Global News Podcast - US downplays claims Hamas is violating ceasefire deal

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

The difficulty of recovering the dead bodies of Israeli hostages comes under the spotlight, as Washington downplays claims that Hamas is violating the ceasefire deal. But Israel's prime minister warns that the war in Gaza is not over. Also: The government in France survives two no-confidence votes. The impact of the brutal civil war in Sudan on its children. Violence erupts at a youth-led protest in the capital of Peru, despite the appointment of a new president. The last surviving Sherpa of the team that first scaled Mount Everest dies. And the backlash against a firework display in Tibet promoting a well-known outdoor-clothing brand.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]

This is the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte Gallagher, and at 16 hours GMT on Thursday, the 16th of October, these are our main stories. Israel's Prime Minister has warned the struggle for Gaza is not over after US officials played down concerns about the ceasefire falling apart. The latest on France's political crisis after a dramatic day in Parliament. Also in this podcast, the children in Sudan caught up in its bloody civil war. The firework display, which was a spectacular disaster.

It's precisely what makes it look so beautiful, the fact it's happening in the mountains of Tibet, that caused a near instant and some would say predictable backlash from environmental campaigners. And we look back on the life of a legendary Nepalese Sherpa. Washington has downplayed claims Hamas is violating the ceasefire deal, stressing the complexity of the operation to recover all the dead bodies of Israeli hostages. The Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has said he remains determined that all dead Israeli hostages in Gaza are returned and has warned the war in Gaza is not over. A key part of the ceasefire deal was that all living and deceased hostages had to be returned to Israel.

but 19 bodies are still unaccounted for. Many are believed to be under the rubble of buildings bombed by Israel. Our Middle East analyst, Sebastian Usher, told me more about what Washington has been doing. I think that these two senior advisors to President Trump stepped in to give this briefing to try to forestall any momentum towards the sense that the ceasefire is beginning to break down because of this issue. I mean, we're still going to be hearing voices in Israel and the Israeli government, some of the far-right voices there. Mr. Netanyahu himself, the Israeli Prime Minister,

you know, saying that the war isn't over and that part of that is the fact that not all the bodies have been returned. President Trump himself has said some quite strong words in his latest comments yesterday, saying that he would essentially give the green light to the Israeli government to resume its battle against Hamas in Gaza if Hamas didn't fulfill its commitments. But I think that's more about the disarmament. than the bodies. As you're saying, I think there is a recognition that the issue of the bodies of those absolutely central emotionally to Israel. And it's the thing that kind of unites people there, whether they support Mr. Netanyahu or not. But that it's something that will take time. I mean, there is still a sense perhaps that Hamas, its armoured wing, said that it's delivered all the bodies that it has, that it can find so far. I think there's a sense amongst some in Israel. who feel that the war hasn't accomplished its objectives

that Hamas may be trying to string things out a bit because the next stage after all those hostages have been delivered and also all the Palestinian corpses, the Palestinian bodies have been returned as part of the deal, is that you then go to the disarmament of Hamas, you go to the governance of Gaza and those are issues which are going to be far more difficult, I think, for Hamas to stomach. And we've talked previously about not just the Israeli hostages going back, also the return of Palestinian bodies into the Gaza Strip.

And you said previously that a lot of them can't be identified. They don't know who these people are because they need to do testing on them. What's the latest on that? Well, 30 more have been delivered. It's now 120.15 bodies are returned every time the body of a dead hostage is returned to Israel. So that exchange mechanism is being kept up. I mean, we've been hearing reports. We haven't, I think, been able to back them up.

cells of the BBC, but hearing some quite gruesome reports of a kind of state that some of these bodies are in that might show torture, but might show that they've been shot. As I say, this hasn't been substantiated independently. But again, it just adds to this sense of a horror that is still there and could bubble up from the surface if things aren't nailed down and move towards a much clearer resolution as soon as possible. And on the ground in Gaza, what's the latest? I mean, aid is still not going in to anything like the degree that aid agencies say that they need at least 600 trucks to go and as they were during the ceasefire that there was earlier this year, maybe 300 at most. The Rafa crossing in the south hasn't been opened and will only

be opened for, not for aid, but the people to come and go. But there are trucks that are waiting. I mean, I'm sure people have seen these trucks waiting at Rafa. They go through another crossing, the Kerem Shalom crossing. So there's nothing to stop those trucks going in, really. But once they're in Gaza, the state of the roads, the breakdown of security means that it's difficult to get to the places they need to. Well, as Sebastian mentioned there, the Israeli government says it expects Hamas to return all the remaining bodies of those captured on October the 7th. One of those Israelis still waiting on the return of her husband is Ella Hemi. James Koppel asked how she was coping with the uncertainty.

