top us diplomat is in cairo where hamas is due to respond to terms of israel's revised ceasefire proposal as ceasefire negotiations get under way. water cannons and tear gas at a rally in georgia on people protesting a controversialforeign influence bill targetting civil liberties. hello. we start in the united states where hundreds of new york police officers have entered the campus of columbia university in new york to disperse pro—palestinian protesters who've taken over a building. a long line of officers have been seen climbing a ladder to enter hamilton hall. according to cbs news, 50 arrests have been made. the university had earlier told the students to leave or face being expelled.

columbia university said the students had escalated the protest to an untenable situation and it had no choice but to call the police. pro—palestinian protesters have been occupying a tent camp at the ivy league school for nearly two weeks. let's speak to omar wasow, a political science professor at the university of berkeley, california, who studies protest movements. columbia university says it was left with no choice. what are your thoughts? research that i do look for protesters in the 1960s and what i find is that when protesters are non—violent and there are heavy—handed tactics by authorities, that builds sympathy for the protesters. that is what we saw two weeks

ago at columbia when students took over the building. what i find also is that when protesters engage in protest initiative violence, that tends to build sympathy for more law and order and i think that is what we saw today. them taking over the building today creates legitimacy for this massive police response. i i know the protests at columbia university was the genesis of other protests at universities across the us. the breaking up we have seen over the last few hours, do you think that is the end of this particular protest will see columbia reassembling elsewhere? i think what you may in part because this has been really ground zero is that we will see protests of campers, protests that things like joe biden rallies but likely at columbia's campus itself, this is probably the end of this

particular wave of protests. in general they seem to have an episodic quality of spiking and fading and at the end of the semester, summer is coming, exams this coming week for students, that is likely to play a lot of the energy out of the on—campus protests by thank you for that. our north america correspondentjohn sudworth who is at columbia university, in new york. what are you seeing around you now? ., u, what are you seeing around you now? ., ,_ what are you seeing around you now? ., ,, now? you can probably see the urou -s now? you can probably see the grouns of— now? you can probably see the grouns of police _ now? you can probably see the groups of police officers - now? you can probably see the groups of police officers on - groups of police officers on the street, they are still here in large numbers. the roads around the campus are still closed. small groups of protesters i still milling around the periphery, but things are, for now at least, pretty peaceful. about a0 minutes ago we saw the last of the buses being driven down here with the arrest of

students on board and as a passed out of the court and it was met with cheers and whistles from supporters and cries of shame being directed at the police. there were a few scuffles and arrests and they were driven off to be processed for arrest. this massive force of show from the police is brought an end to it for now. have you been able to speak to any of the protesters that were disbursed, about the intention is to continue demonstrating? no, not the protesters directly. as soon as the police moved in, the media were pushed away from the campus. here on the periphery, there are a few student supporters, those who are here to express their solidarity, but they were not directly involved in the stand—off. if they were, they left earlier on, suggesting

those threats now of action against them acted as an incentive for some people at least to voluntarily get out of the way. university says it has asked for a police presence to be maintained on campus throughout the next few weeks. clearly, they do not want to see what happened the last time they asked the new york police to intervene, it only sparked a further protests. the encampment grew larger as a result. this time, it looks like a permanent presence request to stop anything to happen like this again and i think we can expect to see access to the campus to be controlled more tightly. the end of term is upon us in a couple of weeks. it will be graduation and the university said it was a priority to get these protests cleared so students could graduate. the action tonight does look like

they have been successful in doing so. they have been successful in doing sm— they have been successful in doing so— to the middle east, where the us secretary of state, antony blinken, has arrived in tel aviv, where he's due to discuss ceasefire negotiations that have been taking place in cairo. still no word from hamas, who said they would give a response to the terms of israel's revised proposal by wednesday. mr blinken has also been injordan, where he met king abdullah. they talked about aid deliveries which are still well below the level needed in gaza. he has also been in riyadh where they discussed a security guarantee for saudi arabia in return for normalisation of relations with israel. the ceasefire is the first crucial step. here's what he had to say as he left amman. our focus right now, is on getting a cease—fire and hostages home. that is the most urgent thing, and it's also, i think, what is achievable because the israelis have put a strong proposal on the table.

