and in rio dejaneiro, the celebrations continue as the final parade of the carnival takes place. hello, i'm mark lobel. president biden has appealed for the more thani million palestinians sheltering in rafah, in the southern gaza strip, to be protected, once again urging israel not to carry out a big assault without a credible plan for the safety of civilians. he was speaking after meeting thejordanian monarch, king abdullah, in washington. the king has repeatedly pushed for a full truce to end the conflict that started when hamas attacked israel on october 7th. on monday morning, a series of israeli airstrikes there killed at least 70 people,

with israel warning ofan 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 us. as the king and i discussed today, the united states is working on a hostage deal between israel and hamas, which would bring an immediate and sustained period of calm to gaza for at least six weeks, which we could then take the time to build something more enduring. nearly 100,000 people have been killed, injured orare missing. the majority are women and children. 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 who have been pushed into rafah since the war started. we cannot stand by and let this continue. we need a lasting ceasefire now.

this war must end. 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 all 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. with me is said shehata from bbc arabic. what is the significance of prince adbullah's vist to the white house? foran for an american president to stand alongside an arab leader and voice criticism and reservation of israeli operations inside gaza in itself is significant for the arab world. in addition, it is the first meeting between the american president and an arab leader since the war started in october. because the american president is under immense pressure from the arab american voters and muslim american voters and muslim american voters because of his support for israel, and they think his stand on the palestinians is not good enough. president biden used the meeting to express sympathy with the

palestinians, and he said every innocent life lost is a tragedy, like in israel or palestine, so he put them on the same footing. at the same time, he said any operation or ground operation inside gaza shouldn't go ahead unless there is a credible, suitable plan in order to protect civilians. he used the meeting to express his support for the palestinian innocent people but stopped short of calling for a ceasefire. on the other hand, like king abdullah called for a lasting ceasefire and said war must end because of the tragedy. more than 28,000 people killed since october in addition to more than 67,000 people injured, and what is happening in rafah and other areas in gaza is disastrous. despite the significance of the meeting with king abdullah,

israeli preparations for the offensive in rafah continue. unfortunately israeli prime minister the repeated that victory was within reach. so we need to carry on the ground operation. so his defiance for all of the appeals from international organisations, from america, the arabs even egypt they have closed a relationship and the tension on the border, especially the philadelphia corridor and egypt with some tanks going across the border. but at the same time mr william burns in egypt today in order to activate and push for the deal between the israeli and hamas in order to end fighting for six weeks and releasing the hostages, it might pave the way for a negotiation and an end of the war. it is like this to biden

trying to work hard for that so he heads —— sends the head of the cia to push for that. and there is fear inside rafah and eyewitnesses from rafah say they are afraid when they are sleeping, and how can they move, where do you go? there is nowhere safe in gaza. northern gazais nowhere safe in gaza. northern gaza is almost destroyed, so they have to go where they can be protected and find their needs. a, be protected and find their needs. �* .., . be protected and find their needs. �* u, . ., needs. a concerning time for --eole needs. a concerning time for peeple there- _ we can now cross live and speak to ian parmeter, a research scholar at the australian national university and former australian ambassador to lebanon. what are the implications of this much anticipated offensive in rafah? i think there are several. first because it's now been telegraphed so strongly in advance that it would be impossible for israel to step back from it and we must assume

that there will be an offensive that there will be an offensive that goes into rafah. the question is whether there can be any serious evacuation of the million or so civilians who are in rafah at this stage. ironically the israeli government has called on the un agencies to assist the movement of people out of the rafah area but this is at the same time that israel has called on the united nations relief and works agency to be disbanded, so we are getting mixed messages from the israelis. the israelis will be i think very heartened by the fact that they were able to rescue two more hostages just in the last 2a hours. and it does show the value of what the americans have been trying to get the israelis to do, which

is to use targeted intelligence and engage in targeted attacks rather than a whole so bombing. it's very clear that one of the problems that really face the israeli government is there is a strong rift emerging between the biden administration and the biden administration and the netanyahu government, and netanyahu has to decide which is more important to him, his relationship with president biden or his own coalition, and don't forget that netanyahu's own coalition is very right wing and he's getting a lot of pressure from his own right—wing supporters that the operation should continue. in fact so much pressure that they've threatened to bring down the government. if the government were to be brought down, almost certainly

netanyahu would lose the subsequent election, so netanyahu has a lot riding on his decision. my bet at this stage is that netanyahu will go ahead with the operation and there will be some quite horrific civilian casualties, but netanyahu, i think, will live with that and give his usual claim that they have done their best to observe international humanitarian law. i should mention another aspect thatis i should mention another aspect that is hanging over israel is the international criminal court. the icj in its decision on the 26th of january asked israel to present a report within a month, by the 26th of february, indicating how it is preventing taking action to preventing taking action to prevent genocide taking place in gaza stop we are yet to see if israel is going to produce such a report.—

