Hamas studying Trump-Netanyahu peace plan

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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Alex Ritzen, and at 0500 GMT on Tuesday, the 30th of September, these are our main stories.

As Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu agree a peace plan for Gaza, Hamas says it will review the deal and respond.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers enforce a nationwide internet shutdown to prevent what they see as immorality.

And the US vice president warns a government shutdown is looming.

Also, in this podcast,

I just have the skills, I know how to kill,

and I don't get convicted for it.

The convicts volunteering to serve on the front lines in Ukraine.

We begin in the White House.

Thank you very much, Edward.

Thank you.

And a handshake between U.S.

President Donald Trump and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu in front of the world press as they agreed a peace deal for Gaza, issuing an ultimatum to Hamas, accept it or face the consequences.

The Palestinian Authority reiterated its commitment to work with the U.S.

on the 20-point plan, which says all Israeli hostages must be freed within days, Hamas must disarm, and Israel will withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip.

In the last few hours, Britain, France, and Italy have backed it.

Eight Arab and Muslim nations ranging from Egypt to Indonesia have also said they're on side.

Our North America editor, Sarah Smith, is in Washington and sent this report after that press conference.

Donald Trump likes to say he is the best friend Israel ever had in the White House, who's been trying for months to get his pal, Benjamin Netanyahu, to agree to a deal to end the war in Gaza.

The upbeat expressions today show they have now found something Israel can sign up to, even though Hamas have not yet agreed.

So, this is a big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilization.

I believe that today

we're taking a critical step towards both ending the war in Gaza

and setting the stage for dramatically advancing peace in the Middle East

and I think beyond the Middle East and very important Muslim countries.

If, and this is the big if, Hamas agree to this, then all hostages will be returned, Israel will start to withdraw troops from Gaza and allow aid to start flowing in.

Hamas will not be involved in governing Gaza.

It will be run by an international transitional administration.

The tyranny of terror has to end, and this is again

something that we're looking for.

This is eternity.

This is for

forever.

To ensure the success of this effort, my plan calls for the creation of a new international oversight body, the Board of Peace, we call it the Board of Peace, sort of a beautiful name.

The Board of Peace will be chaired by President Trump himself, with other statesmen involved.

And one of the people that wants to be on the board is the UK former Prime Minister Tony Blair, good man, very good man,

and some others.

We got no further details on Tony Blair's precise role.

He's called this a bold and intelligent plan that offers us the best chance of ending two years of war, misery, and suffering.

Last week at the United Nations, many countries walked out in protest as Mr.

Netanyahu began a defiant address, demonstrating the international pressure he is under to end the war.

But Donald Trump told him, if Hamas do not agree to this deal, then Israel can do what it thinks is required.

I have a feeling that we're going to have a positive answer, but if not, as you know, Bibi, you'd have more full backing to do what you would have to do.

Everyone understands that the ultimate result must be the elimination of any danger posed in the region

and that danger is caused by Hamas.

America's full backing to do what you have to do.

An ominous warning, perhaps, of what could happen if Hamas do not sign up to this deal and Israel is no longer constrained by Mr.

Trump's desire to make peace.

President Trump's view on this, clear as always.

But how is the peace plan being received on the ground?

Israel has blocked the BBC and other international broadcasters from reporting inside Gaza, and we rely on information from trusted freelance journalists there.

So, with Hamas yet to respond, could the deal be finished before it begins?

On Monday, leaflets warning civilians to evacuate Gaza City were being dropped from the sky.

Lucy Williamson sent this report from Jerusalem.

The message from Israel's army to Gaza City, we're coming.

Leaflets warning residents to evacuate dropped on its streets as tanks advanced on the city's central government district.

The battle against Hamas will not stop until it's defeated, they read.

Donald Trump's promise of a deal barely landing here at all.

But Atiyah Shamala was one of those hoping for it, though it came too late to save his brother or his house.

The proposal is good.

We support anything that stops the bloodshed.

We support anything that saves lives.

And we support support Arab forces coming here to the Gaza Strip to organize our internal affairs.

Israel's Prime Minister has repeatedly vowed to finish Hamas.

Today, sounding deflated beside Donald Trump, he agreed to end the war.

