live from washington. this is bbc news. israel's prime minister says he will press ahead with military operations alone if necessary, as the white house calls for restraint. amid mounting concerns over boeing's safety record, we ask the us transportation secretary what the biden administration is doing to keep planes safe. we already have been in the process of putting going under a microscope ever since the january alaska airlines flight. they need to demonstrate our meeting the quality stands and safety standards that has been set forward. hello i'm caitriona perry. you are very welcome. israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, has vowed to press ahead with military

operations in the gaza strip, saying israel is prepared to stand alone and fight "with its fingernails" if necessary. mr netanyahu's comments come after presidentjoe biden confirmed the us had paused a delivery of bombs which could be used in an assault on rafah. but the idf claims they had enough weaponry to finish the rafah mission. there have been mixed reactions to mr biden�*s decision from lawmakers in the us. earlier i spoke to our state department correspondent tom bateman. you have spoken to members of congress all day, what sort of support or criticism is there for the decision to hold the shipment of the bombs to israel? one of the first things that struck me coming into the building today was the sense in which this is a very significant moment, the levels of energy and the response to this, the way people are feeling about this on both sides is extremely strong. that is because this is the first time in a generation we have had this level

of public pressure applied by the white house onto the israelis, trying to change their tactics, and specifically using a hold on us weapon shipments to the israelis to do that. it is why, for example, hearing from republicans who have bitterly come up with a bitter rebuke over the announcement last night of president biden over this, and democrats who have said they believe this is the right policy, and in some cases have asked the question do they think it should have happened earlier? i was outside the relations committee earlier and we caught up with some of the senators during the meeting. they do not need to fight with their fingernails, this is more political rhetoric from the prime minister. they will and should fight with modern weapons systems that they have developed, and in many casesjointly with us and are provided in many cases buy us but they should do it in a way that minimises civilian

casualties. the president is absolutely wrong, he has been - wishy—washy and contradicting himself in terms of his - commitment to israel- and subsequently his saying that we will not send weapons. he lobbied for the passage of the bill, it passed, - now he says never mind. he says it is to influence the behaviour of israelis not to carry ground offensives into rafah. to me, he has mismanaged this whole thing, it is wrong, - they have a right to - defend themselves and do what they need to do - to protect their sovereignty, and i support the people of israel in that. - benjamin netanyahu's spokesperson told us on this programme last night the withholding of the shipment would not deter them from a mission into rafah nor impact their war effort. is there a hope or expectation there it might make some difference to the plans? the first point to say is that the administration is well aware that the israelis have an abundance of munitions

because of the scope and scale of the american supply already, that they probably have what they would want to carry out that operation into rafah itself, anyway. this pause, for example, that they have announced last week on a batch of 2000—pound bombs, these destructive weapons, israel already have those and used those in gaza, and the review the administration says it is carrying out, there is an awareness this will not make an immediate impact on the battlefield, it will not tie their hands in that sense. in that way this is much more about the political effects of this. as to the the statement by benjamin netanyahu, he said they will go it alone and fight with our fingernails if we have to do. for more on the prime minister's comments, i spoke to former ambassador to iraq and turkey and current chair of

the middle east program at the wilson center, james jeffrey. the israeli prime minister saying they don't need the us weapons for their war effort. has the biden administration just annoyed one of this country's allies without actually doing anything that will deter mr netanyahu's actions? thank you for having me. no, the israelis are annoyed but this is more serious. we are two close allies are facing notjust iran but a regional set of proxies which hamas is only one and we need to stay aligned. the sides have differences, joe biden is focused understandably on civilian casualties, and netanyahu believes and most experts agree with him that they have to do something about the remaining hamas battalions, they have to cut off the rafah crossing which is what they have done and they have to close the smuggling routes out of egypt to have any victory.

there is a possibility that despite the rhetoric the sides can find a way for the israelis to do this in a kinder way, which so far they have done and what the administration almost approvingly called �*limited operations'. i don't know if that is possible but what i do know is netanyahu will go forward with some operations, and if that is a problem forjoe biden, he owns this war and he needs to explain to israelis and americans but most of all to the gazans how does this end, who will come in and take care of these people if hamas still has 10,000 troops? the comments from netanyahu in the last hour or so, saying that israel has to defeat hamas, it has to go into rafah, but he hopes the disagreements between himself and joe biden can be overcome. they have closed the border crossing at rafah. sounds like an incursion into rafah is imminent?

