an initial bill on the future of the app. israel says it's investigating a deadly strike on a un food distribution centre in gaza. at least five palestinians are also killed in occupied eastjerusalem. a freed israeli hostage speaks to the bbc about his campaign to free remaining hamas captives in gaza. hello, i'm helena humphrey. the ceo of tiktok has warned that a potential ban on the platform here in the us could risk thousands ofjobs and cost the economy billions. in a video message posted to the social media app, shou zi chew said his company will do all it can to protect itself. this comes after the us

house on wednesday voted overwhelmingly in favour of a bill that could force tiktok�*s chinese owner to sell their stake in the platform, orface a nationwide ban. presidentjoe biden urged the senate to take swift action to pass the bill. lawmakers say the app poses a national security threat as its parent company, bytedance, is based in beijing and is subject to a law requiring it to share data with the chinese government. tiktok has told lawmakers that it has taken steps to ensure the data of american users isn't compromised by employees in china. nevertheless, the legislation should head to the senate next. its fate there is uncertain. following the house vote, tiktok urged its 150 million users in the us to lobby against the bill by calling on them to contact their members of congress. tiktok influencers also protested against the bill outside the white house. here's what they told our correspondent. i am aware that i'm giving my data, right. i'm aware. i'm ok with it. let me make that decision, you don't need to make that for me. you know, that's where i stand.

to be quite honest, everything on the internet is a security risk and so, this may be — have a parent company that is foreign, but we have just as many security risks with domestic companies as well, and so i would love to see our lawmakers spend this much time and energy to pass more data protection overall, for all americans, on all platforms, on everything. democratic congressman seth moulton co—sponsored the bill. he told the bbc that he isn't trying to ban the app, but instead explained why he wants it out of chinese control. we have already heard instances of people being banned from tiktokjust because they talk about the genocide going on with the uyghurs in china. that's just one example of how china can control what americans see. and this gets a lot of users. there are 170 million americans who use tiktok. about 45% of the country gets its news on tiktok. i do not think that in the height of the cold war that britain would have agreed to sell bbc to the soviet union, right, or cnn to the soviet union.

we would not allow that. it is really the same situation here. seth moulton there. to get an idea of the bill's fate in the senate and whether it could be signed into law, i spoke to ashley gold, technology policy reporter at axios. very good to have you with us here on bbc news. so this legislation has passed in the house. if it's taken up by the senate, what fate do you think it faces there? it has a lot more momentum in the senate than i was originally expecting. you have a lot of lawmakers that do see tiktok as a threat, they see the influence of china as a threat, and they want to get something done and it seems like this is something that they could pass and get signed by the president, but there's still some pretty notable opposition in the senate, and senate majority leader chuck schumer has not committed to putting it on the floor so, it's really up to him and if he sees this as a valuable use of floor time, and if this is something

the senate should be doing so, and i'm watching cautiously but it's the most momentum i've seen for a piece of tech—related legislation in a long time. let's talk about china then. the tiktok ceo has released a video. in it, he says that, "over recent years, "we've invested to keep your data safe." so talk to us a bit about these national security concerns, is there concrete evidence essentially that china is being given this data from us users? so, what there is concrete evidence of is that the chinese government has used social media platforms like tiktok to spread divisive messages to the american people but what i personally have not seen evidence of — granted, i'm nota member of the intelligence community — is that they are using american user data from tiktok to do so. manipulating americans on social media is something any tech company can be subject to. we saw this happen with meta in

the 2016 election with russia. so these connections to the chinese communist party and whether tiktok is actually handing over data to them, tiktok vehemently denies that. we have seen evidence here and there of instances where the border between us data and chinese engineers working for bytedance back in china is porous, but i personally haven't seen a smoking—gun report that says, you know, chinese communist party or even chinese workers at bytedance are accessing us user data on any sort of significant scale. let's talk about the impact on young people — incredibly popular. influencers, of course, using this as a source of income, revenue — do you anticipate resistance if this were to go further? court battles? absolutely. there was a couple dozen tiktok creators and influencers on capitol hill yesterday.

