Global News Podcast - Israeli-US hostage reunites with family after being freed by Hamas

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

The Israeli-American hostage, Edan Alexander, arrives in Israel after being released from captivity by Hamas. Also: Sean Diddy Combs' sex-trafficking trial begins, and can Ancelotti fix Brazil’s football?

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Jackie Leonard and in the early hours of Tuesday, the 13th of May, these are our main stories. Edan Alexander, the Israeli-American hostage who was taken to Gaza by Hamas in the October the 7th attack, has been released and is back in Israel. The first white South Africans have arrived in the United States where the government is to grant them refugee status and prosecutors in the United States say Sean Diddy Combs ran a criminal enterprise as his sex trafficking trial begins. Also in this

podcast a surprise find of documents that have been in the basement of the Supreme Court in Argentina for 84 years. Old photographs, propaganda, but also membership booklets of organisations affiliated with the Nazi Party. 21-year-old Edan Alexander is back in Israel Israel having been released by Hamas after 19 months in captivity. Shortly after it was confirmed he was free the US envoy Steve Witkoff handed his mother his own phone so she could talk to her son for the first time since he was taken on October the 7th 2023. Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god, Idan! Idan! I love you! You look unbelievable. Wow. You look beautiful. I love you so much.

Idan Alexander, born in Tel Aviv but raised in New Jersey, was serving in the Israeli infantry when he was seized at the border. Throughout the day in Tel Aviv, hundreds of people had gathered in hostages' square to await, then celebrate, his release. They waved flags and placards bearing his photo. And this was the moment they heard the news he was a free man. Photos have now been released which show Idan Alexander being embraced by his parents after 584 days apart. In a statement Hamas said his release came as part of the efforts being made by mediators to achieve a ceasefire. Our correspondent, Ugo Bersheger,

spoke to us from Hostages Square on Monday evening. It was something very different from the releases that happened earlier this year that angered many people here in Israel who felt the hostages were being humiliated by Hamas. Today, there were no cameras, no crowds. It was a much more private process. He was handed over to the Red Cross and then transferred to the Israeli military

before being taken to Israel. And here in Hostages Square, there was a crowd. People celebrated with every update on his journey. So clearly here, a moment of joy, but also a moment of hope for the families of the hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza. clearly here a moment of joy, but also a moment of hope for the families of the hostages who remain in captivity in Gaza. Indeed, how many Israeli captives are still being held?

So 58 are still in Gaza, 57 were kidnapped in the Hamas attacks on the 7th of October, and 20 of them are believed to remain alive, and three, you know, the status of three is uncertain according to the Israeli Prime Minister and I think many families gathered here today they now really hope that what happened here, the release of Idan Alexander, could mark the beginning of a new phase in these very difficult, very long negotiations for a comprehensive deal in Gaza that would include not only the release of all hostages who remain in captivity, but also the end of the war in Gaza. And what can you tell us about how the deal has been achieved? Did Israel have a role in that?

This was a deal that was reached between Hamas and the US administration. There was no Israeli involvement. And Hamas described it as a step in the process for a comprehensive ceasefire deal in Gaza. What is interesting here is obviously the timing of this release. President Trump arrives in the Middle East tomorrow. So this is already being celebrated by him as a success of his administration in the stocks for a deal in Gaza. And also

this happens amid a number of reports suggesting increasing frustration in the Trump administration with the way the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been acting in these negotiations. So the families here hope that there will be more American pressure for a deal in Gaza. That was Hugo Bershega. Aaron David Miller is senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was also an adviser on Arab-Israeli negotiations to both Republican and Democratic administrations. So what are his thoughts on the release of the Israeli-American hostage, Idan Alexander? I think it came about in large part by several factors.

