Global News Podcast - Israel rejects latest Hamas Gaza ceasefire offer

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

Israel says latest Hamas proposal to free all the hostages and end the war in Gaza is nothing new. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates warns Israel that annexing the occupied West Bank will cross a red line and undermine the spirit of the Abraham Accords brokered by Donald Trump. Also: Google found guilty by US federal court of gathering data from users' smartphone app even if they had opted into stricter privacy settings; can music help with travel sickness; and calling all dessert enthusiasts - the Tiramisu World Cup wants you as a judge.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]

You're listening to the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. We're recording this at 13 hours GMT on Thursday the 4th of September. Israel dismisses Hamas's latest claim that it's willing to free all the hostages in Gaza. The Ukrainian president meets his European allies to discuss security guarantees if there's a peace deal. And the authorities in Portugal investigate the finicular tram crash that killed at least 16 people. Also in this podcast, what to make of the overheard discussion between the Russian and Chinese presidents about organ transplants and immortality. All your organs are working perfectly, but the connectivity in your brain is no longer good. And that's where the problems may come and that's probably where the limit on human lifespan lies.

And later? Once the motion sickness was induced, they stopped in and they were exposed to four different kinds of music to see if any of them would help with the recovery. Can music help with travel sickness? Last month, Hamas agreed a Gaza ceasefire proposal that included the return of half the Israeli hostages. Israel said it was no longer interested in partial deals and wanted them all released. Fast forward to Wednesday and Hamas said it was ready for a comprehensive agreement that would see all the captives freed. But the office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the proposal saying it was just spin. In recent days, Israel has stepped up its offensive in Gaza City,

despite UN warnings of a humanitarian catastrophe. At the same time, the United Arab Emirates has criticised Israeli efforts to expand the occupation of the West Bank, after the far-right finance minister, Bezal Smotrich, unveiled a proposal to annex 82% of the Palestinian territory. I heard more about that from our chief international correspondent Lee's Doucette. But first, I asked her about the Israeli response to Hamas' Well, it hasn't formally rejected it. They've really been taking their time. There have been

many meetings of the security cabinet in recent weeks, and none of them have discussed the fact that Hamas has now accepted what is called the Whitkoff proposal for a 60-day ceasefire with the release of 10 Israeli hostages and the remains of 18 in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. but there have been statements by Israeli officials, including the Prime Minister, rejecting Hamas' moves as just simply spin. But I have to say there is huge fury among the Egyptian and Qatari mediators who basically say that the so-called Whitkoff plan, which is named after President Trump's envoy, Steve Whitkoff, Israel had agreed to the plan. It was essentially Israel's plan. And Prime Minister Netanyahu after for many months saying he only wanted a partial deal is now saying he doesn't want a partial deal.

And the mediators say that Israel has not engaged with this proposal for many weeks. So it looks like Israel is just biding its time. There's also fury from the UAE on the separate issue of the West Bank. How significant an intervention is this? Very significant intervention. The special envoy of the United Arab Emirates, Lana Nusebi, spoke to an Israeli journalist and described any annexation of the Occupied West Bank as a red line. She said it would threaten regional integration.

And what's interesting is that almost the same thing happened five years ago when another senior Emirati diplomat wrote an op-ed on the front page of an Israeli newspaper warning that Prime Minister Netanyahu's plans to annex the occupied West Bank were threatening discussions ongoing then to normalize relations between Israel and Arab states. Prime Minister Netanyahu and his cabinet stepped back. The UAE signed the Abraham Accords, became the first Arab state in about a quarter of a century, to normalize relations with Israel. And so this intervention is really, really crucial because I spoke to an American,

official this morning and said, are you really saying that you will pull out of the Abraham Accords for President Trump? He regards that as one of the biggest achievements of his first term. He wants it to grow, not to shrink. And basically, this official said, well, we're just focusing now on stopping the annexation. So it does seem that the Emirati intervention, as well as it appears that the Americans have also intervened. So it was supposed to be discussed by the security cabinet today and doesn't seem to be on the agenda. The BBC's chief international correspondent, Lees Doucette. It is now known that at least 16 people died after a tram carriage crashed into a building

in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. Twenty others were injured, including four Portuguese, two German and two Spanish nationals. The authorities say a three-year-old child was also hurt. Investigations are underway into exactly how the 140-year-old Gloria Finicular which is popular with tourists, detached from its cables and slid down a busy street. This woman was on the second tram that was involved in the accident, and which suffered much less damage. We were in the bottom cable cart.