they had meetings with lawmakers and told them how much the app meant to them, how it helped them find community, how it helps them start a business and sustain their families, and now that it's passed the house and this is getting even more national attention, i think you're going to see a very loud community of tiktok supporters rallying against this bill. again, going back to hypotheticals — let's just say it passes the senate, gets to the president's desk. to avoid a ban, essentially what we are seeing here is bytedance having to arrange a sale, guaranteeing that tiktok is not under the influence of what is being referred to as a foreign adversary, within six months. that seems pretty challenging — is it? it is challenging. not only is tiktok not interested in a sale — they have said as much — it would be really hard to find a buyer that, one, can afford it — it's a very valuable company — and also one that would stand

up to antitrust scrutiny. here in the us, increasingly, the environment around big business mergers and acquisitions that our current government administration is pretty sceptical so the buyer would have to be someone that's not already in tech, that doesn't already have a big social networking platform so as not to raise any antitrust in competition flags. i think tiktok is seeing getting a buyer as essentially an impossible task and that's why they are calling it a ban. ashley gold, tech policy reporter at axios, thank you for being with us. israel says it's investigating an attack on a united nations food distribution center in rafah that killed at least five people — including one unrwa staff member. these are pictures verified by the bbc filmed at a nearby hospital, where casualties were taken. the us and several eu countries are among those urging israel, not to launch a full—scale assault on rafah, where more than a million

palestinians are sheltering. here are images of the warehouse taken in the immediate aftermath of the attack and this is the scene inside — some of the images are too graphic to broadcast. tensions are also high in the occupied west bank and in occupied eastjerusalem where five palestinians were reportedly killed on tuesday night by israeli security forces, including a 12—year—old boy holding a firework. the bbc�*s mark lowen sent this report from jerusalem. it's been a day of violence inside gaza and beyond with the un in gaza reporting that one of its distribution centres in rafah in the southern tip of gaza was struck with at least one member of staff of the un killed and more than 20 people injured, takes the total numbers of staff killed to 165. meanwhile in eastjerusalem, near a refugee camp, a 12—year—old boy who was holding a firework was shot dead

by an israeli police. the police say he was aiming the firewood towards them and they've been hit by molotov cocktails and rioters and the family of the 12—year—old say he was just a kid and this firework in the air and presented no threat at all but the policeman has been congratulated by israel's far right national security ministerfor in his words, defending israel from terrorists. on the aid front, it is a slightly more positive note with six trucks from the u.n. world food programme managing to reach northern gaza, an area that has not received any food aid at all since the middle of february and they've taken a route for the first time allowed by israel since this war began. now, the food aid has been slow and ineffective in coming in over ground, israel has been holding up trucks consistently since this war began so that is why western countries are having to resort to air drops

but a maritime corridor coming in from cyprus with a ship that's making its way from cyprus to gaza carrying 200 tons of aid which is said to be offloaded onto a temporaryjetty that's been built. they're having to resort to maritime routes, air drops because the overland routes have been so slow and the needs on the ground are dire with the un warning that a quarter of gaza's population are at imminent risk of famine. mark lowen there. and now, five months on from the attacks that triggered this latest, deadly conflict, we are learning more about happened on the 7th of october. 18—year—old itay regev and his sister maya were kidnapped by hamas from a music festival in israel, and were then held for sa days. itay has been describing in detail what happened to him, his sister and his best friend after they were taken hostage. his friend is still being held, along with more than 100 others. itay spoke to our special correspondent lucy manning. itay regev is free, but all he thinks about are the hostages

he left behind. the teenager was at the nova music festival with his sister maya and friend 0mer when hamas attacked. translation: we started hearing shooting, and terrorists _ were surrounding the whole party area. lots and lots of people started running in all directions. i hear shooting going past my head. i heard people screaming. i saw people falling down. a lot of bodies. we were confronted by a van of terrorists spraying our car with bullets without any mercy. i got shot in my leg. my sister also got shot in her leg seconds after me. this, the moment they were tied up and taken.

