ukraine is just about holding the front here in the kharkiv region while the russians have launched this fresh assault. hello, i'm caitriona perry. you are very welcome. israel says it has recovered the bodies of three hostages from gaza. the israeli defense forces said they died during the october 7 hamas attacks where around 1,200 people were killed. the victims are itzik gelernter, shani louk and amit buskila. until now, it was hoped buskila and gelernter were still alive. shani louk was confirmed dead at the end of october. the israeli army believes all three victims were killed at the nova music festival. they were among more than 250 hostages taken into gaza, of which roughly half

are still unaccounted for. the idf expressed condolences to the victims�* families. our hearts go out to them, to the families, at this difficult time. we will leave no stone unturned. we will do everything in our power to find our hostages and bring them home. we will not rest until we do. meanwhile, lawyers for israel have told the international criminal court that south africa is making "a mockery of genocide". it comes after south africa asked the un's top court to order israel to stop its incursion in rafah, citing the genocide convention. now that both sides have presented arguments, it's up to the icj's judges to decide whether it is necessary to issue a ruling. from the hague, here's the bbc�*s anna holligan. israel describes south africa plasma case as an inversion of reality, divorced from facts, and accuse south africa of exploiting the genocide

convention by presenting outlandish allegations. such as accusing israel of creating extermination zones, using language reminiscent of the holocaust, and comparing the situation in rafah to the genocide in srebrenica. israel said a state wishing to commit genocide would not provide aid as israel has and would not have waited to commence a ground operation in rafah to give civilians time to evacuate. they said if the icj granted south africa's request for provisional measures and ordered idf troops to immediately withdraw, then it would be violating israel's right to defend itself and enabling hamas to continue to commit crimes. israel said that if hostages were released and hamas lay down its arms, then hostilities would cease.

for more on the hostages and the icj case, i spoke to former israeli ambassador to the us, michael oren. michael oren, thank you for coming on the programme. the sad news today that the idf has found three bodies of the hostages. the conditions or whereabouts of the other remaining hostages is not known. israel believes about 90 orso known. israel believes about 90 or so are still alive any families of those hostages think that prime ministers that yahoo should be doing more to try and bring them home —— prime minister netanyahu. the situation is _ prime minister netanyahu. the situation is very _ prime minister netanyahu. tue: situation is very complex prime minister netanyahu. tte: situation is very complex and painful. ii hand, is right made an offer which secretary of state blinken described as expert and enable generous, to have a 40 day cease—fire —— on the one hand, israel made an offer. you got to to all those families and asked lane why they're getting out ofjail. in return for 33 terrorists. there were not enough hostages left

alive to get to 40, so we agreed to 33 hostages, and hamas turned it down. right now, that does not seem to be any option. hamas is demanding israel declared defeat, we withdraw all of our forces from the gaza strip and go back to october sixth, go to the tones and remount to the next right. their own commander say they will do this until we are destroyed. it does not leave a lot of manoeuvring room for any israeli decision—makers. i think the israeli government will remain open to suggestions, but i don't... if one of the suggestions is that israel loses the war and hamas wins, i think that is a no starter. i just want to ask you about the hearing at the international court ofjustice that's been under way these past two days, south africa seeking a declaration preventing israel from mounting a full—scale invasion of rafah. israel has rejected this case

as false and grossly distorted. will these hearings or any potential order that may come from them influence israel in any way, have an impact on their plans for rafah? i'm often asked that question. the answer i always give is, no, it won't, because we're dealing with a situation which the vast majority of israelis feel is an existential situation. we have tens of thousands of internal refugees who cannot return to their homes as long as they think hamas can mount a second attack, and they will. that is what their leaders pledged to do. so if the icc passes a ruling against israel, even if the issue warns of arrests for our leaders, both political and military, israel will have no choice. as far as israelis are concerned, there really is no choice. this is an existential battle. and let's not forget — while this battling is going on in the south, hezbollah is pummeling the northern part of the country, killing israeli

civilians and soldiers, just 75 rockets fired today, and that's an utterly intolerable situation. the entire northern part of the country is uninhabitable. we are fighting a two—front waragainst, basically, islamic extremist terrorists, and we are committed because we have no choice to winning this war. michael oren, we will have to leave it there, but thanks so much forjoining us on bbc news. thank you, caitriona. the us military has confirmed that a temporary pier built by american and british troops was used for the first time on friday to deliver humanitarian aid to gaza. trucks began moving supplies ashore on friday morning. a top official at the un agency for palestinians told the bbc that while it's a positive development, they don't believe it's not a long—term solution. i spoke to the pentagon's deputy press secretary, sabrina singh, about this a little earlier. sabrina singh, thanks forjoining us on the programme again. the first aid has arrived in gaza to this us—built pier.