But if Hamas rejects your plan, Mr.

President, or if they

supposedly accept it and then

basically do everything to counter it,

then Israel will finish the job by itself.

This can be done the easy way

or it can be done the hard way.

But ending a war in Washington risks opening a new political front at home.

Israeli protesters have long called for a deal to free the hostages, while the Prime Minister's coalition allies have threatened to leave if there's any talk of a Palestinian state.

One opposition leader told Mr.

Netanyahu to ignore what he called the threats of extremists in his government, saying he had the support of the public and the parliament.

Lucy Williamson with that report.

And we asked her how soon we might have a response from Hamas.

The BBC understands that Hamas has now been given the proposal, it's said that it will review it, but it needs both its commanders on the ground and its leadership abroad to agree what to do.

And the sense that some of my colleagues have been getting is that there are military commanders on the ground in Gaza who are still very robust, who still want war.

One of the concessions, it seems, that has been made to Israel in this proposal is the language around a future Palestinian state.

It talks about the aspirations of the Palestinian people, about how conditions may finally be in place after all the reform of the PA.

That sounds like a very long path

with a lot of ifs.

That may be too much for Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition allies, but it may be too little for Hamas.

Lucy Williamson.

Schools, hospitals, businesses, and homes in Afghanistan are all without the internet after the Taliban cut it off in the ongoing fight against what they consider immorality.

The country is, in other words, currently under a nationwide communications blackout.

Our global affairs reporter Anbarasan Etirajan told us more.

It's a massive blow for free speech

already the Afghan people are going through a difficult time with various restrictions by the Taliban since they seized power in twenty twenty one.

Secondary schools are off for girls, university education is off and workplaces severe restrictions, and they have even been removing books written by women.

Most homes and offices will have fiber optic, basically cable based Internet, which is high speed more stable than mobile internet connection what you get on your mobile phone so many of these offices or homes won't be having any access to fiber optic because they have been now cut off and the taliban they say until further instructions this will last what they were doing was initially they were rolling it out in a few provinces now this is the first time they are doing a nationwide blackout.

This has come as a huge blow and shock for the people of Afghanistan.

Even the mobile internet, the quality is not great.

You have to pay more money and you can't do a lot of videos on mobile internet.

Afghanistan has gone into darkness.

And the Taliban think this is what God wants them to do?

Well, they say what they describe as immorality or to prevent people from abusing internet, they want to have a total control.

Are they afraid of Afghan opposition groups communicating with each other or talking to people that are...

They're not facing Sharia law, law, aren't they?

They see it as God's Word.

It's basically

their own version of Islamic Sharia law, their own interpretation, because the interpretation differs in other parts of the world.

Even the restrictions on women, education, workplace, that's all based on according to their interpretation of Islamic law.

But what it has done to families is a lot of people depend on remittances from abroad, people sending money from here to their families there.

So if you cut off fiber internet, then that means many of these exchanges will have difficulty in accessing, that will be affected.

And for businesses, especially import, exports.

So, nobody knows what's going to happen tomorrow morning when the country wakes up to this new reality.

The problem is the country is going through a difficult economic situation.

And even if you can't get money sent from abroad by your relatives because of this internet blackout, how are they going to survive?

So, it is like Afghanistan going back to dark ages.

The internet is not just about for entertainment, for medical purposes.

when hospital records, all these things, they use fiber optic internet.

So no one knows why they are doing it and what they are trying to achieve through this kind of decrease.

And Barasan Etirajan.

A federal budget standoff is threatening to shut down the U.S.

government for the first time in almost seven years.

I think we're headed to a shutdown because the Democrats won't do the right thing.

Democrats are fighting to protect the health care of the American people.

And we are not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans.

Period, full stop.

U.S.

Vice President J.D.

Vance and Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries there after a meeting at the White House aimed at avoiding a government shutdown on Wednesday.

As you can hear, it didn't seem to go very well.

Neither side has been able to agree to a way forward on a spending bill introduced by the Republicans.

Our business correspondent, Michelle Fleury, reports from New York.

A meeting between President Trump and the top four leaders of Congress ended without any breakthrough.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said significant differences remained, while Vice President J.D.

Vance warned a government shutdown was coming.

