could hurt his chances at re—election. hello, welcome to the programme. we begin with the crisis facing the un agency for palestinian refugees. several countries have paused funding for unwra, the latest to halt aid being germany, its second—largest donor. eight others, including the us and the uk, have suspended funding to the agency known as unrwa. this comes after the agency announced it sacked several staff members over allegations they were involved in the october 7th hamas attacks. the head of unrwa, philippe lazzarini, expressed shock at the suspension of funding, saying the decision to withold those funds threatens the lives of people inside gaza who depend on unrwa.

let's take a closer look now at unrwa's role. the agency says it spends most of its funding, about 5a%, on education, including building and running schools in gaza, followed by health, 17%, and support services, i6%. it also provides emergency relief assistance, and since the recent conflict began, shelters displaced palestinians, living in a war zone. unrwa is funded almost entirely by voluntary contributions. pledges to the agency totalled more than $1 billion in 2022. the us, germany, eu and sweden were the agency's largest individual donors that year, contributing 61% of its overall funding. for more on the situation, i spoke to bonnie glick, a former deputy administrator of the united states agency for international development under the donald trump administration. they have terminated contracts before the investigation

was even completed. is that enough action in your view? that is not enough action at all. unrwa, as chris said, has as its mandate and as you laid out, education, hospitals and healthcare, but what has been uncovered through the last 113 days, since october 7th, is a vast system of tunnels that hamas has built using assistance dollars that have come from donors, including through unrwa, to build this hundreds and hundreds of miles—long tunnel system that they are holding hostages in and that they are using for their commanding control. unrwa denies that. can i read you other statements from unrwa in relation to what has happened.

philippe lazarrini says any employee involved will be held accountable including under prosecution, condemnation in the strongest possible terms of the abhorrent attacks on october seven. he went on to demand the release of hostages. do you believe the statements? i don't believe the statement. do you think he is lying? i think he is disingenuous. it has taken him until the moment of having his funding cut off for him to come out and condemn the attacks on october 7th, and for him to say that we will investigate what have been allegations for years and years against unrwa and its operation. unrwa has never shown any support for the attacks of october 7th. not publicly — yet. on tuesday this

week there will be a hearing in congress where the un watches being called as a witness to testify under oath that 3000 named employees of unrwa, in a telegram message system, all named, or with employee id numbers, all laid out, have been cheering the efforts of hamas, cheered and publicly supported the october seven massacres. unrwa denies all of these accusations and have also written letters to the state department, congress, saying there are safeguards in place to protect against some of the things you have laid out, some of the accusations against them. it is really important to be clear about that. it is also worth saying that we are talking about a few employees here, those are the ones that evidence was brought forward from israel and yet they have 13,000 employees in gaza. so, should the whole organisation be tarnished in that way by these few employees? look, under the trump administration, we cut all aid to unrwa. this is not something that has never happened before in the history of time. we cut all aid because

it is actually illegal for the united states to fund unrwa because the palestinians support a programme of pay to slay, where terrorists who have killed israelis and other civilians are paid lifetime salaries while they are in prison, ortheirfamilies are paid annuities in perpetuity. in march 2018, the us congress passed the taylor force act in a bipartisan manner, which makes it illegal for the united states to fund... can i just say the biden administration did not agree with that assessment, that is why they started funding unrwa again. so, i really want to get to this point which is, taking everything that you have said into account as well as these denials, it is extremely difficult to get this assistance to palestinians in gaza. they are facing a very

serious food crisis. the war has meant there are many with no shelter, food, medical assistance. who is going to give that supportive if it is not unrwa? a very simple question to answer. all of this can be ended when hamas surrenders and every single hostage is released. so should innocent palestinians continue to suffer because of this? no humanitarian aid? there are six american hostages currently being held in gaza by hamas. hamas could be turned over by gazan civilians and hamas leaders can surrender, put down their arms and release all of the hostages. then the situation changes radically but until that moment, there cannot be any changes. sorry for interrupting, we are running out of time, but the icj has ordered israel to provide more humanitarian assistance to the palestinians in gaza and they have one month to report back.