Number one, I think that the Trump trip to Saudi Arabia created a point of leverage. I think the Qataris, probably the Egyptians, who are more influenced with the internal leadership than the Qataris do, probably were pressing Hamas to deliver Alexander. The issue of goodwill is irrelevant. This was done for a specific purpose. It was done to somehow forestall what is expected to be a large, Israeli ground incursion once Trump leaves the region, into Gaza. It was done to focus on the critical need of humanitarian assistance. And it was done to preserve what few remaining

options Hamas has in terms of its own political coherence and survivability. It also capitalized on what I think is a growing frustration on the part of the Trump administration, his key envoy, Steven Wittekopf, and the president himself, for what I think they are increasingly convinced of is a pointless war from a security point of view that the Israelis continue to wage. Now whether this hostage release of one individual represents a headline or a trend line is unclear, but the Israelis have now dispatched a negotiating delegation to Doha and Qatar to talk about the latest Steve Inwoodkoff proposal, which is eight to 13 hostages in exchange for 45 to 60 days ceasefire. So we'll see where this goes, but

I think those are the factors that are in play. Erin David Miller. The United Nations has called for urgent international action to get aid into Gaza after a new warning about the risk of famine. A UN-backed report predicts that 71,000 children will need urgent treatment for acute malnutrition. Israel has prevented any aid entering Gaza since early March, saying it's putting pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages. Our diplomatic correspondent Caroline Hawley reports. With no food allowed into Gaza for more than two months, the UN says that prices have risen to

astronomical levels beyond the reach of most families. Nearly half a million people, one in five of the population, now faces catastrophic hunger, according to the UN-backed network, which monitors global food crises. There's been a significant deterioration it says since its last assessment in October. The World Food Programme and the UN Children's Fund are both calling for urgent action. The director of WFP Cindy McCain says families are starving while the food they need, including life-saving nutrition treatments, is sitting at the border.

The head of the UN Children's Fund said the risk of famine doesn't arrive suddenly, but unfolds when access to food is blocked and health systems decimated. Caroline Hawley. America has famously been a nation of immigrants, many of them escaping poverty and persecution. But ever since Donald Trump suspended the country's refugee settlement programme, it's become virtually impossible to claim asylum in the US. Unless that is, you are a white South African of Afrikaner descent. People from that group have just arrived in the United States, but the government is to

grant them refugee status. President Donald Trump says the group who are from farming communities are escaping arrived in the United States where the government is to grant them refugee status. President Donald Trump says the group who are from farming communities are escaping persecution because they're being killed and having their land taken away. Nick Miles asked our correspondent Nomiya Iqbal why Washington has singled them out for special treatment. Well the Trump administration says that Africaners are hugely discriminated against in South Africa, claiming that there is, to quote the Trump administration, a white genocide happening and that therefore they deserve this status that if there is a refugee program to exist,

it has to be for people like this. Now, of course, the South African government denies this and says that there hasn't been any land seizures as the Trump administration is claiming, that the police data also does not back the numbers that the Trump administration is claiming. It's worth noting that Donald Trump's close advisor is Elon Musk, the billionaire who grew up in apartheid South Africa and so there is potentially some influence there because Mr. Musk has talked a lot about what he claims is the genocide of white South Africans. But they have been fast-tracked here. I was at the airport earlier.

I saw them come off the shuttle bus. We're talking about mainly families, young couples, older people. There were lots of babies and children and prams and baby carriers. We weren't allowed anywhere near them. They were really protected and called and off, but they were fast-tracked here in a way that you just never see happening in this country. Usually it takes years. But we got an opportunity to speak to the deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau, and I asked him why then, given that the Trump administration has suspended all refugee resettlement programmes, why was an exception made for this group of people?