it is imminent although it could also be stopped. netanyahu and the israeli people do not want a major blow—up with the us. 0n the other hand, ifjoe biden is going to tell them how it will end, they will end it the way their military advisers think has to happen, which is hamas, it needs to be defeated militarily. if you talk aboutjoe biden telling israel how this war has to end, netanyahu has been leading his own war effort for all these months. how much is he listening tojoe biden at this point? 0n the big issue up until now, basically the us and israel have been in agreement that hamas has to be, to quotejoe biden, no longer in control of gaza. the agreement of the methodology of doing that... it has been a challenge, but once again, nobody likes civilian casualties.

biden pointed out that our bombs are killing innocent civilians on the ground, they killed thousands of innocent civilians, they are not existential conflicts for us. this is for israel. we have to take a step backwards and see what can be done. there is a middle way here, of more cautious steps by the biden administration will have to go along with that rather than continue to oppose it. if the only solution is israel do the raids we did against 0sama bin laden, the israelis who tried that and it didn't work and will not go along. we spoke a few days ago with hope that a deal could be done in cairo at those talks. now the hamas delegation has left, the us delegation has left, the israeli delegation. have we taken steps backwards? there is still confusion, as much as we have tried to suss out what has

been going on. the us was strongly supportive of the israeli position, hamas came back with a different issue, a different set of points. including a permanent ceasefire and israeli withdrawal and changes in the number of hostages it would release, dead people rather than live people and less israeli control over the 900 palestinians they would release. the administration then said these are minor changes and we could come to some sort of meeting of the minds. the israelis were shocked, they said this is a major difference. we're not sure what happens but clear point is that hamas changed the basic offer that was on the table from the us, egypt, qatar and israel will not go along with it. the world watches at this point. we will have to leave it there for the moment. thank you forjoining us.

meanwhile: israel qualified for the eurovision song contest final following protests over its participation. thousands of people joined pro—palestinian demonstrations in the swedish city of malmo as the eurovision semi—final took place. they were marching in protest against israel's involvement in the global competition, whose singer eden golan was booed. a smaller pro—israeli demonstration also took place in the city. this is the city of neom, a futuristic development planned for the saudi desert. it'll cost £400 billion or over $500 billion, and is being built by dozens of western companies. but the uk foreign secretary, lord cameron, says he'll be looking into allegations the saudi government is using lethal force to clear ground to build the new city. it comes after bbc verify and a bbc eye investigation, found the authorities encouraged the use of violence, to evict villagers. here's merlyn thomas. promo video: this is neom.

neom — saudi arabia's grand plan to transform the country and its image. a project almost the size of belgium, built by companies from all over the world, including more than a dozen from the uk. at its heart — the line. a city carved from the desert, envisaged to be 100 mile straight line, but only 1.5 miles will reportedly be built by 2030. neom's driving force is the country's leader, mohammed bin salman. so since we have empty place and we want to have a place for 10 million people, then let's think from scratch. but it wasn't empty. near the line, thousands of people lived in these three villages. for years, they objected to being moved, but still the project went on. these satellite images show one of the villages where they lived. homes, schools, hospitals,

have been wiped off the map. this former saudi intelligence officer has been living in fear since he went into exile in the uk last year. he told us he was ordered to clear one of the villages near neom in 2020 and that security forces were permitted to kill those who refused eviction. translation: the order said whoever continues l to resist should be killed, so it licensed the use of lethal force against whoever stayed in their home. he says he dodged the mission, which went ahead without him. this is the aftermath — walls littered with bullet holes. this man, abdul rahim al—huwaiti, refused to leave his home. saudi forces shot him dead. the saudi government says he was an armed terrorist who opened fire on security forces, but the un and human rights groups say he was killed for refusing eviction.

