This BBC Podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to peer deeper into the universe than ever before, unlocking some of its greatest secrets, but after launch, a devastating flaw emerged. The significant spherical aberration appears to be present in the optics. National disaster, humble launch of Flood Mirror. The BBC Space Podcast 13 minutes is telling the inside story of how NASA rescued Hubble. The future of space astronomy depends on it. From the BBC World Service, 13 minutes, trouble with Hubble, all ever-sales available now, wherever you get your BBC Podcasts. Welcome to The Haunted Library. Join me, Colin Morgan, as I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. A story of science and ambition, loneliness and longing, and what it truly means to be human. Listen to The Haunted Library, wherever you get your podcasts, or find us on YouTube. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Celia Hatten, and at 14 hours GMT on Friday, the 30th of October, these are our main stories. Hundreds of stranded Ukrainians have been offered safe passage out of the besiege city of Aleshki, described by some as Hell on Earth. We speak with a journalist monitoring nearby. The cryptocurrency giant Binance has suffered a massive theft, and it appears to have started with a hacked laptop belonging to one of its engineers. We look at reports that North Korea was involved. Also in this podcast, for a kiwi, if you eat the whole fruit, including the furry outside, that's going to give you about 50 percent more fiber than if you just ate the juicy middle bit on its own. A fresh approach to fruit and vegetables. We start in Ukraine, and a lot of focus is now on the southern city of Aleshki, which has been on the front line under Russian occupation since the start of the war. 24,000 people once lived there, though that population has shrunk in the last few years to around 2000, and many still there have been desperate to leave. Over the last three days, that opportunity has materialized. A temporary ceasefire is now in place, broken in part by the US First Lady Melania Trump and Pope Leo. That's already allowed minds to be cleared and aid convoys to enter. And today, there was a four-hour formal evacuation window for Aleshki's residents to actually leave. As we record the podcast, that period was due to close a couple of hours ago. Zarina Zabriski is a US journalist in the Ukrainian city of Hersun just across the river from Aleshki. I spoke to her during the evacuation window. Just about nine months ago, nobody ever heard about Aleshki, and starting in December 2025, there were reports arriving that there is no food, no power, no gas, no heat, pretty much nothing. And as the months went by, the situation deteriorated, I've been speaking to the residents for about nine months by now, and I saw how it developed basically into a humanitarian crisis. Finally, the world heard about it, and now we have the ceasefire. Right now, as we speak, 750 seats are available on 25 buses plus ambulances to pick up people who want to leave Aleshki, and we know that there are about 1500 to 2000 people still reside in there. We don't have the exact number. From my sources, I understand that anywhere from 300 to 1000 want to evacuate, but nobody gives an exact number. I don't believe at this point anybody knows how many people actually want to leave. However, within the last two hours or so, we started to receive the signal from Starlings installed around the hospital in Aleshki, and that has been done especially for this online streaming. So we started to receive the first fragments of people arriving people with their bags, people with their pads waiting for evacuation. Tell me more about what you've been able to see, just in the past couple of hours now that that Starlick internet connection has been restored. So you've been able to watch this being live stream, this evacuation process? There's very short fragments here and there on Telegram channels. I don't believe they are anywhere in their official information space yet, but I saw Mr. Lubinets, who is the Ukrainian Ombudsman speaking to a few ladies who are waiting to be evacuated. They are crying, they are giving him hugs. He's saying that he didn't do it by himself. He's saying that both the United States and Russia were critical in arranging this evacuation process. Serena, you said you've been speaking to people, though, who've been stranded in Aleshki over the past few months. Can you tell me more about their day-to-day life, what they've encountered? I've been interviewing close to 100 by now. People, some of them managed to escape, some of their communicated anonymously online, some of them were passing information through their relatives. There's a lot of fear associated with speaking to journalists or just speaking up period. The people in Aleshki and their nearby territories will have to understand that we're not speaking just about Aleshki. There are a lot of villages all around and people they experience in the same humanitarian crisis. So these people have been subjected to Russian physical violence for four years. Many have