ukraine warns it could lose its war against russia without more us funding as congress prepares to vote on an aid package. and the uk home secretary signs a new treaty with rwanda, addressing concerns about the plan to send the israeli military says it's been engaged in the heaviest day of fighting since the start of its offensive in gaza. in the south, israeli forces have entered the city of khan younis. meanwhile, in the north, israeli forces are surrounding the jabalia refugee camp, which israel says is being used as a base by hamas. in the past couple of hours, the israel defense force has just posted on x, formerly known as twitter, that their troops have quote, "eliminated several hamas commanders and operatives of hamas�*s northern gaza strip brigade" that the idf claims were hiding in a tunnel

located near the indonesian hospital. that's one of the largest healthcare facilities in northern gaza that was hit by airstrikes in october. the bbc has not independently verified the latest claims by the idf. the idf warned people living in northern gaza to move further south as it steps up what it says is the third phase of its ground operations against hamas. the un says nearly i.9m people have been forced from their homes since israel's retaliatory strikes began, after hamas�* attacks on october the 7th. our correspondent paul adams sent this update from jerusalem. israeli leaders the thing to note that the battle for the southern gaza strip is now well under way. the defence minister speaking at a press conference said that israel would do to khan younis, the largest city in the southern gaza strip, what it had already done to gaza city, and prime minister benjamin netanyahu answering benjamin neta nyahu answering critics benjamin netanyahu answering critics who he said were trying to pressure israel had these

words. " the way to finish the job quickly is to use crushing force against hamas". that approach is already killing large numbers of civilians in the south and starting to trigger quite significant movements of civilians as they try to flee out of harm's way. these are precisely the things that the us secretary of, antony blinken, warned israel to try to avoid when he was here last week, to try to avoid doing in the southern gaza strip what israel has a ready done on the north. these are still early days. this phase of the war has onlyjust begun but there are worrying signs that may be a repeat of what we saw the north. israel says it recognises the hardship that its actions are having on the population of the south. the prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, said tonight israel would release another 180,000

litres of fuel to try to allow the aid agencies to better organise their relief efforts in a part of the gaza strip thatis in a part of the gaza strip that is now absolutely overwhelmed with huge numbers of people who have been forced to flee during the two months of this campaign. but the agencies are sounding more and more desperate. here is the comment of the head of the norwegian refugee counsel who said "the pulverising of gaza now ranks amongst the worst assaults on any civilian population in our time and age". dire words from those aid agencies trying to do with a crisis that they save wrinkly is getting further and further out of their ability to control. in the weeks following hamas�* attack on israel, the us and coalition forces have seen increased hostile action in the region. let's take a look at some of the incidents. on october 20th, almost two weeks after hamas�* attack,

the uss carney, a us navy warship intercepted missiles and drones launched from yemen by iran—backed houthi rebels. months later, the uss carney continues to see action shooting down at least other three drones in the southern red sea from from yemen. and a day later, us forces killed five iran—backed militants as they prepared to launch a drone attack in iraq. so far, the pentagon says the number of attacks on us troops in iraq and syria rose to 76 since mid—0ctober. meanwhile on tuesday, the presidents of top us universities testified before congress about rising antisemitism on college campuses. they've come under intense scrutiny over their responses to tensions, protests, and even violence following hamas�*s attack on israel on october 7. during the hearing, president claudine gay of harvard university — an ivy—league institution — acknowledged the difficulty in responding to these incidents. during these difficult days, i have felt the bonds of our community strain. in response,

i have sought to confront hate while preserving free expression. this is difficult work and i know that i have not always gotten it right. the free exchange of ideas is the foundation upon which harvard university is built, and safety and well being other prerequisites for engagement in our community. but despite leadership�*s attempts to cool the temperatures on campus, instances of islamophobia and anti—semitism are on the rise. the us department of education has launched several investigations into schools across the country, at least five cases of alleged anti—semitism and two cases of islamophobia at seven different schools. colleges are scrambling to restore a sense of security forjewish and arab students, stressing messages of inclusion for diverse student bodies. but faculty and staff face a daunting task of often untangling what's protected as political speech, and what crosses into threatening language. joining me to discuss this difficult task is ezzedine fishere,

