Global News Podcast - Trump: Gaza ceasefire deal has been reached

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

President Donald Trump says Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of his Gaza peace deal and that hostages could be released within days. Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu called the agreement "a great day for Israel". Hamas confirmed the deal, but said it's awaiting details of a prisoner exchange. People have flooded the streets in Gaza and Israel to celebrate the announcement. Also: the French President, Emmanuel Macron says he'll name a new premier before the weekend. Ukraine's military accuses Russia of trying to erase Ukrainian culture by looting historical artefacts. US police have arrested a man who they believe intentionally started the Palisades fire, which devastated part of Los Angeles in January. The Portuguese athlete Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first billionaire footballer. UNICEF warns that the number of children displaced by armed gang violence in Haiti has almost doubled in the last year. Meanwhile, the United Nations is said to be intending to cut a quarter of its peacekeepers globally because of budget shortfalls, largely due to reduced US funding. The European Parliament has voted to ban the naming of meat-related terms like “burger” and “sausage” for plant-based products. And four decades on, the global hit musical Les Misérables is celebrated in London. 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]

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these are our main stories. President Trump announces that Israel and Hamas have agreed to the first phase of a Gaza peace deal, paving the way for hostage and prisoner releases. Nine months after one of Los Angeles' world, worst fires devastated the affluent Pacific Palisades neighborhood, police arrest a suspect. Cristiano Ronaldo becomes the first billionaire footballer. Also in this podcast, The longest running musical in London's West End, Le Miserables, celebrates its 40th anniversary. It has evolved over the years, so it's been restaged. New castes come.

and go and bring their own interpretation to it. As we record this podcast, the world is beginning to react to the news that Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal that should see hostages and prisoners released soon. President Donald Trump took to social media to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first phase of his peace plan. He said this meant that all the hostages in Gaza would be released soon. Although it thought perhaps it will be all living hostages initially given the difficulty of retrieving the bodies of those who have died.

He also said that Israel would withdraw its troops to what he called an agreed-upon line, although it's not clear where that line will lie. As a news spread, Palestinians in Gaza thronged the streets of Khan Yunus, even though it was the middle of the night, to celebrate what they hope will be the start of the end of the war. Just a few kilometers away in Israel, the families of hostages also welcome the announcement, chanting, cheering, and lighting fireworks in celebration. Meanwhile, speaking to Fox News, Mr. Trump hailed the deal as peace in the Middle East,

saying hostages could be released in just a few days. The big thing is hostages are going to be released. it's probably our time would be probably Monday. And, you know, they're terribly a terrible situation. They're deep. They're deep in the earth and they're being gotten. And a lot of things are happening right now. As we speak, so much is happening to get the hostages freed.

And we think they'll all be coming back on Monday. Our chief international correspondent, Lee Doucette, who's in Tel Aviv, said there had been a lot of doubt that negotiators would even achieve the first phase of an agreement? They have moved with breathtaking speed. We've seen these negotiations year on year, decade after decade, where when

they get down to the last detail, sometimes the talks can drag on and there can be unexpected hurdles. So hours ago, the Times of Israel put out a big statement saying the deal could be finished as early as tonight. There was some caution being expressed by some of

the mediators. I sent messages to people that I know who were in Charmel Sheik and they said, yes, we believe it will happen shortly. But with the knowledge of how detailed this is, how there can be last-minute obstacles, there was a sense, well, wait, let's wait and see it. And it's extraordinary that it has broken through so very quickly. Of course, we have to underline.

We don't have all the details yet, but all the emphasis is on the first phase, which will be the release of all the remaining hostages. Alive and dead has been the phrase, but we do know that during the negotiation, Samas had said they weren't sure that they would be able to reach all of the remains in a very short time, if at all, because given the intensity of the war on the battlefield, some of the remains, sadly, could be buried under mounds of rubble, could have been moved during the war, but we're getting reports now that the release of the 20 living hostages

could start as early as this weekend, that the Israeli cabinet will convene, They will have to approve the deal. Once the deal is approved, then it's going to quickly be set in motion with the release of the hostages as soon as possible in exchange for under the deal, which again, we don't have the new details, but what was on the table was 250 prisoners from Israeli jails, most of them on multiple life sentences, as well as more than a thousand who had been detained during the war. So that exchange will start. It was included in that Hamas statement. that Israeli forces have to withdraw to a line. We don't know what that line is yet. We don't know what percentage of the Gaza Strip, Israel, will continue to control. Aid is supposed to then start flowing into Gaza. And judging what happened during the last ceasefire between January and March, the trucks started moving in almost immediately,

going up to 600 trucks a day and sometimes much more than that. Where there still is trouble we know, where we know there isn't agreement, is on the final elements of President Trump's 20-point plan, which talk about the future of the Gaza Strip, who will govern it, what is the political horizon. We haven't heard about whether Hamas has agreed to disarm. So it is very much the first phase, but even that is hugely significant.