disappeared, many have been killed, many have been tortured or imprisoned. So to get somebody to speak is not an easy process. But after you get their trust enough, they open up to you, especially those who managed to escape. There was in spring when the car still could break through. Many have lost their lives and limbs or minds trying to get out. But those who did come to Ukraine spoke to me about horrendous scenes, really. Zarina Zabriski. Vitaly Shepchenko from BBC Monitoring gave me an update on the evacuation process. As far as I understand, this is roughly the time when those wishing to evacuate, were supposed to have boarded the buses and depart Aleshki. And then both Russian and Ukrainian delegations were supposed to start handing out humanitarian aid to those who want to stay in Aleshki. And as far as cease fires in Ukraine go, this is a very unusual truth. First of all, because of the fact that it's lasted so long, and it's tempting to see what's going on in Aleshki as a sign of hope of Russia and Ukraine finally coming together to resolve their differences and try and help civilians. But the reality is that Russian attacks, because of which so many civilians have been dying, they continue just yesterday, more than 20 people died across Ukraine. So this is a very local story. There's probably a glimmer of hope in it, but there's so much more that needs to be done to help civilians across Ukraine. You said the truth in itself is a bit unusual, but we know that thousands of Ukrainians have fled Russian occupied territory throughout the course of this war. What hopes do they have of being able to return home again? Do we have examples of that? It is possible to leave occupied territories via Russia and then make your way into Ukraine, for example, via Belarus. And that's the plan that we're having placed for Aleshki. First, these people on board the buses will be taken to Anapa, which is a city in southern Russia. And then they're supposed to fly to Hormel in Belarus and then into Ukraine itself. And that's one big reason why so many local residents and Ukrainian citizens are unofficial, are suspicious of the plan. Why can't they just cross the river and go to Ukraine? Vitaly, what's this situation along all of the front line right now? It is Russia getting more territory, is Ukraine able to claw back some territory in places? This year Russian troops, they haven't really gained any territory. In fact, Russian troops have been on the back foot in parts of the front line. And this appears to be a huge reason where Russia seems to have switched to any tactic where the number of attacks, killing civilians, it's skyrocketing. The United Nations says that just this year,
the number of civilian casualties shot up by 55% compared to last year. And many analysts are saying that this is because Russia wants to make Ukraine unlivable because it's struggling to make any progress whatsoever on the front line. And on another story, Vitaly, that's happening today as well. We're hearing reports that the independent news outlet, Novaya Gazeta, says it's closing after years of pressure from the Kremlin. What impact will that closure have? It's largely symbolic at this stage, Celia. It was a beacon of independent daring brave Russian journalism. At least five of its journalists were killed after publishing articles critical of the government. It's co-founder Dmitry Muratov was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. But at this stage, it wasn't being printed in Russia. Its website was blocked. And now it's saying, look, we just can't go on. We're being evicted. And it's time to close. Vitaly Shabchenko. Let's focus now on what appears to be an attempt to steal an eye-watering sum of cryptocurrency. The Crypto-Giant Binance says it suffered a huge security breach involving a laptop belonging to one of its own engineers. And that appears to have led to a hack linked to more than six billion dollars of crypto funds. Half of that money has now been frozen. All together, this appears to be the largest crypto theft in history. But Binance is already doing damage control. It's posted a series of messages saying that users funds are safe. And also saying it would cover all losses from this episode. Our correspondent in Tokyo, Kurumi Mori, is watching this for us. Cybersecurity analysts have attributed this attack with high confidence, by the way, to traitor. That's an elite hacking group linked to North Korea. And that is the latest that we're kind of looking into at the moment. But Pyongyang has repeatedly been accused of using cryptocurrency theft to generate revenue. A lot of the proceeds will lead, by the way, to help fund its weapons programs. And this has been going on for years. But we're hearing, you know, blockchain intelligence firms saying that this group was likely responsible in this finance hack. The breach may have originated from a hacked a laptop that belonged to a Binance engineer. And that has allowed attackers, North Korean attackers to access the company's systems and therefore make these unauthorized withdrawals of this huge amount. Binance has so far, like, located