It's very hard days. We're very tense. I know that the Israeli army, the IDF, they have assumption where are the bodies and that they give the Hamas information, but the Hamas doesn't do everything he can and he doesn't have the passion enough to bring all the rest of the hostages. Yeah, that must be incredibly frustrating for you and we can discuss that more in a little bit but I wonder perhaps if we could think first of all

about your husband what you would like the world to know about Tal, the man you knew and married. Yeah, I want to. I want you to know that we were such a simple family, a regular family. Tal was a mechanical engineering. He worked in a factory. He was a manager there.

And he was very involved father. He liked to be with the kids a lot of time. And he did homework with them and making dinner and sandwiches for school and reading books before sleeping. And I miss him so much. and I know that one of the hardest parts for me is the baby because I know that Tal didn't meet him and also the baby didn't meet him and will never meet Tal. And he waited for the baby.

It was just the beginning of the pregnancy. But he's so waited for him. When Hamas says that it simply is having difficulty identifying the locations of some of the bodies, do you believe that? Do you accept that? Yeah, I'm accepted. And also I've been prepared for it because our officer from the IDF, we told us it's going to be hard and complicated because of the physical situation.

And there are probably some of them are buried down there in a tunnel that may be destroyed during the time. But on the other end, I know that they have the location. must have the location. They just need to work hard and look for them, but they don't have the passion like they had with the 20s. This is why it takes so long. That was Ella Hemi speaking to James Cotnell. In France, the government has survived two no-confidence votes, one of which was only relatively narrowly defeated. On Tuesday, the Prime Minister, Sebastian Le Corno, had made a major concession to the Socialist Party. When he agreed to freeze President Macron's recent pension reform, raving the retirement age to 64.

He made this call to MPs before the vote. The reality, madame and messieurs, whether we enter in the debate, or we're going to be in a crisis political. The reality is we either engage in debate or we enter, once and for all, into a political crisis. MPs of France unbowed, along with MPs of the national rally. This clearly is the moment of truth.

Do we want Republican order with debates taking place in the National Assembly, or do we want disorder? Do we want the slowing down of the country? Let's get more on this now with our correspondent in Paris, Hugh Schofield. Well, as you say, the votes have failed, which was what we predicted, but it was close. There were two motions, only one motion had any real chance of working. That was the motion tabled by the far left.

The reason for that is that that motion was also voted for by the far right. In other words, the far right said the ends justify the means that they joined with the far left, even though they hate each other, but the far left was never going to vote for the far right. So the second motion had no chance of working. The first motion, though, did, and it came in at 271 votes.

Now, that is a lot, but it was 18 short of what is needed to bring down the government. They needed a majority plus, you know, they needed half of all MPs plus one in order to bring the government down and they fell short by a small margin. It all

came down to individuals, could there be enough rebels in the ranks of different parties to make a difference? In the end, it didn't. There were a few rebels, a few rebels socialists who did vote for the censure motion against the advice of their leadership, but it wasn't enough. And so the government and Le Corneux limps on. I mean, he's not out of trouble, is he, because he's got to try and pass a budget, which has proved pretty impossible so far. And then also delaying this pension reform is going to be really expensive. Yes, I mean, that's another issue, which is a huge one, but we're very much here in France involved in the day-to-day survival of a government. And of course, there are all sorts of

issues about the long-term problems of the French economy, which are just looming and getting bigger and bigger. But in the short technical term, he's managed to buy himself a little bit of time. But all that means is that the time is now available before him to start pushing the budget through the National Assembly. But as we know, the National Assembly is not minded to support this budget. And the National Assembly consists of a majority of people on the left, on the far left and the far right, who, if they come together, can at any time bring this government down over the budget. So, yes, we can foresee that there will be many more occasions in the weeks ahead where we will be on tent hooks to see whether the government can survive.

