sean Wales. The editor

30:52

is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles and

30:54

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