It was about to depart. Everything was good. All the seats were full also in the middle, and we were about to go up. So we were driving up, and all of a sudden, there was no brakes in our cable car. It was going down fast with acceleration, like there's no control. And it hit then down. The hit was very hard, and people were crashed in each other. And then we heard the other one coming down very fast,

so we didn't know what's happening, and everyone started to shout and scream. My husband jumped from the window because we didn't know what's going on. I gave him my son, and I was about to jump as well. When the people that were here, they told us, no, please don't jump. Everything is already crashed. Don't jump, go from the other side.

It was very scary because it was within some seconds we didn't feel we needed to react. And then I took care of my son and I told my husband he's a doctor, please go up to see if you can risk you anyone. But he couldn't. It was already crashed and there was no option to take out people. Three other finiculars in the city are currently undergoing safety checks. Flags are flying at half-mast as Portugal observes a day of morning. Victoria Oon Kunda spoke to Joanna Morera, a reporter at a reporter at. at the Portuguese online news site Observador. According to a source from the Lisbon Fire Brigade,

that accident was caused by a cable coming loose in the lift structure. Kerij, the public transport company, has launched an investigation. And the public prosecutor or his officer has launched an investigation as well. So prestige authorities are now acknowledging that an investigation is necessary to figure out not only what happened, but why did this happen? Has anything similar happened before? Yeah, something similar happened in 2018 when an accident occurred as well, but at the time, it had left no victims.

Anyone who's ever visited Lisbon will know the yellow finicular train cable cars going up and down as it's a very hilly city. And we are seeing people talking about their memories of being in the cable cars. How historically significant has the funicular been to the city? It was a sort of a classic city post. card, a bright yellow carriage. It's one of the Lisbon's trademarks. And the Gori funicula in particular is one of the oldest lift still in operation in the city. It is a railway line that connects the Pombolin downtown with the Baichu Alto. And the accident occurred on the road leading

up to Mirador-Valkentara, which is an incredibly famous viewpoint of the city. This finicular has been operating since 1885 and carries around three million pounds. passengers a year. It's interesting because it is a 200-meter journey that takes approximately three minutes, but it connects two key points in the city. So it is used by many, many tourists, that is a fact, but also by residents. So it ends up being very historically significant for tourists, but also for those who live in the city. Portuguese journalist Joanna Morrero. A day after the Russian president was pictured striding around Beijing, alongside the leaders of China and North Korea, the Ukrainian President Rodimir Zelensky has been meeting his allies

in Paris. The so-called Coalition of the Willing, a group of about 30 mostly European countries, has been discussing how to guarantee Ukrainian security in the event of a ceasefire. Russia says it remains firmly opposed to any Western troops being deployed in Ukraine. But NATO chief, Mark Rutter, says Moscow shouldn't have a veto. Ukraine is a sovereign nation. If Ukraine wants to have security guarantee forces, in Ukraine to support a peace deal, it's up to them. Nobody else can decide about it. And I think we really have to stop making Putin too powerful. He is the governor of Texas, not more. So let's not take it too serious. Well, President Putin said on Wednesday that Russia would continue to

pursue its goals by military means unless Ukraine agreed to Moscow's demands. Yulia Osmalovska, a former Ukrainian diplomats who now runs a security think tank, says without a peace deal, discussions can achieve little. definitely welcome these efforts. The key point is actually how we can move ahead because any peace deal should be preceded by a meaningful ceasefire. I heard more about the proposed security guarantees from our correspondent in Paris, Hugh Schofield. We know that roughly what they're talking about is financial help to the Ukrainian army long term. There is the promise of some kind of overarching guarantee which they need the Americans for. This is the kind of NATO style commitment

to step in if Ukraine is attacked. And then there's this other thing which remains very vague. European presence or non-presence. We don't know in Ukraine if a ceasefire is achieved. Some kind of maybe token presence of British, French, other troops on the ground there. I don't think anyone was talking about an actual fighting force or a force that would do much more than simply be there and show the commitment of the Europeans.