they've demonstrated that they're willing to compromise and now it's on hamas. 0n the ceasefire negotiations, israel says it will wait to discuss this and the wider war in gaza i'm joined by said shehata from bbc arabic. what's the likelihood of this ceasefire proposal becoming a reality? indicators lead us to think it is likely to happen because hamas was supposed to give a reply on monday and then they had a revised proposalfrom israel and qatar and the israel states and they will give a response today. indicators are saying they will not agree on that because hamas and their conditions were for withdrawal of the israeli army from gaza, a permanent ceasefire and to see the displaced people going

from the south to the north. israel accept a part of it but they agree to the permanent ceasefire but what is called a sustainable period of calm. in addition to that, benjamin netanyahu insisting that the rafah invasion will happen regardless of age was negotiation. a of that leads us to think hamas will not agree because there is pressure more in israel than hamas. on one hand, israel trying to make a ceasefire sound permanent. 0n the other, netenyahu saying rafah will be attacked no matter what. two contrary positions there. this will strengthen the theory that hamas will not accept the deal. 0n the one hand they are saying they're happy to do a negotiation deal to reach a deal in order to release

hostages for the return of some displaced people but at the same time, invading rafah would be disastrous for the palestinians. and the international community as the secretary general of the united nations, he said it would be unbearable, if rafah was invaded. they are trying to ask is not to do this because it will affect more than the i million people displaced in rafah. l115 million people displaced in rafah. ,, ., ., , ., rafah. us israel relations have been strained _ rafah. us israel relations have been strained for— rafah. us israel relations have been strained for some - rafah. us israel relations have been strained for some time. i been strained for some time. how would you describe them now. did the iranian strikes bring them closer together again? bring them closer together auain? ., , bring them closer together auain? ., ., , , , bring them closer together auain? ., , , y again? relationship is very stron: again? relationship is very strong between _ again? relationship is very strong between us - again? relationship is very strong between us and - again? relationship is very . strong between us and israel. there are some problems between them but it is a solid relationship. the attack help the case of benjamin netanyahu but if he's going to rafah, it will affect that because the meeting between antony blinken and the king ofjordan, king

abdullah, is insisting the peace process and that his state solution but the invasion of rafa will destroy that, make that not visible in the future. thank you very much for that. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

donald trump has been fined $9,000 for contempt of court, after repeatedly attacking witnesses and jurors at his criminal trial in new york. the judge warned that he could face jail if he does it again. donald trump is accused of trying to cover up a $130,000 in hush money payment made to adult film actress stormy daniels ahead of the 2016 election. mr trump has pleaded not guilty to sa counts of falsifying business records and denies the affair. let's speak to david

willis in los angeles. many questioned whether trump would or could stick to a gagging order. what do you make of the size of the fine? small change to self—proclaimed billionaire. it is, and thejudge made that point in his ruling. imagine this if you will, consider this, that a man that has been leading in many of the opinion polls going into this years presidential election in the united states was today warned that he could end up injail! that was because he has contravened this gagging order imposed by thejudge, intended to stop donald trump from making public statements about witnesses and jurors in his ongoing so—called hush money trial. thejudge said ongoing so—called hush money trial. the judge said that he would like to have imposed a

stiffer penalty, but he was constrained by law, in terms of how much she could levy by way of a fine. he did demand that the offending social media postings be removed. they subsequently have been. and he warned that a further breaking of this gag order could result in the former president going to jail. donald trump responded to jail. donald trump responded to that in characteristically boisterous, lewd if you like, he went after the one person who is not covered by that gag order, and that is the judge himself, calling him corrupt and demanding that he stand down from this trial. well, there will now be a break, court is not sitting tomorrow, but when proceedings resume on thursday, the prosecution is going to bring four more cases that it believes constitute contraventions of that gag order. �* , y .,

contraventions of that gag order. n contraventions of that gag order. a .,, order. as you say, a break toda , order. as you say, a break today. two _ order. as you say, a break today, two days _ order. as you say, a break today, two days of - order. as you say, a break. today, two days of testimony this week behind us. what else has stood out for you, david? today we had some very interesting evidence from a lawyer by the name of keith davidson, who presented the porn star at the centre of the trial in this case, tot stormy daniels, he gave an intriguing insight into the behind—the—scenes manoeuvres that go on into quashing celebrity tales anti— tilt at all and so on. basically paving the way for what is expected to be the star witness in the trial, donald trump's former lawyer, michael cohen, the man who actually arranged that $130,000 payment to stormy daniels. in return, it was alleged, for her silence over a former sexual tryst with donald trump. donald trump continues

to attend court every daily. he has been told he must do so. but he is not happy. he looked incredibly tired and very out of sorts on occasions, by all accounts today, again, and i think this is something he wants very much to get behind him. he maintains that all the time this is going on, he is impeded on going out on the campaign trailand impeded on going out on the campaign trail and campaigning fora campaign trail and campaigning for a return to the white house. i david willis in los angeles, thank you very much. a 1a—year—old boy has been killed and a number of others including two police officers have been injured after a man went on a rampage with a sword in north east london. police were called after a van was driven at speed into a house just before 7:00 on tuesday morning. a 36—year—old man is in custody but is not well enough to questioned. police say the attack was not believed to be targeted or terrorism—related.

