Global News Podcast - Four Israeli hostages and 200 Palestinian prisoners released in Gaza deal

Episode Date: January 25, 2025

Emotional scenes as Israelis and Palestinians are reunited with their families. Also: 13 peacekeeping troops are killed in eastern DR Congo. And a drone strike on a hospital in Sudan reportedly kills nearly 70 people.

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World of Secrets, the bad guru. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts. You're listening to the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Sunday, the 26th of January. Four Israeli hostages and 200 Palestinian prisoners are released in the second exchange of the Gaza ceasefire deal. 13 foreign peacekeepers are killed in eastern Congo and a drone strike on a hospital in the Sudanese city of El Fasha is reported to have left nearly 70 people dead.

Also in the podcast. These thieves went straight for the most beautiful piece, a golden helmet. That's the worst case scenario because you can melt down gold or silver. We think their goal is to melt these treasures down. This helmet is priceless. The robbers who blasted their way into a museum and stole one of the world's most valuable artifacts. Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas have carried out a second hostage and prisoner

exchange as part of their Gaza deal. Four female Israeli hostages were handed over in return for 200 Palestinian detainees, a ratio of 50 to 1. The releases in Gaza were a lot more orderly than the chaos seen in the first swap on Sunday. Israeli captives Karina Ariev, Daniela Gilboa and Naama Levi, all aged 20, and Liri Albagh, 19, waved as they were paraded on a stage in the Palestinian territory. Lucy Williamson has this report from Tel Aviv. It was a moment of theatre theatre in a theatre of war. Four women, led by Hamas fighters, to a podium in Gaza City. Israeli soldiers, captured by Hamas gunmen 15 months ago, freed live

on camera with a signature from the Red Cross. Near Tel Aviv, Liri Elbag's friends watched her release, a moment imagined many times, still unreal. Tal Dimant is a childhood friend. When I saw Liri smile, when I saw Liri's walking on her two legs, it's everything. It's everything. This moment, this couple of minutes, just show me how brave she is, how brave she was there. Liri is a hero. In Gaza today, the waiting continued.

Families gathered near the coastal road, waiting for Israeli troops to leave and the promise of returning to their homes in the north. We are returning to the north. We are being reborn today. By God's will, we will return safe and well to our families. That return is now delayed after Israel accused Hamas of breaching the deal by delaying the release of a civilian female hostage, Abel Yehud, believed to be held by another militia group.

Lucy Williamson in Tel Aviv. Over in Ramallah there were celebrations as buses arrived carrying released Palestinian prisoners. Our correspondent John Donnison was there. Connison was there. On a crisp sunny day in the occupied West Bank, there was celebration as 200 Palestinian prisoners were given their freedom in exchange for the four Israeli hostages. A large crowd including many of the prisoners' families gathered in Ramallah, falling into the arms of their loved ones after they were bussed in from the nearby off of prison. As he stepped off one of the buses dressed in grey prison fatigues, we spoke to one of the prisoners, Bakr Hariwish.

Thank God, it's a great feeling. I can't describe this feeling. I have been in jail six years and two months. A hundred and twenty-one of those released today have been serving life sentences. Some have been convicted of multiple murders in Israeli courts. The longest serving prisoner has been in jail 39 years. The youngest detainee is a 16-year-old boy. Just over half the prisoners to be released will be allowed to return to their homes in the West Bank. 70 others, those convicted of the most serious offences, will be deported via Egypt to countries including Qatar and Turkey. John Donison in Ramallah. As we heard a moment ago, there is currently a disagreement over the implementation of the deal, with Israel refusing to allow Palestinians to return to

their homes in northern Gaza The Israeli army spokesman is Daniel Higary Hamas failed to meet its obligations to first release Israeli female civilian hostages as part of the agreement we are determined to return our belly a hood an Israeli citizen kidnapped from near Oz, and also Shiri Bevas and her two children, Kfir and Ariel, whose welfare we are extremely concerned about. Our Middle East analyst, Sebastian Asher, told us more about what's behind the dispute. What Israel is essentially saying is that Hamas had agreed to release the civilians

first and that includes these two women and the two young children. Now it's Abel Yehud in particular who is known to be alive that is the real focus of this and the Israeli army, the Israeli government said several hours ago now that the expected permission that was going to be given to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to start heading back north to what's left of their homes on Sunday wouldn't happen until there was an absolute clarity about al-Balya hood being released. Since then, we've heard from Islamic Jihad who are holding her saying that they have given proof of life and Hamas has said that she will be released