The President made it clear that Afrikaners in South Africa who are the victims of unjust racial discrimination would be welcome to come to the United States and he's now delivering on that promise. The Deputy Secretary and I just spoke to some of the folks who arrived on this flight and they tell quite harrowing stories of the violence that they faced in South Africa. Nomi, you outlined earlier how South Africa has reacted to this. What's been your reaction there in the States? Well it's been interesting because remember Donald Trump campaign on this promise of really clamping down on immigration, clamping down on refugees, and then suddenly there's been this radical change in which, as I mentioned, you have this exception being made for a group of white

Afrikaners who, many will say, even though they are, yes, an ethnic group in South Africa, do have a much more privileged life than the black South Africans who are the dominant members of the population. In terms of the reaction, of course, the Trump administration has said that it's the right thing to do. Those who backed the Trump administration have welcomed it, but there is criticism from some lawmakers, particularly Democrats. Gregory Meeks, who's from the House Foreign Affairs Committee,

has basically said that this is more than just a racist dog whistle, has accused the administration of playing racist politics. Nomiya Iqbal in Washington. Global markets have risen after China and the United States agreed to major tariff cuts, easing a trade war that's caused economic turmoil. All three major US indices made gains. Earlier, Washington and Beijing said they'd reached a deal to reduce US tariffs on most Chinese goods to 30%. China will charge US products 10%. The reductions will hold for 90 days. Caleb Raglan is president of the American

Soybean Association, a US product China buys quite a lot of. Mr Raglan, who farms in Magnolia, Kentucky, is a supporter of Donald Trump and was prepared to give his support to his tariff policy, even though soybean exports could be hit hard. Sean Lay asked him, what does Monday's announcement mean to him? We think this is a very positive first step and a good faith effort between both countries

to come to the table and find a way to find common ground and move forward with solutions that are good for both countries. This de-escalation shows that both countries are serious about getting a deal done and it's a good first step, but there's still a lot of work to do. I mean, you told us that by the time Donald Trump's first term tariffs had been removed you'd lost market share to Brazil and Argentina. Are you worried that the removal of these tariffs may also come too late to save some of your market share? This is certainly much quicker. What I would say is currently

the last couple months has not been during a peak export time, but we have about three months before the peak export time starts, which kind of coincides with this 90-day de-escalation that has been announced. But we need a deal in place and we need something that's longer term and permanent starting in, say August early September or it will really have a huge impact on US soybean exports. Yeah of course because harvesting is in the fall isn't it September October time. Yeah the crop is being planted right now and it'll be harvested in August September October November and exported thereafter. Got you I, I just wonder whether your members have been planting less this season because of the tariffs with China.

The limited planting reductions are potentially going to take place, but quite frankly, while the crop still hasn't been planted. So very uncertain. I would say that there could be a decrease of two to five percent potentially, but it's not going to be significant. There's going to be 85 to 90 million acres of soybeans planted in the U.S. very similar to normal. And you said that of that half goes to export and of the half that goes to export, more than half of that half if you see what I mean, so about 52 percent of the exported beans go to China. Are you hopeful that that's going to stand up? Yes, absolutely. I mean, obviously they are a very valuable customer. They're our largest export customer, larger than all

others combined. So this relationship is valuable and we want to try to nurture it and strengthen it and show that we are a dependable supplier and that we're the best supplier and deescalating this trade war is a great place to start that. So you did say to us last time you admired the president's backbone but you're now saying you admire his willingness to compromise. Yes, both are important characteristics of a good leader. Caleb Ragland, president of the American Soybean Association. Meanwhile in France, US tariff uncertainty remains. French winemakers continue to assess what will happen when a three-month pause on the

highest level of threatened tariffs ends in July. Even now they're having to adjust to a current 10% import tax on wine sold to the United States. John Laurencen has been speaking to Vintners in the Burgundy region of France. We're going down in the cellar now to discover some wines of the domain Cécile Tremblay. Ah, it's a great smell here. Monks planted vines in Burgundy a thousand years ago. Bourgogne, as it's called in French, produces some of the most prestigious and expensive wine in the world. Among the oak barrels and bottles with labels weathered by mould and age, winemaker Cécile