neom's grand plan also includes trojena, a ski resort built in the desert. andy wirth became ceo shortly after the shooting. he repeatedly asked about the killing of abdul rahim al—huwaiti. he resigned after less than a year. it was clearly unnecessary. it was clearly murder. you don't accelerate human progress at the detriment of other humans. you don't step on their throats with your boot heels so you can advance. that's not human progress. the saudi government and neom both declined to comment, but critics say the project has cost some saudis their freedom and their lives. merlyn thomas, bbc news. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some uk stories making news. labour's newest mp, natalie elphicke, has apologised for comments she made in support of her ex—husband, after he was convicted of sexual assault in 2020.

she said in an interview at the time that he was "attractive" and an "easy target for dirty politics". on thursday, ms elphicke told the bbc she was committed to tackling violence against women. the bank of england has held interest rates at 5.25% — a 16 year high — but it's hinted that they could be cut in the coming months. the bank's governor, andrew bailey, said he was "optimistic things were moving in the right direction". king charles joked about being "allowed out of his cage" during a surprise visit to an army barracks in hampshire on thursday. he was speaking during a visit to the 3 royal school of military engineering at gibraltar barracks in minley. it's his latest engagement since returning to public duties after his cancer diagnosis earlier this year.

you're live with bbc news. problems continue to mount for us aerospace company boeing — after another string of international safety incidents. on thursday morning, a boeing 737—300 passenger aircraft crashed during take—off in senegal. 11 people were injured when the plane ran off a runway and caught fire. separately, two investigations involving boeing planes are underway in turkey. when also on thursday, nearly 200 passengers were evacuated from a boeing 737—800 after one of its tires burst on landing. it comes just a day after a fedex airlines boeing 767 cargo plane landed at istanbul airport without its front landing gear. this as a boeing whistleblower — former quality inspector santiago perades — tells the bbc he found up to 200 defects on plane parts being readied for shipping to boeing. for the latest on the investigations into boeing, my colleague sumi somaksanda sat down with the us secretary of transportation, pete buttigieg. she also asked him about

baltimore's recovery efforts after the francis scott key bridge collapse, global supply chains, and other transportation issues affecting the us and the world. thank you forjoining us in our studio today. let's start with our own reporting, we spoke to a whistle—blower who worked for spirit in kansas, a subsidiary of boeing. he said he often found up to 200 defects on parts being ready for shipping to boeing, and spirit says it strongly denies these allegations — important for us to say that. he told us he was finding a lot of missing fasteners, bent parts, sometimes even missing parts. are you confident that boeing is meeting its commitment to safety that your department sets? the faa is investigating right now because when you hear about concerns like that, they have to be taken seriously. the context for this is we have already been in the process of putting boeing under a microscope ever since the january incident

with alaska airlines. they need to demonstrate they are meeting the quality standards and safety standard that faa has set forward and that is part of why we take these set of restricting the ability to increase production until they demonstrate they can do that safely. the safety record is an extraordinary thing and you cannot ever take it for granted. maintaining that requires a level of scrutiny and that is what is going on with boeing right now. if they do not merely safety standards, what happens? there are planes are in the skies in the meantime. if the plane is not safe, it cannot fly. that is why they grounded 737 until it was established that each one had been inspected following the incident. that will always be true. the faa holds these aircraft to a standard of a billion to one or better of something going catastrophically wrong, that is why we have extraordinary safety record we do. right now it is clear that extraordinary measures are called for in order to safeguard and defend the record.

we saw today there was a boeing 737 that crashed during takeoff and injured 11 people. officials say 190 passengers and crew were safely evacuated from a boeing 737, it had a tire burst in landing. it is a safe mode of transportation, the record has been strong but you understand why people feel wary at best when they look at getting on a boeing? not just safe, the safest by far that we know. the most natural human thing in the world is when you step into a metal tube that will fly hundreds of miles an hour through the sky, you will have concerns that absolutely everything has been checked to make sure that is a safe experience. that is not something we can never treat as a destination, it has to be continually renewed and refreshed, and any time a problem emerges or a threat of a problem, whether in the design, the process, their maintenance or the operation of a flight,

