Global News Podcast - Hostages freed and prisoners released in latest Gaza ceasefire exchange

Episode Date: February 8, 2025

Three Israeli hostages have been exchanged for 183 Palestinian prisoners as part of an internationally brokered Gaza ceasefire deal.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. WISE gives you the real exchange rate, which means you'll spend less on fees and more of your money gets where you need it to be. Download the WISE app today or visit wise.com. T's and to go another. Land 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 Josh Hartnett. This is F Sunday, the 9th of February, these are our main stories. The Red Cross says it's uncomfortable with the way the exchange of hostages for prisoners under the Gaza deal is being handled. Lebanon's rival factions agree a new government, bringing it closer to reconstruction funds. The leaders of the three Baltic republics hail the fact that they're no longer connected to the electricity grids of Russia and Belarus. Also in this podcast, India's governing party finally wins over voters in Delhi and football

for amputees in Ukraine. I'm in shape now. My hands, arms, back are all getting strong. After almost 500 days in captivity, three Israeli hostages have been released by Hamas into the hands of the Red Cross. The men, Or Levi, Eli Sharabi and Ohad Ben Ami, were brought onto a stage, escorted by masked Hamas militants and then forced to address the crowd. Our correspondent Wirah Davis is in Tel Aviv and has been talking to Eli Sharabi's family.

family. For the families of the three hostages held for 490 days in Gaza, this day was the one they'd been waiting for. Amid a show of force from Hamas fighters as the minibus carrying Elie Sharabi, Orhan Ben Ami and Or Levi arrived at the handover point in Gaza. Watching from their Tel Aviv home, Eli Shorabi's family couldn't contain their excitement. But as the three emerged looking gaunt and weak, shadows of their former selves, celebration turned to shock for Eliis Rabi's cousin, Jackie Barbie. It's mixed feelings. I'm happy to see him standing on two feet,

but he looked sad, he looked thin, he looked bad. Well, here at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, there's been widespread shock at the conditions in which the hostages released today were in. And that's brought a renewed sense of urgency here for the remaining captives held in Gaza to be released as soon as possible. But that would mean an extension of the current ceasefire into a second phase. And that is by no means guaranteed. For onlookers in Tel Aviv the reality of the men's condition hit home as it did for Ellie's brother-in-law Steve Brisley watching from South Wales. He's gaunt, the

darkness under his eyes, pale skin and the real the light gone from his eyes, the light that is always there with Eli. More than 180 Palestinians were simultaneously released under the ceasefire agreement. 70 had been convicted of serious crimes and were serving long sentences. But the majority were Gazans, detained during the war and held without charge. The Palestinian Red Crescent said seven of those released were admitted to hospital in the occupied West Bank, after accusations they'd been brutally treated in Israeli jails. The Israelis humiliated us for a year-and-a-half, says this released prisoner. From October the 7th until now, I knew nothing about the outside. On both sides reintegrating

will be hard particularly for Elie Sharabi whose wife and two daughters were murdered by Hamas gunmen in the Kibbutz home to where he will now return on his own but not alone. Our correspondent in Jerusalem Joe Inwood has also been following developments. There's two separate elements to this, aren't there? Firstly, and I think most significantly in terms of public opinion here, the condition of the men. I mean, they looked very, very malnourished and I think that's been confirmed subsequently

by the hospitals they've been taken to. We heard there from the brother of Elias Shorabi, he said his eyes looked sunken, he did look incredibly bad condition, all three men did, but I think him in particular. So there's been real concern around that, but then there's this other element isn't there? There's the fact that these are incredibly stage managed looking events and I think the consensus is that Hamas is trying to show that it is still in power. It has its fighters there, they are still armed and despite the intense bombardment of 18 months they are still saying that they are managing and fighting the governing force in Gaza.