next Saturday. Whether that is enough for the Israeli government to say that now we will allow the schedule to go ahead as before is open to question. We haven't heard from the Israeli government specifically about that for now. But apart from that hiccup, the ceasefire agreement appears to be holding reasonably well. It is, but remember we're only in the second stage of the first phase. There were 33 Israeli hostages to be released in 1900 Palestinian prisoners. So we've seen seven Israeli hostages released so far. So there's a relatively bigger number still to be released over the coming weeks. There might be obstacles like this which again suddenly appear. I think if the Palestinians who are

straining at the leash to be able to go back to their homes, many of them saying, we know that our homes aren't there anymore but we'd rather be in a tent over what was left of our home than in a tent somewhere else. So that's where we have to go back. There could be issues over that. I mean we've heard from Palestinian sources, there are some videos of this claiming that some Israeli soldiers opened fire when some Palestinians were on that edge waiting to go through and there's a report that at least one person was killed so we might see more of that. So

it's in the interest of the mediators who have their operation room in Cairo, the Egyptians, the Qataris and the US to resolve this as quickly as possible. What might potentially happen is that Abel Yehud, this 29 year old woman, might be released before next Saturday in a special release in order to give Israel that clarity about what's going to happen to her. At the moment, we really don't know about this. It may not be a major stumbling block but it is a sign that each stage of this things can still go wrong. Our Middle East regional editor, Sebastian Asher. In the aftermath of the Hamas massacre

of the 7th of October, Israel said its objective was to destroy the Palestinian group that's run Gaza for nearly two decades. However, despite its military operation, the scenes at the latest hostage handover suggest that Hamas remains in charge. Owen Bennett-Jones spoke to Hugh Lovett from the European Council on Foreign Relations about the group's capabilities. Through research, through interviews, we at ECFR have been conducting, we know that it is still very much in control of Gaza. Despite thousands of losses in its armed wing, the Isidina Khasun Brigade, Hamas has nonetheless been able to recruit new members and it has also mobilised some of its reserve forces and to quote actually Secretary Blinken,

Hamas appears to have finished the war in Gaza with about as many fighters as the start of the war. That is a totally amazing suggestion. After all that's happened, the numbers are much the same. I mean, Reuters are running a story that people in Washington intelligence official congressional staff is saying they've recruited between 10 and 15 000 since October the 7th. Yeah, that is quite amazing, isn't it? And again, some of these will be new recruits, but some of these may also be recruits to other components of Hamas. It is also a party of governance. And of course, it's also a political party so it is also possible there's also trying to regenerate the ranks of Gaza's civil police and also trying to recruit new

civil servants to run Gaza's governance. Many outside of Gaza say Hamas should be unpopular. It brought this great suffering upon the people who live in Gaza. Is that reflected in what people in Gaza actually think? How popular is it? There is, I think, a lot of frustration and anger against Hamas's actions on 7th of October and especially from the point of view of of Gazans. However, there is far stronger hatred directed at Israel. When we look at public opinion polling,

Hamas's standing in Gaza is at about 35%. That's actually quite constant throughout Hamas's history. The West Bank, according to one of the most recent polling, is about 37%. That may not seem like a lot, but it needs to be compared to the weakness of the other political parties, especially the Fatah party, which is extremely unpopular at the moment. Hugh Lovell from the European Council on Foreign Relations talking to Owen Bennett-Jones. Meanwhile the White House issued a statement saying the world celebrates as Donald Trump secures the release of four more Israeli hostages. The United States will continue with its great partner Israel to push for the release of

all remaining hostages and the pursuit of peace throughout the region. And a quick reminder that if there's anything you want to know about Donald Trump's first week back in the White House then do get in contact as we're recording a Q&A special next week. If you'd like to ask about his actions on cryptocurrencies, pardons, climate change, immigration tariffs or anything else then email us the address globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk or find us on x at Global News Pod. And it would be great if you could record your question as a voice note. Thanks.