if israel is going to produce such a report. right. do you think a military _ such a report. right. do you think a military offensive - such a report. right. do you l think a military offensive ends in rafa for the stated aims of hamas —— the end of hamas? ida. hamas -- the end of hamas? no, i don't think— hamas -- the end of hamas? no, | don't think it — hamas -- the end of hamas? no, i don't think it does. _ hamas —— the end of hamas? iifr, i don't think it does. the big problem with the tunnel is the length of gaza and we are talking about a0 kilometres and we've already seen reporting of hamas fighters re—emerging in northern gaza where israel has removed some of its forces already, so the difficulty they will have is they may be able to find some tunnels and blow them up but they won't necessarily prevent the tunnel system still being used, and at this stage it's worth bearing in mind that all of the israeli assault so far have been able to release three hostages and the rest have been released through negotiation and the americans and certainly king abdullah, the egyptians are

doing their best to get israel to return to negotiations. thank you very much. here, the labour party has withdrawn support for its candidate in the rochdale by—election, azhar ali, because of remarks he made about israel. the party made the decision saying that further information had come to light; it had previously spent days defending mr ali. it's too late for labour to change its candidate. opponents have accused labour of being in disarray. here's our political correspondent ben wright. energy costs up, familiesjuggling bills. he was labour's candidate in rochdale and only yesterday the party was still defending its decision to back him. but now the daily mail has published more comments azhar ali made to a meeting of labour members last autumn in which he apparently blamed people in the media from certainjewish quarters for fuelling criticism of a pro—palestinian labour mp. i understand these latest remarks

are what prompted labour to pull their support from mr ali's campaign last night. since we saw that new information and more comments have come to light, which meant that we had to look at this situation again, once we saw those comments, keir starmer took a swift decision to take the tough and necessary action to withdraw support from mr ali's candidacy. but because the nomination deadline has already passed, mr ali will still be on the ballot as labour's candidate in rochdale. the situation was seized on by rishi sunak last night who criticised sir keir starmer for not disavowing mr ali sooner. look what just happened in rochdale, a candidate saying the most vile, awful conspiracy theories, anti—semitic. and what happened? he stood by and sent cabinet ministers to support him.

until as apparently literally five minutes before i walked on tonight under enormous media pressure, has decided to change his mind. that's not principled. labour insists the party has changed and that its action in rochdale proves sir keir starmer is serious about rooting out antisemitism. its decision certainly adds huge uncertainty to the outcome of a by—election in which the former labour mp george galloway is also standing. you do wonder how the constituents of rochdale will feel, because they are denied now the chance to vote for an official labour candidate. where the votes will go, who knows, at this stage of proceedings, the fact is that we will now have a rochdale byelection without the party that actually holds the seat being in the contest itself. that's extraordinary and it's unprecedented. last night there was no sign of mrali at his home in lancashire and he didn't respond to a request for comment. ben wright, bbc news, westminster. and we mentioned that

by—election, here's a full list of candidates standing in the rochdale by—election. if you'd like more information, you can head to our website. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. nottinghamshire police will be investigated over complaints by the families of three people stabbed to death by valdo calocane in june last year. the police watchdog says it will focus on the force 5 previous contact with calocane. he was given an indefinite hospital order after admitting manslaughter. the housing secretary, michael gove, has set out proposed changes to planning rules in england that he claims could deliver thousands of new homes. he wants to force councils to prioritise development on brownfield — orformer industrial — land. labour says "minor tweaks" to planning policy won't fix the housing crisis.

seven women are accusing devon and cornwall police of failing to investigate serving and former officers for domestic abuse, and sexual violence. the group claims that in some cases the men were promoted to specialist roles dealing with violence against women and girls, despite the complaints against them. the force has referred the allegations to the police watchdog. you're live with bbc news. schools have closed in part of the australian state of victoria because of what the emergency services say are the most dangerous fire conditions in the region for years. officials have warned of potentially catastrophic fires because of rising temperatures, high winds and the threat of thunder storms after weeks of dry weather. our sydney correspondent phil mercerjoins me now. phil, what are state officials warning people? they are saying to australians

in victoria, the second most populous state, this is a day not to be complacent. in the last 2a hours a catastrophic fire alert was issued for parts of western victoria and in the last couple of hours and emergency alert has been issued to the grampians national park region. this is an area of victoria about 260 kilometres to the west of the city of melbourne and residents in several communities are being urged to leave immediately or seek shelter before a very large bushfire becomes far too dangerous, so there is really a conspiracy of factors at work here. that part of australia is into the fourth day of a heatwave, it's very dry as she referred to and there's been no rain for quite a few weeks now and the threat of thunderstorms and the threat of thunderstorms and lightning strikes but the big unknown variable is the