Tremblay rattles off names. I do some Nuit Saint-Georges, Vendre-Romannet, Eoseau, Grand Cru, Claude Vujaud, Grand Cru, Chapelle Chamartin. Producers like her export a lot to the States, so the Trump tariffs could be damaging. For United States, for example, it's around 10% of the production, so it's a big production for me. Can I ask you if you're worried? Yes, sure, as everybody. And that was all Madame Tremblay would say about the Trump tariffs. French winemakers are walking on eggs at the moment, fearful of saying anything that might aggravate the situation. Perhaps the Vintner's representatives

would be more forthcoming. I get in my car and drive over to one of her neighbors, Francois Labay. He's the president of the Burgundy Wine Interprofessional Office, which represents this region's 3,500 winemakers. On the palate, a red cherry. You know, those big red juicy cherry that you crack when you bite. He pours me out some of the 2023 vintage

from the vats down in his cellar. For Burgundy, he says, the American market is worth $400 million. Let's say that we export 130 million bottles. US take 25% of that. The US is the largest export market for the whole region, definitely. And while French wines and spirits exports dropped 4% last year overall, sales of burgundy wines to the US rose by 16%. They've never been so high. The Americans appreciate the whites like Chablis and sparkling Cremont.

They also go for the reds, which are lower in alcohol than most American red wine. Francois says the most recent period of tariffs on wine saw a 50% drop in exports to the United States. We have in memory the tough situation we were in from October 2019 until April 2021 with a 25% tax due to an aeronautic conflict between France and the US. It really did affect our sales to the US. So what could be the impact of the 10% duties in place now? Some shippers and importers are going to coupé la poire en deux, you know, the 10% tax. So I take 5% on my margin on my side and you take 5% on your margin, just not to stop the

flow of the export of your products. What would the impact be if after the end of this three month suspension, President Trump decides to impose this 20% tariff as he threatened to do. We will go back to the 2019 situation where the market was almost stopped. For French wine exports in general, it could be even worse because last time champagne and wine stronger than 14 degrees of alcohol were excluded. This time it's across the board. That report by John Lawrenson, reporting from the Burgundy region of France.

The trial has begun in New York of the US hip-hop star and music mogul Sean Diddy Combs. He's charged with racketeering and sex trafficking. If convicted he could face life in prison. He's pleaded not guilty to all the charges. The court has heard the opening statements from the defence and prosecution. From Manhattan, our North America correspondent Nedda Taufik sent this report. Prosecutors told jurors that if Diddy's former partner, the singer Cassie, and another woman referred to as Jane didn't do what he wanted. The consequences were brutal beatings. The women felt they

had no choice when they were taken to dark rooms high on drugs and dressed in costume and told what sexual acts to perform with male prostitutes to fulfill Diddy's sexual fantasies. But the defense told jurors that while prosecutors had overwhelming evidence of domestic violence, it didn't show Diddy was responsible for sex lawyers said the women we and willing participants to stay with him and the

of his swinger lifestyle video where did he is sea in L. A. Hotel hallway in flores was the former hot that day and said he was called up to help a woman in distress. When he got there, he said Didi had a devilish look on his face and told Cassie she couldn't leave, so Mr. Flores escorted her out. Didi denies all the charges against him.

Neda Taufique in New York. Still to come, big news for the Brazilian national football team. It is with huge satisfaction that I announce Brazil will be led by the world's best manager, the Italian Carlo Ancelotti. A man is shot dead on the streets of New York. A huge manhunt and a nationwide police appeal led here. The suspect, Luigi Mangione, was arrested and charged with the murder of Brian Thompson, chief executive of a major US healthcare and insurance company. Mangione denies the charges against him and reaction

to the case went viral. I've never seen anything like that before. In the Mangione Trial podcast, we're exploring how this case has divided opinion online, unpicking the facts from conspiracy theories, delving into the debate around the healthcare system in the US. And we're bringing you major developments as the case unfolds in the courtroom. The Manjoni trial from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made his first public comments since

fighting broke out with Pakistan last week. The two sides agreed to truce on Saturday. Four days of cross-border clashes left 70 people dead. Samira Hussain reports from Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his country's operation to eliminate terrorists in Pakistan was successful and that future dealings with its neighbour will depend on their behaviour. In the 22-minute long speech, Mr Modi also said terror and trade talks cannot go together. That statement was made in reference to comments from US President Donald Trump, who said he told India and Pakistan that his administration will do trade with them only if they end the conflict. The ceasefire declared by India and Pakistan does now appear to be holding.