This is a major, major breakthrough. On social media, families of the hostages are posting pictures of them, kissing pictures of President Trump, and the scenes that we're seeing in the images being sent from Gaza, Gazans taking to the street and celebrating, even in a place which lies in utter ruin where nothing works anymore,

that a Palestinian activist is going through the destroyed streets and crying out that a deal has been done, like an old crier from centuries gone by, a huge moment. Lees-Doucet, well, for two years now, Gaza's people have been constantly on the move, trying to survive between the shifting front lines of Israel's offensive. The destruction of homes and neighbourhoods has had a profound impact on individuals, while the constant movement of people has broken the social structures that held communities together. Israel doesn't allow international journalists into Gaza,

so working with colleagues in the territory, and just before this latest news broke, our Middle East correspondent Lucy Williamson, spoke to the residents of one apartment block in Gaza, Gaza City about what happens to families who are forced to move over and over again. Walk towards the beach along Gaza City's Omaramukta Street. Turn left beside the ruins of the old American International School and you'll be standing in front of the Skake Building. Look up to the first floor and you might see one of Shao Kat alansari's seven children hanging over the ledge where the windows used to be.

His youngest, one-year-old Hanin, often gazing out at the destruction from her father's arms. During the bombing, I get the kids away from the windows and make the kids sleep here. We stay here until morning, while I'll hold them and keep them calm. The empty apartment is the latest temporary home for Chaukat and his family. Their old house and neighborhood in Betlachia,

are totally flattened. Nothing left. The constant displacement, he says, is not only straining families, but family ties. The family has split. My mother and sister are both now in the south, sleeping on the street. I'm here in Gaza City, constantly moving. Four months ago, my brother went missing.

We are all stranded in different places. Three floors above Chauquat is Hadil Daban with her husband and three children. It's the 12th place they've moved to since the war began. The people who were here before us left because it was so dangerous. Shrapnel sometimes hits the walls here, but still better than a ton. The sound of explosions regularly echoes around the building, but Hadeel's young. young sons don't flinch. The family has already survived several strikes, she says. One killed her mother-in-law, injured her children and buried her husband alive. On the fifth floor of the

building, Munah Shabbat points out the large bullet holes in the wall. They hit here two days ago, she said, but she and her large extended family are staying. Everything they owned was wiped out with their neighborhood in Al-Tufa, Muna says, and they've got no money to leave. We are starting life again, spoon by spoon, plate by plate. Famine came and weed ground pigeon feet to eat, living on wild queens. After two years of war, I say I am not alive. I am one of the dead. In two years of war, the UN says 90% of Gaza's residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed.

Home is more than shelter or belonging. The constant movement has seen families fray and health services, education and social support disappear. Shaukat tries to study with his children, chanting with them from a crumpled alphabet chart. My kids were smart at school before the war, he says, but now they're forgetting how to read and count. days later, a call from the building. Hadil and several other families are packing up to leave again. Three families brought together and separated by war. Peace could end their journeys, but their old lives are behind them. This war has wiped out the road to the past. Lucy Williamson reporting on the toll that the war in Gaza has had on families there. Cast your mind back to January now and what

started as a normal Tuesday morning turned into a nightmare for residents in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood in Los Angeles. Late into the night, we watch one of America's wealthiest neighbourhoods burn. The flames so intense, the fire crews are powerless to stop them. So if I very quickly take my mask off, the air is absolutely thick. smoke. The fire crews here tell us they have a shortage of water and in many instances they're having to stand and watch these properties burn. It is a losing battle. That was our correspondent John Sudworth reporting on what turned out to be one of the worst

fires in LA's history. The Palisades Fire killed 12 people and destroyed thousands of homes reducing entire neighbourhoods to ash and rubble. Now nine months on, police have arrested a 29-year-old man from Florida on suspicion of starting their fire. Bill Islayley is the acting U.S. attorney for the Central District of California. The allegations in the affidavit are supported by digital evidence, including the defendant's chat GPT prompt of a dystopian painting showing in part a burning forest and a crowd fleeing from it. Our reporter in Los Angeles, Reagan Morris, told us more about the suspect. His name is Jonathan Rindernecked and he was arrested in Florida, where he's living now, but he was living in Los Angeles and had at one

