hello, i'm carl nasman. israel's military says it has recovered the body of a man taken hostage and held in gaza, in an overnight operation in khan younis on saturday. it accused the islamichhad group of murdering the man, who has been identified as 47—year—old elad katzir. elad was a farmer who was kidnapped from his kibbutz during the hamas attacks on southern israel last october. his sister said she blames israel's government for failing to do a deal with hamas. she, along with thousands of protestors, are calling on their government to do more to free the remaining hostages. from jerusalem, our middle east correspondent hugo bachega reports. tens of thousands of people joined a protest in tel aviv urging the government to reach a deal with hamas for more hostages to be freed, and the fact that another israeli hostage has returned dead puts more pressure on the israeli prime minister, benjamin

netanyahu. the families of the hostages say he hasn't made their release a priority. they say that the government's strategy of trying to put military pressure on hamas to negotiate has failed. now, the main hope is for a dealfor more captives to be freed. any kind of deal would see the release of hostages in return for palestinian prisoners who are being held in israeli jails. now, on sunday, as we mark the six anniversary of this conflict, hamas says it is sending a delegation to cairo for a ceasefire talks that have been mediated by egypt and qatar. the head of the cia is expected to be there, and these are difficult talks. we still don't know whether major obstacles have been resolved. meanwhile, a hamas delegation is expected to attend ceasefire talks in cairo on sunday,

following an invitation extended by egyptian mediators. others expected there, include us central intelligence agency director bill burns and qatar's foreign minister. israel's war cabinet is reportedly set to discuss whether to send a delegation. for more on this i spoke tojohn hannah, former national security adviser to vice president dick cheney and senior fellow at the jewish institute for national security of america. thank you so much for taking the time tojoin thank you so much for taking the time to join us on bbc news. as we just heard, the time to join us on bbc news. as wejust heard, israel says it recovered the body of hostage during this raid in gaza. the victim's family blames israel for not doing enough to strike a deal with hamas. how much blame do you think the israeli government should shoulderfor the think the israeli government should shoulder for the failure to bring the many dozens of hostages home? it’s to bring the many dozens of hostages home?— to bring the many dozens of hostages home? it's hard for me to lace hostages home? it's hard for me to place much — hostages home? it's hard for me to place much blame _ hostages home? it's hard for me to place much blame at - hostages home? it's hard for me to place much blame at all- hostages home? it's hard for me to place much blame at all on . to place much blame at all on the israeli government. of course, hamas is the one who took almost 250 innocent israelis hostage six months ago and has kept them away from

their families and has kept them away from theirfamilies in probably their families in probably entirely theirfamilies in probably entirely brutal conditions in gaza. hamas is the one that should be blamed. there was a temporary pause in which israel was able to get back about 100 of its citizens back at the end of its citizens back at the end of november. there's been ongoing negotiations now for several months, and israel has made clear that it is prepared to have a pause for as long as six weeks in order to get its remaining hostages back. mit? six weeks in order to get its remaining hostages back. why do ou think remaining hostages back. why do you think those _ remaining hostages back. why do you think those negotiations - you think those negotiations with hamas have stalled? we did hear that they will be a hamas delegation apparently in cairo this weekend. why do you think the negotiations have stalled? we did see some successful talks that freed any hostages, but that's been weeks or months now. i but that's been weeks or months now. ~' but that's been weeks or months now. ~ . ., , , , ., now. i think hamas is stalling. hamas is _ now. i think hamas is stalling. hamas is -- — now. i think hamas is stalling. hamas is -- hamas's - now. i think hamas is stalling. | hamas is -- hamas's demands hamas is —— hamas's demands have been far beyond anything

israel can accept in terms of demanding a permanent ceasefire. thousands of terrorist let out of israeli jails and a return of the entire population to northern gaza, including as many hamas fighters as they can get back into the north. so israel simply cannot accept those conditions. neitherthe simply cannot accept those conditions. neither the united states or egypt or qatar, i don't think, can accept those conditions. they know that they won't go anywhere. but hamas is holding out. i think it believes it has a winning formula. the longer this goes on, the more palestinian suffering and destruction there is, it's clear that the more pressure there is on israel to stop this war, short of an all—out defeat of hamas. meanwhile, there were these fairly large protests across israel demanding the government do more to free hostages and asking for early elections in

