Global News Podcast - Israel delays vote to approve Gaza ceasefire deal

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has delayed a vote to approve the Gaza ceasefire deal, accusing Hamas of seeking last-minute changes to the agreement.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. World of Secrets is where untold stories are exposed. And in this new series, we investigate the dark side of the wellness industry, following the story of a woman who joined a yoga school only to uncover a world she never expected. I feel that I have no other choice. The only thing I can do is to speak about this. Where the hope of spiritual breakthroughs leaves people vulnerable to exploitation.

You just get sucked in so gradually and it's done so skillfully that you don't realise. World of Secrets, The Bad Guru. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts. This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson and in the early hours of Friday the 17th of January these are our main stories. Israel's far-right National Security Minister, Itamir Ben-Ghivir, threatens to resign from the government over the Gaza ceasefire deal.

We hear from Israel and Gaza on people's fears for their future, with the agreement due to be ratified by Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition on Friday. In Cuba, the jailed dissident Jose Daniel Ferrer is released from prison. Also in this podcast, North Korea opens its borders to tourists from places other than Russia. And we meet the volunteers who are working to clean up the Ugandan capital. There is no proper system where we separate the plastic from the food materials and from the metallic kind of stuff.

There have been serious disagreements in Israel's cabinet ahead of a vote to approve the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal. The vote is due to take place on Friday, a day later than expected. But Israel's far-right security minister, Itimir Ben-Gavir, has said he'll resign if the government approves the deal, describing it as a reward for Hamas. The current deal gives them a greater appetite, gives Hamas more motivation. This deal teaches them that they can kidnap and abuse and hurt, and finally, ultimately, get what they want. I think that the release of the hostages should be done in another way.

We should stop completely the humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. Humanitarian only if we get the hostages back. The US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, says he's confident the six-week truce, during which Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners are to be freed, would begin on Sunday as planned. I asked our Middle East regional editor, Seb Asher, for more details on Mr Ben-Gavir's statement and what impact it may have. In one sense, you could almost say he's not breaking ranks, that this is expected.

I mean, Itamar Ben-Gavir, the National Security national security minister, with the finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, they're both very much to the right in the coalition. They have both expressed very strong views about any deal in the past. And they have in the lead up to this deal as well. Essentially, they want to hold them as supporters, want to hold the Israeli government to what Benjamin Netanyahu has promised time and time again, which is essentially that his goal is the total elimination, the total destruction of Hamas, and they feel that this deal doesn't do that, and that Israel must have the right again, as Mr Netanyahu said, time and time again, and it's been a big stumbling block in getting a deal that Israel must, after anyfire have the ability if it needs to for security reasons to go back into Gaza

and carry out military operations against what's left of Hamas. And what effect do you think this might have on the ceasefire deal which has not yet been ratified by the Israeli cabinet? That's difficult. I mean I think the general view would be that the deal will still go ahead. Certainly in the cabinet Netanyahu will have the votes. he had six centrist members of a party join the coalition quite recently, and that has strengthened his position. Whereas before what Ben Gavir and Smotraich might do might bring down the government immediately, that isn't the case at the moment. Other parties have in the past also said that

they would join the coalition to ensure that the government didn't collapse if a deal was at stake. So I don't think it will stop the deal in itself but we're still unsure. I mean we have to wait and see what happens in the coming hours with regard to the cabinet meeting that's due to be convened. I mean we've heard that the issues that were raised apparently have been sorted, but who knows. But I don't think this in itself is the thing that will stop the deal going through. But do you think it underlines how fragile the deal is? Yes, I mean there's no doubt about that. It underlines the different waves of feeling

within Israel that there are, but are very much in contradiction to each other. I mean, if you go back before October the 7th, Mr Netanyahu was facing a sort of civil uprising almost in huge protests every week over plans that he had to change the standing of the judiciary. And that was very much with the backing of Ben Gevier, of Smotrich, who wanted to defang what they saw as the powers of a sort of liberal elite in Israel. I mean, if Ben-Gavir and also Smotrich's party, if they both stand by the threats that they've made, that if the deal goes through, they will withdraw from the cabinet.

As I say, I don't think that will bring Mr Netanyahu down immediately. I think he has the votes, but also other parties might join to keep him going. But it does weaken his position further. Other thing, just very briefly, it might give the centrist elements within the cabinet and within Israel more of a say. It might mean that those more extreme voices, because they're no longer in government, if they do follow through on their threat, won't have as much say in what happens over the coming months, which might have an effect on the way the ceasefire goes and the phases of this deal.