But it's all been left very, very vague. If you ask spokespeople here at the Ulyze, what are the commitments that have been made by this or that nation, you won't get any answer. I don't know whether that's because they don't know the answer or whether they're just keeping it under their belts for the time, being pending their talks with America. All they will say is, we're no longer the callif, the willing, we're now the coalition of the ready. President Zelensky told a French magazine that European security guarantees might not be enough to prevent Putin starting a new war. He says, we need an alliance between Europe and the US. Is President Trump aligned with the European position at the moment? No one really knows.

All you can say for certain is that the Europeans want desperately to keep the Americans on board. They want to do everything to make sure that President Trump gets the message that the Europeans are there and will stand by him. They don't want to do anything that is liable to upset President Trump and push him away from the trajectory they want him to be on, which is towards greater toughness with President Putin. So what they will be saying to Trump is, we are ready, we've done our bit, now please do your bit,

and that is putting pressure on Putin to get a ceasefire and giving some kind of broader commitment and guarantee to Ukrainian security in the long term. Hugh Schofield in Paris. When he was in China, Vladimir Putin told journalists he is prepared to meet Vladimir Zelenskyy, as long as the Ukrainian president flies to Moscow, something he is unlikely to agree to.

The Russian president also claimed that his troops were advancing on all parts of the front line in Ukraine. But three and a half years after an invasion that was supposed to last three days, Russian casualties continue to mount. So how much support is there for the war among the Russian public? Our Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, has flown to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, not far from the Chinese and North Korean borders, where President Putin is stopping off on his way home. At a sports arena in Vladivostok,

members of the local para-ice hockey team are taking off their prosthetic legs. Then they head to the rink and start training. Using their hockey sticks to propel their sleds. The players speed across the ice. Later, one of the men, Dmitri, tells me he dreams of becoming a Paralympic champion. Achieving that won't be easy.

Russian teams were banned from the last Paralympic games over the war in Ukraine. As for Dmitri, like all his teammates here, he was a Russian soldier on the front line. A mine came flying towards me. I fell to the ground and felt my leg burning. I put on the tourniquet myself. My wife's a surgeon, so I sent her a photo. Well, she said, they'll probably saw your leg off. Okay, I said, whether I have one leg or two, whatever.

Our victory is inevitable. It will come. We brought victory closer, and the guys after us will bring it closer, But three and a half years on from Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the war rages on and the casualties continue to mount. On a hill above Vladivostok in a cemetery, lines of Russian tricklers and military banners wave in the breeze, marking fresh graves of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine.

There's a monument nearby to so-called heroes of the special. military operation and an inscription. Soldiers live forever. The heroization of Russia's war in Ukraine is far advanced. And yet, most of the people I speak to in Vladivostok don't talk about heroes. They just want this war to be over. Of course we're worried. Svetlana tells me in a Vladivostok park, when I ask her about Ukraine, this has been going on for years now. she says, and we want it to end as soon as possible. We had hoped that the Alaska summit of Trump and Putin would change something.

It hasn't. In the center of Dadi Bostok, I stopped to listen to a band that's out busking. And I'm not alone. A large crowd has gathered in the sunshine to enjoy the improvised rock concert. It feels so relaxed, so normal, as if there's no conflict, no war. Between songs, I chat to the lead singer, a local musician who calls himself Johnny London.

In Moscow and St. Petersburg, people think a lot about what's happening in Ukraine, because it's close to them. Yeah, definitely. But here it's a long way away. Do people talk about what's happening in Ukraine? People my age, we don't usually discuss that stuff. As far as to say, we've never talked about that. Why is that? Well, we can do nothing about that.