the country. we have seen the increasing international pressure on prime minister benjamin netanyahu. how much pressure is he under? how do you rate the viability of his government right now? can he continue to effectively lead israel? ~ �* , continue to effectively lead israel? ~ �*, ., , israel? well, it's a big question. _ israel? well, it's a big question. it's - israel? well, it's a big| question. it's obviously israel? well, it's a big - question. it's obviously one israelis have to answer. there's a lot of division in the country. the war brought people together, obviously, they were made to respond to hamas, but the divisions that we saw before the war are coming back right now. the government clearly bears a lot of responsibility for what happened on the seventh of october. whether or not you 0ctober. whether or not you have an election in the middle of a war is a difficult call. israelis will have to make. i don't think this coalition will fall of its own accord. it's a right—wing government, 64 stable seats. they won't break this government unless they are forced to, obviously, by people

in the streets. it’s forced to, obviously, by people in the streets.— in the streets. it's been six months — in the streets. it's been six months now _ in the streets. it's been six months now since - in the streets. it's been six months now since the - in the streets. it's been six i months now since the attacks in the streets. it's been six - months now since the attacks of seventh of october. how do you assess the global standing of israel and, assess the global standing of israeland, really, assess the global standing of israel and, really, the way that it's conducting this war? we've seen several countries, including members of the uk government, calling for an end to security assistance to israel. , , ., ., , israel. yes, there is no doubt, and we've _ israel. yes, there is no doubt, and we've seen _ israel. yes, there is no doubt, and we've seen this _ israel. yes, there is no doubt, and we've seen this in - israel. yes, there is no doubt, and we've seen this in past - and we've seen this in past israeli was, that the longer these kinds of wars on, the higher the suffering imposed on innocent civilians, largely by terrorist groups like hamas and hezbollah, who instigate these wars, the more isolated israel becomes internationally. you know, it's hard to see how israel could have fought this war much differently, given the way hamas is prepared to see as many palestinians as possible get healed, as human shields. 300 to 400 miles of tunnels

underneath gaza. it's a brutal, terrible, awful war. hamas doesn't care about the human suffering, and itjust puts israel, that is immoral, military, that tries to operate within the laws of armed conflict, it makes it very hard to fight this kind of brutal campaign againsta to fight this kind of brutal campaign against a genocidal terrorist group, right on its border. i terrorist group, right on its border. ., ., ., , ., border. i want to ask you, before we _ border. i want to ask you, before we go. _ border. i want to ask you, before we go. we - border. i want to ask you, before we go. we have i border. i want to ask you, before we go. we have al border. i want to ask you, - before we go. we have a minute left, but i know you are part of a group that has published some guidelines or a plan for postwar gaza. do you think — obviously the conflict is ongoing, but is there enough talk or enough attention paid to what might happen once the fighting stops? to what might happen once the fighting steps?— fighting stops? know, there's -robabl fighting stops? know, there's probably not. _ fighting stops? know, there's probably not, part _ fighting stops? know, there's probably not, part because i i probably not, part because i just think there are no perfect solutions in gaza. they probably aren't even any good solutions in gaza. you'vejust

got to manage this as best you can, minimise the suffering of innocent gazans as much as possible through humanitarian aid effort, which is one thing that our report urges that people do, including the israelis — take more steps. but we also say that if you want to ever get to a better day after, a betterfuture ever get to a better day after, a better future for gazans, then somehow this hamas terrorist group that started this war on the seventh of october has to be defeated. 0ctober has to be defeated. that regime and gaza that's been there for 16 or 17 years needs to be removed if we are ever going to have hope for a better future in gaza and for israeli— palestinian peace being able to move forward. john hannah, former national security adviser to the former us vice president dick cheney and senior

fellow of the jewish institute for national security of america, thank you very much. the us treasury secretary, janet yellen, has warned that there will be consequences for chinese businesses if they support russia's war in ukraine. on a visit to china, the us official said russia was already benefiting from supplies of chinese goods. trade between beijing and moscow more than doubled last year compared to 2020. ms yellen's main aim on her four—day trip to china is to persuade beijing to rein in excessive production on goods such as electric cars. china says talk of overcapacity is a pretext for american protectionism. the talks are part of efforts to stabilise the relationship between the world's two largest economies. live now to michael sobolik, senior fellow in indo—pacific studies at the american foreign policy council and author of the book countering china's great game. it is great to have your back on bbc news. what do you make, first of all, of this warning from equity to china over its

