Global News Podcast - Israel delays scheduled release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners

Episode Date: February 23, 2025

Israel delays release of 600 Palestinian prisoners due to be exchanged for 6 hostages freed from Gaza on Saturday; Also: Vatican says the Pope's health has got worse, and is this the biggest crypto theft in history?

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Hello, I'm Katya Adler, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. Each weekday, we break down one big news story with fresh perspectives from journalists around the world. From artificial intelligence to divisive politics tearing our societies apart, from the movements of money and markets, to the human stories that touch our lives, we bring you in-depth insights from across the BBC and beyond. Listen to The Global Story wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jaleel and in the early hours of Sunday the 23rd of February these are our

main stories. There's been an unexplained delay to the release of hundreds of Palestinians from Israeli jails hours after Hamas freed six hostages from Gaza. The Vatican says the Pope's health has deteriorated after more than a week in hospital with pneumonia. One person has been killed in a knife attack on police officers in France that President Macron has called an act of Islamist terror. Also in this podcast, a Frenchman whose stolen credit card was used to buy a winning lottery scratch card, which has now been frozen, makes this appeal to the thieves.

I'd like to tell them to contact my lawyer so we can work out a friendly agreement. Let's split the money. As six hostages released by Hamas have been tearfully reunited with their families, Israel has delayed the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners who were supposed to be freed in exchange under the terms of the Gaza ceasefire deal. There has been no official explanation for the delay. However, Israeli security officials have been meeting late into this evening. Hamas has accused Israel of a blatant violation of the Gaza ceasefire deal and claims some of the prisoners have been assaulted.

As night fell in the West Bank town of Ramallah, families continue to wait as we record this podcast, including these relatives of two of the prisoners. Waiting is very difficult and it's very difficult to be on edge, but we shall endure it for the sake of their freedom. For us, one hour equals a day. We've been sitting on the chair waiting for many hours, but what else can we do? Well, earlier on Saturday, five of the hostages were freed in the stage-managed shows of force

by Hamas that have become weekly events events while the sixth was released in private. Three of the hostages had been kidnapped at the Nova Music Festival during the October 7th attacks. Crowds in Tel Aviv welcomed them back. One hostage, Avera Mengistu, had been held captive by Hamas for more than 10 years. A family member, Gili Eliasson, described their joy. We feel like we're on cloud nine, overwhelmed with happiness. It's a day of celebration. Now that he's back and will undergo rehabilitation,

we'll finally have time to reflect and hold accountable those responsible for everything that happened and for what should have happened. Well since then Hamas has published a new video showing two Israeli hostages not yet scheduled for a release who had been brought to a release point to witness Saturday's liberation of the other hostages. The video taken inside a vehicle captures them pleading on camera to be taken home. Earlier I asked our correspondent in Jerusalem, Sebastian Usher, what we knew about why the Palestinian prisoner releases had been delayed. After the sixth hostage was released, Hisham al-Sayed, the process of releasing the more than 600 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails

would normally have started as we've seen in other hostage handovers, but it hasn't. And we are hearing from Israeli media sources that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding a high-level security meeting which his defence minister Israel Katz is attending and the release of the prisoners will be discussed during that also the next stage in the ceasefire deal so it may be the big decisions are taken then and there's been speculation in the Israeli media that the delay may be payback perhaps to the way in which Hamas had said that it was handing over the body of Shiri Bibas on Thursday, and then it turned out not to be her body.