Other news now. And 13 foreign peacekeepers have been killed in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where the Congolese army is trying to hold back Rwandan backed rebels. The M23 group is advancing on the city of Goma on the border with Rwanda. Although they've been operating in the area for years, they have never made such great territorial gains and are doing so partly because of revenues from taxing mining operations. The BBC's Emry Makumeno was at a government press conference and told us more about what was said. The press conference is still ongoing as we speak. Well what they've said so far is that they paid tribute to Governor Peter Sirimuani, the governor of North Kivu province, who was confirmed dead yesterday. They say he was killed by a sniper. He was with troops in the battlefield about 20 kilometres west of the capital city of

the province, Goma. That's briefly what has been said. The government also says that they are documenting all these killings happening in the country so that they would pursue Rwanda via international justice. OK, so they're very much pinning everything on Rwanda being responsible for the advance on Goma, is that right? Yeah, that's right. Rwandan army has 3,000 to 4,000 troops which are helping the M23 to gain territories and

even trying to capture the town of Goma. And so do we have any sense of whether the government is able to get its army to resist this? What are they saying? Well, within the last two days the government is redeploying on the field and today we heard also the interim governor speaking. He said if the M23 is gaining ground in the remote areas it won't be the same battle inside the city. If they try to regain Goma it's going to be very difficult for them because the army is prepared to defend the Goma at all cost and they

are going to regret that. So through the day we've also had news that peacekeepers have been killed, three South Africans and others killed in the fighting around Goma. What can you tell us about that? We've just gotten some clarifications a few hours ago with the South African National Defense Forces, they've confirmed that they've lost nine soldiers in the battlefield in DRC. Seven soldiers that belonged to the Southern African mission in DRC deployed at the end of 2023.

And we have two other soldiers from South Africa with the Monusco, the UN contingent. There were many others that were injured but without giving any specific number. Also another sad news is from the Malawi defence forces that confirmed the death of three Malawi soldiers who were also engaged in defending the Congolese army. Emry Makumeno in the Congolese capital Kinshasa. Police in the Netherlands are hunting for thieves who apparently blasted their way into a museum and stole priceless artefacts. The gang broke into the Drents Museum in Assen overnight, escaping with pieces on loan from Romania,

some of which dated back to the 5th century BC. Arthur Brand is an art theft investigator. These thieves went straight for the most beautiful piece, a golden helmet and three golden bracelets. Well, that's the worst case scenario because you can melt down gold or silver. We think that their goal is to melt these treasures down. This helmet is priceless, it's world heritage. But the stupid thing is, if they get caught, they will not only be prosecuted for theft, but also for destroying cultural heritage. Our correspondent in the Netherlands,

Anna Holligan, told us more about the robbery. Something out of a heist movie, perhaps, disappearance of the ancient Dacian treasures. Here is what we know so far. So it's pitch black, early hours of the morning, thieves detonated some kind of explosive device, window shattered. They enter the museum, seize the most precious piece in this collection. Not long afterwards police found a burning car nearby. They believe it may have been the getaway car used. Suspects then changed vehicles to hide their tracks. And these archaeological treasures haven't been seen in public since. Actually time is of the essence now because the longer these objects remain in the hands

of criminals, the more chance they have of getting damaged. But there's also a risk that if they become too hot, so in other words, if everyone knows there's an international search underway, they become really difficult to sell in the black market or the dark web. And the more chance that these will just decide that they're more trouble than they're worth and dump them. Yeah, and tell us more about these items

described as irreplaceable. I have Romanian friends, in fact I spent today with Romanian friends and they said they grew up learning about these objects. They're in school books so they have huge cultural and symbolic significance. To give you an idea one Romanian friend said it would be like Rembrandt's night watch was stolen for the Dutch or the Mona Lisa for Italians. The helmet, the centrepiece, was probably a ceremonial helmet rather than one used in battle, made of almost pure gold. It was about the right size for a child.

These stolen artefacts represented the Dacian civilisation which thrived in what is today Romania before it was conquered by the Romans. And of course extremely embarrassing for the museum given that these were on loan. Extremely embarrassing but also this will resonate beyond the Netherlands, beyond Romania because as art historians and detectives have pointed out this is a crime that's very difficult to prevent when thieves, and this is something we're increasingly seeing in the Netherlands, explosives being used for robberies and also in other types of crimes. It's difficult for museums and galleries to

fully protect themselves from this type of breaking, but this is an international incident now. Dutch police have activated the cross-border cooperation mechanism. Interpol, the international crime agency, has been called in to assist. The authorities are now asking visitors to report anything suspicious they saw around these objects over the last few days. And bear in mind, the thing that makes it even more painful for the museum probably, is that this exhibition just had a couple more days to run. And so really now they're asking everyone to think about whether they may have seen anything that could help the investigation. Anne Holligan in the Netherlands.