It's out of our hands. Maybe in a couple of years, it will get back to normal, hopefully. And what is normal? No war, I guess. When Vladimir Putin stops in Vladivostok on his way back from China, he may notice a giant mural that's just been painted on a bridge by a busy highway. It shows President Putin in military fatigues

hugging a tiger. Painted here too, a sentence, which, on the surface, is simply about the sunrise in Russia's far east. But combined with these images of a tiger and of a leader who believes he's restoring Russia's power, the following words take on deeper meaning.

The dawn starts here. Steve Rosenberg, our Russia editor reporting. A day after the big parade in Beijing, Chinese President Xi Jinping has held talks with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the first for six years. Alongside the diplomacy that went on between the Russian-Chinese and North Korean leaders in the Chinese capital yesterday, one of the most commented on exchanges was between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin,

caught on a live microphone as they walked through Chanon Square. They are both 72, but seemed confident they had many long years ahead of them, as Stephanie Prentice told Anka Desai. Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping were meeting at a military parade. It was to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. And it was all very carefully choreographed. Apart from, it seems, the production side of the walk-around section, which saw a group of people, including translators, walking through Tianan Square off-mic, as we call it. So without thinking, they had a microphone on them. But China's state media were

live streaming the walk. Sounds pretty jovial, but once translated into English, it wasn't really small talk. They were talking about how at 70 these days, one is still a child. They talked about using organ transplants to prolong life. And Vladimir Putin even suggested that eternal life could be achievable in the future. Wow. Dare I ask, is this even possible? Well, it's probably best described as wishful thinking at present. Generally, the body ages at linear rate and systemically. And in terms of where bioengineering is currently at, growing a key organ like a heart would be impossible. But if it could be possible, would it make a difference? We asked Professor John Treggening, a scientist, an author of the book, Live Forever. The connectivity

in your brain declines at a fairly linear rate over time. And there's a point at which it's just not connecting correctly anymore. All your organs are working perfectly, but the connectivity in your brain is no longer good. And that's where the problems may come. And that's probably where the limit on human lifespan lies. So as alluded to their experts, tend to think that the body is too complex and interconnected for the plan suggested by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. But I suppose at least they had a bit of a more interesting conversation than just discussing the weather.

And still to come on the Global News podcast. Just start with a good savoyardo biscuits, nice and strong mocha coffee, fresh mascarpone and fresh eggs. That's it. Judge is wanted for the Tiramisu World Cup. Now, before we move on, I just wanted to tell you that as we're recording this podcast, we're hearing the news that the Italian fashion designer Giorgio Amani has died at the age of 91. It's anonymous with modern Italian style and elegance. He was also a successful businessman, and we'll be looking back at his life in the next edition of the podcast.

Florida's Surgeon General has announced plans to end all state vaccine mandates, including those required for children to attend schools. Every U.S. state requires pupils to be vaccinated in order to attend public schools with each one. one having different policies. Currently in Florida, children are required to be vaccinated against multiple illnesses, including chickenpox, measles and hepatitis. Florida could now become the first date to completely withdraw from mandating a medical practice that's proven to control the spread of infectious diseases.

Medical experts have warned that this could trigger severe outbreaks among children, tourists and those with compromised immune systems. Florida's Surgeon General is Joseph Lodapo. who am i as a government or anyone else to tell you what you should put in your body who am i to tell you what your child should put in your body i don't have that right your body is a gift from god what you put into your body is because of your relationship with your body and your god people have a right to make their own decisions and reformed decision. And that's how it should be. But not everyone agrees. Dr. Deb Howary was the

chief science and medical officer at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention until she resigned last week. She spoke to Claire Richardson. Well, certainly always support informed consent around vaccines, but we want to make sure children are getting vaccinated. Otherwise, we're going to see outbreaks of measles, polio, other vaccine preventable diseases. And certainly we don't want to have these recur. Everybody wants to think it's not. going to happen to their child, but we saw in the U.S., about 270-plus children died from flu this past flu season, and that's a significant number. And about 90% were unvaccinated. So vaccines are really important to prevent children from having these significant diseases. And what do you think

the current state of the United States preparedness is for another major outbreak of disease? Is the U.S. ready for the next pandemic? We were much more ready about a year ago. Certainly there were missteps during COVID. And as a result, we have developed much more timely data, lab quality. But now, because of some of the changes like withdrawing from the World Health Organization, we're getting less samples of flu and COVID, so less aware of what's going on globally with different strains. And with some of the recent staff terminations and administrative leave, we have significantly less ready responders. So we are not as ready as we were. Dr. Deb Hauri, formerly of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