Hamas subsequently did return a body which has been shown to be her, but there was a day or two when Israel went beyond grief over what had happened to Shiri Bevers and her children, to anger at the fact that her remains hadn't actually been returned, as Hamas had said. So potentially this is in response to that. So tell us about the release of the six hostages and what condition the six men were in. Yes, I mean this was a little bit different from what we've seen in the past few weeks of hostage handovers. It took place in three locations. Two of the events were what we've come to expect now from Hamas,

very stage managed. The first one took place in Raffa in which Tal Shoham, who was kidnapped on October the 7th 2023 in, Hamas-led attack, was released. And at the same time, Avera Mengistu, who's been held in captivity by Hamas for more than a decade, he was captured after he crossed over into Gaza. There's been a lot of speculation over why he was held so long but he was finally released and then a little bit later in the center of Gaza in al-Nusayrat, Eli Cohen, Omar Shemtov and Omar Venkart were released. These are men all in their 20s and they were all abducted also on October the 7th from the Nova Music Festival. They all looked in reasonably good shape it has to be said and then there was a private for

the first time there was a release of a hostage which was done out of the gaze of the public in Gaza that happened in Gaza City and that was of Hisham al-Sayed who also like Avera Mengistu had been held for around a decade by Hamas in Gaza again for a very similar reason he had crossed over from Israel into Gaza. Again, questions over why he was held so long. He also appears, from what we've heard in the past, not to be in very good physical condition, whether that's the reason that it was done in private or the fact that he's a member of the Arab-Israeli community, that might also have played a part.

Sebastian Asher in Jerusalem. President Trump has said he thinks he's close to a deal on ending the war in Ukraine. It was one of his campaign pledges that he would be able to end the war within 24 hours of taking office. Speaking at the CPAC conservative conference near Washington, he said he wanted to get back the billions of dollars the US has given to Ukraine. I've spoken to President Putin and I think that thing is going to end, but it's got to end. It's a horrible, horrible thing to watch. I'm dealing with President Zelensky. I'm dealing with President Putin. I'm trying to get the money back. Europe gave it in the form of a loan. They get their money back. We gave it in the form of nothing. So I want them to give us something for all of the money that we put up. And I'm going to try and get the war settled

and I'm going to try and get all that death ended. Russia has been subject to strict sanctions since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago. Now, Donald Trump's decision to deal directly with Vladimir Putin has given the Russian leader valuable diplomatic kudos. On Tuesday, U.S. and Russian officials held their first high-level face-to-face talks since Russia's full-scale invasion. Ukraine was not invited. Boris Bondarov is a former Russian Foreign Ministry official who worked at the Russian mission to the UN office in Geneva from 2019 but resigned

in 2022 in protest over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. What does he make of the latest changes to US-Russia relations since Trump came to power? US-Russia relations since Trump came to power. Trump is eager to change US foreign policy very drastically, to be very much unlike his predecessor. And also, I think he wants to achieve some very important foreign political goals for United States by making Putin his friend or even an ally against China. I think that is the most obvious and logical explanation to all his manoeuvres around Putin. Yes, it's interesting you say that because there's lots of speculation in the United States as to why President Trump seems so pro-President Putin in his first term and his second term now.

But you think it's all to do with China? Maybe not all, but I think that the primary reason if we try to find reasons in Trump's policy should be around China, because Trump has always stated that to contain China, to compete with China strategically, economically is his main goal. And he considers China to be a United States rival. Evidently, Putin's Russia is not a rival in Trump's eyes. It's a small economy, it's a huge nuclear arsenal and it's better to have Vladimir Putin out of this bilateral US-China competition.

Let's just sort of, for the sake of argument, say you're right and it's basically his main concern is China. Do you think this policy of isolation will help the United States assert itself vis-a-vis China? I think no. And I have doubts because Trump may lie to himself that he could make this split between China and Russia. But the truth is that Russia is very much dependent on China right

now. 36% of Russian foreign trade is with China. And China has been a steady, predictable, and very reliable partner and supporter of Vladimir Putin for the last three years. And Putin knows that in China, in Beijing, he has a reliable supporter and partner. And the United States, he's everything right now, but predictable. You're living in Switzerland, you obviously get the European perspective as well. Europe, the European Union has never had a unified foreign policy, really. Do you think it will now need to get one, or does it not need one and can continue just thinking about trade and not assert itself internationally? It depends on whether Europeans want to play its own independent role and to have a say