Now they come in here saying that if you don't give us everything

that we want, we're going to shut down the government.

We think that's preposterous.

We think it's totally unacceptable.

And we think the American people are going to suffer because these guys won't do the right thing.

Now, even though Republicans currently control the White House and both chambers of Congress, they still need Democratic support in the Senate to get any funding bill passed.

That's because 60 votes are required and the GOP only has 53.

Democrats are holding firm and one of their key demands is more support for healthcare.

They want to extend tax credits that help millions of Americans afford insurance and reverse Medicaid cuts introduced under Donald Trump.

If no agreement is reached by midnight on Tuesday, the government shuts down for the first time in nearly seven years.

Now, while the immediate economic impact might seem limited, the consequences could grow quickly.

For starters, the shutdown would halt operations at the Bureau of Labour Statistics, meaning Friday's crucial jobs report would be delayed.

And that matters because job growth has already been slowing.

And with fresh warnings from the White House Budget Office about its intention to use a potential shutdown as an opportunity to initiate permanent layoffs, well, the pressure on the labour market is building.

So this isn't just a political standoff.

It's a moment that could ripple through the economy, just as many Americans are feeling more financially uncertain.

Michelle Fleury,

a trade deal that's been the cornerstone of US-Africa economic relations for 25 years is set to expire later today.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act has allowed dozens of sub-Saharan countries to export products to the U.S.

duty-free, but as Akisa Wanderer reports from Kenya, hundreds of thousands of jobs now hang in the balance.

In Nairobi, the hum of sewing machines fills the air at Shona,

a garment factory in the export processing zone.

29-year-old Joanne Momboy, an operator at this factory, moves her hands and feet in rhythm on the sewing machine, stitching together pieces of fabric.

She's been doing this job for only six months.

A single mother, she supports her four-year-old daughter, two sisters in college, and her mother.

I'm a breadwinner in my family,

and I'm managing myself, my beef, and my everything.

Like, it's gonna hit me hard.

Like, starting to look for new job opportunities.

This Kenya is hard to find a job.

Like very hard.

On this factory floor, hundreds of workers are stitching clothes meant for the American markets.

For them, Agoa is not just an agreement, it means steady jobs.

But with the act expiring today, they're worried for their livelihoods and what it would mean for their families.

Joanne understands the expiry won't just affect her.

It could disrupt the livelihoods of hundreds of her colleagues.

It expires, where shall we go?

This company holds a lot of youths, a lot of single mothers.

People are here to maybe look for school fees.

There are few people there from the streets.

They were drug addicts, so if it expires, we might go back there.

In 2024, Kenya exported $470 million worth of apparel to the US, supporting more than 66,000 direct jobs, three-quarters of them women.

Isaac Maluki, director at Shona EPZ, says his factory has the capacity to produce nearly half a million garments each month.

But this year, output has fallen to almost a third of that following the announcement of Agoa's impending expiry.

After all these years of investments,

it may just come down to having to close down because if we can't get enough work to sustain the people here, then we'll have no choice.

The stakes are high.

Isaac Maluki explains just how much has been invested over the years.

If the extension doesn't happen, you know, we are looking at for our facility

north of ten million dollars of investment going down the drain.

African leaders have been lobbying Washington for Agoa's extension, pressing their case at the United Nations General Assembly.

Kenya's trade minister Lee Kinyanjui says the government is seeking an extension while exploring new markets.

An ideal situation would be the extension of the Agora, maybe for one year or two years, so that some of these transition mechanisms can be done.

Across the continent, governments, businesses, and workers remain hopeful that what has been built for the past 25 years through this agreement can be preserved.

Akisa Wandera in Nairobi.

Still to come.

When I talk to refugees in the camps, they all tell me they want to go home.

But what it does pinpoint is obviously there's an issue when there are no homes to go home to.

A UN-backed report says the Burmese army has replaced Rohingya villages it destroyed with military camps.

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With both Ukraine and Russia struggling to recruit enough soldiers for the war, they're turning to convicts who may be more willing to take up arms.

Over the past year, Ukraine has recruited more than 10,000 men from prisons.

Russia has long done the same, albeit on a greater scale.

The Ukrainian law allows criminals, including murderers, to join the military, but excludes those convicted of some offences like multiple killings and rape.