about three billion dollars of the missing assets. The company saying it will recover all the losses and assuring customers that their money is still safe. But a lot of cryptocurrency companies, several of them have moved to freeze the stolen funds, issuers of tether and circle. The other cryptocurrencies have also frozen a lot of their assets and linked to the incident. But this breach really raises fresh concerns about the security of cryptocurrency exchanges. And also the growing sophistication of North Korea's cyber operations, which we've kind of have kept an eye on over the years. I mean, this has rattled financial markets. We saw Bitcoin fall about 3% to 5%, which is quite a low. But I do want to put that into perspective because the last time in the early days of these hackings in cryptocurrency, we saw the price drop 20 to 30%. So compared to that, we're now seeing a more mature market. But last thing I'll say about the North Korean hackers in 2025, they were reportedly stole at least $2.02 billion in cryptocurrency in 2025. Again, this number today with Binance is much bigger. But cryptocurrency theft is one of the biggest money makers for North Korea. Could roomy worry. Still to come in this podcast. With tobacco control, for example, you have the finance ministry's involved health, education, frontline services. And we're arguing that that's what we need in response to the complexity of the manuscript. Researchers say the manuscript should be treated as a public health problem. The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to pair deeper into the universe than ever before, unlocking some of its greatest secrets. But after launch, a devastating flaw emerged. National disaster, Hubble launched with Flood Mirror. From the BBC World Service, 13 minutes, trouble with Hubble. All ever sayings available now, wherever you get your BBC Podcasts. The real-life dramas of one of Italy's most prominent denisties, Fiat's Agnieli family. Fiat was so important in Italy's economy. Italy was Fiat, Fiat was Italy. Inheritance Fiat from the BBC World Service. It's about money. Power the Successional story. Listen now, wherever you get your BBC Podcasts. A question of science is back with a brand new series. Join me, Professor Brian Cox, and a studio audience as we discuss and debate the most pressing scientific questions of the day. Questions such as, how is AI transforming medicine? Can we cure addiction? How can we save our oceans? Can we beat superbooks? Every episode driven by your curiosity answered, and this is the most important bit by a panel of people who know what they are talking about. Listen to series two of the question of science now, wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News Podcast. To Syria now, it's been almost two years since the Assad regime was toppled there. Since then, President Ahmad Al-Sharah has led the country's transition and efforts to revive Syria's broken economy after a long period of isolation and conflict. There was never any doubt about how challenging this would be, but many people say their lives financially have worsened in some ways amid a growing cost of living crisis. From essential bills to basic items, the cost of almost everything has gone up. Our Middle East correspondent Hugo Bachega reports. Syrians are struggling, and some of the anger has been felt in the streets. This is a country still trying to recover after more than a decade of war. But now, it's the economy that's putting pressure on people, and they are protesting. The fall of the Assad regime two years ago gives Syrians hope. Before many, life has yet to improve. With this situation, God help people. It's so expensive. I don't know how people are surviving. Fatima is 50 and a mother of two teenage boys. Her husband works in a factory, but his pay isn't enough to make and smear, and she's now a house cleaner. She says her grocery bill has doubled in the past year. We came to the vegetable market with her while she did her weekly shop. We eat more sparingly now. We can't afford chicken anymore normally. We only eat vegetables, but even vegetables are expensive now. We aren't starving, but we're hungry. We're still at the market and we'll just be surrounded by a dozen men of all ages who really want to share how difficult it's been for them in the last two years. This is my one, a pension. I even had to sell things from my house to make through the month, like an old port or plates that we never used. Gifts that were given to us. Since coming to power, President Ahmed Al-Shara has led efforts to revive a broken economy. There was never any doubt of how challenging this would be in a country that was essentially bankrupt. He has achieved some gangs in reintegrating Syria to the rest of the world. But here, many blame some of his policies for worsening a cost of living crisis. Government subsidies have been slashed, making bread, petrol and electricity more expensive. The bill is also a pensioner. We've switched to austerity mode and we are now on one meal a day instead of two. It's tragic. It's not just me. It's the entire Syrian population. We are all hungry.
