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00:00Benjamin Netanyahu says a deal with Hamas to return the hostages held in Gaza has been
00:06reached paving the way to end 15 months of war.
00:10The crackdown on dissent continues in Russia. Three lawyers of late political opponent Alexei
00:15Navalny are now jailed and two more face similar charges in their absence.
00:22A SpaceX Starship rocket was destroyed in a failed launch just eight minutes into the
00:27flight.
00:35Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a deal to return the hostages held
00:40by Hamas in Gaza has been reached. It comes after his office said there were last-minute
00:45snags in finalizing the ceasefire announced on Wednesday. Netanyahu's statement appeared
00:51to clear the way for Israeli approval of the deal, which would pause 15 months of war
00:55in Gaza. It would also see dozens of hostages held by Hamas in the Strip released in exchange
01:02for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. The deal would also allow hundreds of thousands
01:07of displaced Palestinians to return to the remains of their homes in Gaza. Israel had
01:13delayed a vote on the ceasefire on Thursday, blaming a last-minute dispute with Hamas for
01:18holding up approval. Netanyahu's office accused Hamas of reneging on parts of the agreement
01:23in an attempt to gain further concessions. Hamas denied the claims, with a senior official
01:29saying the militant group is committed to the ceasefire agreement which was announced
01:33by the mediators.
01:35The deal can't be implemented until it's approved by both the security cabinet and the government.
01:41Netanyahu is expected to convene the security cabinet later on Friday. A full cabinet meeting
01:47will take place on Saturday night. Hamas triggered the war with its attack on Israel in October
01:522023 that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 others taken hostage. Israel responded with
02:01a devastating offensive that's killed over 46,000 Palestinians. The military campaign
02:07has leveled vast swathes of Gaza and forced around 90% of the population from their homes.
02:18French President Emmanuel Macron is in Beirut to meet with Lebanon's newly elected leaders,
02:26President Joseph Aoun and the designated Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. His visit follows a
02:3260-day ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah that France helped secure. Macron pledged
02:38financial aid to help Lebanon rebuild and called for the acceleration of a long-term
02:42truce.
02:43The results have been obtained, a first Israeli withdrawal from the West, but it must be accelerated,
02:50confirmed in the long term, and a total withdrawal of Israeli forces, a total monopoly of the
02:55Lebanese army on the Arabs. This is why we support, I repeat, the rise in power of the
03:02Lebanese army and their deployment in the south of the country.
03:06The crisis-hit country is hoping to secure continued support from the West under its
03:11new leadership, as it attempts to recover from the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war. Aoun
03:17and Salam have promised to work on getting Lebanon out of its economic crisis and to
03:22impose state authority over parts of the country controlled by Hezbollah. Macron is also traveling
03:28to the south of Lebanon, where French troops are deployed as part of a UN peacekeeping
03:32force along the border with Israel.
03:37Three former lawyers for late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were jailed on Friday,
03:42in what critics see as part of a harsh Kremlin crackdown on dissent. The court sentenced
03:47Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin and Alexei Lipster to three-and-a-half to five-and-a-half years
03:52for links to extremist groups. Navalny's organizations were banned in 2021 as extremists, a move
03:59widely criticized as politically motivated at the time. Prosecutors claim that the lawyers
04:04passed Navalny's messages to his team. Supporters in the courtroom called the lawyers heroes,
04:10as the verdict aimed to intimidate defense lawyers from taking political cases. Two other
04:15lawyers now abroad face similar charges in their absence. Kremlin critics say the crackdown
04:21marks a return to Soviet-era tactics against dissent. Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner
04:27and outspoken opponent of President Vladimir Putin, was arrested in 2021 upon his return
04:32from Germany, where he was recuperating from a nerve agent poisoning by Russian Secret
04:36Service operatives. He died in prison in February 2023 while serving a 19-year sentence.