In exchange for fighting, inmates will be granted parole once the war is over, but given how many usually end up in the most dangerous parts of the front line, few will make it that far.

Our correspondent, James Waterhouse, has been to see how the scheme works in practice.

Welcome to the number four penal colony.

This is a medium security prison, and you wonder what maximum looks like as we side in through the double iron gate.

And through we go.

A third thick metal door with heavy barbed wire overhead.

And we are here in the central city of Zhotomir to see Ukraine's latest method

of recruiting soldiers.

After many stairs, we're now in this side room to meet Roman in his brown overalls.

He's serving five years for drug offences,

but he could be out soon after signing up for the military.

This is a contribution, rehabilitation to myself, he tells me.

Everyone will end up on the front line in any case sooner or later.

With the passing of time Ukraine's appetite to fight is decreasing and yet inside these hostile looking walls is a well of motivation.

500 out of the thousand or so inmates here have signed up so far, but only half of them have survived.

Would you describe that as a meat grinder?

I don't know

the source of information of this.

Ukraine's Deputy Justice Minister disputes the numbers which we gleaned from the prison's governor.

Yeah, Evian Picardo, Deputy Minister of Justice for Ukraine.

Can you not see that if you are say from a poor background, you've been a career criminal, is that not exploiting that vulnerability in some way?

We simply provide an opportunity for them to defend and protect our country.

That's it.

So, what does that entail?

Well, here in southern Ukraine, there are 30 or so ex-convicts who've returned from the front line.

They're turning this barn into a military base.

In the corner is Alexei.

He's got a pretty serious-looking leg injury.

We were hit by artillery.

Only three of us came back.

Alexei is a convicted drug smuggler.

I just have the skills.

I know how to kill.

And I don't get convicted for it.

Back to Yevhen Bikalo, the Deputy Justice Minister.

Say you were the mother of a son who was run over by a drunk driver.

And now they are learning that the person responsible could have their sentence slashed.

How do you think they would react to that, and what would you say to them?

He released on condition.

If this guy commits another crime, he will go back to jail and will serve not only new sentence but the old one.

These men are central to a new assault unit in Ukraine's military, where their main job will be storming Russian positions.

But critics call these missions meat grinders.

We entered Russian trenches and they mistook us for them.

Our equipment is similar to theirs, and we were addressed same.

We took them apart.

We were there for around 10 days.

Then the shelling started.

One of those was Andri.

He was among the first convicts to join the army since the law changed a year ago.

You immediately notice his various tattoos and broad grain.

He is a career burglar, but, as his shiny medal denotes, is now a hero in the eyes of the state.

What you've done is so dangerous.

If you were a free man, would you have volunteered in the same part of the military?

Of course, I would.

I've committed many evil deeds for this country.

I would definitely go fight and do the job I'm 100% good at.

Russia was criticized for recruiting prisoners earlier in the war, with around 200,000 ending up on the battlefield.

It's an uncomfortable comparison for the Ukrainians, but their search for able men will only deepen.

James Waterhouse.

Ecuador's largest indigenous rights group has staged protests and been on strike since President Daniel Naboa announced a cut in fuel subsidies earlier this month.

The latest clash has left one civilian dead and twelve soldiers injured.

It's understood an aid convoy, including the President, was ambushed late on Sunday.

Our correspondent Ione Wells told us more.

We heard today from the Ecuadorian government that a convoy that was carrying humanitarian aid to one of the areas impacted by the strike was attacked by what they described as 350 people throwing Molotov cocktails, throwing rocks at the convoy.

Now, the convoy included President Daniel Naboa himself, as well as diplomats, including delegations from the UN, from the EU, from Italy, from the Vatican,

as well as some other more junior ministers as well.

Now, I understand that the ministers and diplomats who were on board were not harmed, but in some of these clashes that have taken place and this ambush, there were 12 members of the military who were injured.

There have been pretty graphic videos posted on social media of some of them covered in blood as a result of these clashes.

17 military personnel have been taken hostage, according to the government, as well, with no further updates yet on their whereabouts.

And the indigenous community say that one member of their community was also shot three times and died in hospital.

Now I asked the government for comment on this.