We've come with Nabil to his house, not far from the market where he lives with his wife and four children. So we are here in a room and it's quite dark. There's just one lamp on and the entire house is in the dark. Is it because you're concerned about the electricity bill? The electricity bill is about a third of our income. We turn off the fridge for about five hours a day. This is a crisis not only about what people can afford to buy. It is also about what they have to go without. Samir Ita is a Syrian economist. Now they are liberalizing everything. They took out the subsidies to this without replacing them by any social protection. The prices are rising, there is no jobs. It's unsustainable and if they don't change, I fear of chaos. Exhausted by conflict, Syrians have almost no choice other than to remain hopeful. For now, they're waiting, but their patience may some start to run out. Hugo Bashega, let's stay in the Middle East now and all the votes have been counted in Israel's general election. The results confirm that Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition won the most seats but fell short of a majority. The opposition block, led by Gadi Eisenkott, secured 48 seats while Arab-led parties won 19. All eyes now will turn to President Isaac Herzog. His task is to consult party leaders and choose one who he believes has the best chance of forming a coalition. But this could take weeks. Our diplomatic correspondent James Landel is in Jerusalem. I asked him about the role of Mr. Herzog now. The first thing to say is it's long and torturous. Nothing happens quickly in this process. So, although we have the election results, there are still some checks going on and so the formal results will not be formally presented to Isaac Herzog until Wednesday we think next week. Then Mr. Herzog as President begins a week of consultation with the party leaders to discuss what options they are considering and putting forward. Then, at the end of that week, he decides who has the best chance of forming a coalition. At that point, initially, that person has a month to try and form a coalition. They can extend that period by another couple of weeks. If they fail even then, somebody else is asked to have a go. They've got a month to have a go. If they don't have another go, there's a third option. But eventually, if all that fails, you end up going back to an election. Mr. Herzog had said publicly that he absolutely does not want to go to an election and he has also said publicly that he wants everybody to basically enter these negotiations with the good of Israel in their hearts. In other words, not just thinking about pure party advantage. That's not really how it works in practice. So, to answer your question, he does have influence because he chooses, initially, whether or not Mr. Eisenkot, the opposition leader or the Prime Minister of Netanyahu, have first dibs at attempting to form a government and that is a substantial amount of power. So, before the election happened, before the vote actually took place, it was painted by many as a bit of a referendum, really, on Benjamin Netanyahu and his future in politics. What do the results really tell us now that all the votes have been tabulated? What was the result of that supposed referendum? In terms of a referendum on Mr. Netanyahu as an individual, the facts show that he and his governing coalition have lost their majority in parliament. They have far fewer seats than they did before. They've lost about 15. So, to that extent, the people of Israel have expressed their opinion and they have shifted their votes. I mean, if you look at inside the weeds, actually, a lot of those votes have not just been lost by the liquid party, the governing party, but also by the right wingers. So, to a certain extent, a large number of Israeli voters have expressed their disaffection with Mr. Netanyahu and his running of the government and the October 7th attacks and the walls that followed. But, that said, there still remains a large section of Israeli society that actually continues to support Mr. Netanyahu and that's why he has managed to do better than the opinion polls had suggested during the election campaign. They basically believe these voters that Mr. Netanyahu is the best person to protect Israel's interests both at home and abroad and they continue to believe that his hard line is what Israel needs and that's why a large number of people have voted for him and why he's still in contention. James Landel in Jerusalem. The world of online hypermasculinity, also called the "manosphere," is a world that often tells men and young men in particular that women are the enemy, showing emotion is a sign of weakness and a gym-toned body is an essential. Some academics now say the "manosphere" should be treated as a public health threat compared to the tobacco industry. A new report in the journal, The Lancet, says social media platforms profit from young men's grievances and insecurities and the "manosphere" contributes to things such as misogyny and poor mental health. Professor Sarah Hawks is the report's co-author. She's been speaking to Sean Farrington. We're arguing in our paper that by reframing the "manosphere" as a public health issue