you think israel should ignore that order, palestinians should not receive, not only additional humanitarian aid, but whatever assistance they were getting from unrwa up until now? the international court ofjustice has proven it is a kangaroo court, that it even took up the issue that south africa presented to it of this being an israeli genocide. and at the end of the day, the genocide and the genocidal intent comes from hamas. and they have stated explicitly, including all of their leaders, that this will continue, october 7th was a start. it will go on and on and on. but you don't think there should be any differentiation between the civilian lives, because kamala harris has said too many innocent palestinians have been killed in this conflict. you disagree. can ijust add, 100 un workers have also been killed, more than 100,

more than any other conflict. tell me this — did israel ask to be attacked on october seven? the answer that is no. the responsibility of this lies 100% with hamas, including any pain and suffering befalling the palestinian people in gaza. 100% of that responsibility, as the white house has said, resides with hamas. all right, bonnie glick, thank you so much for your time. we do appreciate it. that is bonnie glick who worked under the donald trump administration. well, a little earlier, i spoke to omar shakir — he's the israel and palestine director for human rights watch. omar, thank you so much forjoining us. omar, from your perspective, do you understand why these allegations would be so severe that governments have decided to cut funding to unrwa? the decision to cut funding to unrwa is shameful. these are serious allegations

but the un responded to it exactly the way one would respond to serious allegations. they immediately opened an investigation, they terminated the contracts of these employees, even before the investigation. in fact, countries around the world have praised unrwa's response to this attack. to cut funding — unrwa serves more than 5 million palestinians. there are more than 1.7 million displaced palestinians at unrwa shelters. their lives hang in the balance and unrwa is providing critical support. that governments have cut funding is akin to collective punishment — punishing not only institution that is 13,000 employees in gaza, but the hundreds of thousands, the millions that depend on unrwa for theirfood, education, for basic humanitarian aid. there is no justification for that decision. omar, more than 1200 people were killed on october seven. more than around to 140

people were taken hostage. several members of unrwa are now being investigated for their involvement in those attacks. unrwa has found there was enough credibility in those accusations that they have terminated their contracts and are investigating it. what else would you expect governments to do? what we do expect unrwa to do? action has to be taken, doesn't it? you have to distinguish between individuals and institutions. the institution as soon as they became of allegations acted as any would in that situation. the october seven attacks were heinous, they involve more crimes, human rights watch and other groups have documented that. unrwa has condemned that. the minute they became aware of them. they investigated those accusations. we're talking about the heinous potential actions of 12 employees. i mean, we're not talking here about a policy of an institution.

your previous guest immediately went and talked about previous issues and not the matter at han. just yesterday the international court ofjustice found it plausible that israel is committing genocide in part because of their deprivation of critical aid and food to civilian population of gaza. unrwa is one of the few outlets are people in gaza have to get any assistance and on the heels of that, not hours later, governments are now cutting on aid to a government that plausibly could be committing genocide. they are instead cutting funding to the agency providing critical support for them. there is no justification for that. to be clear, israel has vehemently denied any intention or any actions involving genocidal intent. would you agree though that israel has been arguing that the numbers, the anecdotes, the quotes coming out of unrwa need to be severely questioned? look, cross talk) one moment, (cross look, cross talk) one moment, cross talk... considered here the evidence.

they found the course plausible. it wasn't a ruling on merits, that will take years, but they put in place critical measures to protect palestinians from genocide. the story here is not unrwa. unrwa exist because palestinians were kicked out of their homes orfled in 19118. you have 70% of gazan population that are refugee. unrwa could be disbanded the day that refugees have the rights to return to their homes that they were expelled or fled from in 19118. then unrwa does not need to exist but as long as the palestinians refugees needed, in part responsible for the entire situation, has a duty to ensure they have school, that they have... cross talk we're running out of time. you are right to really differentiate between unrwa and innocent palestinian civilians. my question to you is, can you understand why unrwa's

credibility might be shot now that this is being investigated? unrwa is one of the only a few sources we have about what is going on in gaza. israel has been questioning that information for months. what, what credibility does unrwa have now moving forward? it has to be in the context of a years—long campaign against unrwa. under the trump administration there were campaigns to stop them. this is an effort to use serious allegations against 12 as part of an attempt to undermine unrwa. the reality is the white house and many others question the death toll coming out of gaza and we have news reports from this week that the israeli intelligence services themselves rely on the death toll from the local authorities in gaza. this is not a question

about were information is coming from. we know there is a catastrophe. the international court of justice recognise that. our focus needs to be on action to end those grave abuses, not to cut funding to one of the few institutions providing vital support. it is heinous and has no justification. right. and of course there is a severe humanitarian crisis continuing to unfold in gaza. thank you for your time. saturday marks international holocaust remembrance day and survivors have laid flowers at the auschwitz concentration camp in poland, to mark 79 years since its liberation. in total, nearly 6 million europeanjews were murdered by the nazis during the holocaust. here's our religion editor, aleem maqbool. the holocaust robbed joan salter of many members of her extended family. today in particular, she remembers them. the bravery ofjoan's mother meant she survived. my mother climbed over the mountains into spain and then she gave me up, in the hope that

