meanwile the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has insisted that his country will press on with its fight against hamas. translation: i want to be clear, the war is ongoing, l it is continuing. we will continue it until we achieve all our objectives. we will eliminate hamas and we ensure that the day after hamas, there will be no factor who will continue educating their children to hate and to eradicate israel, so we will continue eliminating in hamas, in the north, by the way, and in the south, we will continue that effort. our senior international correspondent orla guerin has the latest on the deal and the ongoing conflict. just a warning, some of the images in this report are distressing. a reminder of how all this began on october 7th, hamas gunmen storming across the borderfrom gaza, hunting israelis to kill or capture. around 240 were taken hostage. among them, shiri bibas, trying to shield her two little boys from the horror all around them ten—month—old kfir had just started crawling. ariel, who's four, loves climbing and batman. now they and their mother are expected home in the coming days, along with dozens of other women and children. they don't know yet that hamas killed their grandparents. shiri's cousin, yifat, is caught between hope and torment. i don't know what kind of children will come back to us. the trauma, what they saw. and until i see them in my own eyes, i don't believe any lists of names and i don't believe any news coming today from...anywhere. i need to see them in my own eyes. i need to hold my cousin in my arms. sobbing. but for many in gaza, just the anguish of goodbye. hassan lost his niece, three brothers and his grandmother. relatives say they were killed by an israeli air strike on a residential building. if the ceasefire starts tomorrow as planned, it is too late for this family. gaza is teeming with grief and desperation. this was the struggle for a few bottles of water. the truce will clear a path for hundreds of trucks carrying food, fuel and medical supplies. for now, gaza keeps burying its dead, with more than 100 bodies in this mass grave. the next few days may bring quiet, but israel and hamas have said that after the truce the war will resume. there's been a flurry of diplomatic activity around the hostage negotations, with qatar and other arab states playing a major role. on wednesday, the us thanked its partners in the middle east for helping to mediate. us president biden thanked egypt's president in a phone call on tuesday, calling the leadership of abdel fattah el—sisi and qatari's emir sheikh critical in reaching a deal. us secretary of state antony blinken thanked the saudi foreign minister for negotiating to bring aid to the gaza strip. and earlier, national security council spokesman john kirby echoed these statements, calling the deal a �*significant step�*. this was a deal that took weeks and weeks of hard work across the administration. the team on the ground, obviously here, at the national security council, and personal engagement and leadership by president biden. we think it is a significant step in the right direction. we get more than 50 hostages released back with their families, including what we hope will be three americans, two women and a toddler. so we are grateful for all the work that went into securing this deal, including from our partners, in qatar, in egypt and obviously prime minister netanyahu and his war cabinet which agreed to this deal yesterday. a shortwhile ago i spoke to the political correspondent of the times of israel, tal schneider, about the hostage deal. she's been following developments from tel aviv. tal schneider, thanks forjoining us. if i could start by talking about the hostages. there has been back and forth today about timing and so on. what do we know now about when hostages will be released 7 right now, we're talking about not before friday. it was supposed to start on thursday but a couple of hours ago, israel's national security adviser said that the papers that were supposed to be signed by hamas and the qataris were not signed. earlier yesterday we were told that no papers need to be signed so it is obvious that things are not smooth and they are not very clear but, as we all know, we are dealing with a terror organisation. it is not like it is a state entity, so huge problems with that. is any suggestions to say the hostages may not be released 7 well, it is hard to tell. i do believe that only when we see the hostages in israel we will know that they were released. up untilthen, i mean, israel has been tricked and deceived by the terror organisation for so many times, you know, usually during a ceasefire or during pauses, they kidnap or shoot or refuel — they do lots of things — so it is really problematic to predict anything. i would say you have to see the first batch of people here in israel maybe on friday and then every day another 10 or 12 people, up until 50 and until they are not here, nothing is finalised. the prime minister has said that once the ceasefire is over, the war will resume. is there support for that position in israel? yes, so, first of all, he also said after the first 50, they may extend the ceasefire or a pause day by day on the based of an additional 10—12 people every day, up to around 80. so this may take up to a week or so of this pause. later on, when we have 80 people back in — we know they abducted 240 people — i mean, there are still lots of people that are held in gaza, and i do believe that the government's goal and israel's goal is to keep the fight until hamas is destroyed as a terror organisation, so there is huge support in israel for that goal as well as returning more people. it is hard for me to predict what is going to take place but the government hopes that if they are continuing the military pressure then this will bring the abducted people back or it will get israel closer to a situation where we can get all of the people back, but, you know, things are so fragile and things are so dire, both on the civilian side of the other side, but also in