with theirfamilies in israel. it follows mediation efforts by the gulf state of qatar, with hamas, designated as a terror organisation by many western governments, including the uk, saying they were freed for humanitarian reasons . around 200 hostages are still being held in gaza, and israel s airstrikes and total siege of the territory, cutting off food, water and medicines, will not end until all of them are freed. desperately needed humanitarian aid has still not reached the besieged people of gaza. emergency aid trucks stocked with supplies sit on the border with egypt, waiting to be let across the rafah crossing as part of a deal to allow in limited aid. let s bring you more now on the fate of those two american hostages freed by hamas. us presidentjoe biden spoke with the two women after their release on friday, telling them that their government quote will fully support them as they recover and heal. and secretary of state anthony blinken said he s relieved the
humanitarian reasons. around 200 hostages are still being held in gaza, and israel s airstrikes and total siege of the territory, cutting off food, water and medicines, will not end until all of them are freed. desperately needed humanitarian aid has still not reached the besieged people of gaza. emergency aid trucks stocked with supplies sit on the border with egypt waiting to be let across the rafah crossing as part of a deal to allow in limited aid. let s bring you more now on the fate of those two american hostages freed by hamas. us presidentjoe biden spoke with the two women, telling them that their government will fully support them as they recover and heal. our correspondent barbara plett usher brings us more from inside the halls of the state department. the release of the hostages disrupted the day here at the state department. we were sitting down for the daily briefing and then we were told that it would be delayed for two hours because of breaking news. now, they
just released this photo on x, formerly known as twitter, showing natalie and judith on that call with biden. mr biden also released a statement after their release was secured saying, i am overjoyed that they will soon be reunited with their family, who has been wracked with fear. from the earliest moments of this attack, we have been working around the clock to free american citizens who were taken hostage by hamas, and we have not ceased our efforts to secure the release of those who are still being held. earlier, us secretary of state anthony blinken said the us is relieved about the hostage release. our correspondent barbara plett usher has more. the release of the hostages disrupted the day here at the state department. we were sitting down for the daily briefing and then we were told that it would be delayed for two hours because of breaking news. now, they didn t say what the breaking news was, but we knew what it was. and so when we returned to the briefing room, the
famous centres for science in the world. on the border of switzerland and france, this place has been expanding our horizons for decades. its high energy physics research has helped reveal the secrets of our existence. and i have been allowed in it to meet some of those at the cutting edge. 2500 people work here. 12,000 more pour over the results of the experiments. here at cern it is a really unique community. it is an international group of people, so we are from all over the world. cern is an exciting melting pot of projects and ideas. you see people in restaurantl having tea with their friends and they work on a myriad of different projects. you can knock on the door of a nobel prize winning scientist, ask them a question, and they will say, come in. let s talk about it and have a coffee. any young boy or girl s dream to work in science, right, is to go to a place which is like a town of science, and that is what cern really is. it s buzzing with the ideas. it s also