translation: we entered gaza, and the terrorists started - shouting and screaming and celebrating. it was as if it was a big party. itay says they were taken to a house with a shaft, then through a tunnel and driven to a hospital. translation: they threatened my life. | they looked at me doing this, that they are going to kill me, that they are going to behead me. i still had a bullet in my leg. they put the forceps into my leg. they pulled out the bullet without anaesthetic. they told me to keep quiet because if i won't keep quiet, they'll kill me. it was a day that i thought i wouldn't come out of alive. i came to terms with the fact that i wasn't going to live. i see my sister, maya, injured and crying. maya also said her goodbyes and told me if i come out of this alive, to tell our parents that she loves them. what were the conditions like where you were being kept?

translation: you don't really know if you're - going to wake up in the morning, if a missile is going to fall on you, if they're going to come in with a kalashnikov and start spraying us with bullets. the conditions are very, very difficult there. sometimes no water, and the hunger was very, very difficult. hamas wants a total ceasefire and the withdrawal of the troops for the hostages to be released. do you think that israel should agree? translation: i think we should do - anything we possibly can to get them out of there, whatever the cost. we need to do anything that will bring the hostages out of there. you can't put a price on it. it's people's lives. itay says he must now shout out in the name of all the hostages who can't be heard. translation: i was there for two months, and every day felt like an eternity.

to be there for five months, it's horrible, and they are really going through dreadful things and dreadful feelings. in november, maya was released and reunited with herfamily and is learning to walk again. itay was freed a few days later. 0mer, theirfriend, and around 130 others are still held. itay says the world has forgotten the hostages. lucy manning, bbc news. this is bbc news. let's look at a top story in the uk. britain's prime minister is resisting pressure for the conservatives to return £10 million, or about $13 million that was donated by the businessman frank hester, who allegedly said the mp diane abbott made him want to "hate all black women" and should be shot. rishi sunak told the commons that the alleged remarks were racist but that mr hester�*s apology for making rude comments should be accepted. here's our political editor chris mason.

the government's current position is this, they say that the remarks were racist, the alleged remarks were racist but that doesn't make mr hester himself racist. if you take half a step back, it is a position in which he says there should be a tolerance to an articulation of alleged intolerance as long as there is some contrition. meanwhile, ms abbott was not called on during wednesday's prime minister's questions. that's despite standing up 46 times. a spokesperson for the speaker said he "ran out of time" to call on her. you're live with bbc news. the united nations says it's started evacuating its non—essential staff from haiti — although workers who carry out life—saving activities will remain. political leaders are negotiating the formation of a transitional council set to take over after the prime—minister, ariel henry, stands down. there's hope that following henry's resignation,

the violence in haiti will recede. but in the meantime, the humanitarian situation there is worsening. at least four million people are facing severe food insecurity. gangs are in control of roughly 80% of the capital port—au—prince, and injust the last couple of weeks, more than 15,000 people have been forced to leave their homes to escape the violence. meanwhile, the un is setting up an air bridge from the dominican republic to help deliver aid. the bbc�*s central american correspondent will grant is in the dominican republic by the haitian border, and sent this report. life at the border crossing between the dominican republic and haiti is taking on a certain rhythm that every day, throughout the day, several trucks carrying undocumented haitian migrants come to this point and deport those migrants back into the country. they are being deported into an impoverished nation facing its biggest crisis in over a decade. now the situation in the capital, port—au—prince, remains critical —