After two years of brutal civil war, Sudan is. in the depths of a deepening humanitarian crisis. Thousands have been killed, millions displaced, and many more are facing famine. And children have paid the highest price. Noelle Al-Maghavi has been on a rare trip to Sudan's capital Khartoum, one of the key battlegrounds between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary group, the rapid support forces, to see how this war has impacted the most vulnerable children.

And a warning. Some of you may find details in this report. upsetting. On the edge of the River Nile, where the white and blue Niles merge, there's another meeting point. A group of young boys gather. They fling themselves off the dark muddy river banks into the even darker, murky water of the Nile.

They seem carefree, but for two years their lives have been plagued by Sudan. brutal civil war. It was really bad. Says a dripping wet 17-year-old, Ali. There was shelling, drone attacks. There was no food. Earlier this year, the Sudanese army recaptured Khartoum from the paramilitary group,

the rapid support forces. The capital has been at relative peace since then. I asked Ali where he finds happiness. Just the river. Nowhere else. It's everything. Despite the diseases that lurk in the water, children keep coming back here to play. It's one of the last places of refuge, of innocence.

Unlike a playground, we come across on the other side of the river. This is a playground. It's meant to be for children to come have fun and enjoy themselves. But it's all completely destroyed. I've never seen this level of destruction anywhere in the world. In the far corner of the playground, we spot a young boy. sweeping in the rubble and undergrowth. I used to come here with my brothers.

We would play and laugh all day. Ahmed is 16. He now lives and works here, working 30 continuous days for just $50. Ever since the war began, I've been sure that I am destined to die. I've stopped thinking about my future. While working, he's found the remains of 15 people.

He shows me. some of the bones, one he holds innocently beside his own leg, and says, It's a leg bone. Across Sudan, children are paying the heaviest price. Millions are out of school, and three million children under five are facing starvation. And in Sudan, hospitals, the consequences of that are clear. We're in a malnutrition ward in one of the last functioning hospitals here in Farton.

It is a room full of mothers comforting each other as they stand and watch helplessly. Back at the River Nile, a different sound. Children swimming in the water, finding light in the bleakest of times. of times, a reminder of how resilient children can be. Even in the shadows of war, they hold on to the possibility of tomorrow. Nawal Al-Maghafi, reporting from Khartoum. Still to come on this podcast, frustration in Peru among young people spills onto the streets again. Even after they remove Dina Boliwate, everything is the same.

Extortion continues, contract killings continue. The police do nothing. Now to a question that confronts governments around the world, should undocumented foreign nationals be allowed to access public health facilities? Well, in South Africa, a group called Operation Duranese, Dula has been blocking black migrants from using local government clinics. They argue the country's healthcare system is overburdened and should prioritise its own citizens. South Africa is home to over 2 million migrants, according to official figures.

Most of them are from neighbouring states, including Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Journalist Mpo Lackazay sent this report. mothers with children tied to their bags, fathers, students, the elderly. Everyone outside this clinic in Deep Sluart, north of Johannesburg, is patiently waiting to find out if they will be allowed in. A group of people in white shirts written, Operation Dudula, guarding the entrance, checking everyone's nationality. I came to the clinic because I have an appointment to take tablets. But then when I got here, I was asked to produce my ID.

Zimbabwe National, Strelugu Lemoyo, who's been in South Africa since 2006, is among dozens who've been turned away. Then I said I have passport. They said they don't take passport. They want IDs only. It's a development that has been welcomed by some South Africans using the same clinic. It is a positive change. The previous time all I was here, the queue was very long.

But this time around, it only took me a couple of minutes to get my stuff and get out. Dudula must stay. Doodula must stay because Dudula is helping a lot. Operation Dudula leader Zandi Lidabula insists her organization's campaign is necessary because South Africa's public health care system is strained. Our own people need to be prioritized. You have an old lady. Then we'll wake up about 4 a.m. to go in queue at a specific clinic

because she knows that if she doesn't get there on time, it's either she will not get medication or she will be turned back home to come the next day because the queues are long. by the time you get to the doctor or you get to the nurse, the medication is finished. But what Operation Dudula is doing here in Johannesburg and other parts of the country contradicts South Africa's constitution. It guarantees the right to health care access for everyone within the republic regardless of their nationality or immigration status.