04:46Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Massoud Pazashkian met in the Kremlin
04:50on Friday, signing a comprehensive treaty to deepen ties amid Western sanctions. The
04:56agreement spans trade, military, science, education and culture. Putin hailed the deal
05:03as a boost to bilateral cooperation, while Pazashkian emphasized its strategic importance,
05:09calling the partnership vital for regional stability. He criticized foreign interventions,
05:15suggesting they destabilize the Middle East. The meeting ahead of U.S. President-elect
05:20Trump's inauguration drew speculation, but Kremlin officials dismissed any connection.
05:27Tensions remain high, with Ukraine and the West accusing Iran of supplying drones to
05:31Russia. Allegations both deny. Russia and Iran's ties have strengthened, highlighted
05:38by Iran joining the BRICS bloc last year and attending its summit in Russia.
05:50Putin has accused NATO of blocking an extra 3 billion euro aid package for Ukraine. Speaking
05:57on national television earlier this week, he said he would only agree to the military
06:02aid package if new debt was issued to finance it, rather than cuts to social spending. But
06:08at a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson this Friday in Berlin, he reinforced
06:13that NATO is essential for European security.
06:20Opposition politicians have accused Schultz of electioneering, but actually many of his
06:42Social Democrat party members are reluctant for Berlin to keep spending millions on arms
06:48deliveries to Ukraine, given Germany's economic situation. Snap elections are set for the
06:5423rd of February after the government's three-way coalition collapsed in November.
07:04What started with 24 hours has now turned into half a year. Donald Trump's famous promise
07:10to put an end to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine now might seem unrealistic even
07:15to the US president himself. In a rather harsh reality check, Trump said a six-month timeline
07:21was more realistic for ending the war.
07:45Milovanov says there are signs that this leverage is being built now, possibly in coordination
08:07between the administrations amid Biden's last-ditch attempt to confiscate $300 billion of Russian
08:12assets.
08:32Milovanov says it all indicates that the Trump administration is evolving towards a not-so-favourable
08:37for Russia scenario, but that still does not necessarily mean favourable for Ukraine and
08:42the people of Ukraine.
09:12He says ultimately Putin has to sell it domestically in Russia as a victory, while Ukraine has
09:17to sell it domestically as a guarantee against future invasions. And these guarantees would
09:22take much more than anything signed on paper, given the previous guarantees promised and
09:26then broken by Russia, he says.
09:36A SpaceX Starship rocket was destroyed in a failed launch just eight minutes into the
09:40flight. Elon Musk's company said it lost contact with the spacecraft after its engines appeared
09:46to shut down one by one. A minute before the loss, SpaceX used the launch tower's giant
09:52mechanical arms to catch the returning booster, a feat achieved only once before. But the
09:58thrill of the catch quickly turned into disappointment for not only the company but the crowds who
10:03had gathered to watch the launch. A group of people visiting the Turks and Caicos islands
10:08captured footage of the rocket ship's debris flying overhead as the wreckage left behind
10:14a colourful stream of smoke. It was supposed to make a near loop around the world on a
10:19test flight after launching from Texas.
10:39In 2024, Lynch revealed he'd been diagnosed with emphysema and wouldn't be able to leave
10:44his house to direct any longer. He leaves behind a celebrated body of work that melded
10:49elements of horror, film noir and classical European surrealism. Lynch, who originally
10:55studied painting, made his mark on the film industry in the 1970s with the surreal Eraserhead.
11:02His wide-ranging body of work spanned from the neo-noir Mulholland Drive to the eclectic
11:07Twin Peaks. Other famous work included the crime drama Wild at Heart, which won the Palme
11:13d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and the biographical The Elephant Man. He was nominated
11:18for an Oscar four times over the course of his career, eventually receiving an honorary
11:23Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 2019. Lynch's last major project was 2017's Twin Peaks,
11:30The Return, which continued the TV series, which ran for two seasons in the early 1990s.
11:37The cause of his death is currently unknown.