as audio emerges about the comments he made about israel. indian police fire tear gas at thousands of farmers marching on delhi to demand guaranteed prices for their crops. and king charles returns to london for what is expected to be medical treatment following his cancer diagnosis. hello. senior officials from the united states, qatar, egypt and israel are expected to hold talks in cairo, as international pressure grows for a ceasefire in gaza. the discussions are due to feature the head of the cia, his egyptian counterpart, the head of mossad, and qatar's prime minister. the meeting is happening as israeli forces prepare to launch a ground offensive against hamas in rafah. more than a million people are sheltering in the overcrowded city —

these are live pictures. earlier, us presidentjoe biden said the displaced palestinians were exposed and vulnerable, and called for their protection. abdelbassir hassan of bbc arabic, is in cairo. he told us more about what we're likely to see. what we have learned is from the israeli side so far is that shin bet and mossad heads are expected in cairo and william burns, cia chief plus a top spy official from qatar and the chief of a spy agency in egypt. they should be meeting in cairo today, as per reports, because so far no egyptian confirmation that these teams are already in cairo. all we have got is from western media that the four member teams are going to meet in cairo for a possible discussion on how to get back to the negotiation table

in regarding the, like, a truce or a pause between israel and the hamas. and when they discus this pause, from what we've been hearing, give us an idea of how long a pause it might be and what the stumbling blocks are at this stage? no—one can expect how long will it take for the negotiations in cairo. but what we are sure that the teams from israel has already been to cairo and both sides are willing — israel and hamas are willing to come to cairo. israel have said that they are going to do their best to get the hostages back, whatever the means is, including the discussing, like both with hamas, and hamas, in spite of the fact that they criticized the response from israel and to the latest offer from hamas, they said they are willing to sit down and negotiate for a possible agreement

in the future, especially as the situation in rafah is very grave and all parts are warning against the planned ground offensive from israel, including the united states, most probably as the reports from the united states. and after the meeting between president biden and jordan's king last night, biden said the united states is offering a six week pause between both sides, israel and hamas, with a hope that this could be extended to a deal in the future for a ceasefire. but at the moment on offer is a six week plan. reports from israel have already shown that the israelis expect to can agree on the first and second phases of the earlier plan. the earlier plan, which has been discussed over the past few days, speaks about a release of civilian

hostages in hamas hands in return for many prisoners from israeli sites. and also the second phase speaks about exchanging the bodies of the israelis in hamas hands and a more or unlimited unknown number of hamas. but none of them agreed to a ceasefire or like a return to the situation before october 7th. therefore, the criticism from hamas nowadays, that is, they say israel didn't show any sign of normalizing the situation in gaza as per their demands, which means leaving the cities and freeing the movement and return of displaced to their homes. earlier i spoke to mina al—oraibi, editor in chief of the national newspaper. i asked her how significant it was to have an israeli spy chief travelling to cairo. it's quite significant, in part because you need some form of trust building at the moment.

the politicians have too much at stake, it's widely known now that for the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, he's much more invested in dragging out this war because of his political woes. and on the flip side you have hamas, who, again, once this war starts and there's going to be a reckoning about the 7th of october attacks and everything that's happened. so the spy chiefs there is a sign of not only seriousness, but how can you build some kind of confidence to get to a point where at least a truce can be declared, even if it is a temporary one to ease the suffering of the palestinians? there is at least 1.4 million palestinians and you have been doing incredible reporting on this, showing how people are stuck at the border. there are signs of famine now, the world food programme seeing people who are beginning to die from hunger. having the spy chiefs

there is a sign of seriousness, but also may be they can cut a deal that so far diplomats, officials, politicians haven't been able to. during the first month of the war between hamas and israel, northern gaza was under heavy israeli bombardment. paramedics from the international red cross and red crescent society, many of whom are volunteers, are the first to respond to calls on gaza's emergency number, 101. local filmmaker feras al—ajarmi documented their lives and work over several weeks — here's his special report, produced by bbc arabic.

in response to that report, the israel defense forces said: "any claim that we intentionally target "red crescent or medical workers "is baseless and untrue. "we act in accordance with international law and take "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm in our "operations".

and if you're in the uk you can watch gaza 101: emergency rescue — the full film by bbc arabic. it's available to watch now on bbc iplayer, online and on the app. here, labour has withdrawn support for its candidate in this month's rochdale by—election, azhar ali, because of remarks he made about israel. the party says further information has now come to light. it had previously defended mr ali, after he'd apologised. political opponents have accused labour of being in disarray. here's the audio, published by the daily mail newspaper, with those comments from mr ali. the media and some of the people in the media from certainjewish quarters were giving **** about what he said. graham, you can't say this ? graham, you can't say this but i'll say it. i've been to israel, you've been to israel ? yeah, he's been ? the security is that strict landing

at the airport to your hotel to going into or any other towns, yeah? if you go in gaza ? i can't believe there is no way that israel knows there is a border there, there's a big buffer zone between gaza and that ? and that these people on paragliders that they had no intelligence at all. our political correspondent hannah miller is following the story from westminster — and told us how damaging this is to labour. it's been damaging on a number of fronts. it's taken nearly 48 hours, the time from the story first emerging in the daily mail, up to the point where azhar ali was suspended and the amount of things that have been allowed to kind of fester during that time leave keir starmer now in a position where he and the party would like to claim that he's taken swift action once the new comments emerged and were going to be reported. but it's left open a lot of questions.