They said that this was being looked into, there was an investigation and the prosecutor's office would investigate the circumstances of this case.

But I think it is fair to say that the situation in Ecuador is feeling incredibly precarious.

It's worth stressing too for context that this indigenous organization which has been behind the general strike and behind the protests was largely credited with taking down three different presidents of the the country in the past.

So I think this is something which is certainly making the government nervous, as well as potentially leading to further unrest in the coming weeks ahead.

Ioni Wells.

UN investigators say they found clear evidence that the Burmese army has replaced the Rohingya villages and homes it destroyed inside Myanmar with military infrastructure.

People from the Burmese Muslim minority fled the offensive in 2017 and are still living in crowded refugee camps, mainly in neighboring Bangladesh.

Nicholas Kurnjian led the investigation team.

We looked at seven different village tracks, which include multiple villages, and in each of these village tracks, the areas where there were Rohingya villages, now they're a military base, a border guard police base.

I think the report shows how systematic that demolition of Rohingya villages and construction of bases was.

Have you heard reaction to this report from Rohingya refugees?

It's a huge problem for them because, still, when I talk to the refugees, they tell me they want to go home.

That's consistently the message that I get.

They don't have a real life in a refugee camp.

There's no permanent desire on their part or anyone else's that they permanently settle in Bangladesh.

They want to go back to their homes, which is in Rakhine State in Myanmar.

But what it does pinpoint is obviously there's an issue when there are no homes to go home to.

And just remind us how many people we're talking about having been displaced by this war.

In total, more than a million.

And in 2017, over three quarters of a million were displaced to Bangladesh.

Some have gone to other countries, and recently another 150,000 have been displaced.

It's a burden on Bangladesh and many of the other regional states that are hosting refugees.

Malaysia, for example, has about 200,000.

Thailand has many hundreds of thousands of refugees from different parts of Myanmar.

So it is extremely burdensome.

It's not simply a domestic issue.

It's an international issue.

But how close are we to conditions where they could return safely?

What is the state of the conflict there?

Well, the conflict is

very severe at the moment.

The Arakan army, an opposition group, is battling the de facto authorities and the military authorities.

Military authorities are conducting widespread airstrikes throughout the region, and there are battles between both.

There are allegations of forced conscription of young men.

So it's a very unsafe situation at the moment.

There are so many wars going on in the world at the moment, this one tends to get overlooked, doesn't it, at the moment?

Yes, unfortunately, that's true.

People, the news cycle moves on, but the refugees remain exactly where they have been for the past eight and a half years.

Nicholas Kumzian speaking to Paul Henley.

And finally, a billionaire known as the Bitcoin Queen has pleaded guilty to cryptocurrency crime in a UK court after she fled China with 61,000 Bitcoins and tried to launder the money, buying mansions in London.

Jimin Chen, also known as Yadi Zhang, entered guilty pleas to charges of possessing cryptocurrency that was criminal property and transferring it.

Stephanie Prentice has the details.

When police raided a house in a leafy London borough in 2018 while investigating a suspicious property purchase, they had no idea of the value of the belongings they seized.

Among them, devices containing Bitcoin worth around $5 billion in today's prices.

It was being stored by Jemine Chen and her assistant, former Chinese takeaway worker Jian Won, and is thought to be the proceeds of an investment fraud in China between 2014 and 2017, which tricked more than 120,000 people.

It wasn't until 2021 that investigators realised they'd been storing billions of dollars, by which point Jumin Chen had gone missing, only being apprehended in the north of England three years later.

Her lawyers say she fled China under duress, citing a government crackdown on crypto entrepreneurs and stressed that she intends to pay the money back.

A digital diary found by police outlines her plans to build a small kingdom between Croatia and Serbia that she intended to rule with the crown and scepter, featuring infrastructure including an airport and a Buddhist temple.

As the trial unfolds, China's government and UK authorities are battling in a separate case over ownership of the Bitcoin fortune.

Stephanie Prentiss.

And that's all from us for now, but there'll be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later.

If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email.

The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk.

You can also find us on X at BBC World Service use the hashtag Global Newspod.

This edition was mixed by Caroline Driscoll.

The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Alex Ritson.

Until next time, goodbye.