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00:00Israel's security cabinet has approved the proposed ceasefire with Hamas to exchange
00:05dozens of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
00:11The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a decision to ban Tik Tok unless it is sold by its Chinese
00:19owners.
00:20The crackdown on dissent continues in Russia.
00:22Three lawyers of late political opponent Alexei Navalny are now jailed and two more face similar
00:27charges in their absence.
00:32Israel's security cabinet has approved the proposed ceasefire with Hamas to exchange
00:35dozens of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
00:41The plan now moves to the full cabinet for final approval, with the truce expected to
00:45begin Sunday.
00:49Hamas will release 33 hostages, including women, children and elderly, in exchange for
00:53hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
00:57Negotiations for a second phase will follow, focusing on releasing male soldiers.
01:03Hamas has stated it will not free remaining captives without a lasting ceasefire and Israel's
01:07full withdrawal.
01:11The deal, mediated by Qatar and announced by U.S. President Joe Biden, offers a brief
01:16pause from the war that devastated Gaza and killed scores of people.
01:23The Israeli High Court is reviewing petitions but is unlikely to block the agreement.
01:35The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a decision to ban social media app Tik Tok unless it
01:40is sold by its Chinese owners.
01:45The court voted unanimously on Friday, saying that the risk to national security posed by
01:50its ties to China overcomes concerns about freedom of speech.
01:56Tik Tok's parent company, ByteDance, says it has no plans to sell the app.
02:05Tik Tok has 170 million users in the United States.
02:10Experts say the app will not disappear from their phones immediately, however it will
02:14not be available to download.
02:18The decision came against the backdrop of unusual political agitation by President-elect
02:23Donald Trump, who voted that he could negotiate a solution with ByteDance.
02:35Three former lawyers for late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were jailed on Friday,
02:40in what critics see as part of a harsh Kremlin crackdown on dissent.
02:44The court sentenced Vadim Kobzev, Igor Sergunin, and Alexei Lifster to three and a half to
02:49five and a half years for links to extremist groups.
02:53Navalny's organizations were banned in 2021 as extremists, a move widely criticized as
02:58politically motivated at the time.
03:01Prosecutors claim that the lawyers passed Navalny's messages to his team.
03:06Supporters in the courtroom called the lawyers heroes as the verdict aimed to intimidate
03:10defense lawyers from taking political cases.
03:13Two other lawyers, now abroad, face similar charges in their absence.
03:18Kremlin critics say the crackdown marks a return to Soviet-era tactics against dissent.
03:22Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and outspoken opponent of President Vladimir Putin,
03:27was arrested in 2021 upon his return from Germany, where he was recuperating from a
03:32nerve agent poisoning by Russian Secret Service operatives.
03:35He died in prison in February 2023 while serving a 19-year sentence.
03:43Christian Democratic Party leader and Germany's next potential chancellor, Friedrich Merz,
03:48met with several high-profile European People's Party leaders in Berlin for a two-day summit
03:54on Friday.
03:55EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EPP Party leader Manfred Weber, and several
04:01EU prime ministers also attended to discuss Europe's security, migration policies and
04:06competitiveness, along with the EU's relationship with the US, as Donald Trump will be sworn
04:12in as president on Monday.
04:14The meeting was the first time von der Leyen has been seen in public following her recovery
04:19from severe pneumonia.
04:21Whilst the Christian Democratic heads of state and government may wish to focus on strategizing
04:26over the upcoming months, the issue of addressing the far right may dominate discussions, especially
04:33with elections looming in Germany just five weeks away and Austria now testing the waters
04:39with a coalition between the conservatives and far-right parties.
04:43Liv Stroud, in Berlin, for Euronews.