police in georgia have used water cannons and tear gas to disperse people rallying in capital tbilisi against the controversial foreign influence bill, seen as russian—inspired legislation targeting media freedoms and civil liberties. the country's interior ministry said that protesters confronted law enforcers forcing them to use special means. the georgian government plans to adopt the bill, despite protests and warnings from the eu that the law could derail the country's eu integration. the bbc�*s rayhan demytrie sent this report from the capital. after more than two weeks of peaceful protest, georgian police used water cannons to disperse the demonstrators in central tbilisi. disperse the demonstrators in centraltbilisi. riot disperse the demonstrators in central tbilisi. riot police moved in to clear the main

avenue outside parliament. there is announcement and warning for police for protesters to disperse. the riot police have already used water cannons and pepper spray and they are urging to push the protesters out of the main avenue. as you can see, they are not planning to go anywhere. they are building. —— cheering. russians! russians! they chant in reference to the government, a government that introduced an oppressive law it posed by the protesters. the government says they will push through the law.— through the law. they say they will ush through the law. they say they will push it _ through the law. they say they will push it but _ through the law. they say they will push it but they _ through the law. they say they will push it but they don't - will push it but they don't know, that our stores and peoples would rather die than be the slaves of russians. we will die for georgia and will never be the slaves of russians.— never be the slaves of russians. ~ , . , ., russians. as police used more force, russians. as police used more force. the _ russians. as police used more force, the crowd _ russians. as police used more force, the crowd became - russians. as police used more force, the crowd became more defined. because they believe

their government is acting in russia's interest. these protests were sparked by controversial bill that targets civil society and is seen as a threat to georgia's democracy. 0n threat to georgia's democracy. on monday, the country's governing party organised a mass rally in support of the bill. it's leadership accused the west and civil society organisations of attempting a revolution and pledged to adopt the bill to defend georgia's sovereignty. georgia is a candidate country to join the european union. this long—awaited status was granted just a few months ago. but since the introduction of the bill, both brussels and washington warned that its adoption would derail the country from the eu. the ongoing crisis is now more than the fight than the undesired law. it has become the struggle

for georgia's european future. rayhan demytrie, bbc news. let's speak to tinatin japaridze, an analyst at eurasia group and native georgian. welcome to bbc news. when you look at these scenes, do you think the government underestimated response to new law? very good to be talking to you and thank you for having me back. not only did they underestimate the response to their decision to reintroduce what had already been proven as a deeply controversial bill last year, but the timing of this movie is rather peculiar and frankly one could argue also illogical in a way. this is critically close to the october elections, whether 0ctober elections, whether georgian dream has been hoping secure a landslide win. so the ruling party is going — is growing visibly concerned because people are not going home on the rallies are continuing and that is something the government did not see coming. it caught them

by surprise. not see coming. it caught them by surprise-— by surprise. the protesters have included _ by surprise. the protesters have included a _ by surprise. the protesters have included a former - have included a former government minister from the pro— russian georgian dream party. does it suggest the government has gone too far and is losing support? i5 government has gone too far and is losing support? is a government has gone too far and is losing support?— is losing support? is a little bit to early _ is losing support? is a little bit to early to _ is losing support? is a little bit to early to tell _ is losing support? is a little bit to early to tell precisely| bit to early to tell precisely how this will play out for the georgian dream in terms of the elections but what we can say with some certainty at this point is that those who were previously on the fence, not quite in the georgian dream camp but also decisively against the return of the united national movement, the main opposition party, they are now in a limbo. it is notjust about the draft law but about the georgian dream founder, any speech on monday night, that was really very problematic for many, many georgians, very openly promised to punish his so—called criminal political rivals after the october

election. this is a sign i believe the georgian dream is going much further than anyone could have anticipated, and much faster than even their opponents could have predicted at this point. imilli! opponents could have predicted at this point-— at this point. will have to leave it — at this point. will have to leave it there. _ at this point. will have to leave it there. thank - at this point. will have to leave it there. thank you | at this point. will have to i leave it there. thank you for joining us. india's general election is in full swing. the two main contenders for prime minister are men. and if you look at its parliament today, less than 15% of members are women. live now to our south asia correspondent, samira hussain, who's been touring the country and speaking to voters. iam speaking i am speaking to voters and we will speak to different voting blocks today. i am at the fishing village in the southern state of carolina and i want to talk about women and the fact that they are not represented in parliament. i went for a run as i usually do in the northern

