his comments, at an ice cream shop in new york, come despite ongoing violence. and the us supreme court hears arguments in two landmark cases about social media censure, that could affect freedom of speech online for millions. hello, i'm caitriona perry. france's president emmanual macron signaled he isn't ruling out sending western troops to ukraine, after meeting european leaders in paris. macron declined to provide details about which nations were considering sending troops, saying he prefers to maintain some strategic ambiguity. it's the first time there has been such an open discussion of western nations collectively looking at providing troops to support the ukrainian military — which has struggled on the battlefield in recent months. mr macron warned russia is looking to take more terrority and presents

a danger beyond ukraine. translation: there is no - consensus today to send ground troops in an official, endorsed and sanctioned manner but in dynamic terms, nothing should be ruled out. we will do whatever it takes to ensure that russia cannot win this war. european leaders agreed to increase funding for ukraine in its war against russia. mr macron says the coalition will supply ukraine with longer—range missiles. he also says france will support a czech—led iniative to buy hundreds of thousands of ammunition rounds from third countries, something france had initally been cautious to agree to. dutch prime minister mark rutte says his country will contribute 100 million euro to that czech iniative. while europe promises more aid to ukraine, the prospect of further assistance from the us has stalled in congress. last month, house republicans blocked efforts to pass new funding. president biden is calling congressional leaders to the white house tuesday as the clock ticks toward a possible government shutdown friday, and aid to ukraine remains stuck. meanwhile — sweden cleared its final hurdle tojoining nato.

the holdout — hungary — voted to ratify the bid almost unanimously. hungary's parliament had delayed accepting them into the bloc, accusing sweden of being hostile. but that shifted last week when hungary's prime minister viktor orban said the two countries were now "prepared to die for each other". sweden's prime minister ulf kristersson called it an historic day. sweden is leading neutrality and alignment behind, this is a big step, we must take it seriously but also very natural step that we are taking. sweden applied to join

the defense alliance after russia's full—scale invasion of ukraine in 2022. it will soon become the bloc�*s 32nd member. hungary parliament's approval must be signed by the president, then a formal invitation will be sent to sweden. that process usually takes a few days. caroline hawley has more. this is the moment sweden had been waiting for for almost two years. hungary's prime minister viktor orban is the closest european leader to vladimir putin. but under pressure from the us and other western countries, he paved the way for today's vital vote. translation: this is an historic day. i it makes little stronger, swedens safer and all of us more secure. russia's full—scale invasion of ukraine was partly aimed at preventing the expansion of nato to its borders. but it had the opposite effect, with finland first and now sweden becoming nato members, giving the alliance almost full control over the baltic sea. for two centuries sweden had been militarily neutral, but the war in ukraine turned

public opinion around. the threat from russia has always been very real. we're very close to it so we've always been very vulnerable. it's the right path for us. i think, yeah, in this era it's better to be part of an alliance standing independent and neutral. sweden will bring nato its modern airforce and submarines specially adapted to the baltic sea. it gains a security umbrella backed by nuclear deterrence. the prime minister of sweden described it as a historic day for his country. from russia so far, silence. caroline hawley, bbc news. us presidentjoe biden has expressed his hopes for a ceasefire deal in gaza. speaking to reporters accompanying him on visit to an ice cream shop in new york, he said he believes such a breakhrough could be brokered in the next week.

at least my national security advisers tell me that we are close, we are close, we're not done yet, my hope is that by next monday, we will have a ceasefire. mr biden�*s comments come a day after an active—duty us air force member set himself on fire outside the israeli embassy in washington, protesting us support for israel. 25—year—old aaron bushnell filmed the act, screaming "free palestine" as his body went up in flames.he later died at a hospital. well as desperate palestinians wait for news of a ceasefire, children were among those killed and wounded monday by israeli airstrikes on residential buildings in the southern city of rafah. it's the same city israel's prime minister says the idf will invade on the ground, promising that an invasion would bring an end to the war in weeks. the bbc�*s diplomatic correspondent paul adams has more on what israel claims an invasion of rafah would look like. the government says it received plans from the military for its

long anticipated assault on rafah. we don't have details of the plans that were presented to the cabinet but its is thought to consist on an evacuation of their civilians, the palestinian civilians who are huddled in a rougher, more than a million people, that is a key detail because an assault on rafah cannot happen while the city is crammed full of refugees. then, there will be the operational plan for how the israeli military intends to attack hamas in the city. the government also says that there is a plan to improve military and assistance throughout the gaza strip so the israeli says and i quote that the plans have been approved for a military and assistance of the gaza strip in a manner that will prevent the looting that has occurred in the northern strip and other areas. that is a key thing because that