A German aerospace engineer has set a new world record after living underwater for 120 days. Rudi Gertkopf said his aim was to prove that oceans are a viable environment in which to live. His company built a submerged capsule around 15 minutes by boat off the coast of northern Panama. The underwater room is connected to another chamber on the surface by a tube containing a narrow staircase providing a way down for food and visitors including a doctor. Mr Cox spoke to us from his home under the sea. That was actually a very spontaneous idea. So my daughter was here and I needed another bid for myself because she occupied the bid upstairs. And I put a bid in this underwater room. And then we stayed here for quite some time actually.

She studies biomedicine. So she's very interested in the marine life around here. And so we spent a lot of time in the underwater room. It's 30 square meters meters so I guess it's much more than students usually have. It's a little bit cramped so I have a makeshift bathroom here but there are sensors here for everything like there's the co2 sensors. I have an outside camera so I can get video footage and this camera can be controlled from here. So I'm being watched. This is just sea level ambient pressure here. There is sensors that give the position of the station. There is a CO2 sensor. There is temperature, humidity. I got a watch that controls my body functions.

I got six windows, so I have a unique point to watch the marine life out there. So most of the life I see through these windows is is fishes. I can hear the clicks of the pistol shrimps. Aerospace engineer Rudiger Koch. And still to come on the Global News podcast. It's the case for all countries. I think every country in the world that heights have increased in men and women, but much more in men than it is in women. In some countries, that divergence is still ongoing.

Why men have become taller much faster than women over the past 100 years. What does it take to go racing in the fastest cars in the world? Oscar Piestri. Your head's trying to get rid of one way, your body's trying to go another. Lance Stroll. It's very extreme in the sense on how close you're racing wheel to wheel. We've been given unprecedented access to two of the most famous names in Formula One, McLaren and Aston Martin. I'm Landon Aris. They build a beautiful bit of machinery that I get to then go and have fun in. They open the doors to their factories as the 2024 season reached its The

civil war in Sudan has been going on for a year and three quarters, costing tens of thousands of lives and triggering what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian tragedy. In the past few days, the fighting appears to have intensified, with the armed forces claiming gains in the capital Khartoum. Meanwhile, their rivals, the Rapid Support Forces, are stepping up efforts to capture al-Fasha in the western Darfur region. The paramilitary group has been besieging the city since May and last week issued an ultimatum for the armed forces to leave. Now there are reports of a deadly attack on one of the last functioning hospitals there. The latest reports say 67

people were killed. I got an update from our Africa regional editor Richard Kugoi. The reports that we are receiving are from the rescue committee which is part of volunteers who just coordinate emergency aid in the region say that the hospital was hit by an airstrike on Friday and this artillery did destroy a part of the hospital, the emergency wing of the hospital which has really been very critical in terms of providing you know surgical operations to support local communities especially from the Zamzam IDP camp where lots of people have been seeking refuge there. So well we don't have details in terms of this kill or the destruction so what we're hearing is that it's just destroyed a section of the emergency wing of the hospital.

And do we know who is likely to have carried out this attack? We've just seen the regional governor, that's Mino Ako Minowhi, accusing the rapid support forces of carrying out the strike because what has happened is that earlier this week the RSF had given the Sudanese army an ultimatum to move out over the city or lay down their arms lest they're going to execute what they refer to as an imminent strike. And tell us what is the latest in the overall battle for El-Fashr, the army holding on as the RSF tries to take it. The army still are holding on. What we saw is that the army did conduct strikes two days ago,

targeting positions that have been held up by the RSF. And also the RSF did conduct a retaliatory attack. So what the RSF has been really trying to do is push out the Sudanese army out of this particular region, because this is the only part of the wider Darfur region where the Sudanese army still does hold control and that this is quite critical considering that it's in al-fasha which is the regional capital of North Darfur region. And the overall balance in terms of the war is it unchanged? It's changing

to certain extent in the wider Sudan because you've seen a lot of progress that have been made especially in the capital in the wider Sudan because we've seen a lot of progress that have been made especially in the capital in Omdurman region and also in Bahri that's within the wider Khartoum area. But in this part of Darfur region we're just seeing that the Sudanese army is really trying to make kind of progress in terms of pushing back the RSF which has held siege of this particular area for about nine months. Richard Kugoi there.

