it s tuesday, october the 24th. our main story. two israeli women, who were taken from their homes more than two weeks ago, have been released from captivity. yocheved lifshitz and nurit cooper were among more than 200 people abducted by hamas fighters in the attacks of october 7th, and brought to gaza. hamas, which is designated a terrorist group by the uk, said the release was for humanitarian reasons. the women, whose husbands are still being held, were handed over at the rafah border crossing between gaza and egypt at around 10 o clock local time last night. our middle east correspondent yolande knell has the details. freed after more than two weeks in captivity. in a video released by hamas, nurit cooper and yocheved lifshitz were handed over to representatives of the international committee of the red cross. not before 85 year old yocheved lifshitz turns to a masked hamas gunman, shakes his hand and says, shalom, hebrew for peace. hamas is designated a terrorist group
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knowing what we did, but with hindsight, that is the moment we should have done it, three weeks earlier, and it would have saved many, many lives. alistair darling, the labour politician who was chancellor during the 2008 global financial crash, dies at the age of 70. members of the rmt union except a pay deal ending their involvement in a long running series of rail strikes. hello, i m matthew amroliwala. hello, i m lewis vaughanjones. welcome to the programme. the pogues frontman shane macgowan has died at the age of 65. he was discharge from hospital last week. his wife confirmed he had died in social media. macgowan fronted the pogues from 1982 until their break up in 2014. the band are best known for the christmas hit song fairytale of new york. our arts correspondent david sillito reports. # it was christmas eve, babe # in the drunk tank # an old man said to me. # happy christmas, your ours, i pray god it s our last. fairytale of new york, a bleak, drink sodden duet
coming up, liverpool have to avoid defeat against an austrian side to guarantee getting out of the group stages of the europa league. they are top of their group ahead of the match at anfield. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. the former health secretary matt hancock has told the covid inquiry that with the benefit of hindsight the uk should have locked down much sooner at the start of the pandemic. he said many, many lives could have been saved if the first lockdown had began three weeks earlier on the 2nd of march 2020. mr hancock also dismissed allegations from other colleagues that he had lied to them, and described what he called a toxic culture in government. 0ur political editor chris mason reports. one of the biggest names of the pandemic. the health secretary for england, matt hancock. the man in the middle on the television many nights, and the man who resigned for breaking the very rules he d helped draw up. today, his moment of accountabilit