in the world's matters, for they are quite satisfied with how Trump treats them, like without any respect, without considering them to be equals. The European Union doesn't need strategy right now. It needs it three years ago, at least, when the war has started. For these three years, Europeans have not produced anything which could be characterised as a strategy or a plan of action. And if you, as someone said, when you don't know where to sail, no wind is favourable. Well, I mean, is that quite fair? I mean, the European Union may not have had such a strategy, but nor did the United States,

did it? I mean, you know, they were pretty much in lockstep in allowing Ukraine to defend itself, but not to inflict a defeat on Russia. Absolutely, absolutely. The United States didn't and they haven't yet produced any sustainable strategy either. But United States, I think they can afford it more than Europe can. That was Russian former diplomat Boris Bondarov speaking to Owen Bennett-Jones. To Germany now and what could be momentous elections which are taking place today Sunday

amid concerns about immigration, a faltering economy and Europe's future during a second Trump presidency. concerns about immigration, a faltering economy and Europe's future during a second Trump presidency. The conservative Christian Democrats or CDU have been leading the opinion polls with about 30 percent, with its leader, Friedrich Mertz, hoping to replace Olaf Scholz as Chancellor. But many are watching closely to see how well the far-right Alternative for Germany does. It has many extremists among its ranks, but polls suggest it could double its votes to come second. The CDU has ruled out forming a coalition with the AfD. These people in Berlin shared their thoughts and fears about the elections.

A bit undecided because you don't know what will come of it. That's the problem. None of them have addressed health policy, rents, unemployment, nor education. There were a lot of issues they didn't address and instead they focused on migration policy, but in the wrong way. Our Berlin correspondent Damian McGuinness says people are acutely aware of how important these elections are. There's an energized feeling, a politicized feeling and a polarized feeling that the mood is certainly one where people are talking about politics again and engaged in politics but not necessarily in a positive way because there are all these

crises around and that's why people are aware of how important these elections are. A lot of people though are undecided, they say they don't like any of the parties or any of the main candidates and a lot of people express deep dissatisfaction with the current leadership, the leaders of the parties and in some cases even the political system. And everyone will be watching to see how well the far-right AFD does. It's been backed by Elon Musk and the US Vice President J.D. Vance. And the party itself seems very confident after years of being treated like a pariah. Yeah, there's a lot going on with the AFD.

They look set, according to the polls, to double the number of seats or the share of their seats in the national parliament Going from maybe around 10% possibly as much as around 20% if the polls are correct So if they get 20% or more they will be absolutely jubilant But it has to be said they won't get into government They won't get into political power because there's a firewall as it's known here around them No other party will work with them. That's because they're seen as so toxic and they are judged to be in part at least right-wing extremists. The question is though, what will happen if they get well over 20% and if the Conservative Party, which was Angela Merkel's

party is now Friedrich Merz, who's tipped to be the next chancellor. He's the leader of that party. If they get in the upper 20s, not much more than the AFD, what will then happen is there'll be plenty of right-wingers within the conservative party who will then start questioning this firewall and start saying, well, you know, this is a powerful party with almost a quarter of voters selecting it. And you do have then questions about democratic legitimacy. How long can you keep a party out of power and can you refuse to work with a party which maybe 20 or 25% of voters have voted for? So I think what the party is doing, what the AfD is doing, they're looking to four years' time.

This is their first step to national power, they would say. They say they want to use this election to broaden their appeal, to establish their legitimacy in order then to have a chance of bringing down the firewall next time round. But Fridisch Merz, the Conservative leader, is adamant that he's never going to do it and his strategy really is one of undermining the AFD by luring back right-wingers with some pretty tough rhetoric, particularly on migration. And he has been accused of undermining that firewall himself. What he did a couple of weeks ago was to pass a motion in parliament, a non-binding motion

with the support of the AFD, which in theory does undermine the firewall. But again, he would argue that he was pushing through this quite controversial measure in order to do the opposite, to undermine the AFD, because he says that only by, as he would put it, catering to people's concerns about migration, would people stop voting for the AFD? I think that's why people are watching this election so closely. It's only really when the results come out will we know whether Friedrich Mertz's strategy has actually worked or not.

