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

I'm Alex Ritson, and at 14 hours GMT on Friday the 17th of January, these are our main stories.

Israel's security cabinet has approved the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

The full cabinet is meeting to give its verdict, which, if agreed,

will likely see it come into force as planned on Sunday. Three of the lawyers for the late

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have been convicted of extremism. Also in this podcast,

we get a tour of a Roman bathhouse unseen since lava from Vesuvius covered the Italian

city of Pompeii. You can kind of start imagining the people in this room and the noises,

the sort of splashing of water, people discussing how they're getting clean or the politics of the day.

But first, the Israeli security cabinet has just ratified a ceasefire deal signed by negotiators

from Israel and Hamas. As we record this podcast, the full cabinet is convening to approve

the ceasefire deal. In Gaza itself, Israeli warplanes kept up intense strikes,

and Palestinian authorities said at least 86 people had been killed on the day after the

truce was unveiled. The ceasefire is meant to begin on Sunday with the release of the first three

Israeli hostages. Daniel Lifshitz, whose grandfather remains in captivity, urged the

Israeli government to accept the agreement.

It is the agreement that it is. I mean, could be better. Yeah, we wish everyone come back in

one day and all the hostages are back here. But it's not the situation. It's Biden, you know, expose it on the end of May.

And then they just worked on that proposal.

So changing to another agreement will just take a month of administrative issues.

So I'm really thankful for President-elect Trump and President Biden for their cooperation together to get this deal done.

A Middle East regional editor, Sebastian Asha, joined me just after the Security Cabinet recommended approving the deal.

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