BBC News Briefing

19 June, 2026

Andy is wearing a khaki-coloured shirt and smiling. He has short brown hair and wears glasses with a black frame.

Andy McFarlane

Hello. The US says a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah is in effect, although our reporters say strikes have continued. There's controversy over comments US President Donald Trump made about Italian PM Giorgia Meloni. And why not end your week by taking our news quiz?

TOP OF THE AGENDA

Strikes reported after ceasefire comes into effect

A village on a green Lebanese hillside, on which can be seen several white two-storey buildings with red roofs, has been hit by a bomb. A huge plume of grey smoke is rising into the air in the centre of shot.

Rescue officials in the city of Nabatieh told the BBC there had been at least 12 air strikes since the ceasefire began. Credit: Reuters

Israel and Hezbollah have agreed a ceasefire, according to a US official, after a night of bombing that Lebanese authorities said had killed 47 people. The agreement came into effect amid concerns that continued clashes, which also saw Hezbollah kill four Israeli soldiers, would undermine the deal to end the war between the US and Iran. The Lebanese armed group's secretary general said the project to eliminate it had "failed". However, an Israeli military spokesman vowed to "continue to remove immediate threats". The ceasefire appears fragile, with our reporters in Lebanon saying strikes have continued.

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GET UP TO SPEED

Giorgia Meloni has long blonde hair and wears a beige suit jacket as she looks at the camera with a serious expression.

Meloni: Trump 'made up' tale she 'begged' for photo

Comments made by the US president on Italian TV have provoked an open dispute with Italy's prime minister Giorgia Meloni.

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US to end funding of South Africa's HIV programmes

Washington linked the decision to claims South Africa was doing too little to protect its white-minority Afrikaner community.

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Six-year-old Ebola patient taken from hospital found

The girl and her mother had been taken from a clinic in the DR Congo, where fear has provoked attacks on health facilities.

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Three metal pétanque boules rest around an orange jack on a gravel surface. All three are shining in the sunlight.

Player dies after being 'hit in head with metal boule'

The man, 68, was allegedly struck by his 81-year-old pétanque opponent, who has been arrested, the public prosecutor says.

What we know >

NEWS FROM THE UK

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Zoo update: The boy, three, hurt at a zoo on Thursday was attacked by a crocodile, the BBC understands.

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AT THE SCENE

Washington DC, USA

'Only in America': Football fans marvel at sights

Ayoub Baghdad has a beard and thin-rimmed glasses. He is wearing a grey cap and red jersey from the Moroccan national team and makes a thumbs-up gesture as he wraps an arm around his friend, who also wears a Morocco shirt with a blue cap. They are standing in a fan zone, which is bordered by a colourful fence and has picnic benches dotted around.

Ayoub says the US has bigger prices to match its portion sizes - but he has no regrets about visiting. Credit: BBC

Thousands of football fans from all over the world have been using the World Cup as a chance to take in the sights of the US. And some have marvelled less at the Statue of Liberty or Golden Gate Bridge and more at the sheer size of everything.

Kwasi Asiedu has short dark hair and a beard and smiles directly at the camera

Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu, BBC News

Ayoub Baghdad has only just arrived in the US but already he's been stunned by one big thing - and it's not at all related to football - the sheer size of basically everything in the States. "Everything is big, even the Coke is big," Baghdad says. He has found the roads, trucks, and buildings to be much larger than anything he's used to seeing back home in Morocco.

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"A place like this could only exist in America and I love it," says Shaun, a vlogger from Scotland, after visiting a Buc-ee's, a convenience store, restaurant, gas station, and supermarket all wrapped in one. The popular chain, mostly found in the South, has a cult-like following in the US, with fans often posing with its Beaver mascot outside many locations.

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