hello, i'm carl nasman. diplomatic pressure on israel is rising after the israel defence forces intensified strikes in southern gaza overnight. in a joint appearance with king abdullah ofjordan, us presidentjoe biden said monday that israel should not move forward with its planned ground invasion of the city of rafah, unless there is a clear plan to protect civilians. on monday morning, a series of israeli airstrikes there killed at least 67 people, with israel warning of an impending ground offensive. more than than half of gaza's population now lives in rafah. the potentialfor a ground campaign has sparked alarm from israel's allies, including the united states. many people there have been displaced, displaced multiple

times, fleeing the violence to the north and now they are packed into rafah, exposed and vulnerable and need to be protected. we have also made clear from the start that we oppose any forced displacement of palestinians from gaza. we cannot afford an israeli attack on rafah. it is certain to produce another humanitarian catastrophe. the situation is already unbearable for over a million people pushed into rafah since the war started. for more analysis on king abdullah's visit to washington, here's our north america correspondent nomia iqbal. this was a very significant meeting in that king abdullah is the first arab leader to meet president biden since october the 7th, and the king has been very open about what he thinks should be happening and has laid the goals out to

president biden, we heard it it in the statement, that he wants a long lasting ceasefire and humanitarian aid to be sent into gaza. he's worried about the military operation in rafah he also wants a long—term, two state solution. these are issues president biden has also raised. king abdullah is meeting president biden where the tone has slightly changed in washington. last week, president biden issued a rare rebuke of israel in which he said the military operation in gaza had gone over the top. critics have pointed out there has been no practical change however in america's approach and they continue to give military aid to israel. but the king will be hoping to use his influence with america. jordan is incredibly important as a regional ally to the americans. the king also enjoys a very close relationship with america and takes pride in his relationship with president biden and of the presidents before him, but it is a very difficult and tricky balancing

act because injordan there has been much unrest among a lot of people. there have been street protests because of what is happening in gaza, many calling on thejordanian leadership to abandon its peace treaty with israel and abandon its defence agreements with america. that's not likely to happen. the king will want to use his influence, so this meeting with president biden has been a very important roll of the dice, in that sense, in order to make his feelings heard to america. along with monday morning's airstrikes in rafah, some israeli forces were on the ground, carrying out a successful mission to rescue two hostages held by hamas. fernando marman and louis har spent more than 125 days in hamas captivity. they're nowjust the second and third hostages to be released through israel's military operations in the past four months. dozens more are believed to still be held in gaza.but the operations to bring home hostages and dismantle hamas have had disastrous consequences for palestinian civilians.

the hamas—run health ministry says more than 28,000 people have been killed in the war in gaza mostly women and children. the un warns the entire territory is food—insecure. doctors say disease has run rampant. a ground invasion into rafah risks further devastation, because the city's population has sky—rocketed from 250,000 last year to some 1.5 million people in a matter of months. that's an increase of five—fold, and more than half of gaza's population. for more on last night's deadly operation in rafah, and the prospect of further israeli attacks, the bbc�*s lucy williamson filed this report. explosion. special forces, backed by airstrikes on homes and mosques. left behind, more than 60 people dead... ..and took with them two israeli hostages, snatched from a second—floor apartment.

this, the moment counterterrorist police went in and brought them out. the military vehicle moving rapidly towards the israeli border. inside, theirfirst moments of freedom caught on the units' body cams. 60—year—old fernando marman and 70—year—old louis har were kidnapped from kibbutz nir yitzhak on october the 7th. covered by special forces on their way out of gaza, covered on arrival with love. military operations have so far freed three hostages. relatives say a deal with hamas is still the best way to get the others out. mentally, they look ok. physically, they look ok. please, be serious and strike a deal. the israeli people

needs the deal done. not yesterday, not tomorrow — today. we want it done as soon as possible. we want to go back to our ordinary life. for gazans, ordinary life has disappeared, buried in the rubble of their homes, in the quivering of their children. translation: we were at home when the airstrikes _ were going on. i told my mother that i wanted to use the bathroom. suddenly, all the walls of the bathroom and all the water containers above it collapsed on me. rafah is the next target for israel's army. the war has pushed half of gaza's population south, into this border town. the us has warned an offensive here, without proper planning, would be a disaster. israel is so far sticking to its plan. the united nations and international actors now face a fateful choice.

