and more trouble for shipping vessels on the red sea, as the us reports more attack drones launched from rebels in yemen. hello, i'm carl nasman. we start in gaza, where the hamas—run health ministry says more than 200 palestinians have been killed in the past 2a hours, as airstrikes continue. the israel defence forces say that five of their soldiers have been killed in the gaza strip since friday. fighting has been raging despite a un resolution demanding more access for humanitarian deliveries. the us abstained in that vote. president biden and prime minister netanyahu spoke

by phone on saturday. the white house said mr biden stressed the importance of allowing civilians to move safely away from areas where there is fighting. he also told reporters he did not demand a ceasefire. mr netanyahu said he reiterated that the war will continue until all the objectives are met. from jerusalem, our correspondent, lucy williamson, has more. explosions in gaza, this is the new normal — drone strikes in the border town of rafah, emptying the local market. 17—year—old joe, filming on his phone, still clutching his bag of shopping and calling on god for protection. america has blocked un calls for a ceasefire. israel says it needs to keep fighting to keep up the pressure on hamas. if you want a ceasefire, that, from israel's perspective, can only happen with the release of hostages. as you know, hamas continues to hold over 100 hostages. there's a chance, because they want that ceasefire, they need that ceasefire,

they will agree to the hostages but had we — to be frank, had we agreed to the un secretary—general�*s proposal over a month ago for this unilateral ceasefire, we would never have got the 110 hostages out that we did in november. israel's army said this week it had killed tens of hamas fighters in an ambush near gaza city and that it's preparing to expand operations to new areas in the south. israel is keen to show it's making progress against hamas. its security forces say 700 palestinian fighters have been taken to israel for questioning, 200 of them in the last week, but palestinian groups are still firing rockets into israel and there's no sign of the hamas leaders israel blames for the seventh of october attacks. strikes in khan younis yesterday reportedly killed around 50 people. gaza's hamas—run government says most of those killed

in the war are women and children. mass funerals held daily at hospital morgues. translation: the mask of humanity has fallen. i what is going on in the corridors of the un security council is nothing more than theatre and farce, confirming the continued murder and extermination of civilians. this is a genocide. israelis were told this war would bring security. to gazans, it's bringing the opposite. lucy williamson, bbc news, jerusalem. meanwhile, it's thought that over 120 people are still being held hostage in gaza by hamas. in tel aviv on saturday, thousands of people attended a rally, calling on israel's government to secure their immediate release. a palestinian official says egypt has presented a new plan for a two—week truce with an exchange of israeli hostages and palestinian detainees. earlier this week, hamas said that it would not release any more hostages until

the end of the war. a short while ago i spoke to mara kronenfeld. she's head of the un's palestinian aid agency in the us. thank you so much for being here and i'm sure you've been following but the un security council approving this week after days of debate a resolution into getting more aid into gaza and it stopped short though of calling for a ceasefire. what do you make of that resolution? in your mind, does it go farenough? we welcome the resolution. the truth is, as of this morning in gaza, we have not seen anything change. we are hopeful that full—throated humanitarian access will be granted, that we will actually see it in practice. unfortunately, there is simply not enough aid and assistance going in as we speak and even if that humanitarian access was greatly stepped up, there are just realities on the ground that

are limiting unrwa — the organisation i work with — limiting unrwa's ability and other humanitarian actors to get to people in need. the problem is is that the israeli military is not letting humanitarian actors go north and the strip. most actors like unrwa are only able to serve those who have been displaced and have fled to the rafah area and right now, the area is 4—5 times more populated than normal. we have people sleeping in the streets under unsafe conditions and, frankly, we would welcome assistance as much as possible but how that's going to happen when war is waging and when, in fact, our own staff who are trying to deliver aid even in rafah, which is supposed to be a protected area, they are bombed. there were drone attacks that affected our staffjust inside the rafah border recently.

i just want to circle back to the aid you've mentioned. we've seen images of these long lines of trucks waiting at that rafah border crossing on the egyptian side. so, what you're saying is that even now, after that resolution was passed calling for more aid to come in, you haven't seen any movement of those trucks? as of this morning, my colleagues on the ground have not seen additional aid. but, again, even when that aid gets in, how one is able to distribute it outside of the area of rafah that, you know, essentially there are overi million people in right now, is very difficult. even within rafah, it is not safe. 0ur humanitarian workers and any of those workers who are working under the united nations flag must be protected by international law and we have had 136 of our colleagues