who's a senior lecturer in the middle eastern studies programme at dartmouth college. thank you forjoining us. following the attacks of october 7th, you facilitated open forums for students organized by thejewish studies and middle eastern studies programmes. what did you find? we found what everybody else found on american campuses, and a lot of emotions, most of those emotions are both old and strong, coupled with not enough desire to understand the complexity of the issues at hand. whether the students have jewish background or arab background, both were more looking for ways to vent those emotions, looking for approval and validation, more than they were looking for facts and details that may be upsetting,

because they do not meet their expectation and their received knowledge. i think all american campuses have witnessed the same. the main question then becomes whether we as faculty feed into those emotions and give them the validation they are looking for and rile them up are looking for and rile them up even further, all we seize this movement as a teachable and try to move the students, while acknowledging those emotions, move them beyond the emotions, move them beyond the emotions and try to get them to learn more about the conflict, about its dynamics, which is what universities are created for. what universities are created for, ., , what universities are created for. . , , , what universities are created for. ., , , for. so many universities are struggling — for. so many universities are struggling with _ for. so many universities are struggling with that - for. so many universities are struggling with that very - struggling with that very question, how did you and your colleagues managed to do that? my colleagues managed to do that? my colleagues and i we are already working together for many years, and for us, it is almost a habit that we work together, we accept our differences, that we have

different perspectives on the conflict, that we have different narratives, but that is part of the learning process. what we do in our classrooms is to explore those different perspectives and to show students that an integral part of their learning is to acknowledge the diversity of perspectives and try to actually understand where these different perspectives come from, what motivates different players and how in fact the tragic aspect of the conflict is a clash between the different narratives and concerns the motivations. professor... could i ask, did you find that students were receptive to that? in you find that students were receptive to that?— receptive to that? in the classroom, _ receptive to that? in the classroom, students - receptive to that? in the classroom, students arej receptive to that? in the i classroom, students are a receptive to that? in the - classroom, students are a lot more receptive to that then in a moment like the one we were at on october nine. but even then, after you get the initial reaction, the emotional one, once you invite them to

consider this, especially when you are modelling, when they look at the panel and they see different people representing different people representing different narratives and perspectives, still capable of talking to each other, while we acknowledge each others differences on the panel, we still managed to talk to each other and to make sense of those differences. i think modelling is a very important part of the energetic educational process. part of the energetic educational rocess. . , educational process. that is so interesting _ educational process. that is so interesting that _ educational process. that is so interesting that you _ educational process. that is so interesting that you stay - educational process. that is so interesting that you stay in - interesting that you stay in the classroom they are more receptive, what about when they leave the classroom? would you sayjewish and palestinian say jewish and palestinian students sayjewish and palestinian students will save on your campus? we are reaching out to our students and trying to maintain the positive, civic relationship we have throughout the year. we relationship we have throughout the ear. ~ ., relationship we have throughout the ear. ~ . , the year. we have been emphasising _ the year. we have been emphasising and - the year. we have been - emphasising and advocating for your people, the ones you care about, it does not necessarily

mean the people are against the other people. maintaining that civility is very important because it is a privilege to bennett compass like this and preserving the civility on the campus and the civility we have which allows us freedom of expression and learning and questioning the stereotypes, and this is very important. i found students were very receptive and that is partly our we managed at dartmouth university to maintain that environment and maintain the tensions and emotions. fix, environment and maintain the tensions and emotions. a really interesting _ tensions and emotions. a really interesting perspective, - interesting perspective, professor, and grateful you shared that with us today. thank you very much. let's take a look at some other news in the us from the world of politics. president biden said tuesday he's not sure he'd run for president if trump wasn't running too. biden added, "but we cannot let him win." he made the comments at a campaign funding event outside of boston, saying that his predecessor posed a threat to democracy. his remarks come as some opinion polls suggest he's