rather than just a regulatory issue, that we open up a number of additional policy levers that public health approaches can provide, that simple regulation or restriction, it goes beyond simple regulation or restriction. Unlike, say, something as clear cut as the message around tobacco, is there a bit of a risk if you make it a public health issue with strong messaging everywhere people go? It goes too far. It says masculinity and men are a problem. It fuels the problem that's there in the first place. No, absolutely. In the paper, we very much argued that even using terms like toxic masculinity is not a helpful approach to understanding all aspects of masculinity, including what it is about the "manosphere" and the many aspects of the "manosphere" that draws in men and boys, what is it that's missing from the rest of life, if you like, that the "manosphere" provides an answer to? So what would it look like? The people would be used to the anti-tobacco campaign and regulations around it being very blunt. If this has to be a bit more delicate, how do you see it? Public messaging is part of a public health response, but a public health response goes beyond that. It says you do need to look at root causes. It's interesting how much of a focus the report has on the "manosphere" being a commercial enterprise as you put it, a very much a profit-based ecosystem. So are there changes you would like to see that would approach it from that angle? Certainly, I think highlighting the fact that people are making money and a lot of money out of the messaging, if you like, the toxic messaging of the "manosphere" is something that we feel hasn't been talked about enough. And that that's what keeps it going. So, you know, it's using social media platforms, which as everybody knows are money-making machines for a few people. It's going beyond that. It's encouraging boys and men to invest in financial schemes, to spend money on unregulated supplements and hormones, etc. So, that's why we've called it a commercial determinant of health. Professor Sarah Hawks, some food news for you now, and the revelation that eating the parts of fruits and vegetables that we often throw away could be an easy way to boost fiber in our diets. Food scientists in Britain have found that peels, stalks, seeds and rind often contain more fiber than the parts of those foods we normally eat. Our health reporter, Michelle Roberts, told us more. They're talking about things like, for a kiwi, if you eat the whole fruit, including the furry outside, that's going to give you about 50% more fiber than if you just ate the juicy middle bit on its own. Other examples are kind of using broccoli stalks you might want, blend them, put them in soups or in stir fries, and things like pineapple core can contain a lot of fiber, so if you are going to make a smoothie, you could include some of that. I mean, they do go as far as suggesting that pineapple skin is quite a good source, but one of the nutritionists I spoke to, she said, it's not about trying to make people eat things that they really don't want to. It's just about thinking a bit more about what parts you might want to eat, but pineapple skin, she was less sure about. Even I sort of wrinkled my nose at the thought of having to do that, but what's the benefit of doing this? Why would we want to kind of try to be eating more of the things that we would normally throw in the bin? So this is all about fiber, we know that most people, most adults really don't get enough, and it's really important for your gut health, fiber is great for helping everything transit through the body and go out the other end as it's needed. And it's really linked to a lower risk of things like bowel cancer and heart disease, so digestive health is really important and just getting enough fiber, so many of us just don't do it. And while we are all thinking about this, though, there are some things that we really shouldn't eat, right? Some seeds and some rinds and stalks and things, which should we be careful of? Yeah, so obviously wash things, you know, if you're going to put it in your mouth, make sure it's clean enough, but also there are certain things like if you've got rhubarb, the leaves of rhubarb are toxic.
So don't go for something like that, but you can check first, you can do a bit of a Google search and just make sure that what you're thinking about eating is safe. Michelle Roberts. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at
[email protected]. You can also now watch the top story from our episode in full. Today we're tracking events inside Ukraine. Just search for the Global News podcast on YouTube. This edition was mixed by Vladimir Muzishka and the producer was Ira Khan. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Celia Hatton. Until next time, goodbye. The Hubble Space Telescope was designed to pair deeper into the universe than ever before. Unlocking some of its greatest secrets. A significant spherical aberration appears to be present in the optics. The BBC Space Podcast, 13 minutes, is telling the inside story of how NASA rescued Hubble. All ever sayings are available now, wherever you get to your BBC Podcasts. [Music]
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