A US federal court has ordered Google to pay $425 million for breaching users' privacy by collecting data from millions of users even after they turned off a tracking feature. The tech giant said it would appeal against the decision, claiming the court misunderstood how its products work. We heard more from our business reporter Davina Gupta. We're talking about a sensitive user privacy case here. And we all know the deal by now where you download an app, you click accept, and you kind of shrug it when some pop-up asks you if you let the platform track and store your data.

Now, most of us, and I'm guilty of this as well, hit yes, because, well, we just want to make these online searches and apps more convenient, right? But in America, a group of users claim they did not accept those terms, and more specifically, they actually turned off what they call as web and app activity setting in their Google account, which simply means that they didn't want their data on. on apps like Uber, Instagram, to be tracked or stored by Google. They claimed that Google ignored their privacy choices and just kept pulling in information through its analytics tools,

so different tools. This case has been dragging on for five years, and these users were seeking more than $31 billion in damages. At the trial, Google pushed back, saying they respect privacy settings, and it's their other business, which is Google Analytics, which could have collected general data about how people are using these apps, but they did not identify the users, so essentially keeping that data anonymous.

This class action suit covered 98 million Google users and 174 million devices. The jury didn't buy this argument and sided with the users. The Google spokesperson has also told the BBC, the decision is misunderstood about how our products work. Our privacy tools give people control and they turn off personalization and we honour that choice. But experts believe that $423 million in damages is actually far less than what this group of users were asking.

And here's a question to our listeners. I mean, looking at that most of us spend hours in the online world, how much control do we really have over our digital lives? Davina Gupta, our business reporter. Just over a week ago, an eagle-eyed Dutch journalist spotted a stolen painting and a property advert in Argentina. The painting was by the Italian master Giuseppe Guilandi. It was among more than a thousand artwork stolen by the Nazis

during the Second World War from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam. The sighting generated a flurry of excitement on both sides of the Atlantic. But no sooner had the painting been identified than it disappeared again. Now it's finally been recovered. Veronica Smink is a Buenos Aires based journalist. This painting is a portrait of a lady and it's just a person standing looking rather dully. It's kind of a dark picture, not incredibly flattering. The last time it had appeared was in Switzerland in 1946 at the hands of a high-ranking Nazi official

who had fled the German Reich, Frederick Kajian. He was a right-hand man of Goring. He first escaped to Brazil and then made his way to Argentina, where he settled, he founded a company and raised his family. And many decades later, this portrait has resurfaced. It was actually Dutch journalist Peter Schauten, who had been trying to track this artwork for many, many years. He tried to get in contact with Cajin's daughters. Eventually, he headed down to the coastal city where these two daughters lived, Mar del Plata.

And apparently he went to the first house, and no one answered. But he did notice a realtor's sign. He went back to his hotel room and began looking at the listing. And to his complete surprise, he found one of the photos showing that painting. It was seen above a sofa in the living room. He couldn't believe it. He tried to reach the daughters again. Apparently one of them answered, I have no clue of what you're talking about, and then proceeded to block him.

This story was published in Dutch paper AD. Interpol and Argentine Customs got hold of the story, and federal prosecutor in Mar de Blata ordered a raid on the home. This was a super interesting story because it actually has what we could call a happy ending. It was a few days of police searching different houses, and Kajian's eldest daughter, Patricia, and her husband. They had been detained in house arrest and they actually today handed in the portrait according to all local media here. The couple deny any criminal offence. They say that they are the legal owners and according to local media here, they even presented a receipt for the purchase of the painting from a German museum in 1943.

