and the diplomatic effort to bring a pause to the fighting with negotiations continuing for a fourth day to attempt to secure a unanimous un security council vote on the suspension of hostilities in gaza. meanwhile separate talks are understood to be continuing to arrange another exchange of hostages held by hamas, for palestinian prisoners detained in israel. egypt and qatar are thought to be trying to broker a deal and the leader of hamas which is considered to be a terrorist organisation by the us and many other countries ismail haniyeh, has travelled to egypt, to meet the country s intelligence chief. he s already held talks in iran, which is one of the closest supporters of hamas. israel has released footage of what it claims to be tunnels dug by hamas under gaza city, in the north of the territory. it says the structures, which cover a large area, were used as a base by hamas leaders. the fighting continues inside gaza, where the un says israel has issued evacua
the release includes infamous former defence contractor leonard glenn francis known as fat leonard. he s at the center of one of the us navy s largest corruption cases. in exchange the us has freed alex saab, an aide and top ally to venezuela s president nicolas maduro, accused of laundering money on behalf of the maduro government, which he denies. mr maduro is also releasing 20 venezuelan political prisoners. it s all part of the biden administration s efforts to improve relations with venezuela, and push mr maduro to hold fair elections next year. earlier, i spoke with our reporter mimi swaby about the deal. president byers was emphasising that this was all about encouraging venezuela to hold free and fair elections. how much leveraged you think the biden administration has in that regard? this is yet another sign of significant flowing between relations between the us and venezuela after months of really high level negotiations. this comes as biden is grappling with a
hello, i m christian fraser. you re watching the context on bbc news. a late morning commute with a twist rail passengers in newjersey are delayed due to a bull on the tracks. just a couple of lines of breaking news. we have just heard from the la department of medical examiner that the friends star matthew perry s death has been ruled an accident from the effects of kata mean. you will remember his body was recovered from the jacuzzi in his la home. the examiners are saying that he was suffering acute effects of ketamine. he long talked about his drug problems and addiction, very open about that. we heard from some of his co actors on friends, they said they d spoken to him in the morning he died and he was in fairly good spirits. so something obviously went wrong between that moment and when he was found the next day. and he seemed to have ketamine in his system. and from the bbc, question of sport which has been running for 53 years has been axed due to funding challenge
broadcasting the viewers around the world. florida governor ron desantis has a officially announced that he will be running for us president in 2024. but his much anticipated campaign launch on twitter and audio chat with the site owner elon musk was hit with a series of technical issues. to individuals of technical issues. to individuals who - of technical issues. trr individuals who have done more to loosen. might have surprised many but not those who have worked with elon musk for nearly a quarter century. his freedom as putting money is were, elite institutions and corporate media and it s an incredible honour. to corporate media and it s an incredible honour.- incredible honour. to have governor incredible honour. to have governor ron incredible honour. to have governor ron desantis - incredible honour. to have governor ron desantis to | incredible honour. to have - governor ron desantis to make this announcement. this announcement. (music) and after this announc