strong winds which can propel fires extremely quickly, changing direction so these are extremely hazardous potentially life—threatening conditions in the state of victoria. figs the state of victoria. as thins the state of victoria. as things stand, _ the state of victoria. as things stand, reports of bushfires and electricity cuts. schools are being closed and residents have been urged to have a bushfire survival plan, not only in place but ready to go. there are bushfire shelters in many communities. parts of south—eastern are australia are some of the most fire prone areas in the world and the claimant especially in the summer months is dry, hot and prone to drought but also much native vegetation and native plants in australia are extremely combustible, so this is the first time australia has issued a catastrophic fire rating since the black summer

fires of 2020 and those fires raised in area of land here the size of the uk.— size of the uk. feel, i know ou size of the uk. feel, i know you will— size of the uk. feel, i know you will keep _ size of the uk. feel, i know you will keep an _ size of the uk. feel, i know you will keep an eye across| you will keep an eye across this but for now, thank you. the german chancellor, olaf scholz, has called for a massive increase in the european production of armaments. speaking during a foundation—laying ceremony for a major new arms manufacturing plant, mr scholz said those who wanted peace had to be able to deter aggressors. his remarks follow donald trump's election campaign comment that he would encourage russia to attack any nato country that hadn't spent enough on defence. jessica parker reports from berlin. spades in the ground for a new ammunition factory in germany as european leaders try to look resolute despite fresh fears that another trump presidency could wreck transatlantic defence guarantees. chancellor, what do you make of donald trump's comments over the weekend?

i'm sure that it is absolutely clear that we are cooperating, and nato's alliance is of essence for the peace and security of america and for european countries. and so we will stick to this alliance, and we are sure that this also the will and the decision of the people of america. do you think that europe must get ready to go it alone if necessary, without us support? i think europe has to be ready no matter what, and the situation we are in with a more and more aggressive russia and a war going on for now two years in europe shows us that we have to scale up. at this weapons plant, everyone's trying to appear composed, but there is alarm because the us is crucial to european security. so how long before the continent could defend itself? i think we need ten years, really.

we need ten years because the stocks are empty. and if you really have an aggressor who wants to fight against the nato, to be really prepared, we need ten years. look at these estimates. the countries in green met the nato spending target last year. in red are all those nations that didn't, including france, italy and germany. people there organized the camp. julius used to campaign for disarmament, but says he's changed and so has germany — a nation that has been nervous of rearming after the catastrophic conflicts of the 20th century. i remember the last days of the second world war. fleeing from the east. hearing the cannons. i remember that, iwas eight years then so... that happened because democracy wasn't defended.

germany is set to up its defense budget this year, and with nine months until the us election, europe will for now have to concentrate on the things it can actually control. jessica parker, bbc news in lower saxony. in brazil, the final parade of rio carnival takes place on tuesday. the annual celebrations dominate february around brazil as top samba schools compete with one another. with more, here 5 our south america correspondent ione wells. lent might be the time to hold back, but the holiday before it starts is the time to go. all out. all out dancing, all out costumes. all out music. the carnival is amazing. i'm loving it. i come every year and every year it's better than the last one.

rio's carnival is perfect. crowds swarm here from around the world to watch the parades. a chance for performers to highlight political issues, too. this samba school, salguero, paid tribute to the country's largest indigenous group, the yanomami, asking that the amazon and local communities be protected from illegal mining and the contamination of water and the rainforest it causes. salguero was very present in this historical time that we are living by bringing the yanomami here, because right now the yanomami territory is suffering with gold miners and folks that don't respect the forest people. the school also paid tribute to the british journalist don phillips and local indigenous experts, bruno pereira. they were murdered in the amazon in 2022 after investigating illegal fishing, logging and drug trafficking in indigenous reserves.

this is the place where politics and partying collide, because if there was anywhere to make a noise about something, it's here. ione wells, bbc news from sao paulo. before we go president biden hasjoined tiktok, with his first video captioned: �*lol hey guys.', the post has already racked up more than 6 million views. and he already has about 70 thousand followers. he answered questions on the super bowl in a brief video — take a look.

stay with us here on bbc news. we are going to preview inflation data and jobs data and the surge of bitcoin and of course it is pancake day, so we'll take a look at why some people are serving pancakes and restaurants and whether that is going to work today or whether you will stay at home and make them there instead. that's all in a moment instead 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 ia 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 ia in the south of the country. closer to single figures, around average, in the north of the uk. bye— bye.

this is bbc news. the latest uk jobs data are expected shortly. what will they tell us about our struggling economy? and what about the jobs market in indonesia? that's the primary concern of young voters ahead of the presidential electon. bitcoin crosses 50 thousand dollars for the first time in more than two years. we'll explore what's

driving the rally. and it's pancake day — we'll take a look at the importance of shrove tuesday to the restaurant trade. uk employment and wages will be released at 7am gmt this morning. that's injust under 90 minutes time. there have been some recent changes and reweighting of the official data from the office of national statistics. the current outlook shows that conditions are tighter than previously thought but with more people in employment. we're also expecting earnings data at the same time, which is expected to show a slight fall in the pace of wage inflation. joining me now with his take on this is michael stull,

director at manpowergroup uk. what do you think