we will look at that very closely. you trust boeing to rectify this? we don'tjust trust, there is auditing, a 90—day clock and we are roughly 60 days in, the administrator has put boeing on this saying they to demonstrate a plan to tackle all these quality issues. they have a responsibility to meet our standards but we do not take it on faith. we hope and expect they will and we hold them accountable to do so. i also want to talk about the francis kottke bridge in baltimore that collapsed, we know that the bodies of all six men who died had not been recovered. unified command confirmed they are looking to reopen the channel in the coming days. it is weather dependent so we have to wait and see when that will happen. do you think that transport in and out of that port will get back to normal soon? i and out of that port will get back to normal soon?- back to normal soon? i do. today there _ back to normal soon? i do. today there has _ back to normal soon? i do. today there has been - back to normal soon? i do. today there has been an i back to normal soon? i do. - today there has been an opening of the partial channel, it is

not the same as having everything back open. it is a very important port, especially for vehicles, very important port, especially forvehicles, it's very important port, especially for vehicles, it's the number one port in the us for vehicles coming in and out and it has specialised facilities that right now in the meantime even as other ports in places like georgia temporarily accept shipments sometimes they still have to bring them back to the grounds in baltimore for the processes that go on there. it's a very important facility, most important for the workers who either whose lives have been disrupted by not having the vessel traffic in and out but the us army corps of engineers meeting that process of removing the wreckage from the channel have said ambitious targets, that hit so far all of them and i'm confident that by them and i'm confident that by the end of me they will have the end of me they will have the vessel out of the way and the vessel out of the way and the channel ready to go for normal operations. it’s the channel ready to go for normal operations. it's been six weeks. _ normal operations. it's been six weeks, what _ normal operations. it's been six weeks, what is _ normal operations. it's been six weeks, what is the - normal operations. it's been l six weeks, what is the impact on global shipping and also supply chains?— on global shipping and also supply chains? on global shipping and also su -l chains? �*, , ., supply chains? there's been an im act supply chains? there's been an impact and _ supply chains? there's been an impact and it's _ supply chains? there's been an impact and it's something - supply chains? there's been an impact and it's something we l impact and it's something we have watched closely and using new tools to do so ever since

the age of disruptions we had on the us west coast in 2021. we created new capabilities in our department of transportation and joe biden�*s infrastructure package established a new multimodal freight office so we can better track things like this knowing that more disruptions would come. we couldn't have known that there would take the form of things like the attacks in the red sea, the weather impact in the panama canal or the bridge collapse that took place in baltimore but we knew that they would be more disruptions. you are talking about shoring up you are talking about shoring up supply chains and transportation in the us but there are global shocks as you mentioned in the red sea. how do you mitigate against those factors? , , ,., , do you mitigate against those factors? , , , ., factors? the first lessons of su -l factors? the first lessons of suwly chains _ factors? the first lessons of supply chains is _ factors? the first lessons of supply chains is how - factors? the first lessons of| supply chains is how globally interconnected they are. we are reminded of that again and again. i also had meetings with parties involved in dealing with the red sea disruptions and we had a gathering of the g7 transport ministers to discuss our response for this. the bottom line is there cannot

be enough communication and co—ordination. i all we're doing notjust at a government to government level but promoting up with the private sector and getting players who didn't see any reason to co—operate to now co—operate in ways that are still appropriate, not sharing business information that shouldn't be shared but sharing more data so that they can anticipate and absorb these temporary disruptions. you mentioned _ temporary disruptions. you mentioned infrastructure loss i want to ask about that because this was signed into law in 2021 and expansive report was released into how much of the president's bill back but it agenda has been deployed and they were there with these numbers. less than 17% of the $1.1 trillion they provided for investments on claimant energy infrastructure as you know has been spent as of april. if you look particularly transportation that has not

been as much spent on highway planning and construction was about of $110 billion awarded 52%. why is it that so much of the money has not been spent yet? the nature of infrastructure is some projects are very quick, streetscape conversion in a small community that can be donein small community that can be done in a single season and some of these things are like building cathedrals. the hudson river tunnel project stands to be perhaps the biggest transportation public works project in the instant half of the us in more than a generation. it will take more than a decade to deliver, some projects out shovel ready but others are shovel worthy, knowing that sometimes we need to fund the planning process just to get them on the drawing board and that is what it is like when we are funding not just one season one summer or just one season one summer 01’ one year just one season one summer or one year of economic stimulus but a decade of investment in a stronger supply—side or the us economy. i stronger supply-side or the us econom . . ., stronger supply-side or the us economy-— economy. i want to ask about the perception _ economy. i want to ask about the perception of— economy. i want to ask about the perception of his - economy. i want to ask about the perception of his project. the perception of his project as well, there were poles run