It's interesting if you remember, think back to the start of these releases and there was intense criticism of one that was incredibly chaotic. There was real concern that some of the hostages were in danger because it was not organized enough and I think the feeling is that this is now too organized, too stage managed and serving a propaganda purpose for Hamas. So the Red Cross are now saying next time it should be done in private. I can't see it though myself. No, I think, I mean the Red Cross are an incredibly, by their nature, an incredibly diplomatic organization. They try not to take a side, they pride themselves on speaking to all sides and they have, they've refrained from speaking out so far but today they have said that they are not happy with the way these are

happening. You know, their officials are going up on stage and signing books, taking part in a ceremony, and I think they are clearly unhappy with that. But I don't think it's going to be possible to stop this happening unless really severe action was taken by one side or the other. But if the Israelis said, we are not continuing the ceasefire, this happens again, but we've got no indication that that would happen, I think the Red Cross can express their desire but they've got no real way of enforcing it. Joe Inwood with me from Jerusalem. Lebanon has formed a new government, a move that should bring the country closer to reconstruction funds following the war

between Israel and Hezbollah. It took three weeks of talks between bitter political rivals with life complicated further by the need to ensure that the 24 ministries got distributed evenly among Lebanon's competing sects. Our correspondent Hugo Besheger is in the Lebanese capital Beirut and told me how agreement was reached. There was a lot of pressure from the Americans and there was a lot of internal pressure as well because Hezbollah is more than this militia supported by Iran. It is also a political party with representation in parliament, a strong social movement and extremely powerful, so powerful that essentially

they had the ability to paralyze the state many times. That's exactly what they did. And many here in the country outside Lebanon Lebanon, think that this is unacceptable. And they see now an opportunity to curb Hezbollah's power and to curb Iran's influence here in Lebanon because of Hezbollah's weakened position after the war with Israel. And we saw this direct interference by the Americans, which is very unusual. An American envoy was here yesterday, essentially telling the Lebanese authorities that, look, if Hezbollah continues to have this level of power in the government, you're not going to get any financial help.

And of course, this country is desperate for international help to be able to start thinking about how to rebuild what was destroyed during the war. Certainly before, though, if you say Hezbollah has no power within the government, you just end up with Hezbollah having power outside the government. Yeah, and again, it goes back to this idea that Hezbollah is, as many would describe, a state within a state because it does have, you know, this military power. Many say it's more powerful than the Lebanese army and it does have this military power, many say it's more powerful than the Lebanese army, and it does have a very well-structured social network.

They are definitely weaker, but they still represent a very significant number of Lebanese, but I think it's very interesting that you hear now the president, the new prime minister, talking about disarming armed groups. They haven't mentioned Hezbollah by name, but this is what they mean, disarming Hezbollah. And I think it's very significant that people are seriously talking about starting this process.

I don't think we're there yet, but I think it does show Hezbollah's diminished position after the war. And I am picking up a real sense of optimism about this from Lebanon, from people there about the new leadership and no doubt about the fact that the government has now been established. Perhaps we can get on with rebuilding. Yeah, I just think that there is a sense of cautious optimism, if you like. I think people here are exhausted after the war,

but also after years of, you years of political chaos, a huge economic crisis here. And I think they see this the beginning of a new chapter for international help to arrive, not only to rebuild what was destroyed during the war but also to try to restore the economy after years of chaos in this country. Hugo Bishaga with me from Beirut. It's now almost three years since Russian forces marched into Ukraine. The invasion killed and injured tens of thousands of people.

It's also created more than 50,000 amputees. Now some of those military veterans have begun to play football with a growing number of clubs, specifically four amputees. Our Eastern Europe correspondent Sarah Rainsford sent this report from a veterans tournament in Kyiv. At a stadium in Kyiv, footballers line up for a pre-match massage. up for a pre-match massage. They call themselves the Men of Steel. They are Shakhtar Stalevy, all war veterans and all amputees. At the indoor pitch, the music is loud and the mood is good,

because this is Ukraine's first ever Amputi football tournament and there are five teams competing. The Kyiv team here, the only mixed male and female team are just doing drills. The trainer passing a ball into the centre and then the players racing towards it on their crutches and having a shot on goal. Vlad was 19 when the Russians invaded and he signed up to fight. He's now an amputee athlete with Shakhtar. The first time I played was really hard. It was strange to run on crutches and so fast.