do they want to save hamas or save palestinian civilians? they cannot stop israel from dismantling the last four hamas battalions in the gaza strip and securing the release of the 134 remaining hostages. the price of israel's war is rising. forfamilies in rafah today, the cost — incalculable. the us is urging israel to consider a potential hostage deal to pause the fighting. israel worries that a deal would mean hamas surviving. but after four months of war it isn't the group's leaders who are dying. lucy williamson, bbc news, jerusalem. earlier i spoke with ricardo pires, a communications manager with unicef about the difficult humanitarian situation in rafah as israel plans its next offensive.

any plan that aims to protect civilians needs to start from the premise that they need to be in a safe space, not only protected from artillery or bombs falling from the sky but also protected from disease and other risks on the ground and from the consequences of destroyed infrastructure, contaminated water, but also having access to toilets that they don't have to share with 700 people. other life—saving supplies such as medication, food and clean water, so the idea of a safe space goes beyond protection from harm and the horrors of war in terms of weapons and bombs and explosions but also the services they need to access on the ground to stay healthy and to stay alive. benjamin netanyahu has said that he wants to move civilians to areas north of the city. there is more thani million people currently on rafah. would it be possible

in your opinion? right now, absolutely not. where would they be going back to, as we've seen many times over and over in the last few months since the war started, most of the infrastructure buildings, residences, facilities, hospitals have been level down and destroyed and schools are no longer functioning so any idea the displaced population, and let's not forget 600,000 of them are children who have been moved around many times, even though they might have been injured or possibly lost loved ones and are traumatised, they don't have a place to go back up north, and right now they are being squeezed in a tiny strip of land with a population density twice as high as new york city and feeling the threat, the looming threat of more violence and more military

offensive coming their way. for more on israel's military campaign, i spoke with matthew levitt, director of the reinhard counterterrorism program at the washington institute — a pro israel think tank. on the one hand it's fantastic to hear a couple of hostages, elderly gentleman, were freed from hamas captivity. that's what started this all on october seven the other hand, the lives lost within the palestinian community are tragic and there are just no words. that's the nature of war and i hear lots of people saying surely israel can do more and surely israel can be more targeted but it becomes very difficult to do that in such an incredibly dense area where the enemy in this case, hamas, is still popping out at you from all of these civilian locations. if you look and compare it to the way the us or british

forces engaged in afghanistan and in iraq, the israelis are doing quite well in terms of a combatant against civilian ratio. don't get me wrong, it's never well enough, because every one of these lives is precious and i'm torn up about it. ijust don't know what else can be expected when the israelis still have hostages that are being held. i wish hamas would release them. a bipartisan group of us senators is pushing ahead with funding for ukraine, israel, and taiwan — despite hard opposition from republicans in the house. the senate cleared the remaining procedural hurdles monday — teeing up a vote on the 95 billion dollar package this week. if it passes there, that would send it to the house, where it will likely stall. meanwhile, former president donald trump has doubled down on his controversial nato comments, implying the us would not protect allies that fail to spend enough on defence. he posted on his social media site:

it follows his comments at a campaign rally in south carolina on saturday where mr trump said he would encourage russia to �*do whatever the hell they want�* to nato countries who haven't paid their dues. for more on this, i spoke with former us permanent representative to nato, kay bailey hutchison. i want to ask you about these comments by former president donald trump essentially suggesting he would let russia do whatever they want to nato members who do not meet the spending guidelines. what do you make of what he said and how seriously do you think nato members should take the comments? well, i'm troubled by that kind of language, of course, and i think most people here are. first, let me say that congress is very much pro—nato

and pro—ukraine help. congress understands that while there are a lot of political factors that are in the cross hairs but i do believe our european allies should know that we understand the commitments of nato and america as being the leader of nato, and we will continue to do that. there will be a lot of rhetoric and a lot of talk, but you have to look at what it's actually done and what it has done is increase the support for nato and increase the support for ukraine. ambassador, i have to ask you, because i recently saw that you met with jens stoltenberg, the head of the nato alliance and you had a picture of him on your twitter account and he said recently that the comments from donald trump undermine security and put us and european troops at greater risk.

