Residents leave devastated Russian-occupied Oleshky

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1:00And 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 besieged city of Oleshky, 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% more fibre 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 Oleshky,

1:54which 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 2,000. 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, brokered in part by the U.S. First Lady Melania Trump and Pope Leo. That's already allowed mines to be cleared and aid convoys to enter. And today, there was a four-hour formal evacuation window for Aleshky's residents to actually leave. As we record the podcast, that period was due to close a couple of hours ago. Zarina Zabriskie is a U.S. journalist in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, just across the river from Aleshki. I spoke to her during the evacuation window.

2:45Just about nine months ago, nobody ever heard about Aleshki. And starting in December 2025, there were reports arriving that there's 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. speak, 750 seats are available on 25 buses plus ambulances to pick up people who want to leave Alashki. And we know that there are about 1,500 to 2,000 people still residing there. We don't have the exact number. From my sources, I understand that anywhere from 300 to 1,000 want to evacuate, but nobody gives an exact

3:48number. 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 Oleshke, 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 streamed, this evacuation process? There's very short fragments here and there on Telegram channels. I don't believe they are

4:38anywhere in the 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 Oleshki 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 them communicated anonymously online. Some of them were passing information through their relatives. There's a lot of fear associated with speaking

5:45to journalists or just speaking up, period. The people in Alashki and the nearby territories, we have to understand that we're not speaking just about Alashki. 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 and after they open up to you, especially those who managed to escape, that was in spring when the car still could break through. Many have lost their lives and limbs on mines trying to get out. But those who did come to Ukraine spoke to me about horrendous scenes, really.

6:41Zarina Zabriskie. Vitaly Shevchenko 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 Oleschki. And then both Russian and Ukrainian delegations were supposed to start handing out humanitarian aid to those who want to stay in Oleshki. And as far as ceasefires in Ukraine go, this is a very unusual truce, first of all, because of the fact that it's lasted so long. And it's tempting to see what's going on in Oleshki 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 continued just yesterday, more than 20 people died

7:46across 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 truce in itself was 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 have in place for Oleshka. 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 Homel in Belarus, and then into Ukraine itself. And

8:41that's one big reason why so many local residents and Ukrainian citizens and officials are suspicious of the plan. Why can't they just cross the river and go to Ukraine? Vitaly, what's the situation along all of the front line right now? 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 why Russia seems to have switched to a new 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

9:42Russia 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. Its 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

10:39evicted. And it's time to close. Vitaly Shevchenko. 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 $6 billion of crypto funds. Half of that money has now been frozen. Altogether, 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.

11:25Cybersecurity analysts have attributed this attack with high confidence, by the way, to Trader Trater. 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 Binance hack. The breach may have originated from a hacked 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.

12:17Binance has so far located about $3 billion 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 those stolen funds. Issuers of Tether and Circle, the other cryptocurrencies, have also frozen a lot of their assets 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

13:07that 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 reportedly stole at least two point oh two billion dollars in cryptocurrency in 2025. Again, this number today with Binance much bigger. But cryptocurrency theft is one of the biggest moneymakers for North Korea. Karumi Mori. Still to come in this podcast. With tobacco control, for example, you have the finance ministries involved, health, education, frontline services. And we're arguing that that's what we need in response to the complexity of the manosphere.

13:58Researchers say the manosphere should be treated as a public health problem. At PNC Wealth Management, our brilliantly boring investment philosophy is designed to help create confident investors. These investors may go on vacations where they wear floral shirts unbuttoned generously or post for pictures that look like they're holding up ancient architecture using only their finger. Though we are not responsible for any of this, we are proud to provide comprehensive financial planning services designed to help clients achieve their goals. So, we're sorry, and you're welcome. PNC Wealth Management member Finn Rezibic. Results vary by customer and are not guaranteed. If you are currently overpaying on software to run your business, remember this number.

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16:10Maybe you go for some free range self-directed investing, or perhaps you pick up a few farm fresh trades while you peruse. You can even get help from a dedicated advisor. That's full service wealth management. Mix, match, and change your mind whenever you want. Because at Schwab, you can invest your way. No matter your goals or appetite for investing, Schwab has everything you need all in one place. Visit schwab.com to learn more. 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-Sharra 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

16:59about 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 Bashega 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 gave Syrians hope. But for many, life has yet to improve. With this situation, God help people. It's so expensive. I don't know how people are surviving.

17:57Fatima is 50 and a mother of two teenage boys. Her husband works in a factory, but his faith isn't enough to make ends meet, 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 nor meat. 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've just been 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 Marwan, a pensioner. I even had to sell things from my house to make it through the month,

18:52like an old pot or plates that we never used, gifts that were given to us. Since coming to power, President Ahmed al-Sharaa 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 gains 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. Nabil 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.

19:45We'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 Aita 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.

20:41Exhausted by conflict, Syrians have almost no choice other than to remain hopeful. For now, they're waiting, but their patience may soon start to run out. Hugo Bechega, 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 bloc, led by Gadi Eisenkant, 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 Landale is in Jerusalem.

21:32I 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 in his view chance of forming a Then at the end of that week, he decides who has the best, in his view, chance of forming a coalition. At that point, initially that person has a month to try and form a coalition.

22:11They 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. Now, Mr Herzog has 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,

22:54the opposition leader, or the prime minister, Mr. 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

23:39have 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 Likud party, the governing party, but also by other 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 wars 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.

24:29And 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 Landale 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 as a sign of weakness, and a gym-toned body isn't 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.

25:19Professor Sarah Hawkes 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 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. Yeah, no, absolutely. And 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,

26:21that 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, 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,

27:01if you like, the toxic messaging of the manosphere, is something that we feel hasn't been talked about enough. And 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 Hawkes, 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 fibre in our diets. Food scientists in Britain have found that peels, stalks, seeds and rind

27:50often contain more fibre 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 fibre than if you just ate the juicy middle bit on its own. Other examples are kind of using broccoli stalks you might want to blend them put them in soups or in stir fries and things like pineapple core can contain a lot of fibre so if you were 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

28:36want 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 you know, 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 fibre. We know that most people, most adults really don't get enough. And it's really important for your gut health. Fibre 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 fibre. So many of us just don't

29:23do 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. What 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 globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also now watch the top story

30:07from 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. prepared. From shipping supplies to PPE to hand tools, he counts on Grainger to keep products moving and trucks rolling so his operation runs smoothly no matter the shift. Call 1-800-GRAINGER, click Grainger.com, or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.