states and a cup with some women to ask them what they wanted from their political leaders. �* ., ~ leaders. i'm running in a park 'ust leaders. i'm running in a park just across — leaders. i'm running in a park just across the street - leaders. i'm running in a park just across the street from i leaders. i'm running in a park| just across the street from the hotel and come with me, i've seen the most incredible thing. this entire enclosure is full of exercise equipment and eight is completely dedicated to women, so i thought what better place than to ask women what issues matter to them in the election.

0bviously, obviously, i went for a run to get that story. you can see that i am next to a fishing village right now but i will not go fishing to get a story from here, but! not go fishing to get a story from here, but i will be speaking with fishermen because remember that the low—wage economy is part of the backbone of the indian economy. but what is really interesting, speaking to those women earlier this week was just how sophisticated what they were saying and how important it was for them for some kind of representation, and the fact they want to see more safety and more chances or

more safety and more chances or more upward mobility for women in their communities.— in their communities. thank you very much _ in their communities. thank you very much for— in their communities. thank you very much for that. _ here's one for the lovers of toast and butter. scientists are trying to create a new type of bread that is just as healthy as wholemeal but looks and tastes like its white counterpart. the project's been funded by the uk government to improve the health benefits of food. the researchers in aberystwyth plan to add small amounts of peas, beans and cereals to the bread mix, as well as bran and wheat germ that are normally removed from white flour. i look forward to the results! stay with us here on bbc news. hello. well, it has been gradually warming up over the last couple of days, at least for most of us. the weather, on the other hand, a little hit and miss.

and in fact, that is the outlook for the next few days. some warm sunshine, yes, but also, a chance of catching some rain. now, weatherfronts are close by — you can see it here on the satellite picture — and that also means some damp weather through the early hours and into wednesday morning, particularly around the irish sea coasts and also around the north sea coasts. but for most of us, it's a dry start to the day, a little misty and murky in places. here are the temperatures first thing — around 9 in london, 8 in belfast, maybe the glens of scotland around a or 5 degrees. now, many of us will wake up to some sunshine, maybe hazy skies in places. and i think it should stay generally dry through the day, although a few showers are possible inland, in central parts of the uk, and also damp conditions at times are possible along the north sea coast where it'll be coolest. temperatures in newcastle, only 1a degrees. deeper inland, it'll be closer to 18, perhaps 20. and then wednesday night, we're expecting some heavy rain to come in from the south. this could be thundery rain and downpours are likely almost anywhere across southern england, perhaps into the midlands and also southern parts of wales, and flashes of lightning

certainly a possibility. so that's how we start thursday. then here's that weather front, which could bring the thundery weather for a time across some southern parts of the uk. now, the air�*s relatively warm — it's actually coming in out of the east—southeast. but because the north sea is quite cold, see that wind blowing off the north sea? it will actually drag in that cooler air to the north sea coasts. so that does mean that places like newcastle and hull could only be around, say, 13, 1a, 15, whereas out towards the west, it could be as high as 20 degrees celsius. so that was thursday. this is friday, still a possibility of some showers brought in by that easterly breeze, maybe the odd crack of thunder as well. the best of the weather probably in western parts of scotland on friday. and in one or two spots, we could even see highs reaching 20 degrees celsius. the north sea coast, once again, will be fairly chilly. so that outlook then, yes, it is going to be a bit of a mixed bag. it's not going to be particularly cold —

temperatures, in fact, closer to the average for the time of the year. that's it for me. bye—bye.

live from london. this is bbc news. us consumer confidence slumps as people worry about high food and fuel prices. how will that feed into today's big interest rate decision? sales surge at amazon

as the world's biggest retailer puts artificial intelligence to work. and china charging ahead in the electric vehicle race. we get the latest from the beijing autoshow. hello. i'm tadhg enright with all the latest business news. we start in the us where it's a big day for the central bank, the federal reserve, as it makes its latest call on the cost of borrowing. markets around the world will be watching because where america goes others can follow. but it's widely predicted to be very much a holding call today as the rate of price rises has been heading in the wrong direction of late — making it too early for the fed to take the brakes off the economy. the current key us interest rate is sitting at a 23 year high of between 5.25% and 5.5%.