But what's it like for people living in the affected areas? The BBC's Davina Gupta reports from Indian-administered Kashmir. I'm walking in the central part of Srinagar in the Indian-administered Kashmir. And you can hear the call of evening prayer which is coming from the local mosque here. The lights have been switched on on the clock tower in front of me. It's a cold, misty evening and this place which is a popular tourist destination is quiet today. Some cars and bikes are passing by, the shops are all closed down on my left and there's a sense of caution in the air. On Saturday, multiple explosions were heard over the city. So most of the people have decided to stay indoors.

In fact, at regular intervals on this road, there are paramilitary forces with their guns and bulletproof vest, which are standing and looking around more vigilant than usual. These kind of security forces are a familiar sight here. It's a region which has been marked by decades of conflict and militant insurgency. But their growing presence this evening tells its own story. So far there haven't been any fresh reports of shelling or explosions since Sunday.

But the question on the minds of locals here is, can life really return to these empty streets? I spoke to some of them earlier. Why don't we settle these issues? Mine 10 nights, mine 10 nights got disturbed. I want peace. I'm threatened to come out from my home. Why?

There's a constant threat in our hearts that someday a bomb will be on our homes and we will be dead. That's a constant threat in our hearts that someday a bomb will be on our homes and we will be dead. That's a constant threat every Kashmiri or every Indian is going through. Why our soldiers are going on borders, they will give their lives, they have their families, they too have a right to live peacefully. But I don't know what's happening with our leadership. They are doing, I don't think they are giving their 100% to settle down the issues, but I hope so.

You were scared, you said. To be very honest, I was shaking last night because my home was shaken by the blast. Not far from here lies the line of control, the de facto border between India and Pakistan in Kashmir. It's an area marked by frequent cross-border shelling. Many families have fled, while others remain in hiding in the past week. Nisar Hussain in Uri was in a bunker with his family for four days. The sound of shelling was deafening. It felt like my eardrums would burst.

My children were terrified. We wrapped them in blankets just to calm them. We came home today, but the roof was damaged in the shelling. I will wait to fix it. First, I want to see if these two countries can work out the difference." India says it will uphold its end of the ceasefire deal as long as Pakistan does too. And as night falls here in Indian-administered Kashmir, the hope for peace lingers in small acts. There's a food vendor on my right-hand side serving warm snacks to hesitant customers. He doesn't want to tell me his name but says that the peace

should be long enough so that people can come back to the streets. Davina Gupta reporting from Indian-administered Kashmir. There's been a highly unusual discovery in the basement of Argentina's Supreme Court. Dozens of boxes stuffed with documents from Nazi Germany. They've been stored there for 84 years before workers stumbled across them during a clearout of the archives. Our online Americas editor Vanessa Buchluter told us more about the documents.

We know that they arrived on a steamship and they were sent by the German Embassy in Tokyo to the German Embassy in Buenos Aires. Now the German Embassy in Buenos Aires told the Argentine authorities that they were personal documents, but some of the custom officials at the time, in 1941, became suspicious because there were 83 separate diplomatic pouches. So you can imagine quite a lot of these diplomatic pouches, quite a lot of documents. And so they became suspicious and opened five random pouches and found them to contain Nazi propaganda. So they then contacted the foreign minister of Argentina at the time and said listen have a look at these documents. Argentina at the time was a neutral country and what Argentina