Also, my right leg was always my strongest and that's the one I lost. Vlad tells me last June he was in Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, closing in on a Russian position when he stepped on an anti-personnel mine. His friends got him out to medical help, but he lost the lower part of one leg. Six months later he is tearing round a football pitch. I ask him what the game means to him and he lights up. It's about positivity, the adrenaline, the team spirit. You're on fire inside.

Shakhtar are now on the pitch in their bright orange kit. The players have wrapped orange sticky tape to the bottom of their crutches as well. Oh, nearly goal there. Although the ball's not allowed to touch their crutches. Oh, that's a foul, basically a handball. So all the outfield players have leg amputations and the goalkeepers have only one arm.

Olkha is now a striker for Kyiv. But back in 2016, when the Russians had first invaded eastern Ukraine, Olkha left her baby with her mother and she signed up as a military chef. Olkha left her baby with her mother and she signed up as a military chef. I wanted to protect my family and didn't want a full-scale war. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out that way. A shell hit Olkha's position as she slept. Her left leg had to be removed below the knee, but she's always been sporty

and now she's fitter than ever. I'm in shape now. My hands, arms, back are all getting strong. Then came the full-scale invasion and her husband Alexei went missing in action. My husband has now been missing for two years so for me this is like emotional rehab as well as physical. Sarah Rainsford reporting from Kyiv. The leaders of three Baltic republics have hailed the fact they've disconnected their electricity grids from the networks of Russia and Belarus. The prime ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia called it a significant step towards energy independence. The move, a long-term strategic aim, was given greater urgency by Russia's repeated aggressions against Ukraine and then the fourth-scale invasion three years ago.

Our Europe regional editor, Danny Eberhard, has been speaking to my colleague, Alex Ritzen. It's not looking at energy independence per se, it's specifically from Russia and Belarus and what this is effectively is a severing of these old Soviet nations that are now EU and NATO members from their Soviet past. They've already cut links in terms of they depended very heavily on Russian gas and now they stopped buying electricity but they were dependent on this grid for which Moscow controlled. They controlled the frequency. So the fear was that the stability of the grid could be disrupted by Russia for political reasons at any time. So this is part of a long term process, speeded up by the annexation of Crimea,

the full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. And it's been hailed by Kaya Kalas, who's the EU's foreign policy chief, as a victory for freedom and European unity. She said Russia can no longer use energy as a tool of blackmail. It also involves the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which is between Lithuania and Poland that links to Kaliningrad have also been severed. Kaliningrad can operate independently with its own energy infrastructure that Russia has heavily been investing in.

Just on a practical basis though, switching an entire energy grid system, it's no small feat, how do you do that? Well it's involved, there's a huge investment, $1.6 billion worth of investment in new transmission systems, all sorts of interconnectors over a very long period. The EU has partially financed that. What you've seen is all these cables across to Russia and Belarus be disconnected this morning. That itself was a three hour process staged from Lithuania in the south all the way up to Estonia.

It was finished about nine o'clock local time. And what is happening now is that those three Baltic nations have got energy reserves. They've got their own locally produced energy, wind, solar, hydro, and from power stations. And they are operating that system in isolation for 24 hours. During that period they have to test things like frequency, voltage, things like that to get ready for a synchronisation with the continental European grid which all the rest of the EU depends on.

So it's a huge network of its own 400 plus million consumers. Our Europe regional editor, Danny Aberhart. African leaders have called for the resumption of peace talks to address the escalating crisis in eastern Congo. The summit in Tanzania also reaffirmed support for regional mediation. Here's Richard Kigoye. It was the first time leaders from eastern and Southern Africa met to address the deepening crisis in eastern Congo. As tensions between Kinshasa and Kigali continue to rise, dear Congo's president, Félix Chisikedi, has accused Rwanda of fueling the conflict by backing M23 rebels with troops and weapons. The armed group has seized large areas of North Kivu province and overran Goma, a key

regional hub. Rwanda denies involvement, claiming Congo and regional forces are plotting to attack its territory. Richard Kukohia reporting. And still to come in this podcast, the man you need if you've got poisonous red-bellied black snakes in the garden. Certain species of snakes do congregate with our birthing. It's sort of like a little maternity war. spending or spending money abroad, you should use WISE. You'll have up to 40 currencies in the palm of your hand. WISE gives you the real exchange rate, which means you'll spend less on fees and more of your money gets where you need it to be. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply.