Damien McGuinness in Berlin. Still to come on the Global News podcast, we report on the operation to clear the devastation left by the Los Angeles fires and how not everyone is happy about beaches being used to sort the debris. We have to do this very quickly. I mean, we started as the fires were still raging and we have to remove the household hazardous materials so they actually don't impact the ocean. Hello, I'm Katya Adler, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC.

Each weekday we break down one big news story with fresh perspectives from journalists around the world. From artificial intelligence to divisive politics tearing our societies apart. From the movements of money and markets to the human stories that touch our lives. We bring you in-depth insights from across the BBC and beyond. Listen to The Global Story wherever. As we record this podcast, the Vatican says Pope Francis' health has worsened in the past day. The 88-year-old pontiff has spent the last eight nights in a Rome hospital where he's being treated for pneumonia and his condition was thought to have stabilised. In its its latest update the Vatican says that although he is alert

he remains in a critical condition. Sarah Rainsford reports from the Vatican. Pope Francis has asked for openness about his health and the latest Vatican update is the most stark read yet. The Pope had what is described as a prolonged respiratory crisis today, which required oxygen. He also needed blood transfusions, the Vatican says, after tests showed he has anemia. The pope's condition as before is described as critical. The 88-year-old is not out of danger, the statement says, and it adds that he is suffering more than yesterday. It declines to give any prognosis.

This will all worry Catholics around the world, especially after doctors yesterday said for the first time the Pope was responding to medication. But they also noted that any slight thing risked upsetting a delicate balance. Even so, Pope Francis is said to remain alert and he spent the day, the Vatican says, in his armchair. Sarah Rainsford. The Democratic Republic of Congo has welcomed a UN Security Council resolution calling on Rwanda's military to stop supporting the

M23 rebel group and to immediately withdraw all its own troops from Congo. The M23 has captured two of the largest cities in eastern Congo, stoking fears of a wider regional war. Rwanda denies allegations made by both Congo and the United Nations that it's supporting the M23 rebels with arms and troops despite the evidence to the contrary. Temezgen de Bursay reports. The resolution which was adopted unanimously by all 15 members of the Security Council on Friday calls for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. It also urged Rwanda and Congo to restart peace talks. In a post on social media, the Congolese government spokesman Patrick Muiaya hailed the resolution

as a major diplomatic victory. And he also had this message for Kigali. Get out of our country. Since January, the rebels have captured the cities of Bukavu and South Kivu's provincial capital Goma in the country's mineral rich east. The conflict has left thousands killed and nearly a million civilians displaced, with many fleeing their homes, including to neighboring countries like Burundi. Meanwhile, Rwanda's parliament has issued a statement criticizing the European Parliament's proposal for the EU to suspend the minerals agreement and aid to Kigali because of its alleged role in the violence in the

Congo. Rwanda condemned the decision as selective outrage against the M23 rebels. It said the move deliberately obscures the ongoing crisis and Rwanda security concerns. Temezgen de Bersay. In France, one person has been killed and three police officers have been wounded in a knife attack in the eastern city of Mulhouse during a demonstration about Congo. The attacker is reported to have shouted Allah Akbar, or is great as he attacked the officers. A 37 year old Algerian man who was on a terror watch list has been arrested. President Emmanuel Macron was quick to condemn the attack. This terrorist act, there's no doubt that

it's an Islamist terrorist act, in view of the phrase used by the terrorists. I would like to reiterate the nation's solidarity with the family and the governments and my own determination to continue the work we've been doing for the past eight years to eradicate terrorism on our soil. The head of the anti-immigrant National Rally Party, Jordan Bardella, said the man should have been deported before he had the chance to carry out the attack. Our Paris correspondent, Hugh Schofield, is following developments.