israel, the despair is everywhere so it is really hard to predict what is next. when people see the situation in gaza at the moment, at the moment — the innocent civilians, the effects the bombings has had on them, the humanitarian crisis there, the loss of life, what is the view to that? no—one wants to see kids and civilians�* death anywhere but we do see that with the assistance of idf, people were able to evacuate themselves and before that hamas blocked people from evacuating. we also see the huge amount of tunnels. everybody asking, how come the other side does not have shelter? we see that the entire tunnels as providing shelter for the terrorists but they are not providing anything for the people. so we do hope that people will be able to be saved from the atrocities by escaping to the southern part of gaza strip, yet, we are fully aware of the mass devastation going on on the other side. before the attacks on october 7th and what we have seen the weeks after that, we had seen protests against the prime minister, against benjamin netanyahu. what is the mood amongst israelis now in relation to the president, with the prime minister, rather, is the support there? the support is very low. he gets low point in every types of public polling. having that, since we are at war and we�*re losing people on a day by day basis and also we are bombardment from lebanon and from the southern, you know, from gaza, we are still suffering from rockets, because of the situation of the war, i do not think there a mass movement for him to go but we do expect that once the situation is more stabilised, and i don�*t have to tell you when that will take place, he might be under huge public pressure to go but it is still too early to know anything. i mean, for him, i think it is a bit of a lose—lose situation because even if he has managed to get the people back, the horrific outcome of this war and the devastation of the entire region, in the southern part of israel, 22 villages torched, we have 200,000 internally displaced people, so all this people, internally displaced, murdered, raped, this comes with huge anger towards the government, even if hamas will be destroyed. tal schneider, political correspondent for the times of israel, in tel aviv, thank you forjoining us. thank you. turning now to a major incident that disrupted the us border with canada, for much of wednesday. two people died after a vehicle exploded at rainbow bridge, a crossing point along the border near niagara falls, in western new york. eyewitnesses say the car accelerated at a high speed — you can see it here in the very top of the frame — before hitting a fence and bursting into a ball of fire. four border crossings in the area were closed and the incident led to airport closures and other disruption, as the fbi took over the investigation. new york governor kathy hochul updated reporters earlier about what authorities know so far. there is no evidence at this time that this was a terrorist activity and that is what i want to make very clear to the public, just to calm everybody down. it is really important because based on what is happening in other parts of the world, everybody is on edge and this is an international border and we have always felt a vulnerability there, but this was a — i will not call it an accident, it has not been determined to have been an accident, you do not know whether the driver was intentional in how they drove. we do not know that. a shortwhile ago i spoke to viktoria hallikaar, spectrum news i multimedia journalist based in buffalo, about the explosion. we know this was not a terrorist incident but what did happen earlier? you kind of summarised it a little bit, at around 11:30am, there was a car that accelerated, it hit a barrier and flew up into the air before crashing into the checkpoint on the rainbow bridge between the us and canada. from what we heard from eyewitnesses, it felt like something out of a movie, looking up and seeing a carflying. we spoke to one man who said he thought it was a plane at first before getting a better look at it. it crashed down and burst into flames and it was really scary for a few hours because you never know what is going on. there was that fear it could be a terrorist account and that was lingering over the entire area for multiple hours until we got that confirmation that it was not terrorist related, it seemed to be an accident. and that relieved a lot of people. the border crossing was closed for a few hours while it was unknown what happened. everyone is on the move for thanksgiving. what impact has that had on movement? like you mentioned, busiest travel day of the year and one that�*s one of four border crossings in the area that you could use to get into canada from the us or vice—versa, and there were a lot of people who we spoke to when we were on scene there by the rainbow bridge that said, "i�*m trying to get "across, do you know when the bridge will open, "do you know when i can see my friends and family," and at that point we had no answer, but as the day progressed and we got more information and other bridges started opening, when they came up to us we could tell them, "we recommend going 20—30 minutes down to buffalo take one of those, go up to the lewiston area, taking that bridge because they are open now," and there was a sense of relief that they weren�*t having to spend their days away from their friends and family as they planned and they could go along with what they had for thanksgiving. what is the situation now at the moment? we saw live pictures a few moments ago and there is still a police presence at the crossing. yes, because the bridge remains closed at this point. there is still an investigation into what caused the car to accelerate and crash into the border patrol area and we have to make sure where the explosion was that checkpoint is still safe for people to come through so that area is still closed off. when i was leaving, they were taking some of the barriers away from the blocks surrounding area because those were closed off since the morning. but you can expect to see those police cars there still blocking that off as the investigation continues until the bridge reopens. all right. viktoria hallikaar, thank you very much. of course, thank you. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let�*s look at some other stories making news: sam altman has been reinstated as the ceo of openai, just days after his surprised ouster. the company said it reached an agreement in principle for altman to return, with a new initial board. altman took to x to say that he was "looking forward "to returning to openai and building of its strong "partnership with microsoft." violent clashes marred the world cup qualifier between brazil and argentina on tuesday. the match at rio�*s maracana stadium was delayed by half an hour, after a fight erupted between fans. the argentina team attempted to calm the situation, condemning police for charging at the crowd with night—sticks drawn. and the us says it intercerpted multiple attack drones launched from houthi—controlled areas in yemen on thursday morning. the us central command said on x that the drones were shot down, while us warships were on patrol in the red sea, and that the ship and its crew sustained no damage or injury. you�*re live with bbc news. in the netherlands, exit polls show populist leader geert wilders is heading for a dramatic victory in the the dutch general election. the exit poll published on wednesday projects wilders�*s party for freedom would win 35 out of 150 seats, nine seats ahead of its closest rival, frans timmermans�* labour party and green left alliance. if confirmed, this result could shake up dutch politics and society. after the early exit polls were released, geert wilders declared in a victory speech that his party "can no longer be ignored�*." i am in politics for 25 years now and this is the happiest day of my life so far in politics. we became the number—i party by far. it is what a lot of people, if you would have asked them a year ago, would have called you mad, and it happened today. so i�*m very proud. i�*m very happy, and it brings along a lot of a feeling of responsibility. however, wilders will struggle to find parties to join him in government. the three big parties behind wilders have indicated they have little desire to work with him. our correspondent anna holligan has more from the hague. it�*s fair to say this result has sent shock waves, seismic tremors, through dutch politics and society. many people here were expecting to welcome this woman, dilan yesilgoz, as the first female prime minister of the netherlands. she took over from mark rutte as leader of the centre—right liberal conservative party, and yet now many are accusing her, opponents are accusing her of opening the door to geert wilders, by saying she would be prepared to govern with him, something her predecessor had ruled out. yet wilders has surpassed most people�*s expectations with this result, which means that he now will have the opportunity, if his results are confirmed on thursday, to try to form the next governing coalition. that will not be an easy task, because so many of the parties have already ruled out working with him, and yet, with such a huge proportion of the vote, it looks like it will be very difficult for them to maintain that position, and already some are talking about having to walk over their shadows, to make concessions and compromises, given that so many people have voted for the anti—islam, anti—immigration, radical freedom party and leader geert wilders, who has also talked about taking the netherlands out of the eu, but if wilders can�*t convince enough parties to enter into a governing coalition with him, that task will fall to the next biggest party, which is on the other side of the political spectrum, the greenleft—labour alliance led by frans timmermans, who gave up his european commission job to lead this new bloc, and thatjust gives you a sense of how polarised dutch society is. one of the main tasks of the next coalition government will be to try to unify the people who have dealt such a huge blow to the coalition here. north korea has announced it is entirely scrapping a military deal with the south, the day after the south decided to withdraw from some parts of the agreement. the deal, signed in 2018, was designed to limit military activity along the border, and decrease tensions. the deal established a no—fly zone between the north and south and stopped both militaries operating close to the border. the north said it plans to resume its land, sea, and air operations, and send more powerful weapons to the border. in india, officials say they were confident the 41 workers, trapped in a tunnel for ten days, could be rescued by thursday afternoon. the workers, who were building the tunnel, became trapped inside when part of it caved in on 12th november, due to a landslide. authorities have been able to supply the men oxygen, food, and water through pipes inserted through the debris. rescuers have now drilled three—quarters of the way through the debris of the collapsed road tunnel in uttarakhand state. our south asia correspondent samira hussein updated us from the scene a little earlier. right now, rescue efforts are continuing and from what officials have told us, they are making good progress. what they�*re doing, actually, if you can just look right behind me, you can see that is the mouth of the tunnel, and it is inside there they are drilling a hole, and once they drill that hole, they insert this pipe, about 900 millimetres thick, or wide, rather, and that�*s where they want the construction workers to climb out through. now the last time we got an update, they said they were more than three quarters of the way through. they believe they have to get to about 57 metres, in order to reach those workers that are trapped inside. and what sort of condition are those workers in? yeah, so they have been able to speak with them very early on, at the very beginning, in fact, day one, they were able to put walkie—talkies down that same pipe that they are now using to give the