stage lived in the Pacific Palisades and knew that neighborhood well. And, you know, the night of the, it was New Year's Eve. He was working as an Uber driver in the neighborhood and people who he dropped off, you know, shortly before midnight said he appeared agitated and angry. And then authorities now say that he went up to a popular hiking trail in that area and shortly after midnight, they believe he lit a fire. And they're using sort of the GPS tracking and whatnot on his cell phone and the images and things that he was doing with his phone to make their case. And they believe he did start the fire. They believe it was maliciously set. He was listening to some French rap. Apparently he lived in France for a part of

his life and was fluent in French. And he was listening to a bleak French rap song on repeat that showed a video of people starting fire. And they painted a picture. of a young man fixated with fire. They say he lied to authorities about his movements and where he was when the fire started, and they pinged cell phone towers to deconstruct that and said he was, you know, within 20 feet of where the fire started. There's cameras up there that are used for firefighters to report when things do start. And he also used his phone to call emergency services, though. He did dial 911. He called 911. He called. couldn't get a phone signal the first few times.

And then apparently he actually screen-recorded himself dialing 911, which the arson investigators believe was a sign that he was trying to cover his tracks and kind of unusual behavior. How has the Pacific Palisades neighborhood recovered nine months on from those devastating fires? You know, not great. It's coming along. They've cleared a lot of the rubble. But, you know, for people that live there and the thousands who've lost homes, very few have been rebuilt. You know, they've gotten a lot of the rubble and toxic waste and, you know, car batteries.

It's just such a mess in there. So a lot of that toxic waste is gone now and construction crews are really just starting to move in and start rebuilding. Reagan Morris in Los Angeles. Two days after France's recently appointed Prime Minister stunned the nation by resigning just hours after he'd named his cabinet, he has suggested a solution can be found to the political crisis. that over the past year has seen one short-lived Prime Minister replace another. The outgoing Prime Minister, Sebastian Le Corno, said President Macron would be able to name a replacement for him before the weekend,

as he expressed hope that this would avoid snap parliamentary elections. At Mr Macron's request, Mr. Le Corno has been holding talks with opposition parties to try to find a new government that can pass a budget that will reduce France's ballooning debt. We have a small majority, some political groupings who are basically ready to agree to a common budget. Political groupings from the opposition, particularly from the left, who also want the stability and want a budget for France. But they do have conditions. And I told the President of the Republic that the possibility of Parliament being dissolved is receding,

and I think the situation will allow the President to nominate a Prime Minister in the next 48 hours. Catherine Norris Trent is a correspondent to the news channel, François van Quatre, so are things clearer now? Not a lot. I think what Sebastian Le Corneux was doing was trying to buy some more time because clearly the discussions

about forming a government have made some headway but they've not been resolved absolutely. So Emmanuel Macron really does want to avoid snap elections dissolving parliament again and that's because he doesn't want to see the far-right party,

the National Rally of Marine Le Pen get into power, which opinion polls say could be the case if there were new inactions. So they're really trying to basically cobble together some kind of government. And although they seem to have got some kind of agreements, it looks like that may now be possible after the spectacular drama of the beginning of the week when we thought it was all over. So it's a bit of a turnaround. But no details yet and no real guarantees that any government, if it were formed, would be able to last any amount of time before being voted down. Catherine Norris, Trent. For more than two decades, he's dazzled football fans around the

world. Now the Portuguese world star, Cristiano Ronaldo, has become the first billionaire footballer, according to Bloomberg. It's thanks in large part to his current lucrative contract with the Saudi club. His total net worth is now put at around $1.4 billion. Sports news reporter Joe Linsky explained how Bloomberg reached that figure. Bloomberg have a billionaire index, which they publish every day, which ranks the world's richest people effectively, and it uses public data to create a net worth analysis of these individuals. Now, Cristiano Ronaldo has tipped over that one billion pound mark in terms of net worth.

He's the first footballer to do that. He's actually only the fifth sportsperson to do that. So it's a select group. But all of those kind of legends, they've made most of their money from those big global brand deals, actually. The difference with Ronaldo is that he's actually got to this billion pound figure, mostly through his salary, through his playing salary. And that's, of course, since he's gone to the Saudi club Al Nasser. He joined them in 2023.

They haven't won the Saudi title yet in his time there. But he got a new contract in June. And his status and his goals are so valuable not just for that club, but for that league and for that nation in terms of profile. And this new contract he's got in June means that over the next two years, it's worth nearly 500 million pounds. That includes all the bonuses and add-ons, and that breaks down to about 500 grand a day.