The bare facts seem pretty clear that there was a demonstration in Moulouse this afternoon in support of Congo, the African country, and around this demonstration there were many police officers on patrol. It seems that this man launched his knife attack against police officers, not against people taking part in the demonstration. Another person, it seems, tried to intervene. And this person was knifed and died and was killed by the man. The man is under arrest and in detention. and it's been revealed by the prosecutor that he's a 37-year-old Algerian man and he cried out Allah Akbar at the time of his act. So this has been classified as a terrorist attack

and it also has been reported now and confirmed that the man was subject to a deportation order. He was on a kind of watch list for radicalisation and was subject to a deportation order to Algeria. Hugh Schofield. The Los Angeles area is slowly recovering from the wildfires that tore through the city, claiming dozens of lives and displacing tens of thousands of people. Large sections of the city were destroyed, including much of the Pacific Coast Highway between Santa Monica and Malibu. The fires generated a staggering amount of debris, an estimated four and a half million tons and some of that is controversially being sorted out along the coast. Reagan Morris reports from Los Angeles.

With its sun-drenched lifeguard towers, bronzed surfers, and bikini-clad volleyball players, Will Rogers State Beach is one of the most recognizable stretches of sand in the world. Thanks to the global cult classic, Baywatch. But now the iconic beach is barely recognizable. Surrounded by the ruins of burned homes and palm trees, the parking lot is a sorting ground for hazardous waste from the wildfires.

The beach babes have been replaced by environmental protection agency crews in hazmat suits. The decision to sort through hazardous waste along the coast has prompted protests. Sort the hazardous waste in its place. Sort the hazardous waste in its place. Sword that hazardous waste in its place. It just seems absolutely absurd to us to put something next to a flowing creek, especially as we are in rain right now and obviously California is known to have quite extreme

rain conditions where you have mudslides. Actor Bonnie Wright, who played Ginny Weasley in the Harry Potter films and has written a book on sustainability, has been lobbying officials to protect sensitive waterways near her neighborhood in Topanga Canyon. So right there in this very vulnerable place, they're sorting this very hazardous, hazardous stuff, which as we know, things run off the land and into our oceans.

This isn't just a local issue. This could really damage the whole further, Santa Monica Bay, that obviously many LA County residents enjoy and there's a lot of tourism on the coastline. There's a lot of industry that comes because of this beautiful coastline we have but it won't really be beautiful if we have you know fire hazardous waste running off the land and into the ocean. The EPA says there is no ideal spot and that speed is of the essence. Steve Kalinog is the EPA's incident commander for the LA fires.

We have to do this very quickly. I mean, we started as the fires were still raging and we have to remove the household hazardous materials so they actually don't impact the ocean. If we are delayed, the risk of impacting the ocean goes up. Again, we've done this for 15 plus years. We're the United States Environmental Protection Agencies. We're the nation's experts in handling hazardous materials, and we're able to do it safely without incident. What about all those Teslas and electric cars that were incinerated?

Where do they go? The lithium ion batteries is a unique phenomenon in our modern-day life. When lithium ion batteries are damaged, and in this case by high heat and flames, they have the potential for reigniting and exploding days, weeks, months after they've been impacted. So we have to treat them like unexploded ordnance, as the military calls UXL, we have to process them so they can be transported safely to a recycling or disposal facility. LA County closed beaches along a 14 kilometer stretch for weeks following the fires in January. Torrential rain, which helped douse smoldering embers, caused mudslides in the burn area and runoff of toxic ash and chemicals into the ocean.

Now most beaches are reopened, but an advisory remains in effect along the coast from Santa Monica to Malibu, urging people to stay out of the water until further notice. Though some will risk most anything to catch a wave, only the most dedicated and local surfers could access the beaches in the burn area anyway. There's no parking or stopping for miles along Pacific Coast Highway which is clogged with trucks and workers cleaning up debris. It's not known how long it will take to rebuild LA. The scale of the cleanup from the fires is unprecedented. But LA is a city known for reinvention and many here are working hard to rebuild and hopefully welcome tourists back to the coast soon.

That report by Reagan Morris. It could be the biggest crypto theft in history. Hackers are reported to have stolen one and a half billion dollars worth of digital currency from the cryptocurrency firm Bybit. The Dubai-based company's founder reassured users that their funds were safe, as it could cover the loss. The hackers stole from Bybit's Ethereum coin digital wallet. Ethereum is the second largest cryptocurrency by value after Bitcoin.