Sebastian Ascher. Well, since the deal was agreed, there have been more Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. People on the ground say dozens were killed on Wednesday night, among them many women and children. Our international editor Jeremy Bowen sent us this report. Just a few hours after the ceasefire agreement was announced, men in northern Gaza were back digging through the rubble for the dead and wounded after an Israeli strike. The ceasefire is not due to start until Sunday. Then they heard a small voice. He was alive. Strong enough to wave for help. His name is Asad Fadel Halifa.

His parents, sister, aunt and uncle were told were killed in the strike. He's three years old. His mouth was full of gravel and dust. He was trying to pull it out himself. We went to Nablus on the West Bank, the other side of the occupied Palestinian territories, to try to assess the mood. Israel won't let us into Gaza.

Nablus is a Palestinian city with a long history of resistance to the Israeli occupation. Amr has a stall selling sweet corn. Peace is difficult because you need to go back to the religion and doctor. But we would love for the bombing to stop and for everyone to go back to their homes and family because they suffered a lot in this war. May God help them. At her stall, Amina is desperate for the ceasefire to work. It affected us a lot here.

We, especially women, are affected by what we are seeing, the children who are dying. Just outside Nablus is the Jewish settlement of Kerumim, home to leaders of the settler movement. Danielle Avice has lived here for 50 years. Now she's working through her list of right-wing connections as she tries to overturn the ceasefire deal she says is treachery. What does all this mean for Israel? What does it add up to? In simple words, get ready for another war. Cruel, dangerous, with many casualties. This is what it means today.

Donald Trump there in the United States declares that he wants to see the end of wars. Good for you where you are situated and with us giving our flesh and blood for you to have a standing in the Middle East. In Jerusalem, a fake funeral outside the office of Prime Minister Netanyahu by Israelis who want to bury the ceasefire deal. They want the Prime Minister to keep his promise to destroy Hamas and rescue all the hostages, not negotiate a swap for Palestinian prisoners they regard as terrorists.

Police arrested a few of them. Many Israelis support the ceasefire, but the coffins intended as a warning of danger ahead for Israel are also assigned to the ceasefire supporters that making it work will not be easy. Jeremy Bowen, we heard there from people in Israel and the occupied West Bank about the uncertainties ahead. But what about in Gaza itself? Well there were celebrations when a ceasefire deal was announced, but concerns too about what happens next. Our correspondent Rashidi Abu Alouf has been speaking to people there. Until the ceasefire goes into effect, which is supposed to be 12 o'clock Sunday morning

Gaza time, will Israel still have the ability to target whatever they want? And we have seen more than 12 or 13 Israeli airstrikes after the announcement of the ceasefire. According to the civil defense department run by Hamas in Gaza, they said 72 people were killed in about 12 or 13 airstrikes since midnight. Well, I mean, the reports from Doha this morning that there is a slight problem in the deal overshadowed the celebration that we have seen last night in Gaza. People were relieved and celebrating,

but everything went silent this morning. Following the news came from Doha, and all Palestinian eyes were focused all day on the Doha to see whether this deal will go ahead or not. Every person that I spoke to in Gaza was expressing this mixed feeling, but they are worried about the future. Most of them, I think they will be shocked when they go back to the north and see the scale of destruction. We are talking about, for example, for the last 100 days, the Israeli army was operating in northern Gaza,

destroying the biggest refugee camp in Gaza, Jabalia refugee camp. About 250,000 people used to live in this camp. Now, 90% of the buildings in the camp have been destroyed. Most of the people in this camp were displaced into the south and some of them into Gaza City. When they go back, they won't find a place to stay, a school to teach their sons, a hospital to treat their people.

Civil system is destroyed. Communication is not there. No water, no electricity. With the journey of moving back from the south into the north is going to be very challenging because Israel want to check every person and every car going back to make sure that no Hamas militants or other militants are able to go back to the north and also they want to stop Hamas from trying to rearm. I have been moving from this journey from north to south in the beginning of the war. When the road was completely open, not destroyed, it took days for people to travel south. So imagine now with the Israeli army in place, with the checkpoints and CC cameras.

Rushdie Abu al-Luf. The ceasefire deal allows for 600 truckloads of relief supplies to cross into Gaza every day. Before the war began 500 trucks would enter the territory daily but at the beginning of January it was averaging just 51 per day. Fergal Keane has been traveling with an aid convoy from Jordan. Help is coming.