men some food and water, oxygen. and they have been able to communicate that they are in good health. rescue officials continue to maintain them, but 12 days later, they are still in good health. nevertheless, you can see sort of downhill to my right, there are quite a few ambulances that are ready for when they come out. there are already four ambulances inside the tunnel for the men, in case they because we don�*t know whether there are in fact any injuries underneath. rescue officials continue to maintain that they are in good health and in good spirits. have friends and family members begun to gather in anticipation of their release? friends and family have been here for 12 days. now, at the very beginning, there was quite a lot of anger and frustration at the rescue efforts. they weren�*t working fast enough and they didn�*t feel they were getting information. i did get a chance to speak with one family member. his cousin is stuck inside, and he has been here for the last eight days, and he said that, look, i was able to go inside to the tunnel, i was able to speak to my cousin, and he was able to tell me, don�*t worry, i�*m going to be ok, i�*m going to get out, don�*t worry. samira hussain there, at the mouth of the tunnel, thanks for all of those details. today marks 60 years since the assassination of us president, john f kennedy in dallas, texas. mr kennedy was shot and killed, while riding in a presidential motorcade through dealey plaza, by lee harvey oswald, during a visit to the state in 1963. the tragedy defined a generation of americans, including current us president biden, who was a college student at the time. mr biden marked the anniversary with a statement. "on this day, we remember that he saw a nation of light, "not darkness of honor, not grievance, a place "where we are unwilling to postpone the work "that he began and that we all must now carry forward". the mood in washington. stay with us. you can keep up with all of the news on bbc .com. you can follow follow bbc news on all of your favourite social media platforms and of course on the bbc news app. stay with us here on bbc news. hello. we�*re all under the influence of mild atlantic air at the moment. so temperatures were higher on wednesday than they were tuesday. around the moray firth, actually, we had 15 degrees celsius, well above average. but it�*s all about to change. by the end of the day ahead, the cold air�*s established across northern scotland, and across all parts, that arctic air is with us for the start of friday. in fact, it�*s sitting behind this weather front here. so some wetter weather rolling south across scotland through the remainder of the night towards the central belt. really mild and murky to the south of that, some drizzle around the coasts and hills in the west, some hill fog as well. so a fairly unpleasant rush hour for central parts of scotland, southern scotland. that rain pushes its way southwards through the day. further south, though, after a little bit of a grey and murky start, some dampness around, perhaps a little bit more optimistic of getting some sunshine through those clouds during the course of the afternoon because it gets windier. the wind helps to break up the cloud. it�*s mild, though. wetter for the afternoon across parts of northern ireland and northern england. windier as well here — gusts of about 50 miles an hour — but gusts of perhaps 60, 65 miles an hour picking up across scotland, pushing those heavy frequent showers and turning to snow by the end of the day across the northern isles and continuing to blow southwards through the night, blowing that rain out of the way. not much rain left on that weather front by the time it gets to the south and temperatures should still hold up, but it will be far colder further north to start friday morning. and those snow showers, initially at lower levels, probably lifting onto the hills through the day, but it will feel a lot colder. we�*ll really notice that, even where we keep some cloud around, ithink, but particularly for scotland and for eastern parts of england — these are maximums. but, i think, add on the effect of that wind, still blowing a gale across northern and eastern areas, potentially it will feel much, much colder than we�*ve become used to. and, actually, by saturday morning, a widespread frost to greet us, but that means plenty of sunshine. and just a few showers, still, as we see on friday, pestering eastern coastal counties. still that keen breeze here and a wind chill, but i think the winds easing elsewhere. fewer showers around, and we should see not as high temperatures as friday, but actually, without the wind, probably not feeling quite as bitter. still another cold start on sunday, but a question mark as to how quickly the rain comes in from the west. it does look as though we�*ll still see a good deal of dry, bright weather. the best of the sunshine in the morning. voice—over: this is bbc news. we�*ll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk from washington. i�*m stephen sackur. this is a city of power and politics, but also of secrets and spies. in the cold war, the us built the best resourced intelligence agency in the world just down the road at langley. now, the cia has had a chequered history — involved notjust in spying, but assassination attempts and coup plots as well. but now intelligence seems to have entered a different realm of cyber hacking, big data and electronic surveillance. my guest isjonna mendez. at the end of the cold war, she was the cia�*s chief of disguise. is human intelligence still a vital asset? jonna mendez, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. pleasure. well, it�*s great to have you here. what do you think are the qualities you possess that made you a good spy? no—one�*s asked me that before. um... i�*m tenacious, i�*m a... ..a bit adventurous. that�*s how i got into it to begin with. and i think the biggest piece of it was hoping that i had done something worth doing, and that it had made a difference. so the values behind the work were important to you,