trailing behind mr trump in the 2024 presidential race. the primary season kicks off next month with another republican debate this month. vice president kamala harris has broken nearly 200—year—old record for senate tiebreaker votes. she cast her 32nd vote tuesday, breaking the previous record of 31 underjohn c calhoun. the senate's majority leader presented the vice president with a golden gavel, calling it an historic day. the us vice president often casts the deciding vote in the senate, siding with the majority party. 0usted republican george santos's seat will be up for grabs in a special election on february 13th. new york's governor set the date for the election in a swing district, teeing up a tough race as republicans look to hold onto the seat in the house of representatives, and democrats look to flip it. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. 11 hikers have been found dead near the crater

of indonesia's mount marapi volcano after it erupted over the weekend. 12 others are missing and the search was suspended on monday after another, smaller eruption. there were 75 hikers in the area during the main eruption on sunday but most were safely evacuated. marapi spewed an enormous ash cloud that blanketed surrounding villages. it is the 10th anniversary of south africa's first black parent president. he led the fight against apartheid, spending more than 27 years in prison. he then became south afirca's first democratically elected president in 1994 after negotiating an end to white—minority rule. now nelson mandela's party could be facing its biggest electoral challenge since the end of apartheid. a us senator who had been blocking hundreds of military promotions says he will now allow most of them to go through. alabama republican tommy tuberville has been blocking nominations for months, in protest at the military�*s policy of reimbursing personnel who travel to have an abortion in a state where it the procedure is legal. he says he will still block around 11 of the highest—ranking appointments.

you're watching bbc news. us treasury secretary janet yellen has warned that the us would be "responsible for ukraine's defeat" if congress fails to approve more funding. her comments echo ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky�*s chief of staff, who earlier said ukraine is in danger of losing its war against russia without more us aid. but approval for that aid has stalled. since the war began, congress has approved more than $110 billion in military and economic aid to ukraine. the biden administration says that money is running out. us senators are now negotiating a spending package that would total $106 billion, including funding to ukraine, israel, taiwan, and us—mexico border security. it's the border funds that have caused the dispute. a classified senate briefing on ukraine tuesday broke down into a shouting match over border security. republican senators want stricter policies to tackle the migrant crisis. but democrats say aid to ukraine cannot wait. the senate is set to vote on the aid package wednesday. but it's unclear if it will get enough republican support to pass.

over in the house, speaker mikejohnson reiterated republican calls for border security before ukraine funding. how can we be engaged in securing the border of foreign countries if we can't secure our own? and that is a question the white house has to help us answer. i have told that to the leaders in the senate, i have told the white house, and i say it until we're blue in the face. the battle is for the border. we do that first as a top priority will take care of these other obligations. president zelensky was scheduled to address a closed meeting of us senators tuesday on ukraine funding, but cancelled last minute. i spoke to us senatorjeanne shaheen of the foreign relations committee for her perspective on the congressional debate. senator, you and your fellow colleagues in the senate received a briefing from key officials on the state of the war in ukraine. what is the most important thing you took away from that briefing? that ukraine is desperately in need of assistance from the united states and, obviously, the european community as well and that it's

very important for us to get this supplemental appropriations bill to provide the funding that ukraine needs. let's talk about this bill, republicans stand in the way of the world getting past because they want to see ukraine aid in return for tougher border policies. mitt romney said the following: senator, what is your response to that? the senator had funding for this supplemental bill that was sent over, there have been negotiations sent over for the past three weeks between republicans and democrats in the senate to see if we can come up with something that would be a compromise that everybody

could agree to address policy changes at the border. i agree, i think we need to secure our southern border and i'm disappointed that the republicans have proposed something that doesn't appear to be able to get the votes to pass. you say republicans oppose something that doesn't appear to have the votes, the white house says that it wants to get the deal done, your colleagues in the senate also want to get a deal done, so why not make that compromise to make sure ukraine aid can go forward? i think there needs to be a compromise that can get the votes that are required to pass it and was been put on the table by the republican negotiators doesn't appear to have the votes to be able to pass. what leader schumer did today was to say to the republican caucus "we will take up the amendment that you want to propose on the border as part of a vote on the supplemental budget and if it passes we will move forward."