What does it take to go racing in the fastest cars in the world? Oscar Piestri.. and Aston Martin. I'm Landon Arras. 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. The party of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will form the government in the Indian capital Delhi after an important election victory there. The city has been governed for more than a decade by a rival party but now Mr Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP has taken 48 of the 70 available seats on the assembly. Our South Asia editor Anbarisan Ehtirajan told me about the significance of the win. For BJP it is a strategically important victory and also it was a

prestige battle for this governing BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party of otherwise they call us Aap Party of Aravind Kejriwal. Now you might wonder why this is so important because even though the BJP has been ruling or governing India from 2014 they were not able to make a dent in the capital region. You know, we are talking about a population of nearly 30 million in this megapolis city, capital region, and last time they were voted out of power was in 1998. So it was always an embarrassment for the governing BJP and Mr. Narendra Modi, the Prime

Minister, that we were able to win in rest of the country but not in the capital. And also the state has a very different kind of administration when you compare it with other states. Some of the key areas like security, it rests with the lieutenant governor of the state appointed by the federal government. So the public services and education came under the Delhi government. And that is where, you know, there was a big campaign pushed by both parties for welfare

measures and to improve public services. That became a key election promises by these two parties. And it is again a huge setback for this Ahadmi party which was seen as a party which fought against corruption and now they have to contend with sitting in the opposition. It's not uncommon for capital cities to have different politics from the rest of their countries. Washington is an obvious example now, London's had this in the past, we can name many examples. So why did it matter so much as a trophy for the BJP to win Delhi? Because it's a capital city.

Not winning Delhi was always a big gap. And then this Ahmadmi Party was always taunting Prime Minister Modi and then other senior leaders. So you cannot win in Delhi because we have the support of the people. Barisan Ethirajan reporting. Leaders of a group of European right-wing and far-right parties have been praising Donald Trump at a gathering in the Spanish capital. In Madrid for us, Guy Hedgeko.

Patriots is the third biggest group in the European Parliament. It's hoping to disrupt the control that social democrats and conservatives exert on EU institutions, and this summit was a show of strength. Many of the leaders present have welcomed Donald Trump's return to the White House. Hungary's Viktor Orbán is one of them and he said that the Trump tornado has changed the world. Immigration was a dominant theme of the rally. Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain's Vox party, which hosted the event, said his country will be the wall of Europe against the advance of Islamism.

Appearing on the front of Time magazine is one of the cultural benchmarks of success in the United States. Confirmation that you've made it. But the latest cover could be causing some consternation in high places. Mark Duff explains. Rewind to December the 12th last year. The scene, the New York Stock Exchange. The occasion, the unveiling of Time Magazine's Person of the Year. Step forward, the only man in the frame, the freshly re-elected Donald Trump. This is an honour, a tremendous honour. I brought some of our compatriots along with us.

They're going to do a beautiful job for you for the next four years. And it's really been something very special. And I have to say Time magazine getting this honour for the second time. I think I like it better this time actually. Mr Trump is known to crave the love of the venerable weekly news magazine, so much so that he was once called out for faking a time cover to feature his own face. But the magazine's latest issue caused more than the hint of a frown. This was the exchange when a feisty journalist challenged the president as he hosted the Japanese Prime

Minister at the White House. Mr. President, do you have a reaction to the new Time magazine cover that has Elon Musk sitting behind your resolute desk? Mr. Trump batted it all away in his trademark style, but he didn't look amused. Is Time magazine still in business? I don't even know that. Typical Trump. But the New York Times posed the question on everyone's lips. Could a Time magazine cover drive a wedge between Trump and Musk? Now a story with some bite and not one for you if you're scared of snakes because we're

about to hear from the man in Australia who specializes in catching them. This week here in his team were called in to remove some poisonous red-bellied black snakes who are living in a mulch pile in a suburban garden in Sydney. Corey Carawaro told us what happened. When he got there he sifted through some of the mulch and a couple of babies came out and we weren't expecting any babies. Then he found five females and they were all still pregnant. So out of the actual pile itself, it was just over 40 odd that came out at the time.