businesses supporting russia's war effort?— war effort? bei'ing is going to lau~h war effort? bei'ing is going to lauuh it war effort? bei'ing is going to laugh it off. _ war effort? beijing is going to laugh it off. they've - war effort? beijing is going to laugh it off. they've laughed l laugh it off. they've laughed off so many other warnings from the biden administration in the past. the reality is that the united states is in a cold war with china, and america is losing. and one of the biggest reasons the united states is losing is because so many american politicians seem to think that they can reason with the chinese communist party and negotiate with them in good faith diplomacy and try to come to a win—win outcome. that sounds great in theory, but... why do you think the us is losing that battle? 0n the other hand, of course, china being hit pretty hard economically by some sanctions and some preventions of exports of things like semiconductors. so it only takes one person for a cold water happen, and the

chinese communist party knows and believes that they are in a cold war with the united states, and america doesn't. that's simply why the united states is losing. 0ur leaders are not even aware of this fundamental reality. you mentioned semiconductors. to be sure, the biden administration has tried to take some efforts to curtail china's dominance in certain economic sectors that are going to be important, but if you listen to janet yellen's rhetoric and president biden's rhetoric and president biden's rhetoric and president biden's rhetoric and others, they continually say we need to co—operate with china where we can and then compete with china where we have to do. what that has meant, practically, is that this administration has pulled its punches and has not gone after china's problematic actors with human rights abuses and with a whole host of other issues with the intensity and focus they should have, and they are trying so hard to keep diplomacy as an option because they think they can shaped china into a responsible actor.

history suggests otherwise. indie history suggests otherwise. we have been hearing a lot from janet yellen on this trip about topics such as electric vehicles and solar panels. why do you think she has made those topics such a priority?— topics such a priority? well, i think it's, _ topics such a priority? well, i think it's, first _ topics such a priority? well, i think it's, first off, _ think it's, first off, important to note that even though china is investing a lot of money on green energy, they are also the world's greatest greenhouse gas emitter. so let's keep that in perspective. but i think secretary yellen is focusing on those issues with a lot of intensity because china has invested a lot of resources for its own companies to be the dominant players in the 21st century for solar power and for electric vehicles. and once those technologies get to a critical mass, they are going to change a lot of our daily lives, and china wants its companies to be the ones controlling not only the vehicles and the solar panels that people and companies are buying, but they want to control the whole supply chain.

and if america has learned anything from covid and the pandemic, we had a lot of critical supply chains right through china when the virus spread, and impacted us in a whole host of really bad and ways. so to secretary yellen's credit, she is trying to get ahead of the curve, but she is going about it all wrong. you don't reason with the chinese communist party and try to play diplomacy with them, you outcompete them and out leveraged them. mil outcompete them and out leveraged them. all across the us and among _ leveraged them. all across the us and among young - leveraged them. all across the us and among young people, | us and among young people, there is a lot of focus on tiktok, the social media apps. there is a bill right now that would force its parent company, bytedance, to sell the company or tiktok would be banned nationwide. what do you think the chances are that bill passing here in the us? i’m passing here in the us? i'm talkin: passing here in the us? i'm talking with _ passing here in the us? i“n talking with congressional staff and members of congress daily on the subject of this bill, and the sense that i have from capitol hill is that the momentum has slowed since the

bill left the house and went to the senate, but there is still quiet progress being made. majority leader chuck schumer mentioned the tiktok bill in a letter he sent to all senators about the upcoming agenda for the senate in the next session, so i think there's a lot of road ahead. we don't know for sure yet, but i'll put it this way: if the united states is not able to address the threat that tiktok poses to americans, we might as welljust pack up and go home. this is the greatest source of leveraged that the ccp has over america. whenever i talk to former officials in the trump administration, they underscore that tiktok is the greatest threat that america has faced from china since covid—19. that's a huge statement, and there are 170 million americans on tiktok, and it affords china an opportunity to shape the discourse in america, and our perception of beijing. it's something that we've got to find a fix for.— find a fix for. very interesting - find a fix for. very interesting stuff. | find a fix for. very -

interesting stuff. senior fellow in indo pacific studies at the american foreign policy council, also the author of countering china's great game, thank you very much. with almost all of the ballots counted in slovakia's presidential race, government candidate peter pellegrini appears to have won the election. slovak opposition candidate ivan korcok conceded defeat earlier and congratulated his rival once it appeared his lead was unassailable. mr pellegrini is seen as having more pro—kremlin views compared to mr korcok, who is a pro—western former diplomat. the role of president is seen as largely ceremonial but highly influential post, especially at a time when there are divisions over support to ukraine. for more on the election, i spoke to our correspondent rob cameron in prague, in the neighbouring czech republic. it looks like ivan korcok has lost to peter pellegrini, as you say, the candidate of the populist nationalist governing coalition.