i would survive. and that is where prejudice gets you. littlejoan was shipped to the us until the war was over, when she was reunited with her parents in the uk. she says she feels the lessons of the holocaust have not yet been learned. it's just to get over what hatred does and how quickly people turn on each other. that, to me, is the message on holocaust memorial day, and the hope is that people will understand that. holocaust memorial day has been established to commemorate the 6 millionjews that were murdered by the nazis, but also the victims of other genocides since. at this year's main remembrance event, there was special focus on rwanda, 2024 marking 30 years since the horrific massacres of hundreds of thousands of tutsis there. earlier this week, referring to the case against israel

at the international court ofjustice, the uk's chief rabbi, ephraim mirvis, said the accusation of genocide was an affront to the victims and survivors of the holocaust around this memorial day. he sings and the conflict in gaza and associated rise in anti—semitism has meant the holocaust memorial day trust advised on fewer public events this year. particularly the jewish community, but also muslims, are much more anxious about being out in public and visibly being jewish or muslim. and so we have worked very closely with the police to issue guidance and actually, ourjob on holocaust memorial day is to remind people of what can happen when hatred

gets out of hand. the holocaust memorial day trust is encouraging people to light a candle and place it in a window to, in its words, remember those who were killed for who they were and to stand against prejudice and hatred today. aleem maqbool, bbc news, in north london. well, as regional tensions continue to escalate, an oil tanker with links to the uk has been attacked by houthi missiles. the marlin luanda, which is operated by a uk—registered company, was travelling in the red sea off the coast of yemen, when it was struck. the uk government says it reserves the right to respond appropriately. it is the latest attack in and around the red sea, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes. our diplomatic correspondent paul adams reports. this was the marlin luanda this morning. indian navy personnel dousing a fire that threatened to ignite the ship's cargo of russian oil — the end of a perilous night for the crew. the houthis were quick to take

credit for the attack, their spokesman saying, once again, that this was being done to support the palestinians in gaza, and in response to what he described as it's been two weeks since britain and the us first hit back, striking military targets inside yemen, aiming to deter the houthis. so far, the strategy does not appear to be working. so, the attack on marlin luanda in the gulf of aden signify a great extension and escalation from the red sea to the gulf of aden — so a geographical extension. and also with the type of weapons, the missile used yesterday was a ballistic missile and the houthis started their attacks in the red sea using drones. so we're seeing a technological expansion and a geographical extension. the houthis are using the attacks to bolster support at home, orchestrating huge rallies on the streets of the capital,

sana'a, relishing this confrontation with the west — something they've thought about and planned for for years. they're being helped by iran. when us navy seals seized a dhow off the coast of somalia earlier this month, they found parts of ballistic and anti—ship cruise missiles. diplomats say weapons are also being smuggled through oman. this afternoon, the defence secretary, grant shapps, condemned what he called this intolerable and illegal attack and said britain remained committed to protecting freedom of navigation. paul adams, bbc news. turning now to the race for the white house. the next republican primary for the 2024 presidential nomination is still a few weeks away, and the two remaining candidates — former president, donald trump, and former un ambassador, nikki haley, and former un ambassador, nikki haley — are both out campaigning. president trump held a rally in nevada, just a day after he appeared in a manhattan court where he was ordered by a jury to pay writer, ejean carroll, more than $80 million for defamatory statements.

nikki haley is also out campaigning in her home state of south carolina, hoping to salvage her longshot bid for the presidency by turning it all around in the primary there next month. president biden is also on the campaign trail, already looking ahead to a general election where the democratic incumbent could face some problems. we've spoken a lot about questions surrounding president biden�*s age, but that may not be the only concern for the biden campaign. a wall streetjournal piece reports that senior aides within his admistration are worried that the president's support for israel amid the war in gaza could hurt his re—election prospects. for more on all this, i've been speaking to reporter sabrina siddiqui. could you explain what his aides are worried about and what they are urging biden to do about it? we have seen in recent weeks, president biden has been disrupted at many of his events

by pro—palestinian activists. at one of his campaign events in virginia this past week, it was almost a dozen times or so, that he almost struggled to deliver the speech because he was drowned out by these protesters and i think what they are seeing is a lot of anger and frustration, notjust among arab and muslim american voters over the president's handling of the crisis in gaza, but also among young voters, you know, blakc voters, but also among young voters, you know, black voters, a lot of the constituencies that they need to support the president in november. so what the aides are kind of worried about is, they do not think that these voters are necessarily going to break for former president, trump, but what they are worried about is, what if they stay home or vote for a third party. so, how do they kind of bring them back into the fold and try and respond to this anger and frustration that they are seeing. i want to bring up a poll by cbs which sort of illustrates what you're talking about there. it's aboutjoe biden�*s handling of the war, how it is viewed. they took a cross section of