there are people on the left wing of his party suggesting that he has taken a different stance with them. whereas he was willing, initially, to be more lenient with azhar ali. there is also the question of why he allowed this to run and run in the way that it has done. and also from the clip you just heard there, there were other people in the room, what exactly was going on at that meeting? the labour party insist it wasn't a labour party meeting as such, but it was a number of labour councillors and labour members getting together, perhaps more informally. and the questions about kind of what exactly was going on in that meeting and the culture around that, what happens there. questions about his political leadership in terms of allowing the story to run and run and also whether other people have been treated in quite the same way and given the benefit of the doubt, you might say, as azhar ali initially was. all three of those things are not the kind of things that keir starmer

would like us to be talking about in a week where there are two other by—elections as well in the uk, and on israel and gaza in particular, which is a really divisive issue for his party. let's speak to our reporter rowan bridge in rochdale. what has the reaction been to all this? really mixed opinions. the problem that labour faces is exactly that, it has split opinion here amongst labour voters over this. there is a section of labour voting opinion in rochdale who feel that perhaps sir keir starmer has been not tough enough on the labour party. while they might not agree with the way azhar ali frame those comments they have sympathy with the views he expressed. there are others who are clearly horrified by what he said, feel he should have stayed out of international politics altogether.

quite a few people i have spoken to, labour voters, say they do not know now who they should support. because you have a situation where you have a labour candidate on the ballot two does not have the support of the labour party, and where do those voters turn to? there are ten other candidates listed on that ballot paper, but you fra labour supporter there is no one that the labour party is telling you to back. the rescuers that it that splits that labour vote, rescuers that it that splits that labourvote, it rescuers that it that splits that labour vote, it could go to any number of other candidates. there are two former labour mps standing in the constituency. they may take some of those labour votes. labour had a 9500 majority at the last election. but the outcome of the certificate to call at this moment. if azhar ali was to win the by—election, what with the procedure be at that point?

azhar ali would then sit as an independent, in effect, or he potentially could join another party. but i suspect he would likely sit as an independent in parliament. interestingly there is going to be a general election in this country later this year. one would assume the labour party would then choose another candidate for the rochdale seat. you would potentially have the current sitting mp, if that is azhar ali, who isn't labour, in less than 12 months�* time. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news here in the uk. 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. official figures show that the rate at which wages are rising dropped in the three months to december — but it still outpaced the level of inflation. the office for national statistics said wage growth dropped by 0.4 percentage points to 6.2% in the last quarter of last year. a proposal to formally move the statue of transatlantic slave trader edward colston into a museum display is set for approval. the statue was pulled down during a protest in bristol in 2020 — before being put on a temporary display at the city's m shed museum. it has been out of public view since january 2022. you're live with bbc news. police in india have fired tear gas on farmers marching towards delhi — as they call for minimum prices for their crops. thick clouds of gas dispersed protesters near the city of ambala — after last—minute talks to prevent the protest ended without a breakthrough.

farmers�* union officials complained that government ministers had failed to take their demands seriously. public gatherings in delhi have been banned for a month. earlier, i spoke to our south asia correspondent samira hussain. to give you a sense of what kind of high alert the city is in, just behind me, you can see a whole lot of police officials and army personnel who have gathered, there are metal barricades, and this is actually a scene that you are seeing in various parts of the city. we are more than 100 kilometres away from the nearest border where any of those clashes have been, that is how seriously the capital is taking this protest. there are thousands of farmers coming in from three neighbouring states that are making their way into delhi. they are being blocked by concrete barricades and metal nails and barbed wire and the government

really does not want to see these protesters getting anywhere near the capital city. what is the main sticking point between the farmers�* unions and the government? what they are really looking for, the farmers are saying, we want a bare minimum pricing for their crops. they also want to see some debt forgiveness, and frankly they are also looking to see that india withdraws from the world trade organization. this is not the first time we have seen protesters or farmers protesting in this way. three years ago, farmers protested for more than a year and they were rallying against these agricultural reforms that have been put in place. eventually, the government relented on some of those parts and part of this protest stems from these previous protests because farmers are saying, some of the promises that were guaranteed to us back then still have not come to fruition. we are just months away from a general election