so i think the ball is in the republican court to come up with that amendment that they would like to see done and try to get the votes to get past. is there an amendment to you that the republicans are proposed that crosses a redline? i haven't actually see what they proposed because most of the negotiations have been behind closed doors. i think the bill that was brought up in the house by the house speaker that is house bill 2 on the border is not something that i could support. but i think there are changes to the asylum laws, there are some changes to parole, there are obviously funding requirements at the border to address training forfentanyl, which is a huge scourge in new hampshire that is killing too many people, not only my state but across the country, those are things that i could support. so let's get to the negotiating table and find a compromise that people can agree to. at this moment it doesn't look like there is a compromise that

would pass, as you said yourself, should the senate majority leader, chuck schumer, bring this to the floor for a vote? i think we do need to vote on it. we need to be clear, people need to be clear about where they stand and the reality is republican caucus would like to propose an amendment, they have that opportunity. they have the ability to put forward what they support and let's vote on it and see if it can pass. senator, last question... maybe it's something that needs support. just want to ask you one more question about ukraine funding. what happens if it does not pass by the end of this year? i think we need to keep working on it. i think we to stay until we pass something, because it is critical that we stop vladimir putin, because what we have heard him say and what we know from leaders of the baltic states, of poland and other eastern european countries, is that they believe, and i believe this, is that if putin is successful in ukraine he will be going into the baltics next,

he will be going into poland... crosstalk. ..with the prime minister of romania today. are you saying if ukraine aid is not passed by the end of the year you think vladimir putin will win this war? no, what i said is i think we should keep working on ukraine aid if we can't pass it by the end of this year because i think it's very important that we continue to support ukraine, i think it's in the best interests of the united states national security, of european security, and of world security that we not let a dictator like vladimir putin think he can go into any country that he wants and take it over and that's exactly what he's doing in ukraine and in the process is committing war crimes against ukrainian people. senator, really interesting to get your perspective on bbc news today. thank you so much forjoining us. thank you. britain and rwanda have signed a new deal to revive the uk government's deportation plan. it would see some migrants — who arrive on small boats —

deported to rwanda to seek asylum there. mayenijones is in the capital, kigali. well, speaking to the bbc after today's news, opposition politician victor engel believes that the uk should be working with the rwandan government to try and address some of the human rights abuses that have been raised by the supreme court and bodies such as the unhcr. she cited examples such as the arbitration detention of journalists, the detention of opposition politicians, the curbs of freedom of speech, she said the uk was in a privileged position as one of ravana's biggest development partners to put pressure on the rwandan government to try and lead to these people have been arbitrarily detained in order to deal with some of these human rights abuses that have been highlighted in last month's supreme court challenge. she also says that she doesn't believe that this

policy will lead to a reduction in the number of migrants crossing the channel and that more needs to be done. it is not ravana's place to receive these migrants. now, this is a stance that other members of the opposition have offered, of course, they said they welcome migrants from other parts of africa or elsewhere in the world who choose rwanda as their first destination, world who choose rwanda as theirfirst destination, but they don't want to take in migrants who would rather be in the uk or in europe. they say it is the responsibility of wealthy countries such as the uk to fulfil the obligations under international law to process asylum seekers on their territories. and they also say that there are lots of challenges in rwanda do with land use and space and, you know, competition for resources and bringing newcomers and will only add to those pressures. now, the treaty has been signed between the two countries, still needs to be passed into

law. here and wonder people be watching closely to see what happens next. the bbc�*s mayeni jones reporting their from kigali. now, have you heard of forest city? this $100 billion project in southern malaysia was unveiled in 2016 by the developer country garden. it was part of china's belt and road initiative, with aims to house almost a million people. but eight years on, country garden faces colossal debts and forest city is virtually empty. 0ur asia business correspondent nick marsh spent a night in the city that many now describe as a ghost town. music: ghost town by the specials. we're injohor, right on the tip of southern malaysia, and there's something strange on the horizon. locals call it ghost city. and on first impressions, you can see why. ok, this is forest city. it's a bit dark. i think someone has forgotten

to turn the lights on. it's hard to believe that anyone actually lives here. 0h, here they are. even in mid—afternoon, forest city feels more like a haunted house than a happy home. do you feel like it's a ghost town? from what i've seen so far, yes, i would have to agree. maybe you should try after 12. we may be 3,000 miles from beijing, but residents likejoanne are trying to weather a storm in china's property sector. she wants to get out of forest city. and as night started to fall, i met someone who already had. ifeel freedom, to be honest. i feel free. i finally escaped this multi—billion project. it's supposed to be good. it's supposed to meet expectations, but it's frustrating.