Down along the valley, the biggest aid convoy since the war began. Solidarity from the Kingdom of Jordan. In two deliveries, 120 trucks on the road to Gaza, from a country that is home to many Palestinians. We're carrying aid like food and medication for our brothers in Gaza, says Mostafa Al-Kadri. This is a good deed. We're happy to be part of this operation. We can travel with this convoy as far as the Israeli border. But since the war began, Israel does not allow the foreign media to enter Gaza and report independently. But our BBC colleagues living in Gaza have been filming every day, including today, the first real

moment of hope. They're waiting for today's meager charity. Little wonder the tired tempers fray when you've lived this struggle every day. The aid from Jordan is the tiniest fraction of what's needed here. But it does say to the people of Gaza, by your neighbour at least least you're not forgotten. I used to shop and go to school and my mum used to cook for me and when I got back she would tell me to come eat. I dream every day about the ceasefire. I want to go home and for my father to return to us.

That report from Fergal Keen. Other news now, the Cuban opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer has been freed from jail amid a wave of releases following a deal struck between the Cuban government and President Biden. More than 550 prisoners are to be released in exchange for the island's removal from a US list of states sponsoring terrorism. Ferrer was one of the 75 political prisoners jailed in the 2003 government crackdown on dissidents known as Cuba's Black Spring. Our Cuba correspondent Will Grant told us more. José Daniel Ferrer is definitely one of the most visible faces of the dissidents and

of general opposition in Cuba to the one party state, to the Cuban government in general, and to the communist system. So I think that he being released is important, certainly to those who follow politics more closely. He might not be very, very well known by everybody on the streets, but it does show that I think the Cuban government was willing to let out some of the kind of key figures as part of this deal as you say 553 prisoners slated for release only a fraction of those are out so far and arts NGOs and groups are pushing hard or calling certainly for the release of a group called the San

Isidro movement, which is made up of musicians and artists who are lined up against the government. And what about the timing of this? Why has it happened now? Well it is obviously the final days of the Biden administration. It was always quite curious in a sense that the Biden administration didn't do this a little earlier. I think the calculation with Cuba is always tied up to votes in Florida. So there may have been some of that going on. A bit of context that Cuba was taken off the list of states sponsored by terrorism,

by President Obama, put back on during Trump's first term in office and only now taken off by President Biden. Quite clearly, the feeling is that the incoming Trump administration are simply going to put them back on again, and we've had indications to that by Marco Rubio during his Senate hearings as prospective Secretary of State. And what could that mean for the prisoners who haven't been released?

Well, I think timing is everything. If they don't get out before the Trump administration does that, does the whole deal fall down? Is there an element in which the Vatican, which has played a very important role in brokering this agreement, there's a certain agreement there with the Roman Catholic Church that no matter what happens these prisoners will be released. I think if you were in prison in Cuba and you suspect you would be on the list of those who would be let out as a result of this agreement, you are hoping that things move very, very

quickly in the coming days. Will Grant, the British Prime Minister, Kyr Starmor has promised Ukraine Britain's long-term support on his first trip to Kyiv since taking power. His visit and that of the Italian defence minister was interrupted by explosions and air raid sirens, with the authorities warning of a Russian drone attack. From Kiev, our Eastern Europe correspondent, Sarah Rainsford reports. As Prime Minister, Kyiv's dharma hasn't rushed to Kiev. It took him six months.

But he came here today to say Ukraine and Britain were closer than ever, allies against what he called Russia's barbaric invasion. And as he and Vladimir Zelensky held talks, there was a reminder of the daily danger. A Russian drone overhead, then the air defences. The timing of this trip is important. Just before Donald Trump returns to the White House, a man far less clear in his support for Kiev. I wondered how concerned you are that as Donald Trump returns to the White House, US support

for Ukraine is going to stop. We will continue to work with the US on this. We're working today, we'll work tomorrow, we'll work into the future. In the end, the steps that we need to take must be robust enough to guarantee Ukraine's security. President Zelensky stressed today that those security guarantees must include joining NATO. Both meant that Ukraine can only consider any peace talks with Russia from a position of strength. That means more time and more aid from its allies. And Donald Trump may not agree with that.

Sarah Rainsford. Still to come in this podcast. We both play a lot. I learn a lot of things. She knows how to sit, lie down, play with dogs. A tame wild boar is saved from being put down by a campaign to keep the animal with the woman who raised it. World of Secrets is where untold stories are exposed, and in this new series we investigate the dark side of the wellness industry, following the story of a woman who joined a yoga school, only to uncover a world she never expected. I feel that I have no other choice. The only thing I can do is to speak about this.

Where the hope of spiritual breakthroughs leaves people vulnerable to exploitation. You just get sucked in so gradually and it's done so skillfully that you don't realise. World of Secrets, The Bad Guru. Listen wherever you get your BBC podcasts. The American film director David Lynch has died at the age of 78. Known for his signature surrealist style on works like Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive and Blue Velvet, David Lynch's family paid homage to him in a statement online, saying there's a big hole in the world now that he's no longer with us.