said that few voters heard about the infrastructure projects the president has been championing and some even give the former president donald trump almost as much credit for joe biden advancing infrastructure spending. is this a question of communicating? i this a question of communicating? this a question of communicatin: ? ~ ,., ., communicating? i think so, that is wh i communicating? i think so, that is why i am _ communicating? i think so, that is why i am out _ communicating? i think so, that is why i am out on _ communicating? i think so, that is why i am out on the _ communicating? i think so, that is why i am out on the road - is why i am out on the road constantly. i've been to orbit us states and i'll be in those remaining three states soon. making sure everyone understands these projects did notjust understands these projects did not just fall out of the sky and didn't happen at random. they happen becausejoe biden worked with democrats and republicans by the way in this bipartisan effort and the last administration they talked of big game about infrastructure. the concept of an infrastructure week became a bit of a joke in washington because it had an infrastructure week with no results. we did it and got it done but what people most will need to see is it is happening and there is actual work taking place whether it is the physical construction i saw along i—70 in colorado which is

an important supply chain which affects the whole country even if you don't live there or a small neighbourhood project might be able to see taking place with some areas we work with to reduce the deaths happening on street scabs, major train tunnels and apples we are working on which are part of the bigger picture. thank you for your time today. in a statement to the bbc — a spirit aerosystems spokesperson said: "spirit strongly disagrees "with the allegations made by mr paredes. "we are vigorously defending against his claims." boeing itself declined to comment, although sources within the company say it is working hard to help spirit address quality issues. an 18—month—old girl, who was born deaf, has become the first person in the world to have their hearing restored as part of a new medical trial. opal sandy, from oxfordshire, was given an infusion into her ear which replaced the dna which caused her inherited deafness. it was replaced shortly before her first birthday. six months on, her hearing has improved and she is starting to talk. opal�*s mother, jo, said

the results of the treatment have been mind—blowing. that's it for now, thank you for watching, stay with us on bbc news. hello there. our settled week of weather is set to continue. in fact, thursday, it was warmest day of the year so far. we reached a high of 24.6 celsius in st james's park, london. when you round that up to 25, that is 77 fahrenheit. we could see similar values over the next couple of days with high pressure staying with us, but this weak weather front will continue to bring some showery outbreaks of rain and a cooler feel across the northern isles. it'll be a relatively mild start to our friday morning. double digits, some early morning mist and fog quickly melting away, a lot of sunshine coming through. we'll get a little bit of fair weather cloud developing into the afternoon, but on the whole, a promising day. more sunshine as well for scotland in comparison to thursday. top temperatures here of 20 to 22 degrees. we could see 2a further south.

into the start of the weekend, we continue with this warm, sunny theme. however, the risk of some sharp showers will start to increase. now, as we go through the early hours of saturday morning, we could see some fog coming in off the north sea, anywhere from the vale of york down into lincolnshire, over into the southeast. again, double figures to greet us first thing on saturday morning. so, could be a pretty murky start across eastern england, but we'll expect that sunshine to get to work — it's quite strong at this time of year. a lot of sunshine coming through. risk of a few scattered showers anywhere north of manchester, up to the scottish borders, but top temperatures generally at around 23 or 2a celsius once again. now, as we move into sunday, we've got this weather front which will enhance the risk of some sharp, thundery downpours and some showers moving up from the near continent. now, if we get some sunshine across east anglia and south east england, we could see temperatures as high as 26 degrees.

a lot of uncertainty about the detail for sunday, but at the moment, there's a greater chance of seeing some sharp thundery, downpours developing. and so out to the west, not quite as warm. then into monday, an atlantic influence is set to return, low pressure will start to push in from the west as the high drifts away, and that means that it will turn wetter and windier. and that is going to stay with us throughout the week, so it looks likely to see showers or longer spells of rain returning.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur and today i'm on the road — and on the water — in guyana, south america, a country of extraordinary ecosystems and of vast resource potential. the question is, which comes first? guyana has always been resource—rich. for decades, the rush was for gold.