it seems that mr pellegrini has won 53% of the vote to mr korcok�*s 47%, which is far better, a far wider margin, than had been suggested in the opinion polls running up to this second round of the election. so that has been something of a surprise. and i think, really, it is the worst fears of the liberal pro—western opposition in slovakia coming to pass, because now the populist nationalist government, of which mr pellegrini is a part — led by robert fico — he now controls the parliament, the government, and will soon have his man in the president's office. they believe and they fear that that will give him free rein to create what they claim will be a sort of illiberal democracy, perhaps modelled along the lines of viktor 0rban's hungary. so they are certainly not celebrating this evening in bratislava. and what about when it

comes to ukraine? we mentioned this is mostly a ceremonial role, but what could a pellegrini presidency mean for support to ukraine? well, it's certainly a ceremonial role, but an influential one, especially at a time when robert fico is making so many inroads on changing slovakia. and, of course, slovakia only has one chamber of parliament, one house of parliament, so the role of president is very important. but on ukraine, i think what's happened here with the election of peter pellegrini as president, there will be in two or 2.5 months' time — there will be no senior slovak official who is unequivocally in favour of ukraine's right to defend its territory with weapons. since mr fico came to power in october and reversed the previous slovak government policy of giving ukraine everything it needs to defeat russia on the battlefield,

there has been a substantial departure in policy on ukraine. the current president, zuzana caputova, a liberal president — she had been maintaining a very strong pro—ukrainian stance. but she will leave office in two months to be replaced by mr pellegrini, who is seen very much as an ally of robert fico, the prime minister, and so kyiv will have lost at least the official support of the slovak government. so after hungary, it seems that ukraine has now lost, officially at least, slovakia as an unequivocal ally in their military campaign against russia. tens of thousands of people joined a rally in the hungarian capital, budapest, against the right—wing government led by viktor 0rban. the protest was led by peter magyar, a lawyer who was previously close to the administration. in recent weeks he has emerged as a leading challenger to the prime minister. mr magyar said he will launch a party to contest elections to the european parliament injune.

0ne opinion poll suggests that even before it is officially founded, mr magyar�*s new party is already the third most popular in hungarian politics. the change is starting today. the hungarian people are fed up with the corrupt government, and now the change is coming. the spring is here, the time is here, and we take back the control and the power. india's government is denying accusations by canada's spy agency that it interferred in two canadian federal elections. the report by the canadian security intelligence service also alleges interference by pakistan. it was released as part of an ongoing inquiry into foreign interference in canadian elections, initially triggered by alleged actions by china. on friday canada's prime minister, justin trudeau, said that the alleged interference was widespread and long—running. obviously the question of foreign interference is one that is extremely important, and that's why as a government

we put in place significant measures to ensure that, for example, our elections continue to be free and fair, despite what we have known for years are ongoing attempts at interference by various foreign actors. this has been going on for years and decades, notjust in our democracies but in our businesses, in our academic institutions and, particularly, in diaspora communities, who are vulnerable to interference and negative engagement from their home countries. earlier i spoke to raffy boudjikanian, a senior reporter covering politics at canada's cbc news. it's a pleasure to have you here. just first off, can you tell us more about what's in these documents that were recently released, and why canada now seems so confident that a couple of different foreign nations, including india, attempted to interfere in its federal elections? happy to be here, carl. so the documents were released by canada's spy agency,

csis, in the course of this public inquiry into foreign interference. they're what csis calls unclassified intelligence summaries. they do have a caveat about as long as my arm essentially saying they could be uncorroborated or single—sourced or incomplete. however, they do allege that india and pakistan tried to interfere in the last two canadian federal elections, in 2019 and 2021. so a little bit of a surprise here, because the reason we're having this public inquiry has largely been due to concerns over china interfering in those two elections, but now we're seeing that there may be more to this. the documents say india, for example, in 2021 was using a proxy agent to try to funnel illicit funds into the campaigns of pro—india candidates, candidates who may not have even known that this was happening to them,

in order to get them elected versus others who may have had more pro—pakistan views or may have been sympathetic to the separatist sikh movement in india. do we know, by any chance, how successful these alleged attempts at election interference were? so csis does say in one of these documents that india was one of the biggest foreign threat actors in canada in 2021. it does not say, though, that india was successful at doing this. i should note that national security officials in this country have repeatedly said that although there was foreign interference in both of the last two elections, it never rose to threaten the overall result of those elections themselves. as for pakistan, csis actually says it was a more limited actor but that it did try, in 2019 especially, to get more pro—pakistan candidates elected — sort of the reverse of what india was doing —