David Beckham, apparently, during his playing career, he was worth about 100 million pounds. So obviously, Ronaldo is now worth about 10 times more than that. He's got brand deals with all sorts of things, with fragrances, he's got watch deals, underwear deals, and that will mean that his wealth continues to go up after his playing careers over. But yeah, brand deals are usually the main way that these athletes have this enormous well. But Ronaldo is bucking the trend somewhat. It's that salary, that Saudi

salary from Al-NASA that is really taken into the next level. Sports news reporter Jolensky. Still to come on the global news podcast, why some within the EU are being grilled about whether veggie sausages really are sausages. An escalop or a sausage. A steak. A steak. A whatever, these are products that come from our farms. We're not talking about banning plant-based alternatives, of course not, but I think that terms should mean what they mean. Dear Canadian exporters, our ambitions, our ideas, and our potential were never meant to be boxed in. Nothing can contain us. With the support of Export Development Canada's market insights and financial solutions.

You can turn obstacles into opportunities, discover new markets, and keep our nation front and center on the global stage. The world needs more Canada. Together, let's give it to them. Visit edc.ca to learn more. Who was Elon Musk before he was so loved and so hated? Saved free speech.

He created so many different great things. Before the billions, before the billions, before the, the rockets before the never-ending headlines. I'm Jacob Silverman, and my new podcast explores the prequel to the Elon Musk era. Let me tell you what you don't know about the world's most notorious billionaire. Understood, the making of Musk. Available now wherever you get your podcast. For children in Haiti, trauma has become a daily reality. That's the finding of a report by the UN's aid agency for children, UNICEF. It says a number of youngsters displaced by spiraling gang violence has almost doubled in the last year

to around 680,000. The gangs have taken over so much of the country that nearly a quarter of the population now lives in areas under their control, exposing many more children to sexual and physical violence. Stephanie Prentice told me more. This firms up the numbers on some of the issues we've been trying to track in Haiti, a place that's extremely difficult to report from. It describes a large-scale displacement issue that's crucially accelerating. As you mentioned, the number of children displaced by violence, doubling in just one year. And UNICEF describes children forced to flee their homes, they're losing access to things like schools, their communities,

they're being exposed to violence and sexual violence on the streets. And that's all on top of existing issues like food insecurity, and a lack of access to health care. The public services are collapsing in the capital. Now, the UN estimates that more than half the population, and that includes 3.3 million children, need urgent humanitarian assistance. And we know from previous reports that in this vulnerable state,

children are being taken in by the gangs, now, either forcibly or just with offers of food and shelter, and they use the boys as spies, messengers, foot soldiers, and the girls as domestic slaves and in some cases as sex slaves. And last week the UN announced that a new gang suppression force was going in, and that was met with both hope and criticism. It was, so this new force would be the UN's second attempt at putting a security force there just this year, after the first mission just failed to establish any sort of presence.

This one's been rebranded as the gang suppression force. It was praised when it was announced for being larger. It was 5,500 military and police units and for having greater powers in terms of law enforcement. The first force was under-resourced. This one is more robust and it has more significant backing from the US. Critics have said the issues that prevented that first mission are very much still in place and, in fact, have probably gotten worse.

The gangs are just really bedded in to the capital Porto-Prince. they control things like supply routes and key infrastructure. And in the background of all this is an announcement we heard on Wednesday that the UN has to reduce peacekeeping forces worldwide by 25%. And that's due to a lack of funding. That's also linked to USA cuts. So the hope for Haiti will be that funding manages to hold long enough to make some sort of impact and bring some sort of stability

to a situation that's really already spiraled out of control. Stephanie Prentice, Ukraine's military has accused Russia of trying to erase Ukrainian culture through the looting of historical artifacts. A new report details how several sites in occupied Crimea and Zaporisha have had items stolen from them. It's thought that in all thousands of objects may have been taken during the war. Gary O'Donoghue reports from Kiev. Ukraine says Russia has undertaken illegal excavations at several sites in occupied Crimea. including a suburb of the southern city of Sifastopol, a Roma military camp and a Byzantine church. It also details dozens of pieces stolen from the Camiana Mojila National Historical and Archaeological Museum in Occupied Zaporizia.