do you agree with him assessment? well, i think it's important when you are in international relations that you are careful with your words and the words that he spoke were not careful or thoughtful and not recognising what europe is doing for its own defence. the former president said europeans are not paying their dues, and that is not right, they always paid, and the operations of nato goes on. what he's referring to is that europe needs to step up more on defence and they are. they are standing up more now, certainly more after ukraine, because they do understand the consequences because they are on a border with russia, and i think it's very not really comprehending how much the europeans are doing and that is not acceptable. we need to continue,

all of us, to do more. at the same time, when you take a look at the nato spending numbers, and this is interesting, from 2023, the figures show that 19 of the 30 member nations, including france, germany, norway, are below the target of 2% of annual gdp spending on defence which is what the former president was referring to. so is there anything there you can agree with with donald trump where he says, look, there there were some funding issues when it comes to the alliance?

absolutely, and i think previous presidents have said the same thing both republicans and democrats and have urged europe to do more for its own defence spending and what has happened is, they are, they are doing well. yes, we need to all be doing the 2%, but 2% should be the floor now. we should be looking at three or 4% with all of the chaos that is going on in the world, especially right now with russia invading ukraine, having invaded ukrainian 2014, crimea, and then georgia before that in 2010 and now we are also facing other bad actors like north korea, iran, look at the proxies of iran and what they are doing in the middle east and then you are looking at china, which is toying with trying to take away some of the business that taiwan has had and hong kong, so this is not a world that is serene. it is in a lot of turmoil and we need to be careful with the words were used and we need to be allied.

the main thing i would say tonight is we need to be allied together with our european allies and asia—pacific allies and the allies we have in the middle east so the culture of freedom is what prevails here. and we must be united to do that. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at a major story making the news in the uk. labour says it has withdrawn support for rochdale by—election candidate azhar ali after his comments on israel. the party said the decision was taken after "new information about further comments" by mr ali came to light. earlier on monday, labour had defended standing by him.it it is now too late for the party to replace mr ali on the ballot. our correspondent alex forsyth has more. keir starmer has putting

rooting out anti—semitism that the heart of his leadership and says that the party stance is clear on that despite the prospects of what it might do to the party in the rochdale by—election but others say he should have acted more quickly and the fact it took two days before labour changed its position is in fact a sign of keir starmer�*s indecision. and here's a full list of candidates standing in the rochdale by—election. it takes place on february 29th. the winner will replace labour mp sir tony lloyd, who passed away last year. you're live with bbc news. former president donald trump has asked the us supreme court to to intervene over his claim that he is immune from charges that he tried to subvert the 2020 election. a federal appeals court had rejected mr trump's immunity

arguments, so mr trump has asked the top court's justices to pause the ruling while he pursues an appeal. the supreme court is now set to decide whether — and how fast — the federal trial will proceed. trinidad and tobago's prime minister described a huge oil spill as a �*national emergency�* on sunday. an overturned vessel this week affected at least 15 kilometers of tobago's south—western coast, including some of the caribbean islands pristine beaches. a thousand volunteers have now joined government staff to clean up the spill. at least 68 people are now known to have died after a landslide swept through a goldmining village in the philippines almost a week ago. officials say 51 people remain missing following tuesday's disaster in davao de oro province. us presidentjoe biden hasjoined tiktok with his first video captioned, �*lol hey guys'. the post has already racked up more than 6 million views.

the 81—year—old's election campaign joined the social media platform in hopes of reaching young voters —— and already has about 70 thousand followers. and he answered questions on the super bowl in a brief video — take a look. biden�*s new presence on the platform comes despite the data security issues surrounding the chinese—owned company. the us has stayed away from tiktok because of privacy and national security concerns related to the apps owner, chinese company bytedance. the white house maintains that tiktok is still not approved for use on government devices.

but the social media platform is particularly popular with young voters — about one third of 18—29 year olds in the us said they regularly get news on tiktok. earlier i spoke with santiago mayer, executive director of voters of tomorrow — a youth—led non—profit that works to engage young people in politics. he also volunteered for the biden—harris campaign in 2020. is this a good move for the biden administration campaign? yeah. listen, there is a lot of hand—wringing about the super bowl and howjoe biden needed a message around it and dropping the first tiktok during the super bowl and communicating to young people and showing young people who he is and what he believes is incredibly important and i think tiktok is a phenomenal platform. are you on tiktok? iam. i am technically, but i normally get them on instagram like most millennials. but we saw a bit of