the property developer country garden sold this place as a thriving eco—friendly community, with beaches, bars, restaurants. it was a chance for chinese investors to own a second home abroad and then rent it out to locals. but as we've already seen all over china, ambition didn't match reality. chinese government controls on how much companies could borrow and how much chinese citizens could spend on foreign property have left forest city in disarray. this place was supposed to be a restaurant. i think behind me, judging by the looks of things, it was supposed to be the kitchen. country garden's slogan for this place was "a prime vision for future cities". but if you just take a look around, it doesn't seem that way. country garden insists that the project will be finished. but with the company facing debts of nearly $200 billion, it's hard to see how.

forest city was supposed to house one million people. right now, it's1% occupied. like so many chinese property developments, this place seems to be going nowhere. nick marsh, bbc news. bbc news contacted country garden group in china and received no response. its malaysian operation did respond and said that despite what they called "the noise and current situation", they were running the business as usual and the overall operation in the region is "safe and stable". thank you for watching bbc news. hello again. temperatures have dropped away quite sharply through the night. and as we start on wednesday morning, there will be a hard and a widespread frost, particularly across northern areas of scotland. on top of that, some fog patches around as well. but there will be some sunny spells, certainly a quieter spell of weather for many of us

throughout wednesday compared to the last few days. that area of low pressure bringing the rain, clearing away to the east. we've got further weather systems waiting out in the atlantic that will become more of a feature of the weather over the next few days. but a cold start to the day for many of us. temperatures potentially down to —10 degrees in northern areas of scotland, and some freezing fog in the east of wales through parts of the midlands and southern areas of england. that could be quite stubborn to clear away, but elsewhere the fog should tend to lift and there'll be some sunshine across many areas before the cloud increases from the west, and with that some outbreaks of rain. but if you're stuck beneath the area of fog, temperatures may only be around about one degree celsius. so feeling particularly cold, but elsewhere we'll see temperatures 4—6 celsius. but in the west, you notice nine, 11 degrees there in plymouth, signs of the less cold air moving in. and as we go through wednesday night, that rain will continue to spread north and eastward. as it bumps into colder air, temporarily, there could be some snow over the higher ground of northern england and across scotland, but that will become increasingly confined to higher ground as we go through thursday because that less cold air, the milder conditions, will spread in from the southwest, moving to pretty much most areas throughout thursday.

a strengthening wind to come with that as well. but it means actually where we'll have a bit of snow for the time of a higher ground of scotland, heavy rain is going to spread through and that's going to bring the risk of some localised flooding, especially in areas where we've seen a bit of flooding over the last couple of days or so, eventually clearing from southern and western areas. temperatures here 10—11 degrees celsius, still perhaps just a little bit chilly beneath the cloud and the rain across eastern areas, 6—7 degrees. now, while that heavy rain does clear away to the northeast, we've got low pressure moving in from the atlantic, strengthening winds around the irish sea coasts and further outbreaks of rain. so certainly rain is going to become more of a feature of the weather over the coming days. there'll be some strong winds at times as well. but we will lose the frosty the icy conditions with temperatures in double figures. bye— bye.

a turn of fortunes from bitcoin as it reaches high is not seen since april 2022, is it the end

of the crypto winter? the mediterranean diet under threat, we report on how climate change is affecting a healthy kitchen staple. welcome to the asia business report. we begin with the price of bitcoin. it briefly hit us$44,000 on tuesday the highest since april 2022 and a turn of fortunes for the cryptocurrency which has more than doubled in value since the beginning of the year. from new york, this report. this is the highest level we have seen bitcoin climb to since april 2022, and a lot has happened since then. in may of 2022 a stable coin crash sent a shock to the system losing investors tens of billions of dollars. a crypto winter followed when asset prices plummeted

and then the collapse of the ftx cyrptocurrency