Global News Podcast
Israeli government approves Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal
Sat, 18 Jan 2025
Israel’s cabinet has given its final approval to a Gaza ceasefire deal, despite some ministers’ opposition. It will begin on Sunday with a hostage-for-prisoner exchange. Also: The US Supreme Court upholds a ban on TikTok.
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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Valerie Sanderson, and in the early hours of Saturday, the 18th of January, these are our main stories. The Israeli cabinet has voted to approve a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza. The Chinese social media platform TikTok is to be banned from Sunday. So what's the reaction from influencers?
And to the US government, I'm never forgiving you for this. And I'm never going to trust you ever again because you just, like that, took away millions of people's income and livelihood.
President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration is to be held indoors because of the cold. Also in this podcast, police officers in Malaysia are being told to slim down or not be promoted. And the Italian orchestra reviving unusual instruments from a century ago. The Israeli cabinet has voted to approve a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.
The Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, says the first hostages will be released as early as Sunday. The deal has three stages, with the latter phases aiming to bring a permanent end to the conflict. Some Israeli ministers had threatened to quit if the ceasefire was approved, saying it rewarded Hamas. From Jerusalem, here's our Middle East correspondent, Lucy Williamson.
The ceasefire deal has now passed the final hurdle in Israel's political process and is set to begin on Sunday with the first in a series of prisoner exchanges. Two ministers from far-right parties in the coalition voted against the deal, but the promise of bringing home 33 Israeli hostages won over many others in the cabinet, like Culture Minister Miki Zohar.
We came here. to vote forward to the deal to bring back our hostages. It's a very hard decision, but we decided to support it because it's very important to us to see all of our children, men and women, back home. We hope that in the future we will be able to finish the job in Gaza. This is something that we want to do. But now we want to bring our people back home.
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