Its value fell after the theft. Professor of finance, John Sedanoff, at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, explained how the theft. Professor of Finance John Sedinov at Villanova University in Pennsylvania explained how the theft happened. It's a security breach and what's what's strange about it to an extent is that these were seemingly in cold wallets. It was during a transition from cold wallets to warm or hot wallets. So a cold wallet is something that's the storage is completely or meant to be completely offline, so not connected to the internet. So, you know, supposedly not

susceptible to a hacker or somebody coming in and infiltrating the system. Hot wallet would be online and cash that's available for for somebody to kind of hack if the circumstances were right. for somebody to kind of hack if the circumstances were right. It does appear that this was during a transition from the cold to the warm wallets but at the end of the day it's a big security breach. We're talking about what could be the biggest crypto theft in history. How was so much money able to be stolen from what should be a very secure place? There is some speculation that this is North Korean hacking the Lazarus Group. So there's a group called Arkham Research that looks out for these kinds of things and

they are speculating that, or some evidence I should say, is pointing to the North Korean group being at the center of this. But a very sophisticated theft for a country that's supposedly very isolated from the rest of the world. Do we know where the money is now? So they are in wallets that folks have been able to track and that's where the evidence has been able to kind of be built up to suggest who is behind this because some of the cryptocurrency that's come out, all this is available on blockchains, which is a public ledger about what's, we can all look at them and see who's got cash, where and how it's being moved.

Now this is anonymous to an extent, but when a wallet is identified on the blockchain, then you can kind of believe that that wallet persists with the same owner over time. So the currency ended up in wallets that were linked to other hacks that were related to this North Korean hacking group. And it is a sophisticated operation. They were behind other sophisticated attacks too. So they've got their operations spanning the globe and what they're doing and they know what they're doing for sure. It's a worry when you when you cede control of your assets to a third party.

Professor of Finance John Sedonov. Now to a different kind of money problem. Just imagine you've got a winning lottery ticket that puts you in line for about half a million dollars but you can't claim the money. That's what's happened to two men in France who bought a winning ticket. But here's the catch,

they bought it with a stolen credit card so they're not allowed to claim the prize. bought it with a stolen credit card so they're not allowed to claim the prize. Now the owner of the credit card who also can't claim the prize as he didn't buy the ticket says he wants to team up with the two men so that they can split the money between them. Anna Aslam reports. Jean David was initially upset when his bag was stolen from his car in Toulouse. He reported the crime and cancelled his bank cards, but too late. 50 euros had already been spent via contactless payment at a nearby shop.

Speaking to the cashier, he found out two men who appeared to be homeless had bought cigarettes and several scratch cards, and they'd won the jackpot of 500,000 euros. They were so excited they left their cigarettes in the shop and hurried to claim their winnings. But Jean David had told the lottery company about the stolen card so the pair can now be arrested and the money seized. And it's here that Mr. David's frustrations turned into excitement as he tried to strike a deal with the thieves. I'd like to tell them to contact my lawyer so we can work out a friendly agreement.

Let's split the money. They have nothing to fear. It's an interesting offer. Neither party can get the money by themselves and they wouldn't have wound up in this situation without each other. It's unclear though whether the lottery company will definitely pay out and if the thieves could still get in trouble. But for a share of half a million euros, the risks may just be worth it. Scratchguard winners have 30 days from the date of purchase

to claim their winnings, so the deadline is fast approaching for this very unlikely team. Anna Aslam And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Just use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was produced by Alice Adley and it was mixed by Chris Hansen. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jeanette Julliol. Each weekday, we break down one big news story

with fresh perspectives from journalists around the world. From artificial intelligence to divisive politics tearing our societies apart. From the movements of money and markets to the human stories that touch our lives, we bring you in-depth insights from across the BBC and beyond. Listen to the global story

wherever you get your BBC podcasts.