the population and they found that 39% approve of his handling of the war and 61% disapprove of it. could you explain that general sentiment amongst the population? i do think president biden has low approval ratings across the board so we do need to kind of take that into account in general when you look at any one issue but the challenge for president biden is, yes, the majority of american voters still do support israel and believe — according to most of these polls — that israel is taking appropriate action to defend itself but within the democratic party that is where you are seeing this growing rift. in fact, we have had a poll at the wall streetjournal, where nearly half of democrats think that israel's actions are disproportionate and you see in general more sympathy for palestinians than israelis as you look generationally within the democratic party. again, it is about the president, who is already struggling with some of these groups, including young voters who are not enthusiastic

about his campaign. is this yet another issue that could cost him? some aides say this war is going to look different in november, there is time. but of course, i think because there is this level of anger, is there concern that it is becoming more and more salient within the campaign, on top of the lack of enthusiasm and dissatisfaction with their choices? is this something that really hurts the president's reelection prospects? is this something that president biden could have predicted ? he steadfastly wants to support israel, and ally of the united states. how have democrats generally felt about the support for israel? the democratic party is also supportive of israel in an overall sense and that has not changed. i think the challenge here, first of all it took a bit of time for president biden and his administration's tone to shift in terms of speaking more empathetically toward the palestinian people and being more sharp

in the criticism of israel's conduct in this war and they need to minimise civilian casualties but the biggest problem is the people who are angry about gaza, whether it is arab and muslim voters, young voters or others, they do not want a shift in tone but a shift in policy. they want the president to embrace a ceasefire and at least condition it into israel. to stop approving these arms exports to israel that have not gone through congress, through all the appropriate oversight. these are all the criticisms they are facing and i do not know, i think a lot of the advisors i talk to, when they pointed the shift in tone, when i talk to the voters and activists, i do not know that the shift in tone is enough to win them over, they want a shift in policy and it does not look like they are going to get that. now before we go, the world's biggest cruise ship, royal caribbean�*s icon of the seas, will set sail

from miami on saturday, on its maiden voyage. the 250,000 ton ship took 900 days to build and cost £1.5 billion. that is $1.9 billion. it will house the world's first suspended infinity pool at sea, as well as the ocean's largest—ever water park, and has the capacity to carry nearly 8,000 people. could they take one more? ! stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. saturday brought quite a bit of sunshine to england and wales. a dry day for many, and a lovely end to the day here in north somerset. further north, though, for northern ireland and scotland, the day turned out to be quite windy and we did have a fair bit of cloud coming in off the atlantic, associated with the jet stream pattern. well, thisjet stream pattern for sunday is going to be bringing a very mild air mass across the uk

and we could well see some exceptional temperatures across northern areas of scotland through sunday afternoon, as we will see in just a moment. before we get there, though, the southerly wind at the moment is bringing occasional patches of drizzle to coast and hills for scotland and for northern ireland, although many areas will stay dry and have a dry start to the day on sunday. mild across the northwest. we've got the cooler air across england and wales. a few mist patches to start the day on sunday. quickly clearing, and then a lovely morning for most of you. into the afternoon, though, a cold front will bring a spell of rain to northern ireland and western scotland, and some very strong winds working into the hebrides and the north—west of the highlands. 60mph, maybe 70mph, gusts here, but on the other side of the mountains, helped on by the fern effect, we could see temperatures get boosted all the way up to maybe as high as 16 celsius — well above the average for this part of the world. and the uk all—timejanuary temperature record stands at 18.3 celsius, so 16 wouldn't be that far away from that. although we don't see those dizzy heights across england and wales,

it is going to be a mild day nationwide. now, looking at the weather picture into monday, we keep the mild air across england and wales, but further north, the air�*s getting colder across scotland and northern ireland. between the two, we have got a band of rain. it looks like being quite wet across this area, with 20mm to 40mm of rain. could see a few flakes of snow over the highest hills of the southern uplands. colder weather pushing back into scotland and northern ireland. i say colder, actually, temperatures are coming back closer to average. but across england and wales, still very mild. temperatures could reach 15 degrees in the warmest spots. heading into tuesday, that area of low pressure is working away. a ridge of high pressure follows in for a time from the west, so the cloud will thin and break and many of us will have a day where the weather will improve and get brighter with a bit more in the way of sunshine coming through. temperatures near average across northern areas, still on the mild side for east anglia and southeast england. the rest of the week ahead, often quite wet and windy at times in the north, dry and bright largely in the south. goodbye for now.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. my mother hasn't given birth in 1984. this birth certificate is not real. i am helping parents to find their children

who were stolen and sold by the georgian doctors. what the hell is happening? who is that girl? georgia is coming to terms with a black market adoption scandal spanning decades. it's believed tens of thousands of babies were stolen, some as recently as the mid 20005. and while some are connecting with lost family... i texted herfirst, "i have been looking for you".

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