but that csis undertook some sort of threat reduction measure. unclear exactly what that was, but it says that that measure was successful in mitigating what pakistan was trying to do. when it comes to india, of course, this is a country that doesn't exactly have the best relations with canada right now. how is india responding to these reports? yeah, relations have been strained with india for the last few months. there have been a lot of headlines about how a sikh activist was killed in canada, with prime minister trudeau accusing agents of the indian government of having a hand in that. india not taking too well to that at all. it also has not taken well to these allegations, these ones in these csis documents, stating that it does not try to intervene in the democratic process of other countries, of canada,

and that, on the contrary, it's canada that's been trying to intervene in india's affairs. and it has said this repeatedly and has asked canada to stop. we've also reached out to pakistan's embassy here in ottawa, but have not heard back from them yet. raffy boudjikanian, senior reporter with canada's cbc, thank you very much. you're very welcome. residents in sydney and the surrounding australian state of new south wales are facing renewed flood warnings after three days of record—breaking rainfall caused flash floods across the country's largest city. more than 150 people have been rescued from the floodwaters, and the body of one man was retrieved on satuday. while the rains have eased, river levels are still rising and are at risk of bursting their banks. people are being told to evacuate nearby and low—lying areas. the city's main drinking water reservoir is already overflowing. and finally, italy's mount etna has been sending rare smoke rings into the sicilian sky. a new crater opened

on the summit of europe's largest active volcano leading to an unusual display of vortex rings. they're made of gases and propelled upwards by a circular vent in the volcano. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. on saturday we saw two sides to storm kathleen. 0n the one hand, across eastern england with some weak sunshine, temperatures reached 21 celsius in suffolk — the warmest day of the year so far. further west, though, those winds were a lot stronger — gusts of 60—70 mph and some large waves as well. and storm kathleen is still on the scene, tracking northwards to the west of the uk. still going to bring with it some windy weather on sunday, and there'll be some further sunshine, but also some showers.

it's not going to be quite as warm as it was on saturday. we're going to start with a bit of early rain to clear away from north—east england and south—east scotland, and then more showers will come in from the north—west of scotland and northern ireland. we'll see some wet weather arriving in wales, pushing through parts of the midlands and northern england, and later into the south—west of england. the best of the dry weather and sunshine probably through east anglia and the south—east of england, but it's going to be a windy day. the strongest of the winds likely to be in the far north—west of scotland — over 60 mph. temperatures are going to be lower than they were on saturday, but a pleasant 16 or 17 in the south—east and across east anglia in the sunshine. now, storm kathleen weakens by monday to the north of scotland. we're going to find our next area of low pressure in from the south. and this one is going to bring with it some cloud and some outbreaks of rain. that's mainly going to run northwards to the western side of the uk, but we will see some rain for northern england and southern scotland.

northern scotland likely to be dry. the winds becoming lighter, and we'll get some sunshine and dry weather for awhile through the midlands and across some eastern parts of england. again, temperatures 16 or 17 degrees. by the end of the day it's not going to be as windy, but our area of low pressure is likely to deepen overnight and the winds strengthen again towards the south—west of england and through the english channel into the channel islands. and we've still got some cloud, we've got some outbreaks of rain left over on tuesday, to push steadily eastwards across england and wales, and some further showers to the north—west of scotland. the wind direction is changing to a north—westerly and that's going to bring with it some colder air, so maximum temperatures on tuesday are only 10—12 celsius. now, that colder air shouldn't last too long. during wednesday and into thursday, the wind direction changes. we get milder south—westerly winds, but that brings with it the chance of some more rain.

v0|ce—0ver: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. for as long as i can remember, i've wanted to go back home. home to the place where i was born. a home i hadn't seen in 30 years. it's also 30 years since the genocide, which killed about 800,000 people.

i was one of the lucky ones. my family and i got away, but many didn't. now i'm returning to my home country to trace back my escape route when i was just 12 years old. there's no sound that fills me with so much joy as the sound of children in a classroom. as i am reunited with my family, i also want to uncover the country's journey to healing and reconciliation. this is one of the groups that carsa has, made by genocide survivors and the genocide former perpetrators. and i'll be hearing from those who had a role in the killings and their survivors. translation: to me, - he was not only a murderer, but a monster.

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