the first post from the president and really leaning into the memes, the dark brand in the laser eyes and talking about taylor swift conspiracies and making his pick for the super bowl. is that the kind of video that can engage young voters? i think so. joe biden is a phenomenal person. i think people who get to know him like him, that's been his thing, he's really good at going out and talking to people and meeting people where they aren't talking about two gen z and i'm sure serious topics will follow, but presenting himself as an understanding person will be important and tiktok is the platform to do. at the same timejoe biden is 81 years old, far outside of the typical demographic for tiktok. do you think young people can see through that "hey, hey,

young kids, i'm cool too! or can he pull it off? that's what is good about tiktok, it feels authentic and gen z has a good sense for what is authentic and there is no sense that he was forced to do it and you can see with the cookies comments, this is something where he was having fun and that works for tiktok. let's talk politics. how exactly can a strong tiktok campaign make a difference in the upcoming election? i think tiktok is another tool that they can use and we knew they would have a strong programme and we knew they were already engaging college campuses and the campaign was announced weeks ago that engages young people where they are in their schools and this is presenting a new messaging and showing them and pulling down the curtain and telling people this isjoe biden, who your president is and who we are asking you to vote for. is this enough? there is a perception of a lack

of enthusiasm around joe biden as a candidate. his approval numbers are very low. can something like this boost that up, at least among young people, or does he have to do more and marry this with specific policy? what you say is literally the main point. gen z votes on policy and i thinkjoe biden, there's no other candidate for gen zpolicy. he has delivered gen z win after win and using tiktok he is able to present that to young people you might not otherwise know about it. what about the security concerns. tiktok is owned by a chinese company and the white house banned the app on government devices. how concerning other security concerns to young people? will they think, "why is the president on tiktok if he wants to ban the app?" i'm not a national security or tech expert but i can tell you young voters are consuming their news

from tiktok and although the future of app is uncertain i think it would be a missed opportunity to not go and meet young voters where they are. one third of them are getting their information there and until the app gets banned, i think this is a personal account, a campaign account and it's not using any federal software. it's been clear that this is separate and disconnected from everything else and they are taking serious precautions to protect national security information. stay with us here on bbc news hello. we had a sunny start to the week, but tuesday is going to be very different for many of us. extensive cloud, outbreaks of rain and drizzle, but it is going to be relatively mild, and indeed this is the outlook for the next few days. now, let's have a look at the big picture across our neck of the woods. weather systems gently streaming in from the southwest

and the jet stream is generally just to the south of us. so the air hasn't been all that mild over the uk. but in the next few days we will see these warmer air masses streaming in almost from the subtropics. so temperatures are expected to rise, of course, not to subtropical values, but it will be milder. anyway, here's the early morning forecast, then. some wintry showers in scotland, pretty chilly as well, with a touch of frost in the highlands. and then the further south you are, the less cold it'll be in the morning. so around, say five or six degrees celsius in the south of england. tuesday's weather map shows this weather front approaching. it's a warm front. so behind it, we've got that warmer air streaming in pretty much from the azores. and that means extensive cloud across many parts of south western britain initially, then that weather front will basically move sort of north and eastwards through the course of the day. outbreaks of rain will come and go. almost impossible to say at what time. it's just going to be a pretty overcast and dreary day across the bulk of the uk apart

from scotland here. in fact, some sunshine and a little bit colder. and then into wednesday it looks as though that weather front will move a little bit further north into scotland. so yes, clouds will increase eventually later in the day on wednesday in southern scotland, eventually the lowlands, too. but to the south, itjust stays cloudy, rainy. you can see the winds are coming in out of the southwest, not particularly strong, but noticeable on coasts. and look at these temperatures, up to 1a degrees in yorkshire, still a little bit colder the other side of the weather front in scotland and the northern isles. you can see that slightly colder air there just in the north of the uk. and then the outlook, so this is really for the rest of the week into the weekend, and even into next week. it's a general trend here for these milder air masses to sweep in off the atlantic. so pretty stable temperatures, maybe as high as 16, but generally around 13 or 1a in the south of the country. closer to single figures, around average, in the north of the uk. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. we'll have your headlines after this programme. welcome to hard talk from new york. the two—year

anniversary of vladimir putin's all—out invasion of ukraine is fast approaching. the ensuing conflict has exposed deep geopolitical division here at united nations headquarters. it's also exposed deep political division within the united states. further american economic assistance is blocked by those on capitol hill. does kyiv now feel betrayed? ambassador, welcome to hard talk.