Deputy Health Minister Joe Pasha says what's been happening is quite unfortunate. We don't agree with. that approach because health is a human right. And as much as we understand the fact that the provision of services must be properly organized, you don't organize it through bullying kind of methods. Several Operation Dudula members have been arrested in recent weeks for blocking the entrances of the country's public health facilities. But this doesn't appear to have discouraged the group. They have now taken their campaign to public schools claiming to be fighting illegal immigration, a move that's been criticised by several opposition

parties. That was Mpo Lacazé, reporting from South Africa. Violence at a youth-led protest in Peru's capital Lima has left one man dead and more than a hundred injured. The new interim president, Jose Herrera, announced the man's death on X. Hundreds of people were trying to reach the Congress building, when the police used tear gas to try to disperse the crowds. It's the first large-scale protest after the former president, Dina Bolowate, was removed from office six days ago. Here's one of the demonstrators. Even after they removed Dina Boluarte, everything is the same. Extortion continues, contract killings continue, the police do nothing. We're fed up with the political class. We're sick of them trying to take us for fools. Because they've installed.

installed a figure who's basically a coalition of all those parties from the 90s and they're corrupt. We're fed up with this. We're demanding that absolutely all of them go. Our global affairs reporter Mimi Swaby told me that the demonstrators were frustrated by what they say is lawlessness and government corruption. This started as a peaceful protest in Proustapal Lima, but it ended in violence and chaos with demonstrators really angry about corruption and increasing crime in the country. However, these These protests were bigger than expected, and the proven president, Jose Hari, has suggested that gangs had infiltrated these demonstrations, the latest demonstrations, which erupted in late September, with the aim of stoking violence. They came not to express their concerns and frustrations, but only to agitate an already very volatile situation.

And these demonstrations are being led by students, aren't they? but they do represent a wider section of society as well in Peru. Definitely. These Gen Z protests were actually triggered by a pension reform which affects young people. But they really quickly escalated with crowds expressing increasing anger over corruption scandals, as well as growing insecurity. And this includes extortion, petty crime, as well as gang-related violence. These protests were joined by transport workers who said the government isn't doing enough to combat extortion.

We've heard lots of taxi drivers and bus drivers say that gangs, including the Venezuelan gang, Trendera Agua, has basically threatened them into paying protection money. Dina Boloarte was ousted only less than a week ago after being impeached on grounds of moral incapacity. Her approval rates were dwindling about 3%. But many Peruvians are really angry. Peruvians across the board are really angry that despite this new president and potential government change that nothing has actually change in the country. And a crime and inspirity is affecting all levels of Peruvian society. Mimi Swaby. An extract from a new book written by the late Virginia Dufre, who accused Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein of sexually abusing her, has been published in the Guardian newspaper. In it,

she wrote Prince Andrew viewed having sex with her as his birthright. Prince Andrew has always denied the allegations. Simon Jones reports. And I won't stop fighting. I will never be silenced. Virginia Dufre's book is being published almost six months after she took her own life. She said the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his sex trafficker girlfriend, Gillesne Maxwell, introduced her to Prince Andrew, who she alleged sexually abused her on three occasions, the first time in London in 2001 when she was 17. In an extract from her book, Nobody's Girl, published in The Guardian,

Ms Dufray wrote, In the years since, I thought a lot about how he behaved. He was friendly enough, but still entitled, as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright. Afterward, he said thank you in his clipped British accent. In an interview with Newsnight in 2019, the Duke said he had no recollection of ever meeting Ms. Joufrey or Miss Roberts as she was then. You can say categorically that you don't recall meeting Virginia Roberts, dining with her, dancing with her at travel. or going on to have sex with her in a bedroom and a house in Belgravia? I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened.

Do you recall any kind of sexual contact with Virginia Roberts, then or any other time? None whatsoever. Prince Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement with Ms. Dufre in 2022, which contained no omission of liability or apology. He has always denied all her claims against him. Ms. Joufrey in her book described Epstein as a master manipulator who trafficked her to a succession of wealthy and powerful men. Don't be fooled by those in Epstein's circle who say they didn't know what he was doing.