in india and farmers form a massive voting block. they do not uniformly vote, but the prime minister certainly does not want to be seen as having to deal with mass protests just before any kind of general election. you mention 2020 and the measures in place to avoid it becoming gridlocked in delhi, but some of those diversions behind you seem to be causing quite a trafficjam? yes. there is the issue that delhi is constantly riddled with traffic but of course there are many more of these kinds of roadblocks happening all around the city, particularly when you start crossing into the state of haryana, and lots of people commute from delhi to that state on a daily basis and that is really why —— where we are seeing

a lot of problems. there is no safe place in rafah any more and the fear is that the number of people killed and injured might significantly increase in a conflict where already more than 100,000 people have been either killed, either injured, or are missing. which means, in four months�* time, 5% of the population. and we are still talking about the largest military offensive in the middle of a sea of displaced people. they are asked to move, the question is, where to move. if you are in rafah, 20 kilometre stretch to the border, you only see plastic makeshift for

hundreds of thousands of people are already living. then we have talked about the allegation about the 12 staff. ijust remind of the action taken by the agency, to terminate the contract, after that we have an investigation and are calling for cooperation of this investigation and are demanding that it is of importance that the government also cooperate so that we have more than the allegations which have been shared with me. the secretary—general has also commissioned a review of all the risk management system of the organisation, mainly when it comes to neutrality issues, all these allegations about use of social

media, weapons, political affiliation, all this is to be reviewed, to see how proactive the agency is in preventing first, but once an allegation happens, how to respond to this. so we expect this review to take place for the next two months. we will start as from tomorrow. as an agency we remain committed to implement its recommendation. you heard also about the tunnel which has been discovered over the weekend. 20 metres below the headquarter. now i also told that member state that once the war is over we need a board of inquiry, we need to look at all the situation

where un premises have been blatantly disrespected. since the beginning of the war more than 150 of our installations have been hit. we know that some installations have been completely destroyed. all this needs to be investigated independently, together with the allegation of the tunnel. then i have also talked with the member states about all this call for unrwa to be dismantled, to be terminated, and i have warned about the impact, i have said these calls are short—sighted. the impact is not just on the short term. it is not

just on the short term. it is not just weakening our collective ability to respond to humanitarian crisis, at a time, i want to remind the icg has asked, at the same time calls are here to weaken it. but the real impact is not only now. it is also during that i would describe as being the transition phase. this long in between day before the end of active military hostilities, and the day after, when that is on the table as solid political package. and we all know that this period can be extremely painful, can be a period of misery. it is a period during which no one really invests in the gaza strip, but at the same time we have half a million girls

and boys deeply traumatised, that we urgently need to bring back into an education system... that was the head of unrwa talking to reporters after a meeting with ministers. there were allegations about 12 staff members of unrwa in gaza having been involved in some way in the attacks on israel with hamas. he was commenting on that investigation, and of course the prospect of losing funding to the agency, which might affect humanitarian efforts. over the next few days the temperature will creep up, it will be much milder. behind this with a front coming into the south—west we start to drag in milder conditions. it is also bringing in a lot of cloud and some

rain and drizzle across england and also wales. that rain picking up across northern england through the day. eventually more cloud into far south scotland and parts of northern ireland. that clearer skies and hazy sunshine across much of the rest of scotland. through this evening and overnight you continue with cloudy and wet conditions across england, also wales, getting into northern ireland, and then eventually southern scotland. and then eventually southern scotland. under clear skies and temperatures could fall away. the rain on and off through the course of the day pushing northwards, here�*s the trailing front. in between there�*ll be some brighter skies,

but the brightest skies will be in the far north of scotland where we see some hazy sunshine. highs six to eight, but note how the milder conditions are spreading further north and that process will continue as we head on through thursday. we still have weather fronts in the forecast, but it�*s all at the very far north of scotland, the northern isles, that are going to be in the milderair. so on thursday, it�*s another cloudy and wet day. again, we�*ve got the rain pushing north, more rain coming in across the southwest, some brighter skies in between. but it�*s the temperature that will be the talking point because on thursday, somewhere in the southeast could hit 16 or 17. but the milder air continuing to track that bit further north. then as we move on into friday, the rain clears away from the east. we�*ve got a ridge of high pressure building in. there�*ll be variable amounts of cloud, but even so, we�*ll see some breaks in that cloud with a few showers scattered in the west, particularly west wales. and temperatures slipping a little bit but still up to 1a.

unemployment falls in the uk. what does this mean for the struggling economy?

bitcoin crosses $50,000 for the first time in more than two years. we�*ll find out why. welcome to world business report. we start with some important news from right here in the uk. wages grew by 6.2% in the last three months of last year, compared to the same time the year before. after taking price rises into account, pay went up by1.9%. this is crucial information for the bank of england, which is deciding whether it can safely cut interest rates. it wants to make sure inflation is under control before it makes such a move. meanwhile the unemployment rate dropped to 3.8%. let�*s hear from jane foley, from, rabobank. what do you think this means for inflation? , ., . .,

what do you think this means for inflation? , . . ., , u, inflation? there is a clear message from these — inflation? there is a clear message from these numbers _ inflation? there is a clear message from these numbers and _