Sunday - Israel-Iran; Assisted Dying; Summer Solstice
Download Israel-Iran; Assisted Dying; Summer Solstice
The US has bombed three major nuclear sites in Iran, bringing the country directly into the Israel-Iran conflict. Iran's Foreign minister has described the US strikes as "outrageous" and says Iran is reserving "all options to defend its sovereignty". We get an update from our correspondent in Jerusalem and discuss if an argument can be made from religiously-based ethics, for Israel’s actions? Israel contends that its attack on Iran is legal under international law because it represented a form of pre-emptive self-defence. William Crawley speaks to Emad Kiyaei, director at the Middle East Treaty Organization (METO), and co-author of Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction: A new approach to non-proliferation; and Dr Ezra Tzfadya, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Middle East Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington, where he convenes the US Department of Education sponsored "Shia Islamic and Jewish Legal Reasoning in Dialogue" project.
MPs have voted to accept the Assisted Dying Bill which will allow a terminally ill person to legally end their life through medical means. The Catholic Church in England and Wales says it doesn't see how its many care homes and hospices can continue to operate with no exemption from the law. Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool, the Lead Bishop for Life Issues for the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales, and Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, who chairs Religious Alliance for Dignity in Dying look forward to what the passage of the bill will mean.
Do you mark the summer solstice? This weekend thousands of people are enjoying sunrise events, which signify the end of spring and the moment when the sun reaches its zenith. But for pagans it's more than just a party – the solstices are a spiritual part of their belief in the wheel of the year. We hear from a wicca witch and a druid, about why the summer solstice is so important.
Presenter: William Crawley Producers: Bara'atu Ibrahim & Julia Paul Studio Managers: Amy Brennan & Joe Stickler Editor: Tim Pemberton
Published on Sunday, 22nd June 2025.
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