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

I'm Jean-Ut Jalil and in the early hours of Thursday the 30th of January, these are our main stories.

US senators have been questioning President Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health,

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a heated confirmation hearing.

Rorand and backed M23 rebels are reported to be

continuing their advance after capturing most of the key city of Goma in the east of the

Democratic Republic of Congo. Israel says it's received a list from Hamas of eight hostages

due to be freed from Gaza on Thursday.

Also in this podcast, scientists say samples collected from an asteroid have given them new clues as to how life began here on planet Earth.

It enables us to answer these really, really big questions about where life began and who doesn't want to know about how life started. President Trump's controversial choice to be the new US health

secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. faced hostile questioning from Senate Democrats at his confirmation hearing.

One Democrat on the panel, Rob Wyden, accused him of embracing, quote, conspiracy theories, quacks

and charlatans because of his past strident anti-vaccine statements. Another, Michael Bennett,

asked him a series of questions about his views.

Did you say that COVID-19 was a genetically engineered bioweapon

that targets black and white people, but spared Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people?

I didn't say it was deliberately targeted.

I just quoted an NIH study that showed that...

I'll take that as yes.

I have to move on.

Did you say that Lyme disease is highly likely a materially engineered bio-weapon?

I probably did say that.

...