And then two of the females had given birth in there, which brought the number up to 70 odd. And by the time we got home to check over them properly, the other two had given birth, yeah, it brought the number right up to 102. It is quite common for certain species of snakes to congregate when they are birthing. It's sort of like a little maternity ward mulch. So we've definitely had them like that, but just not in that number. They're red-bellied black snakes and they are highly venomous.

So you know, buy from one of those guys. It's really not a fun time. We do it by hand. Just depends on what's happening at the time. Like we assess it like really quickly, depending on the situation. But most times it's cause the snakes trying to get away from us.

So we grab them by the tail and there's certain things that we can do to counteract what they're doing. If they try to come up and bite and things like that. But it's the quickest, easiest way. So we grab them, put them straight in the bag. I've always loved snakes. And ever since I was a young bloke

and someone offered me a job to catch some snakes and that started it and now yeah 10 years later I'm still going and you'll even breathe it like it's something that you've got to have a passion for. Snake catcher Corey Carawaro. Now to the gallery in London that says it's seen a ghost after using new technology to scan a painting by Pablo Picasso. The painting from 1901 shows the artist's friend asleep in Paris but he's not alone. For more on this little mystery, here's Stephanie Prentiss. First of all this is a painting of a sculptor friend of Picasso's, a man named De Soto and he was thought to be staying with him at the start of the 20th century in what some call those early bohemian days in Paris.

Looking at it, it's clearly part of that blue period, back when he was using a lot of muted blues, muted blue greens, while developing his signature style. And in this work, we do see the subject very clearly defined in those sort of colours. Now, this is normally kept in Switzerland, but it was when it was agreed that it would be loaned to a gallery in London England that experts then took a much closer look. So what have they found in the painting? Some kind of ghostly presence?

Well actually now we can hand this tale over to one of the experts at that gallery. Barnaby Wright is the deputy head and he decided he would act on a long-standing hunch. There were paint marks that didn't really relate to the portrait that we were looking at. So we planned that when the picture came to London we'd x-ray and make infrared images of it. We watched on the screen as this infrared image was rendering and you could see clear as day the figure of this woman lying beneath. And what's also interesting is that once you know what's underneath, those telltale marks that I was talking about, you suddenly realise that they are the form of the woman. So you can really see her ghostly

presence now with the naked eye. So very exciting for fans that this woman is actually visible, if you know what you're looking for. And if you look at the scan, she's quite a large figure. She's set to the side, her hair's up in a sort of top-knot style. The next step for the team was figuring out who this was. Now they've noted that the style of painting is a little bit different. They're certain she was painted first. And this is probably a case of a young, she was probably our 19-year-old Picasso

trying to save money by reusing those old canvases. We know his reputation, because of being a Lothario, so Byron B. Wright has a few ideas. It would be nice to think that we might be able to link it to a named and known painting of somebody, but it is certainly one of the women, perhaps a friend, perhaps a lover, maybe a model that he was painting in these kind of cafe interior settings. So as we heard likely a woman in a cafe in Paris and someone who the team think was painted and then painted over within just a few weeks. Stephanie Prentiss reporting.

And that's all from us for now. There'll be a new edition of Global News to painted over within just a few weeks. Stephanie Prentiss reporting. World Service use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Holly Palmer, the producer is Stephanie Tillotson, the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Andrew Peach. Thanks for listening and until next time, goodbye. This podcast is sponsored by WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. If you're sending or spending money abroad, you should use WISE. You'll have up to 40 currencies in the palm of your hand. WISE gives you the real exchange rate, which means you'll spend less on fees and more of your money gets where you need it to be. Download the WISE app today or visit wise.com. T's and C's apply.

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