feared was that if a lot of Nazi propaganda was smuggled into the country this way this might endanger its neutral status. So the foreign minister contacted the Supreme Court and that's how they arrived in the vaults of the Supreme Court. And it's just propaganda that's in these documents, is it? We haven't been told exactly what is in each of these crates yet. What we do know is what they found in 1941, which were old photographs, propaganda but also membership booklets of organizations affiliated with the Nazi Party but of course you can imagine that the experts who have now been called in to look at these documents want to go through each one of them and look at them

individually and find out specifically whether they might have any information which reveals any financial links of people in Argentina at the time in the 1940s with the Nazi party. Vanessa Buchluter. Six Bulgarian nationals who were convicted by a British court in March of spying for Russia have received lengthy jail sentences. The group's ringleader, Orlene Rousseff, received the longest sentence of 10 years and eight months. The four men and two women were found guilty of operating a spy ring on behalf of Moscow from a guest house in eastern England. It's believed to

have been one of the largest and most complex spying operations ever uncovered on British soil. From the court, Daniel de Cimone reports. The spy cell was run from the UK but operated throughout Europe following investigative journalists and spying on a US military base in Germany. There was even discussion of targets being kidnapped and killed. Mr Justice Hilliard said the defendants were motivated by money and lived very comfortably on the substantial amounts they were paid for their actions. He said their crimes had to be taken seriously. The high price attaches to the safety and interests of this nation.

The defendants put these things at risk by using this country as a base from which to plan the various operations and by travelling to and from their homes in this country to take part in activities here and or abroad in pursuance of the conspiracy. Anyone who uses this country in that way in the circumstances of this case commits a very serious offense. When police raided Rusev's seaside hotel they found spy devices hidden inside a rock, men's ties, a Coca Cola bottle and a cuddly toy. In a police interview with Rusev released for the first time today he claimed police would never connect him to Russia and suggested he was

being treated like the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. But he eventually pleaded guilty and is now starting a sentence of over a decade in prison. Daniel de Cimone. Two months after the Brazilian national football team sacked its head coach de Rival Jr, a new man has been found beyond the borders of Brazil to lead the team. He is the Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti. The Italian will take charge at the end of this month. The head of the Brazilian Football Confederation, Ednaldo Rodriguez, made the announcement. It is with huge satisfaction that I announce an extraordinary reinforcement.

Brazil, which is the most victorious national team in world football, will be led by the world's best manager, the Italian Carlo Ancelotti. Ancelotti will manage the Brazilian team in the World Cup qualifiers and also in next year's World Cup finals. Leonardo Rocha is our America's regional editor and he told us more about the deal. The expectations around the arrival of Carlo Ancelotti in Brazil are huge. The Brazilian national team has fallen to one of its lowest points in decades. They have won five World Cup titles but the last time it happened it was in 2002

when many of the current squad weren't even born. It's common belief in Brazil that a good manager should be able to turn things around. Vinicius Junior, Rodrigo, Rafin and others are big stars in Europe's top leagues, but have consistently failed to perform at international level. Ancelotti is known as a good people manager and there's hope he will get an aging and injury prone Neymar, regain his best form for next year's tournament. The previous manager, Dorival Júnior, was sacked in March after Brazil were thrashed 4-1 in a World Cup qualifying match by their archrivals, Argentina. Brazil are currently in fourth place in the table but are expected to qualify for the

2026 World Cup finals. Winning the title would make Ancelotti a new national hero. That was Leonardo Roscia. And that's it from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you would like to comment on this edition or the topics covered in it, do please send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service, just use the hashtag globalnewspod. This edition was mixed by Chris Ablacqua. The producer was Liam McSherfrey. Our editor is Karen Martin. I'm Jackie Leonard and until next time, goodbye. Luigi Mangione was arrested and charged with the murder of Brian Thompson, chief executive of a

major US healthcare and insurance company. Mangione denies the charges against him and reaction to the case went viral. I've never seen anything like that before. In the Mangione Trial Podcast, we're exploring how this case has divided opinion online, unpicking the facts from conspiracy theories and delving into the debate around the healthcare system in the US. And we're bringing you major developments as the case unfolds in the courtroom. The Mangione trial from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.