addresses one of the big fears of the agencies that the longer this crisis goes on, the worse it gets with hunger and disease on the rise that throughout the gaza strip. the united nations says a ground invasion of rafah would be the, quote, �*nail in the coffin�* for its ability to offer help in gaza. the agency says it's already been forced to cut its aid delivery by 50% in february at a time when humanitarian assistance is needed more than ever. the number of palestinians killed in the israel—gaza war has nearly reached 30,000, according to gaza's hamas—run health ministry. this means, on average, more than 200 people have been killed each day since october 7th, when hamas attacked israel, killing more than 1200 people and taking more than 200 hostages. the bbc�*s lucy williamson has been speaking to one survivor of a family who lost more than 100 members in an attack in gaza city lsat december. it took ahmad al—ghuferi a decade to build the family he loved. it took a split second one winter evening to destroy it. ten—year—old tala,

five—year—old lana, and najla, not yet two, killed with ahmad's wife in a powerful strike on a residential building in gaza city. along with his mother, four of his brothers, their families and dozens of aunts, uncles and cousins. 103 relatives in all, a family obliterated. translation: | feel i am in a dream. - i still can't believe what happened to us. my daughters are little birds to me. ahmad survived because he was 50 miles away in the occupied west bank, stuck outside gaza since the start of the war, working in tel aviv to fund the couple's dream of owning their own home. he was on the phone to his wife when the attack began. translation: she knew - she would die, and she asked me to forgive herfor anything bad

she might have ever done to me. i told her there was no need to say that and that was the last call between us. the house ahmad built with his tel aviv salary in gaza city is still standing, just. the homes around it flattened, including his uncle's house, metres away, where the family fled for safety. translation: it was a fire belt. there were strikes here on four houses next to ours. they were hitting one house every ten minutes. the family are still searching for bodies buried in the rubble. among those killed, they say, a 98—year—old grandmother and a baby boy born nine days before. only a handful of survivors. "we were sitting in the house

and we found ourselves under the rubble," she told us. "i was thrown from one side to the other. i don't know how they got me out." two months on, israeli forces are fighting hamas in gaza city, as they were a few blocks south of ahmad's house around the time the compound was hit. the army said it wasn't aware of any strikes there that day. ahmad no longer wants to return home. last monday would have been najla's second birthday. "who am i going back for?" he said. "there is no one left there to call me darling, no one to call me dad." lucy williamson, bbc news, jerusalem. the story there of the more than 100 members of one family killed by israeli strikes in gaza. tens of thousands of people have been killed in gaza by the israelis in retaliation for the 1200 people killed by hamas in the october 7th attacks. it would appear though that a ceasefire, albeit a temporary one is in the offing. earlier

i spoke to aaron david miller, middle east analyst and former negotiator, now senior fellow at the carnegie endowment for international peace. that point aboutjoe biden is saying about he expects a ceasefire within the next week or so, what's changed, do you think, we heard not long ago from prime minister netanyahu that what hamas has put on the table was delusional. it's a combination of things. i think that hamas, senior leadership were below ground or maybe even rafah is feeling pressure with the campaign. they have softened their demands. at least in this stages that of asking for hundreds if not thousands of palestinian security prisoners. and they will end up with far fewer. i think that the israeli government is under significant pressure, clearly from hostage

families and from the war cabinet, many have been pushing for a hostage deal, we have benjamin netanyahu is not a sole actor. any longer when it comes to israel's war or how the war is to be conducted so, combination of pressure, we have the best opportunity and the best chance since mid—november of seeing a limited release of hostages, 45 days of humanitarian pause or ceasefire that the war will continue after. what do you think is a likelihood that all of the hostages are still alive? the israeli calculations is that there are 134 of them,

either killed in 7 october during that or died in captivity. it's clear for the elderly, there may actually be a child odd to include for the women hostages. civilian hostages who are not trained for such a thing. i think every day, it adds pressure in terms of trying to seek their release aside again, another reason, another pressure point on the israeli government to do a limited exchange and that is what this will be. hamas will keep 50 female idf soldiers as insurance for what i think will be the ultimate trade which will be release of all the hostages for a large numbers of palestinian civilians and a permanent hostility. i don't think the government, any israeli government would agree to a permanent sensation of facilities are in the coming weeks. we know that there are a million people crammed into rougher at the moment. a manager in crisis as it is across gaza but israel

confronts an intention to lodge a grand invasion around the start of ramadan, is a deadline sharpening the focus as well, do you think? i think you are 100% right. i think that if you end up with a humanitarian pause, temporary ceasefire for six weeks, it's the administration calculation that they can somehow break the momentum for a large—scale comprehensive return to combat with the israelis. i just don't see how, given the neutrally reconcilable objectives, of israel at this point and hamas senior leadership, huggable and up with a permanent sensation of hostility, they are determined to killed before leading plans could take of the 7 0ctober attacks. and a matter how long it takes them, whether they are in gaza or extricated or outside, the israelis will continue to