the food security situation, of course, the gang violence on the streets, the problems in the hospitals and schools being closed — it is as bleak a picture as at any time since the 2010 earthquake, in the haitian capital. there is, for example, the effort by the us state department and member states of the caricom group of nations to see an interim administration take power in the coming days, but that's running into difficulties because the gang members themselves, the powerful gangs that are in control of much of the capital, dispute who will be in that council, and may well want representation themselves, for example, in search of an amnesty. so it is an intractable situation for the time being, it may take several days from this point onwards to resolve, and in the meantime, ordinary people in the streets of port—au—prince are simply trying to make a living, make

ends meet amid the violence. will grant there. russian president vladimir putin has reiterated his position that he's ready to use nuclear weapons — if russia's sovereignty or independence is threatened. the comments came just days before the country's presidential elections in a wide—ranging interview with russian state television released on wednesday. mr putin also said russia will deploy troops and strike systems near the border of finland and sweden, which have eachjoined nato. the russian president singled out neighbouring finland, arguing its accession to the military alliance was at odds with the country's own interests. translation: why they needed this, ifrankly don't understand. this is an absolutely meaningless step from the point of view of ensuring their own national interests. but nevertheless, it's up to them to decide. that's what they decided. we didn't have troops there. now they will be there. there were no systems of destruction there. now they will appear. so why?

the finnish prime minister rejected mr putin's comments, saying that russia under his leadership poses an existential threat to western countries. russia is evidently preparing for a long conflict and represents a permanent annex sensual military threat to europe. if we, as united europe, failed to respond to this challenge, the coming years will be filled with danger and a looming threat of attack. the finnish prime minister urged all european union countries to keep helping ukraine in its fight against russia. that message has been similar here in washington. the us government this week unveiled a stopgap $300 million military aid package, but presidentjoe biden says it is not enough and has urged congress to pass a $60 billion military aid bill. to discuss putin's troop deployment and kyiv�*s ability to

fight the war, i spoke to kurt volker, former us special envoy to ukraine and former us ambassador to nato. ambassador, great to have you back with us here on bbc news, we'll start with the comments that we heard from russian president vladimir putin saying that russia would deploy troops, strike systems near the border with finland. are you concerned about that? no, not really. things near the border with finland, they actually withdrew them in order to conduct the war in ukraine, i think they are saying this now as a gesture because of finland joining nato but the reality is that russian troops are struggling in ukraine, they had to mass forces a wave after wave of efforts to take even the small

city like advika. i don't think they have the forces despair to line them up and unthreatening finish border. you don't think something that the nato members should be planning for, talking about a strategy? it's different and yes nato should be paying attention to what russia says, looking at any force movements and putting in place properforces so that there is a response capability in the event russia tries to invade. i think the idea of such an an invasion is extremely unlikely because russia is stretched militarily. ukraine is also stretched militarily particularly in terms of weapons supplies and the us has agreed to send some $300 million in assistance, compared to $60 billion that president biden has been calling for, with the level of funding and weaponry, do you believe that ukraine can still win the war? first off, ukraine will win the war regardless, they are fighting for their homes, their

lives, the country, the russians are on an expeditionary mission to take somebody else's country and so, the ukrainians will prevail here but the question is, at what cost? because with the right equipment, with the right level of support they should be able to defeat the russian forces that are invading in the sense of cutting them off from their supplies so there are no longer viable, that's something ukraine should be able to do with the right equipment. but without that, they will have to go into a very different mode of sustain and continuing to fight in a lower scale, more of a unconventional tactic in order to prevent the russians from coming in further and to try to make the russians pay a higher cost for the invasion as well. as for what happens, i had recent conversations with congress and everyone is very adamant that this funding will be approved, it is taking time, too much time, but everyone is adament that it will be done within the next several weeks.