who've been killed. we have had 200 people killed while in 180 unrwa buildings that missiles were fired at, 56 of them directly. there is no safe place in gaza and how can one administer aid under these conditions safely? that is the problem. we have to stop the killing first and foremost and unrwa is asking for and is advocating for a humanitarian ceasefire to do that. the world food programme says more than 2 million gazans are facing food shortages in the territory. how concerned are you about the risk of famine in gaza? extremely concerned. the combination of the besiegement and the limited ability for humanitarian actors to manoeuvre, as i've said, plus that we haven't seen full—throated humanitarian aid come

in in the last couple of days, we — the strip is definitely at a risk for famine. right now, 90% of the population don't eat — in one whole day, they go without eating. 50% of the population are facing starvation, whether extreme or severe. a famine is very possible unless there is more aid and more ability to get that aid to the people in need across the strip. we know that many families in gaza are sheltering outdoors. they are sleeping in makeshift shelters. winter is beginning. we've seen some images, even, of the rains coming. so, what role do you think the weather will play now for anybody that is sheltering in gaza? it is extremely, extremely dangerous. we have already seen a great increase in communicable diseases, including acute respiratory infection in young children. we know that sanitary conditions are not good. we know that sanitation

in general, the whole system, is under immense stress. we expect more communicable diseases and a greater difficulty for a population that is suffering basically in what is a hell on earth right now. we've even heard of families who are burning plastic to stay warm. it'sjust unimaginable, sitting here in washington, dc and thinking about what fellow human beings are experiencing in this day and age. mara kronenfeld. she is the head of the un's palestinian aid agency in the united states. thank you so much forjoining us. thank you. about 500,000 palestinian refugees are currently registered in lebanon. they were mostly displaced there in 19118 and 1967. for many of them, the current war in gaza is both a traumatic flashback and a worrying development for the future. lina sinjab reports from the shatila refugee camp.

a slum in the south of beirut. shatila camp is home to thousands of palestinian refugees. translation: 0ur| house was on a hill. it was very beautiful. dawood nasser is originally from nazareth. he arrived in lebanon with his family in 19118 when he was six. we walked from palestine to bintjbeil. like him, many arrived in 19118. up until may that year, britain had governed palestine under a un mandate on a promise to establish a national home there forjewish people. in the war that followed israel's declaration of statehood in may 19118, about 700,000 palestinians were expelled or forced from their homes. dawood's family members now live in lebanon, europe and gaza. this latest war has reopened old wounds and has pushed people to the extreme.

if you look at hiroshima, it is not as bad as what they did in gaza. they want to exterminate all palestinians, not only hamas. the bloodshed has been going on since 19118. the israeli defense forces say they are trying to minimise civilian casualties in gaza, but here there is a widespread sense of anger. many share dawood's views, as now, over 20,000 people have been killed in gaza. nearly half of them are children. because of the sectarian divisions in lebanon and the palestinian involvement in the lebanese civil war in the mid �*70s, to this day, the lebanese government does not recognise any rights to palestinian refugees, not even property ownership. and poorly paid jobs are the only ones allowed for young people in this camp. the united nations agency unwra has been providing help here for decades.

security is very bad. sanitation, water is always a problem and unwra is struggling to provide these very basic services to the palestine refugees that should be standing on their own feet, 75 years later. this museum connects personal belongings of refugees. some people have even kept their old house keys, hoping one day to be back. but as war continues in gaza, the future for many looks bleak. netanyahu do not want a state of palestine, so what we can do? we are in need of a partner that will also say ok to the peace. today, people in the camp have taken to the streets to express solidarity to people in gaza. generation after generation here keeps palestine in their heart and mind. lina sinjab, bbc news, shatila camp, beirut.

the pentagon is reporting two more attacks on commercial shipping routes in the red sea by houthi militants in yemen. it says an american naval ship shot down four drones. us central command also says attack drones also targeted two tankers, hitting one. no injuries were reported. it follows an increasing number of shipping operators pledging to avoid the red sea following attacks on vessels. back here in the us, as he makes another run for the white house, former us president donald trump's biggest challenge may not be on the campaign trail but the legal cases he's up against. the most recent development came from the us supreme court, which this week refused to fast—track a decision on whether he can be tried for federal crimes stemming from his time in office. the ruling means his trial in washington, dc, expected to take place in march, is likely to be delayed. but a recent reuters poll showed that trump holds a huge lead over the field

of republican presidential candidates nationally, with 61% support. and to discuss donald trump's legal issues, i spoke with harry litman, former us deputy assistant attorney general. let's start with the us supreme court's decision this week to, at least for now, not fast—track a decision on this measure of presidential immunity. how surprised were you that the supreme court kind of pushed this one aside and said we don't want to take this up right now? well, whenjack smith first brought the motion, i thought that the court might take it but what happened after that, carl, is the court just below the supreme court started moving very fast on it. so, i think the supreme court may well have been thinking we'lljust wait for a few weeks and we may have a fuller treatment from the court below. and then, it wouldn't indicate that they don't appreciate the importance of it, including the need to move quickly, just that they want to wait a few more weeks. but as you say, a few more