The Russian authorities say they've finished pumping out fuel oil from a grounded tanker involved in a large spill last month. The vessel, part of which split off, was one of two wrecked in a storm in the Kerch Strait off the tip of Crimea. The other one sank. Here's our Europe Regional Editor Editor Danny Eberhardt. One senior Russian scientist has called the spills the country's worst environmental catastrophe this century. They also affect occupied Ukraine, with contamination spreading

to the northern shores of the Sea of Azov and along Crimea's Black Sea coast past Sevastopol. Colleagues at BBC Verify have studied some of the high-resolution satellite images detailing their extent. Certain experts fear the pollution may eventually reach the coast of countries like Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria. Russia says nearly 2,500 tonnes of oil was spilt, although some estimates put it considerably higher. Either way, it's much

more than another spill in the same area 18 years ago. The Russian authorities have mounted a vast clean-up campaign, including this complex operation to pump the heavy oil out of the wrecked carcass of the grounded ship. They had to heat the dense fuel oil to 45 degrees Celsius to make it fluid enough to pump. Officials have deployed planes, drones, ships, booms and even divers to dig up and bag tar-like clumps from the seabed. Environmentalists say such deposits would take decades to break down naturally. Efforts to mitigate December's disaster aside, questions also remain as to whether such types of aged tankers should have been at sea in the first place in winter.

Some unconfirmed reports suggest the vessels were part of Russia's ghost fleet of tankers used to evade Western sanctions. Danny Eberhard, our Europe regional editor. Alexander Lukashenko has been in charge of the former Soviet Republic of Belarus for more than 30 years and he looks set to win again in Sunday's presidential election, although critics have dismissed it as a sham. His fiercest opponents and potential rivals are either in prison or in exile. In the last election in 2020 Mr. Lukashenko claimed to have won with 80% of the vote. That sparked mass protests which were brutally crushed. Our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg reports now on

the man dubbed Europe's last dictator. In a Minsk arena at a pro-government patriotic festival, they sing, We'll survive if we're together. The idea is to portray Belarus as a peaceful, friendly, united country. Enter the man who thinks he's the father. Alexander Lukashenko tells the audience, all of you are my children. And then he calls for a dictatorship of order, justice and respect. This from the man who's been accused of rigging elections to keep himself in power

for three decades, who holds more than 1200 political prisoners, and who has jailed or exiled his fiercest opponents and potential rivals. The last time Belarus held a presidential election in 2020, it ended on the streets with hundreds of thousands of people accusing Mr Lukashenko of stealing their votes. A brutal police crackdown extinguished the protests, eventually, and Mr Lukashenko held onto power. Now it's election time again, and although his critics call it a sham, the leader of Belarus will be hoping to use the vote to boost his legitimacy.

After all, there are multiple candidates. I went to meet one of them. The Communist Party leader Sergey Serenkov is running against Mr Lukashenko. But oddly, his campaign slogan is not in place of, but together with Lukashenko. He tells me there is no alternative today to Alexander Lukashenko, a man of the soil who has done everything to make sure that we don't have the kind of chaos they have in Ukraine. With opponents like this, you really can't lose. I drive four hours northeast of Minsk and discover that this fear of chaos and instability, it's real.

It is fueled partly, but not solely, by the war in Ukraine, and it helps explain the reluctance of some people here to want a new leader. In the little town of Aktyabrskaya, Zinaida tells me the situation today is very tense. Maybe there are other people worthy of power, but it'll take a long time for a young leader to get his feet under the desk.