But as he would say, keep your eye on the doughnut and not on the hole. Alice Adderley looks back at his life. David Lynch made a career out of exploring the dark and mysterious aspects of human nature often delving into the subconscious and the surreal in his films. His breakthrough film in 1977 was Eraserhead, a surreal and nightmarish black and white film that won a cult following. Other films he directed and co-wrote include Blue Velvet, Mulholland's Drive and The Elephant Man. He was nominated for an Oscar three times and won a palm door at the Cannes Film Festival for Wild at Heart. Lynch's distinctive style

often incorporated dreamlike imagery, juxtaposition of light and darkness and unconventional sound design. In the 1990s he took this approach into television with the groundbreaking-breaking supernatural crime TV series, Twin Peaks. At first glance, Twin Peaks simply looked to be a quirky murder mystery with the coffee-loving agent Dale Cooper investigating the murder of the schoolgirl Laura Palmer in a remote logging town in Washington State. I've had, I can't tell you how many cups of coffee in my life and this, this is one of the best.

But it soon revealed itself to be much, much more. It brought the experimental edge of arthouse cinema into the living room and though the series ran for only 15 months, its 30 episodes changed the television landscape and left a lasting mark on popular culture. David Lynch was known for his reclusive and mysterious persona, often avoiding explanations of his work, though he credited Transcendental Meditation as a source of creativity and inspiration. But he had a significant influence on contemporary cinema

with a devoted fan base. His last movie was Inland Empire in 2006. But 25 years after the murder of Laura Palmer in 2017, Twin Peaks was revived to the delight of his fans. Rolling Stone magazine said it was like nothing else on television. Alisadjali As the population of Uganda's capital city Kampala continues to grow, so does the pressure

on public services, such as waste management. The city's only major dump site, Kitezi, is running out of space and with the city producing an estimated 2,000 tons of waste every day it's at risk of collapsing again as it did in August 2024 killing more than 30 people. The BBC's Agnes Penda meets the volunteers cleaning up Kampala and explores if there are any answers to the city's growing waste crisis. growing waste crisis. Once a month a group of around a dozen volunteers get together in Uganda's capital Kampala with one goal, to clean their city.

Thirty-one-year-old Abe Lodeke started the Equal Aqua Uganda group in 2020 because he felt a lot more could be done to manage Kampala's waste. There is no proper system where we separate the plastic from the food materials and from the metallic kind of stuff. Kampala generates around 2,000 tons of waste every day. City authorities allow private companies to collect the waste but there are no wide-scale recycling or incineration systems. Much of the city's waste ends up in Kampala's rivers and Lake Victoria. Can I have one sack and one bag, one on one boat, one on the other boat, then have those volunteers who jump on the boat? Today, the volunteers are setting sail on Lake Victoria to clean up the waste floating

along the shores. They are picking up plastic bags, clothes, flip-flops, whatever they can get their hands on. Because of plastic being dumped from the ground, leading to itself to the lake and all this coming back to human consumption through eating the fish and all that. So all these are the kind of things we are trying to avoid because there are a lot of impacts that come with micro plastics. Kampala's population is growing at a rapid rate of 4% per year according to the latest national census. And the city's public services are under pressure.

Gitezi is one of Uganda's largest dump sites, situated in Kampala. This 15 hectare wasteland is the final destination for the dump trucks operating across Kampala's seven waste collection zones. Informal workers sift through garbage to find items that can be cleaned and resold. In August 2024, a large section of it collapsed, killing more than 30 people and burying several homes underneath. Okuku survived. So suddenly, it was around 8 AM.

In the morning, all of a sudden, we saw the thing starting to move. I was very quick. I ran away. The dam site has been expanding since it was established in 1996. Surrounded by settlements, the dam site has been expanding since it was established in 1996. Surrounded by settlements, the dam site has no more space to expand, except upwards. Throughout the day, dam trucks arrive and pile on the trash wherever they find space.

Urban planner Frank Muramusi says this is a serious problem. All that waste mingled, the degradable and the non-degradable, and you take them to one dumping site. No, that's not how we do it. And the people of Kampala feel there is room for improvement. I think the government is overwhelmed. Repay taxes here and there. Everything is taxed in Uganda. So I think as a give back to the people,

we should as well improve their whole by taking the garbage out of the city. Kampala city authorities say the collapse of the Kitezi dump site served as a wake-up call. They say they are putting mechanisms in place to turn organic waste into compost and launching awareness campaigns to educate the public on the importance of separating waste before disposing it. Without a nationwide effect to reduce, reuse, and recycle, Uganda's

waste problems could go from bad to worse. Until then, volunteers and citizens would have to clean up the mess wherever they find it. Agnes Penda. North Korea closed its borders in early 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Now two travel agencies with links to China said they've been told that foreign travelers are being allowed to visit the northeastern North Korean city of Lhasa. It's the first time travellers from places other than Russia can visit the country since before the pandemic. I heard more from our Asia Pacific regional editor Celia Hatton.