weeks now means a few more weeks' delay in the starting date of the trial and we begin to tick off the months, which is what donald trump most values. yeah, we know that his lawyers in many of the cases have been trying to delay filing motions to even push it back past the 2024 election. i want to ask you, though, about this issue of presidential immunity. is this something that could be an important ruling if this does make it to the supreme court? what kind of ruling with this be? historic in terms of dealing with something like a president and whether he would be liable for his actions while in office? yeah, i mean, it would be historically either way because we've never had a president indicted for crimes. he's saying, hey, as long as i was acting like a president somehow, you can't convict me for any crimes. and the prosecutors are saying look, among other things, you were not acting as a president.

you were acting as a candidate and trying — and really, as an insurrectionist, so that means you don't get immunity, even if it exists in theory. it's going to be a landmark decision either way. my best guess is the supreme court will actually rule against donald trump but it's going to take a few months now perhaps. it's been a pretty busy couple of days when it comes to these legal rulings. yes! there was another one in colorado, wasn't there, with the state supreme court ruling to essentially bar donald trump from the ballot in that state. what did you make of it and especially the argument by some republicans, who say these sorts of matters should be dealt with by the voters and that the court maybe overstepped here. what the court said, the colorado supreme court said this is our constitution, our federal constitution says, as you may know, a president has to be at least 35, has

to be born in the states and says if someone has sworn an oath to the constitution and then engaged in insurrection, they are not any longer qualified to run for federal office. there is the issue of whether or not donald trump participated in any sort of insurrection. that is also still somewhat of an open question, isn't it? yes, but i think the bigger open question is who gets to determine that and what is an authoritative determination. that is going to be vexing for the supreme court i think. let's take a quick look at the bigger picture here. many of us remember back in 2000, we had a presidential election that came down to the wire and in the end the supreme court had to weigh in to settle who won. it seems the supreme court is getting involved again in electoral politics in the us. what do you think that is about democracy and the way our elections are functioning, or not, right now? the last thing the supreme court wants to do but in

the united states so many political questions do become legal questions. that is why i think they will want to get out of it quickly. i think the immunity case, they will have to rule on and then they will hope the process proceeds without them having to intervene. if important questions come to them the election turns on, they're kind of stuck, aren't they? that is their role. it is going to be an interesting 2024, isn't it? harry litman, former us attorney and deputy assistant attorney general. thank you so much for helping us understand some of this. we hope to have you back on next year because this is going to be an interesting ride. thanks. for the past several days, we've been following the story of glynn simmons, an oklahoma man who spent almost half a century in a us prison for a crime he didn't commit. at 22 years old, simmons was convicted of murder. he's now 70 and has just been declared formally innocent.

the case is the us�*s longest wrongful imprisonment. earlier, i spoke with ngozi ndulue, a special advisor on race and wrongful conviction for the innocence project. 48 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. talk to us a bit about how something like this could happen to a man like glynn simmons and how common are cases like this? i think this seems like an extraordinary case and it is because of the sheer length of time before being exonerated. unfortunately, we have seen several case like this where it has taken decades for people to be exonerated. what we can take from this is though we have a justice system that allows, is supposed to ensure the right people are convicted, that there are opportunities for people who have been wrongfully

convicted to actually get their freedom, there are issues that continue. issues that were problems with the justice system at the time that mr simmons was convicted and problems with the justice system today we still need to be working to remedy to make sure there are pathways to prevent new wrongful convictions and ensure we can actually right the wrongs of the past. glynn simmons is of course an african—american man living in the south of this country. what role does race play in wrongful convictions like this one? we know race plays a huge role throughout the criminal legal system. we should not be surprised racial justice issues show up in wrongful convictions across the country. we have seen studies in the national registry of exoneration that black people are seven times more

likely, innocent black people are seven times more likely to be wrongfully convicted than white people. that comes from a lot of different places. if we think about the way police misconduct is a leading factor in wrongful convictions and we know the ways policing is deployed differently in communities of colour. we know there are issues with cross racial eyewitness identification. we know there are issues with inadequate legal representation, bias in the use of forensic science. we see there are a number of places where racial bias can fit into the way a wrongful conviction is produced. one thing i will note about glynn simmons's case, it was a death penalty case and we have seen specifically with death penalty cases how pernicious racial bias is. starting from the charging

phase all the way through sentencing and post—conviction and who ends up being executed. we know the race of victim is predictive of who is going to get a death sentence and we have seen studies in philadelphia about just the facial features of the person facing the death penalty, when the victim was white, if a person was black and more dark skinned and had more traditionally, features traditionally associated with african—american, they were more likely to be sentenced to death. briefly, if you don't mind. i want to ask you, this is such a momentous case, nearly a0 years in prison, we are short on time but what you think this exoneration could mean for anyone else that might have also wrongfully convicted? i think this should open folks' eyes to the fact there are people serving very long sentences who should never have been there in the first place.

