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Thursday 16th October 2025. Gaza hostages. Bangladesh fire. Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Kenya Od...

SEND7 Podcast8:17

Transcription

Good morning. This is Send 7 World News in 7 minutes. I'm Nile Moore. Today is Thursday the 16th of October, 2025.

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Today we're starting in Asia. In Gaza, more bodies of dead Israeli hostages have been released. As part of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas was meant to hand over the bodies of 28 Israeli hostages. But on Monday, when the ceasefire began, Hamas gave Israel only four. In response, Israel said it would only allow 300 aid trucks to enter Gaza rather than the 600 promised in the ceasefire deal. But yesterday, four more bodies were given to Israel by Hamas. Hamas says it wants to release all the dead hostages, but cannot find all of the places where they are buried because of the rubble created by destroyed buildings. Because Hamas showed Israel that it was trying to find and hand over the dead hostages, Israel has agreed to open the Rafa border crossing between Egypt and Gaza. The Egyptian Red Cross says that 400 aid trucks are now on their way to Gaza.

In Bangladesh, at least 16 people have died in a fire at a clothes factory in the capital city Dhaka. At the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, clashes between the Taliban and the Pakistani military continued yesterday. The fighting started last weekend when the Taliban blamed Pakistan for an air strike in the Afghan capital Kabul. It is unclear exactly how many people died in yesterday's fighting though Pakistan's military says it killed quote 15 to 20 Afghan Taliban while the Taliban claimed it killed quote numerous Pakistani soldiers.

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Africa. Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has died at the age of 80. Odinga was a significant figure in Kenyan politics. He ran to be president and lost five times, often claiming that the election had been stolen from him. He was imprisoned twice in the 1980s for challenging Kenya's one-party political system which he saw as a dictatorship. However, Odinga also had a reputation for working with his political opponents and had many political successes such as introducing multi-party democracy to Kenya in 1991 and a new constitution in 2010.

In Madagascar, the leader of the CAPSAT military group, Colonel Michel Randrian, has said he will be sworn in as president. On Tuesday, Madagascar's high constitutional court invited Randrian Reena to become president after Andre Rajelina fled the country. Colonel Randriani Reena has said that the military will rule for up to 2 years before organizing new elections.

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Americas. In the United States, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has said that his ChatGPT AI program will soon allow adults to generate erotic material. It's unclear yet exactly what this would look like, but Sam Altman said it was part of OpenAI's principle of treating adults like adults. OpenAI is not the first company to do this. In July, Elon Musk released two sexually explicit chatbots as part of XAI's model, Grok.

US President Donald Trump has said that his country will stop supporting Argentina if the president Javier Milei does badly in upcoming elections. On October the 26th, Argentina will have midterm elections. Javier Milei's party, La Libertad Avanza, is losing popularity in Argentina and is expected to lose seats in Congress to left-wing parties. Trump has supported Milei's right-wing pro-US government, recently lending Milei $20 billion to prevent a financial crisis in Argentina. But Trump says if Argentina elects more left-wing Congress people later this month, America will no longer support Argentina's economy.

"If the president doesn't win, I know the person that he'd be running against, a person is extremely far-left and a philosophy that got Argentina into this problem in the first place. So, we would not be generous with Argentina if that happened. If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina."

In Haiti, the NGO Médecins Sans Frontières or Doctors Without Borders has closed its emergency care center in the capital city Port-au-Prince. According to the head of Médecins Sans Frontières in Haiti, the care center has quote already been hit several times by stray bullets and is too dangerous for both patients and staff. 90% of Port-au-Prince is controlled by gangs.

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Europe. In Germany, the defense minister Boris Pistorius has promised to give Ukraine $2 billion worth of military aid, including quote air defense systems, radar systems, and precision-guided artillery, rockets, and ammunition. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine will need $120 billion in 2026 to hold back Russian forces.

And in the United Kingdom, 40 Sumo wrestlers have traveled from Japan for a 5-day Grand Sumo tournament. It is only the second time ever that a full 5-day tournament has been held outside of Japan. The last time was also in London in 1991. This year, British officials are making special preparations for the tournament, such as finding bigger chairs for the wrestlers to sit on and reinforcing the toilets. The heaviest sumo wrestler at this tournament, Onosato, weighs 191 kg.

That's your world news in 7 minutes. If you enjoy this podcast, please tell your friends to find Simple English News Daily in their podcast app. I'm Nile Moore. Tomorrow you will be with Steven Devincenzi. Have a great day.