do that and you will have the, right now, the problem of who or what maintains security control in order to prevent new legislation and another 7 october so... just to jump in there briefly on that point, do you expect to see a shift in president biden �*s approach to all of this, what is that temporary ceasefire happens i know, we were seeing him coming increasing pressure, and election in here and dissatisfaction with the us support for israel? i don't know. even before 7 october, ten months, he dealt with the most extreme right—wing government and israel was not a single issue in which he was prepared to impose a cause of consequence are now in your thought five, six months of what and 11 is available that the president slow cancelled restrict military systems — didn't do that. change body posture,

in new york, abstained or voted for a un security resolution, didn't do that, create a public frame in which she would argue that the people of israel, that the current israeli government is undermining the values and interests that have cemented the us relationship, didn't do that so, i think the calculation and investment trip, they invested so much and right now, he needs benjamin netanyahu to a centre for the israel must deal and i suspect that for whatever broader peace initiative, the administration plans to invalidate the coming months so, again, i don't see a public bridge coming in the administration and the government. we will wait to see what happens when the peace deal comes over the next week on side. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at a top story in the uk now:

the former deputy chair of the conservative party has refused to apologize, after comments that many have taken as islamophobic. lee anderson was suspended from his party on friday, after claiming that london mayor sadiq khan was under the control of islamists. he was speaking in reference to the numerous pro—palestinian rallies that have taken place across london in recent months. britain's prime minister said the comments were wrong and unacceptable — but stopped short of describing them as islamophobic. i have been very clear that what he said was wrong, unacceptable and that's why we suspended that and it's important that everybody but particularly elected politicians are careful with their words and do not inflame tensions. labour leader sir keir starmer took issue with that response, saying tht mr sunak lacked the "backbone" to call out islamophobia — adding that the prime minister is �*too weak�*. the controversy has revived broader questions about islamophobia within the conservative ranks. in 2019, the party launched an inquiry into how it handles discrimination claims.

you're live with bbc news. the us supreme court appeared skeptical that state governments have the power to set rules for how social media platforms curate their content. the case could have major implications for freedom of speech online. the justices heard a challenge from tech giants on two separate laws passed in florida and texas that would ban online platforms from removing posts expressing opinions, including political views. at the heart of the debate is the first amendment — with the court looking at whether the constitution protects social media platforms to moderate their own sites — or prohibits censorship of unpopular views. chiefjusticejohn roberts said: for more on the case before

american�*s highest court, i spoke with frances haugen, former facebook data scientist and advocate for social media transparency and accountability. thank you for being with us. how is this when it comes to applying those first amendment rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of that to the internet? so today, the supreme court heard arguments into two cases that were brought against that broad—minded choice which is a trade organisation of the companies, the laws are similar and they both say, you cannot take down politicians and one of the two states says that you cannot moderate people's content on political views. my challenge is that computers are bad in understanding what humans speech means, human writing means, when you add in something as nebulous as a

political view, computers aren't going to tell what they can and cannot content moderating so depending on how this hearing is adjudicated, it might spell severe limitations on how content media, is able to be used in the future. the justice getting into the heart of one of the most complex issues here, just what our social media platforms are there public spaces? or are they private companies? what's your view on that? one of the big arguments that was brought by both florida and texas was that because social media systems and benefits from network effects, that's where the more people who join a single network, the more valuable than network becomes, they should be treated as common carriers because people don't get to choose what they want to be on. if you're on trial, you have to be on instagram. instagram is where people congregate. i think there are strong

arguments for saying because of these monopoly aspects of these platforms, there should be like another monopolies, power or telephones, a certain aspect of public oversight. but the way this case has been constructed, it's dangerous because basically, going with either side can have serious consequences for how the internet operates. by its very nature, the social media platforms don't respect boarders be that state borders or borders of countries so, how realistic is it overall to expect that you can apply any rule that will apply to a social media company to oppose to any of it? it's interesting, one of the terms that was mentioned around a lot in the internet of people who are watching these cases was something called the splint away. so the idea is, when the federal government in the united states refuses to step up and actually follow — live up to the compositional mandate to govern the systems,

individual states begin stepping into that vacuum. in the case of this law from florida and texas, you can imagine a future where more and more states all pass slightly different laws and create a world wanes that having a single unified internet, you can have different products and different operate across those. you are quite aware that right now, we struggle with things like how the online safety law in the uk is a digital services act in in eu or laws in australia. but in general, what happens when any jurisdiction asked to raise the floor, is these companies try to raise a floor for everyone because they don't want to have different version of the products. these laws are so disrupted, the florida and texas case that you can realistically imagine things like not operating in florida

