Humanitarian reasons. Around 200 hostages are still being held in gaza, and israels 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. Lets bring you more now on the fate of those two american hostages freed by hamas. Us President Joe 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 didnt say
Now this has to be the best possible way to arrive in istanbul down the mighty bosphorus. Its this body of water that separates the city but also separates continents. And look at that, that silhouette with the domes, the minaretsjust popping up above the horizon. That is dolmabahce palace. Thats where the founder of the republic, Mustafa Kemal ataturk, set about the business of transforming turkey. And from the past to the present, this is taksim district, the heart of modern istanbul. Getting an ice cream in turkey seems like a bit of an extreme sport. I mean, its very. Its for you. She laughs one vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, pistachio. Tram bell dings these european style heritage trams have their roots back in 1871, when they were horse powered and later became electric. I love a tram. Thats notjust because im from melbourne. Something quite nice about the pace of it and also, going right through the middle of the city. Everyone s scarpering out of the way. Its a really nice way
Were in israel visiting family. Hamas said the pair were freed for humanitarian reasons. The white house says that President Biden has spoken to the released us hostages and theirfamily by phone. In a Statement Issued shortly after their release was secured, President Biden said. Us Secretary Of State Antony Blinken has said he was relieved the women had been released but reminded that many others are still being held. Theres still ten additional americans who remain unaccounted for in this conflict. We know that some of them are being held hostage by hamas, along with an estimated 200 other hostages held in gaza. They include men, women, young boys, young girls, elderly people, from many nations. Every single one of them should be released. 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
Is the normal midterm blues, but on steroids. What were seeing here is partly because of that mood of the nation, partly because the brand, the tory brand, the conservative party brand was damaged in September 2022 and earlier through partygate as well, and that is still feeding through into the public psyche. So, yes, to some degree, theres a pattern and its feeding through to the by elections. But patterns can also be broken by unexpected events. All change in a land normally wary of the new. Tories will be hoping there will be limits to these new habits. Thats all from us. Im back on monday. Until then, have a good weekend. Goodbye. Breaking news from Around The World 2a hours a day, this is bbc news. Rabbi meir hecht knows bothjudith and Natalie Raanan personally. He spoke to me just after the news of their release. Judith prays every week in our congregation, for every sabbath, every holiday, and we miss her and shes been a part of our congregation in such an important way, and as
We know that every games a tough game. Afghanistan today was no different. You know, we obviously started off pretty well, but there was moments in the game there where, you know, we were kind of battling a little bit and it was kind of on a knife edge for a while, so it was nice to get to a score. I guess that partnership between tom and gp was massive for us and then, you know, the pressure of the new ball always helps. We know afghanistan are a quality side and they showed that the other day. Manchester uniteds hopes of a first appearance in the group stage of the Womens Champions League were ended by defeat to Paris St Germain in the second round of qualifying. Marc skinners side came into the second leg in the french capital optimistic of getting past the two time finalists after having come back to draw 1 1 in last weeks first leg at leigh sports village. But despite a decent display, they were undone by a superior psg side. Elsewhere, glasgow city never looked like overturning n