God forbid we should end up like Ukraine. Sergey, a local welder, tells me I want a stable salary and a stable country. Other candidates make promises but might not keep them. I want to keep what I've got. There are many different fears today in Belarus. There is fear of the unknown, of instability, of war. And there is fear of the government, fear of speaking out. As Alexander Lukashenko seeks to extend his power, all these fears work in his favour. Steve Rosenberg reporting from Minsk, capital of Belarus. Now to some new data that suggests men have become taller and heavier much faster than women over the past century. The study suggests that as living conditions have improved,

both height and weight have increased, but this has happened much more quickly in men than women. Stephanie Prentice told us more. This is a team from Italy, the US and the UK and they were using data from the World Health Organisation, from overseas authorities and UK records and in fact they looked at 69 countries. They then cross-referenced all of that with something called the Human Development Index. Now that's a score based on things like life expectancy, per capita income. With all of that, the team say they were able to conclude that regardless of where one may have started in terms of

height, this upward trajectory would occur. So, Lewis Holsey, he's a professor at the University of Roehampton here in the UK and one of the authors of the study. So people in different countries for various reasons vary in height. I mean, the Dutch population is the tallest in the world, that's official, but it's the case for all countries. I think every country in the world, the heights have increased in men and women, but much more in men or somewhat more in men, double than it is in women. In some countries that divergence is still ongoing. In other countries such as the UK, it probably flattened out 1970 to

1980, if you look at adults then. So big question, what is driving this? Is it just about what, sanitation, food? Well perhaps unsurprisingly, there's a web of factors and the team were really keen to point out by its very nature the study can only really show correlation not causation. But they did suggest we can pin this primarily on environmental factors and sexual selection. So on the latter, the study actually builds on some previous work and that suggested that women seek out taller men in terms of reproduction. On that environment factor, the team suggests that when living conditions improve in a country, so think about things like greater access to energy-dense foods or a lack of disease, men's bodies actually respond more dramatically

than women's do. That sort of indicates that men's physical development is more complex and more sensitive than previously thought. And it also found that the inverse of that is true. So for instance, when they looked at parts of Nigeria, men that grew up in nutritionally stressed areas, they were around 7.5 centimetres shorter than their better nourished counterparts, whereas women only showed a 3.2 centimetre difference. Stephanie Prentiss talking to Valerie Sanderson. In the Australian Open tennis, there was an upset in the women's final, with the American Madison Keys beating the world number one Arena Sabalenca. However, for those watching on YouTube, the action on court may have looked rather different.

Tennis Australia has been running a free live stream where players appear as animated versions of themselves, a few seconds behind real time. The idea is to introduce new, younger viewers to the sport. There are a few notable differences. The tennis balls are unusually large, players' heads are out of proportion, and their racquets sometimes drift away from their hands. Marker Reed from Tennis Australia

told the BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones how the animated stream works. There's 12 cameras around each court at the Australian Open. They're tracking the players and the balls in real time. They're actually tracking 27 points on the player's skeleton and five points on the racket. And then we wrap an avatar over the top of that and allow the game to be replayed, if you like. But we're essentially describing or mimicking the exact same movements that the players are carrying out on court.

If it's not live, it's sort of just a few seconds after live? That's right. It's as close as it can be. We're ingesting the data in less than 250 milliseconds and trying to push it out as quickly as we possibly can. We've been blown away by the interest globally. So I think this year compared to last, we're up five times on where we were last year and so much so that broadcasters around the world have actually asked for us to pause it on our own YouTube channel in their region so they can pick it up themselves and present it to their audience and As we know there's many Individuals out there in the world many fans of sport that have grown up in an animated

reality, if you like. They've grown up enjoying gaming as a vertical and they enjoy being part of a community. So by watching on their YouTube channel, they're able to see the animated reality as well as engage in a chat forum where they're part of that community following the sport. Well, you're obviously a genius, but I I have to say is this a good thing? I think absolutely. Anytime that we can present an opportunity to engage fans in a deeper, more personalised way for them it can only be a positive.

Marker Reid from Tennis Australia. And that is all from us for now but the Global News podcast will be back at the same time tomorrow. This edition was mixed by James Piper and produced by Richard Hamilton, our editors Karen Martin. I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye. What does it take to go racing in the fastest cars in the world?

Oscar Piastri. Your head's trying to get rid of one way, your body's trying to go another. Lance Stroll. It's very extreme in the sense of how close you're racing wheel to wheel. We've been given unprecedented access to two of the most famous names in Formula One, McLaren and Aston Martin. I'm Landon Aris. They build a beautiful bit of machinery that I get to then go and have fun in.

They open the doors to their factories as the 2024 season reached its peak. I'm Joshon Aris. They build a beautiful bit of machinery that I get to then go and have fun in. They open the doors to their factories as the 2024 season reached its peak. I'm Josh Hartnett. This is F1, back at base. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.