on operating in texas. because having to go in there and revamp their safety systems, the mean crusher they've had, if you take that away, it becomes difficult to operate the system so that's more plausible that they would just opt out of certain markets, if the constraints are too onerous. what do you think, at the end of this hearing when the supreme court delivers its judgment, what is your best case scenario for what the outcome might be? so, we have quite a challenging dilemma which is if we go with one netchoice choices advocating for, it comes off as saying, software is speech, code, things are power the systems, the speech, and the serious implications of things like say, governing ai. if ai is just code, can you play the same can you play the same kind of free speech argument there? flip side, let's they were going with texas and florida side. you have an obligation to society, it may cost a period of chaos and opportunity of their watches we

do have other options for making safer social media, we can progress behaviour, things like, can we think see things like operations, people who are manipulating this platforms, as behaviour—based safety or we can look at things like designing safer products and my hope is that if we do and up following on the side of texas and florida, there's like a reasonable chance that they will be how it falls out, after that period of chaos, hopefully will and up having products that are billed to be more resilient and we will use the safety techniques and also happen to be more resilient ai in the future. we will and that on that note, advocate the social media transparency and accountability, that is a much forjoining us on bbc news. and some good news and some bad news when it comes to humanity's exploratoin of the moon. first, the good news — japan's moon lander has survived a harsh lunar night. that's the sunless and freezing

equivalent to two earth weeks. the craft was put into sleep mode after an awkward landing injanuary left its solar panels facing the wrong way. it entered sleep mode as lunar night fell, and has since rebooted itself. 0n the other hand — the private us moon lander 0dysseus�*s have mission is getting cut short. the craft stumbled on its historic landing last week when it became the first us craft to reach the moon in five decades. it had been set to operate there for seven to 10 days. that's all from the team here in washington. i'm caitriona perry. thank you for watching. hello there. it does look like the rest of this week will remain very changeable. things are set to turn a bit more unsettled now for the next few days. we've got this first frontal system, one of many, pushing its way southwards and eastwards during

the course of tuesday. so a wet and windy start across scotland, northern ireland, some snow on the hills briefly. england and wales starts cold and frosty, some mist and fog, some early brightness, but the cloud will build as this front pushes southwards and eastwards. as it weakens, there will be barely anything on it. but brightening up for scotland and northern ireland through the afternoon with sunny spells, scattered, blustery showers, these wintry on the hills. winds will be quite a feature in the north and the west, lighter winds further south and east, so we've lost that cold, raw feel that we had on monday across southern and eastern areas. temperature—wise, i think around 6—9 celsius. now, as we head through tuesday night, that weather front clears away from southern areas. it turns drier with clearer skies, light winds, so another chilly night to come across central and eastern areas. but the next frontal system will be working to the west later on. but a chilly start to wednesday, some areas of frost and fog likely. but for the middle part of the week, things will turn a bit milder across the whole country, but wetter and windier with it. now, the milder air will be

in this wedge between the warm and the cold front, but it will bring stronger winds and outbreaks of rain as it pushes across the country during the course of wednesday. so this is how wednesday starts — chilly, early brightness, a bit of mist and fog. the clouds build up, the rain and the wind splash their way northwards and eastward through the course of the day, with those temperatures beginning to lift somewhat, particularly across southern and western areas. so we're looking at around 10 to maybe 13 degrees for wednesday afternoon. it doesn't last, though, because cooler air will be moving in behind this area of low pressure. thursday, the last day of february, looks unsettled, very blustery across the northern half of the country. weather fronts across england and wales will bring outbreaks of rain. scotland and northern ireland seeing the brightest of the conditions, with lots of showers here, but they will be turning increasingly wintry as things turn cooler in the north and the west, the last of the double figures across the south—east. and then as we head into the first four days of march, things remain unsettled with low pressure nearby. we'll see showers or longer spells of rain, there will be some sunshine around, but it will be chilly both by day and by night.

v0|ce—0ver: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines and all the main stories for you at the top of the hour, straight

after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. last year, during a brief visit to belfast, presidentjoe biden hailed the transformative impact of peace in northern ireland. it had unleashed, he said, a churn of creativity and that surely struck a chord with my guest today, the actor ciaran hinds, who was nominated for an oscar in kenneth branagh�*s autobiographical movie about belfast, which is home city to both of those men. 0ne generation on from the so—called troubles, northern ireland is seen as creative and cool, but have the wounds of the past really healed?