and if it's not? if it's not, the administration has just shown that there are options for how to continue to get other things to ukraine, i would look at the defence articles, things we can declare unnecessary or maybe have even already been declared unnecessary that could be transferred to ukraine. i look at emergency authorities of the pentagon has as to use its resources, fresh authorisation, we have that on the books for 2022 and 2023, it was never used, lend lease. but we could reauthorise a position to lend ukraine the money with which to buy the weapons that it needs so there are a lot of options that are still out there but the right thing to do, the best option is with a supplemental appropriations to be approved. we know that president

biden in his state of the union address has said that putin will set his sights further than ukraine, ukrainian subset of the negotiated settlement, they believed that britain will be back for more at a later date, do you see that as a significant risk? absolutely. there was no question about ladder mia perkins invention ——he made them time after time and so has are the people of the kremlin, they have said that vladimir putin is rebuilding the russian empire, the view that these territories as russian lands, that i am view the existing is of an independent government on russian lands as acceptable and they intend to take all of them back. this is a recipe for continuous war and genocide which is wider than to ukraine but all of europe. i think most leaders in europe are now realising this

which is why you see this increase defence spending in europe, the statements by president macron about not allowing ukraine to fail because if we do, the war wide and so, that is very real and needs to be taken seriously and prevented. from a us special envoy to ukraine, great to have you here with your thoughts. and finally, it's been quite an exciting day for pope francis. as many christians observe lent, the period leading up to easter, his holiness has been travelling around the vatican in the popemobile. here he is waving to the public until his cap flies off into the distance. well, luckily for the pontiff, all�*s well that ends well. a kind member of the public was able to retrieve the cap and hand it back to its rightful owner. thanks for your company. you are watching bbc news. i am helena humphrey. see you soon. hello there. the rain has been pouring down on wednesday in snowdonia, in wales — there was about a third

of a month's worth of rain injust 12 hours. things are not looking quite so dramatic over the next few days. there will be some further wet weather, rain or showers, and for many parts of the country, it's going to be mild — particularly across england and wales, where we've seen the milder air coming from a long way south. things are a little bit chillier to the north, in northern scotland. in between, we've got the weather front — that's been bringing the rain, but that's moving northwards, taking wet weather into scotland and northern ireland. there's the wet weather that we've got in northern ireland and southern scotland — that moves its way northwards. for england and wales, there may be a bit more sunshine arriving in a southerly breeze before those showers push across from the west. but we're introducing some slightly drier air from france, hence the cloud breaking up more than it did on wednesday. and so, temperatures could reach 16, even 17 celsius. quite chilly underneath that rain, though, in the central belt of scotland. and that wet weather is still around as we head into thursday evening. that low pressure will slowly pull away — we've got another one waiting in the wings here, as we head towards the weekend. but this is how friday looks, and we've got wet weather in scotland sinking into northern england.

a bit of snow over the mountains. we see some heavier showers developing further south, particularly in the south—east of england, with the risk of thunder. drier, though, for northern ireland becoming drier in scotland, but we're getting a northerly wind here — hence the temperatures will be dropping a bit through the day. won't be quite as warm in the south—east, but still temperatures of 13—14 celsius. as that area of low pressure moves away, things will calm down just for a while before the next weather system pushes in from the atlantic. but ahead of that, we'll have clear skies and light winds, so it's going to be cold. and there may be a frost around as well, particularly in scotland, with temperatures down as low as —3 or so. and there may be 1—2 mist and fog patches, too — but those will lift. we'll have some sunshine for a while, but we've got the weather system coming in from the atlantic — the cloud will tend to increase, rain for northern ireland coming into south west scotland, wales, and the south—west of england. eastern areas still generally dry, but after that cold start, it'll only be around seven celsius in north east scotland. most of the rain over

the weekend will actually be on saturday night. and then, as we head into the early part of next week, it looks like it could be a bit drier, and it should stay on the mild side.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk.

i'm stephen sackur. millions of haitians face a daily struggle for survival. gang violence is rampant. the streets are lawless. basic services from health care to food distribution are broken. starvation and disease loom large. ariel henry, the unelected prime minister, has now said he's quitting. but is there any prospect of more effective leaders emerging? well, my guest is former acting prime minister claude joseph. can haiti's unfolding catastrophe be reversed? would an armed international intervention make things better or worse?