It's a city that's in a special economic zone of North Korea. Even North Koreans themselves have to get special permission in order to travel to this city. North Korea famously was the first country in the pandemic to completely seal itself off from the outside world right at the start of 2020. So it's carried that process through. It's really been closed off for such a long period of time that any time they kind of ease their restrictions, they allow more people in, that's when we really need to start paying attention. And to allow tourists in on top of that, it really shows that North Korea is changing a little bit in the way it's thinking and the way that it wants to make money.

So what does it tell us about North Korea? I mean, why now? I think that North Korea in some ways is in a good place. It's feeling pretty good about things. North Korea has forged quite close ties with Russia as we've been chronicling over the past few months. They're making a lot of money off of Russian ammunition, supplying weapons to Russia, supplying troops to Russia.

So, in some ways, the economy is stabilizing a bit. But that doesn't mean that North Korea doesn't need other sources of income, that they don't need to diversify. 45% of North Koreans are undernourished by outside estimates. So the economy is still suffering a lot. And that's why I think the North Koreans are looking for smart ways to try to bring in foreign currency, bring in outside money, so they don't have all their eggs in the Russian ammunition's basket.

And what kind of tourists do they want to visit? Can anyone go? No, not anyone. Especially, importantly, people from South Korea and the US even require special permission from their own governments if they wanted to travel to North Korea. So it's closed off to a lot of people. I think primarily we're going to see Russians and Chinese tourists, people who can hop over the border to visit Lhasa because it is just right up in the north of North Korea itself, very close to the Chinese and Russian borders. And we're talking about quite small figures, aren't we still? Yeah, I mean, look, Lhasa itself is a tiny little city. It's got 200,000 people living

there. It's primarily an industrial port hub. It's got shipbuilding. It's got some mines. It's got an oil refinery. So there's not a lot to do. I don't think this is going to be a huge stop on the travel itinerary of many people. But, you know, it's a novel thing, especially if you're in China, you're in Russia and it's kind of a new place to go. Célia Hatton. And finally, animal rights campaigners in France are celebrating after a tame boar was saved from the threat of being put down. The animal, named Relette, was raised by a woman who'd found it abandoned as a piglet. But the authorities had refused her permission required to keep a wild animal. IELT regional editor Danny Eberhard reports.

The fate facing Rillette was not something her owner would countenance. Either the chop, in the form of euthanasia, or being given to a woman who trains animals for films. Elodie Capet had found the young boar on her horse-breeding small holding in central France nearly two years ago. She's since raised her into the substantial grizzly beast she is today. Miss Capet told the BBC she'd tried to release her back into the forest but the boar came running back. She's happy here in nature, Miss Capet said, describing Rilette, who she cuddles and strokes, as her

best friend. We both play a lot. I learn a lot of things. She knows how to sit, lie down, play with dogs. She joins us for horse rides. She sleeps with the dogs. She's a clown. She spends her days doing silly things to play. The case has gained worldwide attention and comparisons with one in the United States last year in which a tame squirrel named Peanut that had had a big following on social media was put down by the authorities. Back in France, the animal rights activist and film star Brigitte Bardot

joined the campaign to save Rilette. A court has now ruled that the authority's original decision must be re-examined. Miss Capet described her reaction. I started partying. I screamed very loud as I was very happy. We're going to buy a cake and drink champagne. Cake, she explains, along with apples, are one of her pet's favourite foods. Distinctly vegetarian, which is good. The name Miss Capay gave the boar is a reference to a local coarse meat pâté.

It's led to jokes that Rilette won't now be turned into a terrine. But the boar remains as happy as a pig. Well, she seems to respond brilliantly to her name, Miss Cappé said, remarking that she listens better than my dogs. Danny Eberhard on A Very Lucky Boar. And that's it from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was mixed by Holly Palmer, the producer was Stephanie Tillotson. The editor, as ever, is Karen Martin. I'm Valerie Sanderson. Until next time, bye bye. Hello, I'm Katya Adler, host of the Global Story podcast from the BBC. Each weekday, we break down one big news story with fresh perspectives from journalists around the world.

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