Epstein not only didn't hide what was happening, he took a certain glee in making people watch. They watched and they didn't care. Her posthumous memoir is being published with the blessing of her family. Her story is not over. We will continue her legacy and we will, not back down until justice is served for her and for her survivor sisters and for all the victims out there. Sky Roberts, Virginia Jufre's brother, ending that report by Simon Jones,

and Prince Andrew's office has been approached for comment about Mr. Dufre's book. Not many of us can claim to have been part of a true world first, but Kancher Sherper, who's died at the age of 92, definitely could. Back in 1953 as a 19-year-old, he was part of the first ever scaling of Mount Everest. His death means no members of that expedition are left alive. Our reporter, Ambarasan Esha Rajan, told me more about him. He was a legend in the Shapa community, and he had this privilege of one of the few members of this world-famous expedition team,

the 35-member team, along with Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Noggi, who reached the summit of the world's highest mountain. This was considered unattainable, unreachable target. But it was a fight against the nature, the cold, the climate. And these Sherpas, they play a very crucial role. Now, as a 19-year-old teenager, he was picked up by Tenzing Norgay to work for him. And then he was carrying all this heavy equipment despite having no mountain climbing experience. And he just followed them.

And all the way, taking equipment like, you know, tents and food and other stuff to the base camp. And from there, they had to find this route. usually the Sherpas clear the route for the mountaineers to follow. So even among the 35-member team, finally three Sherpers went beyond the 8,000 meters carrying the stuff. It was real battle against nature. No, he always said that we look at the mountain like a goddess. We treat them with respect. And he reached the final point where he reached all these important gadgets for the other two to reach the summit.

I mean, anyone climbing Everest is obviously a huge. achievement. But, you know, does Sherpas get the recognition they deserve? Because they're doing, they're essentially doing the heavy lifting. They're carrying the kit and they're sometimes even pulling up mountaineers to get them to the summit. I mean, is that an issue that Sherpas just don't get the recognition that they deserve? And, you know, we know the names of often these western mountaineers that go up the mountaineers, but we don't get to know the names of the people that help them get there. These porters play a very important role. Without these Sherpas, the mountain guides. It's not possible for many mountaineers. Of course, there are some who try to

reach solo. So they cannot only, you know, they have this abundant knowledge about the mountain. They guide you. They save you. They protect your lives and tell you what exactly to do, especially now when it became so commercial. And if you have two good Sherpas, you can go up to Everest with a bit of mountaining experience. I'm not sure I could. Yeah, but it is, I mean, of course, with the practice and then you have the provided you have the good physical condition. But some of them are reached like 20 times, 25 times, but we hardly know about them.

Whereas Western mountaineers or foreign mountaineers who climb even 10 times, they get world-famous, they get invited to so many places for talks. But for the Sherba community, it is their life. But it has changed the lives of the Sherpa community or the mountain climbing since 1953. And he was, Kancha Sherpa was one of the pioneers in that transformation. That was Ambarasan, Etirajan.

The idea was to put on the ultimate firework display, which would go viral and promote the clothing brand, Arterix. Well, it did go viral, but for all the wrong reasons. The brand quickly apologised and now four people have lost their jobs. Will Chalk is here to explain. Well, firstly, I should say that purely on the scale of a physical spectacle, you can see why organisers thought this might be a good idea. So this was a firework display last month in the Shigatsi region of Tibet, and it's snaking up the side of a mountain. you've got a multi-coloured blue, green, yellow and red dragon that appears as the fireworks go off. And if you're trying to grab attention online, you know, it's incredibly visually impressive.

It's just the type of thing that would work, but it's precisely what makes it look so beautiful, the fact it's happening in the mountains of Tibet that caused a near instant and some would say predictable backlash from environmental campaigners. So it's estimated it affected a big swave of grassland around 74 acres and that the remnant, of the fireworks, the plastic, etc., they weren't properly cleaned up. And then there is, of course, the noise. And in an area like this, you know, with so many wild animals, such important natural features, it's clear to see why that might have been a problem too. So basically a PR disaster, and it's led to consequences for those people that were involved in this. Yeah, four Chinese officials have now been dismissed from their jobs. Then you've got the organising,

So the designer, Kai Yu Chung, is actually a hugely well-respected artist. Organised the fireworks for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He's had to apologise. Arterics deleted the video from their social media after putting it up, so an incredibly expensive mistake for them. They replaced it with a statement saying they're deeply disappointed and they apologize full stop. According to this latest update, all the organisers are now going to be expected

to have to provide compensation too. So all in all, yet another warning here that going viral isn't always worth the effort. That was Will Chalk reporting. And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is Global Podcast at BBC.com.com. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod.

This edition was mixed by Mark Pickett and the producer was Alice Adela. the editor is Karen Martin. I'm Charlotte Gallagher. Until next time, goodbye.