Most of the items come from the ancient Scythian civilization, which lived on the Eurasian steppe, straddling modern-day Ukraine and Russia. Items listed include ceramics, metal pendants and coins. The agency which has collated the thefts says Russia is seeking to erase Ukraine's national identity by appropriating Ukrainian culture and history. The Office of Ukraine's Prosecutor General has previously said some pieces had turned up on the black market and it has already launched a new unit focused on investigating both the destruction of cultural heritage in war and any attempts at illegally selling the artefacts abroad. Gary O'Donohue, when is a sausage, no longer a sausage?

That might seem an odd question, but the European Parliament has voted to ban the naming of meat-related items like burger and sausage for plant-based products. The proposal still needs the backing of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, as well as the governments of member countries to become law. Celine Imar, the French MEP who led the initiative, said it was intended to support farmers. An Escalab, a scallop, a scallop or a sausage, a steak, whatever. These are products that come from our farms. We're talking about transparency, we're talking about clarity for the consumer and also recognition for the work done by our livestock farmers. Now, we're not talking about banning vegetable or plant-based alternatives, of course not,

but I think that terms should speak for themselves and should mean what they mean. But there are questions about what this would mean for plant-based food companies and how they label their products. Thomas Weitz, a green MEP from Austria, said the change was unnecessary. For farmers, and I'm a farmer myself, look, we produce what consumers like to eat. And if consumers eat more vegetables and more grains, we produce more vegetables and more grains. So it's not about farmers, and this is not helping farmers at all. It's not creating a single cent of additional income for farmers.

It's more an ideological battle that we see here, where vegan is being seen as something that is vogue, that is kind of progressive, and that's something we don't want anymore. It's kind of greenish. It's kind of a cultural war that has been waged here, especially by the far right. But unfortunately, European People's Party is joining in. I mean, we're having a lot of different languages in the European Union. And in my home language, German, the word schnitzel is used for a lot of things. If I chop wood, so wood chops in German are called hakschnitzel, which has nothing to do with meat. These words are used for many products that are not edible at all. It's not about comparing with meat, but it's about the question whether really consumers need the European Parliament

to kind of teach them how to read what is written on a package. So I really don't think we need to educate consumers there. there's a lot of successful industries producing plant-based food in the European Union. We're actually a global player in this. And I see no reasoning why we should limit or damage some of their trademarks. So it's more, I would say, some lobby attempts of meat processing industry that have been finding their ways into a legal proposal here than really talking about how to help farmers.

or how to educate consumers. Austrian MEP Thomas Weitz. Le Miserables is one of the most successful musicals of all times, performed in many countries in many languages. But when it first opened here in London 40 years ago, theatre critics were quick to dismiss it as monotonous, pretentious and a glum opera. Fortunately for the show, audiences ignored the critics.

And Le Miz, as it's often called, has become the longest-running musical in London's West End. A gala performance was held on Wednesday night to celebrate its four decades of success. One of those taking part was the actor Michael Ball, who's played several roles over the years, including the main character, Jean Valjean, the young revolutionary Marius and police inspector Javert. He spoke to Jeremy Vine.

It was the catalyst for me into, certainly into musical theatre. I'm very lucky. I was starting my career at the time when British musicals were literally taking over the world. My favourite role is the role of Javert. And Javert is the inspector who's chasing that, you should say, yeah. But is there a favourite line that is Le Miz to you? Yes, 100%. It's a line of Marius's. It's the sort of big moment in one day more. And it's when all the students rising together and Marius is deciding, do I go with a woman

or love, do I stay and fight with my friends? And he sings, My place is here I fight with you I fight with you Raise the line Michael But if you've performed it so many times And you've been in it so many times

And I know you've not been in the audience very much But does it begin to lose its power or not? Never First of all the reason it's lasted as long as it has Is it has It has evolved over the years so it's been restaged. New castes come and go and bring their own interpretation to it.

I'm going to play a song from which Michael sang, and this is your version. Now, tell us about this, Michael, empty chairs at empty tables. Yeah, this is a song that is the most important song to the character of Marius. This is when all of his friends have died fighting for what they believe in.

And he returns to the ABC Cafe, where they all used to meet, and he's mourning, he's changing, and he's a broken man. And it sort of charts the change from this idealistic young get-up-and-go hero into a rounded, deeply fragile and fractured man. And I can hear them now. The very word that they had sung became their last came here.

And they wanted to cut it. And I said, because the show was too long, And I said, if you cut that, then you cut Marius' point. And you just want to give him a shake and smack his legs because there's nothing to him. And I'm thrilled to say they kept the song. That was actor Michael Ball, singing us to the end of this podcast. 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, you can send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBC.co.com. This edition was mixed by Holly Smith. The producers were Carla Conti and Stephanie Zacherson. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janet Jalil. Until next time. Goodbye.