i think that could make a difference with prosecutors offices that need to actually reassess and review cases to ensure people are not there in prison currently who have not, who are serving sentences they should not be serving. it should give us some pause about parole boards. mr simmons was in front of a parole board repeatedly and not given parole. and we should be looking at the legislation across the country to actually say are we actually making sure people are not being wrongfully convicted and have pathways to write those wrongful convictions. one example is right now in new york. we have been pushing for a wrongful conviction act that would give people who led guilty, people often falsely confess, give them a pathway to actually get the wrongful conviction overturned and that does not exist right now. i think the existence of somebody who has been in the system for so long for something they did not do should really spark

change across the board. ngozi ndulue, special advisor on race and wrongful conviction with the innocence project. thank you very much. thank you. let's turn to some important news around the world. russian president vladimir putin has decided that eggs and chicken should be exempt from all import taxes. the move follows mounting pressure on the kremlin to reign in prices. on a recent public phone—in, a caller berated mr putin for the high price she was having to pay, which was partly due to the high import duty. it comes just three months before presidential elections there. rebecca welch has made history by becoming the first woman to referee a premier league match on saturday. she took charge of the game between fulham and burnley. the ao—year—old began her refereeing career 13 years ago, with university and sunday league games before climbing through the ranks. finally, in peru, police have

used a bit of christmas spirit to help them take down a drug trafficking gang. the undercover agents caught two men allegedly selling cocaine and marijuana in a house in a dangerous neighbourhood, north of lima. the national police green squad said the agent disguised himself as santa claus to go unnoticed. and they referred to the group as "evil reindeer gang." the national police said the detained suspects were 25 and 32 years old. this is not the first time peruvian police have used disguises as a distraction during operations. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. we had some heavy rain in scotland on saturday, and as a result of that there are a number of flood warnings in force across the north of the country. we have had some disruption too. for most of the uk it was a very

mild day, but not for everyone. massive contrasts in northern scotland as the mild air butted up against the cold. 10 degrees in braemar, ten miles down the road in balmoral, just one. and with those lower temperatures across the far north and east, well, on saturday we did see some snowfall. so for some, a winter wonderland. however, since then the snow has been turning back to rain and our main concern as we get through christmas eve is the strength of the winds. they could disrupt some travel plans that you may have, so stay tuned. the winds then will pick up over the next few hours, becoming quite gusty across england and wales with outbreaks of rain here. rain could be heavy enough to cause one or two localised flooding issues across mid wales. some showery conditions across scotland and northern ireland. for most, temperatures in double figures as we start the day on sunday. cold air still just about clinging on across the far northeast. now, the strong winds will be affecting scotland through the day, particularly late on. they could bring some distruption here. and over to the east of the pennines, winds could gust 50—70 mph, potentially strong enough to blow over some high—sided vehicles, maybe knock down one or two trees. so there is a risk of seeing some transport disruption

during the day on sunday, christmas eve, so it is worth checking conditions before heading out on anyjourneys you may have planned. and the winds could get even stronger actually for a time during the evening across northern scotland. 0n into monday, christmas day, for the vast majority of the uk, we are in mild air, so rather than it being a white christmas it is a grey christmas. a lot of cloud around, outbreaks of rain, quite heavy rain for a time. quite windy conditions, but colder air starts to move back into northern scotland and that could start to turn some of the rain to snow across some of the higher hills of northern scotland. so for a few of you, it could just about be a white christmas, but not for many. looking beyond that into boxing day, we get colder air moving back southwards across the uk. with that there will be a lot more in the way of sunshine, so that is one positive. it will feel quite a bit colder, mind you. and there will be some showers around, particularly across scotland. one or two for northern ireland, one or two for the north—west of both england and wales. the showers could come through wintry at times, so maybe a bit of sleet mixed in with some of these,

maybe a bit of hill snow as well. bye for now.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme.

# nothing compares to you... # the point at which i start crying is on the lines, "all the flowers that you planted, mama, in the backyard "all died when you went away." because as a young child, i had spent time living in the garden, only being allowed to enter the house to wash the floor every day. # these are dangerous days # to say what you feel is to dig # your own grave. # fight the real enemy. people say it derailed my career. but i think it re—railed my career, because i didn't want to be a pop star. # so happy christmas # i love you, baby # i can see... it's true i'm out of it most of the time, but i can write songs when i'm out of it.