Veronica Smink in Buenos Aires. Next to some new research that could benefit those who suffer from motion sickness. A study in China has found that happy music improves symptoms while sad music makes them worse. Claudia Hammond spoke to global health journalist Andrew Green. Motion sickness kind of happens when there's a disconnect between what your eyes are seeing and what your inner ear is feeling, where one kind of has a sense that you're moving and the other doesn't. And this disconnect then leads to feelings of dizziness, nausea, headaches, sweating, these kind of dreadful symptoms. So what did they do in this study to try and help us motion sickness sufferers?

Presumably they had to make some people feel sick first. I can't imagine who volunteered to take part in this study. It sounds quite terrible. But they had 30 people sign up to have the sense of motion sickness induced in them going through the simulator as if they were riding in a car. And then once the motion sickness was induced, they stopped and then they were exposed to four different kinds of music to see if any of them would help with the recovery.

Let's see what they found. So when they played happy music, a bit like this. What was the effect? That's very jolly, wasn't it? Yeah, it seems like it was quite effective. it had an average reduction of 57% of symptoms and was the most effective of the interventions that they used. Yes, because they also tried playing some sad music like this.

I'm not sure about that one. Did that help or hinder recovery? I guess as you might expect from the fact that it's sad music didn't help. In fact, it only reduced symptoms by about 40%. And it was less effective than just the normal steps that they were encouraging people to take, relaxing, deep breathing, trying to just do anything you can to alleviate symptoms. So

sad music actually apparently makes it even worse than just doing nothing at all. So do they know why music might have an impact? It's all kind of hypothesis at this point. And there was a thought that maybe the jolly, happy music is distracting people from the symptoms that they're feeling, that if they played something soothing or soft, that it might reduce excitability. And then I guess with the sad music, it maybe just amplifies how terrible you're already feeling and makes you feel even worse, which I guess is maybe the purpose of listening to sad music in the first place. Andrew Green talking to Claudia Hammond.

Let's finish with dessert. And the Tiramisu World Cup takes place in Italy in October, and this year they're looking for judges. David Lewis, himself a huge Italian dessert fan, is following the story. The women's Euros, Golfs Rider Cup, the Ashes, 2025 is shaping up to be a classic year for competitions. But this could eclipsed a lot.

the Tiramisu World Cup, and now the Italian city of Treviso is looking for 100 judges to help decide who will win the crown. Any dessert devotee can apply, but don't think they'll take anyone. There is a rigorous vetting process. Fancy your chances? Well, the online test will feature 15 questions on the competition's rules. It will be open for one day, the 13th of September, and adjudicators will be picked if your scores impress. You'll then be invited to the host city to critique the opening rounds. As the legend goes, the tasty sweet was said to have been invented there at the restaurant La Becariya. In 1969, chef and co-inventer Roberto Linguanoito dropped some mascarponi cheese quite by accident into an egg and sugar mix. He was thrilled with the

tasty tang and told the owner's wife and a saga was born. But of course, for any would-be judge out there, I'm sure you already knew that. So just how do you make the perfect tiramisu? Well, renowned chef Mama Sara from La Mia Mama restaurants in London told the BBC. It's just like about choosing the right ingredients. Just start with a good savoyardo biscuits, nice and strong mocha coffee, fresh mascarpone and fresh eggs. That's it. And then it just needs a lot of patience and time and make sure that each step is followed. For this October's event, organises a promising a vital role for each of the assembled assessors.

Each judge is assigned a table with a maximum of 10 contestants which they will evaluate together with another judge and the president of the jury, the website says. But be warned. The hosts confirm there is a job to do. Judges don't just eat and enjoy, it reads. However, it might well hit the wallet and waistline. Not a penny of travel or overseas expenses will be covered, but inspectors won't be asked to pay anything to taste the tiramisu. Buon apatito. Bear Report by David Lewis. And that is all from us for now, but the Global News podcast will be back very soon. This edition was mixed by Derek Clark and produced by Nikki Verico. Our editors, Karen Martin, I'm Oliver Conway.

Until next time, goodbye.