can you tell us the details? how much has arrived, what sort of aid? yes, well, thank you so much for having me on today. we're still getting those details and those numbers. we hope to have more releasable information tomorrow. what i can tell you is exactly what you said, is that we built this temporary pier to serve as a purpose to get more humanitarian aid into gaza, and so for today, earlier, very early hours this morning east coast time, you saw some of those initial trucks rolling off that pier, going into gaza to distribute that aid. we'll get you those numbers from this first few days over the weekend, but what we've emphasised here at the department is this is really going to be a crawl, walk, run. you're going to see a small amount of trucks coming off that pier to begin with, and as the days go on, we're going to increase that capacity. has israel guaranteed that it will let in an unlimited amount of aid come through this way, via the sea? we have worked with our israeli partners, along with us aid

and other ngos, to ensure that aid can get in and distributed freely and flow frequently into gaza. those are some of the assurances that we do have. so we don't anticipate that we would see any aid routes disrupted, and again we have two de—confliction cells set up, one in israel and one in cyprus, coordinating on the movement of this aid. so aid really should be able to flow into gaza, but i have to emphasise that the pier is an additive measure. the best way to get humanitarian aid into gaza and to the palestinian people are through those land routes, and we really want to see those open, so aid can really flood the zone into gaza and to the palestinian people that need it most. have you had any success recently speaking to the israelis about reopening those routes, those land routes? yes, some of those crossings have begun to open. but it's not enough trucks that we are seeing go through. and so those are some

of the conversations that we're having. the secretary spoke to his counterpart, minister gallant, yesterday, and this was a topic of conversation. he raised very directly, we have to see more trucks going through these crossings, so we are heartened that some of them have opened, but we have to see the aid flow increase every single day. now, the un has said whether aid comes by sea or by land, it desperately needs fuel. no matter how the aid comes, if they have no fuel, they cannot get it to the people they need it. have the israelis said to you they will let fuel in? they are letting fuel in, and we believe there is enough fuel on the ground to allow the distribution of the aid via these ngo trucks, to go all over to gaza, whether it be the north or south or anywhere else that the people that need it most. we believe that there is enough fuel to distribute that aid and for those trucks to continue to drive off and on, on and off the pier. but the un is saying there is not enough aid. just today, the un

deputy spokesperson farhan haq has said there is not enough fuel to get the aid around gaza. what i can tell you is right now on the ground, we believe there is enough fuel to continue to allow our trucks, to allow these ngo trucks to get into gaza and distribute that aid. and in relation to the pier, is the security of that pier guaranteed? the personnel around it? what are these guarantees there? we do have guarantees from the israeli defense forces that our sailors and our soldiers will be protected. the israeli defense forces on the ground, of course, operating within gaza, they have assured us of our security, but of course, look, we are going to partake any measures we need to protect our forces. that is something the secretary has a priority on, is making sure that our forces are protected. so we do have a destroyer in the region, in the eastern med, but again, we shouldn't need to use it, as the sole purpose of this temporary pier is to get humanitarian aid in, life—saving aid in, to the palestinian people.

the administration has firmly pledged that there will be no us boots on the ground in gaza, but what if those guarantees, something happens to them and there is an attack on the pier while there is us personnel there? look, i can't really go down the route of hypotheticals, but what i can tell you is what the president has said is our firm stance. there are going to be no boots on the ground in gaza. and when it came to anchoring that pier into the beach, we used idf engineers, trained by us army soldiers — engineers — to help anchor that pier. there were no boots on the ground in the process. we feel really confident in our security position right now. of course, there would be no risk to american troops and there wouldn't be all of this expense if the aid could come in through land, if it all could come through ashdod and be driven to gaza. why hasn't the administration been able to convince the israelis to allow aid to come in through their territory? i think it's important to take a step back and remember

that we're in this position because hamas brutally attacked, launched a brutal attack on october 7th. now, the israelis have committed to going after and defeating hamas within gaza, and we are supportive of their efforts to defeat hamas, but of course we have seen a dire humanitarian situation get worse in gaza, and that's why you saw the us military come to help. we have done air drops alongside other nations, and of course at the direction of the president in his state of the union, he directed a maritime corridor to be set up. so we are urging for more land crossings, we absolutely want to see that. we are having those frank and tough conversations with our counterparts. we want to see those crossings open up and get more aid in, and we're doing our part to ensure that aid is getting into other ways and that's through this maritime corridor. some members of the democratic party, including senator kathy manning on this programme,

have spoken about the confusion in the messaging, the withholding of the delivery of large bombs this weekend and this week approving a $1 billion arms deal. how do those two actions sit together? yeah, i really don't think there's any confusion here. we paused a shipment of high payload ammunition that we do not feel would be useful or necessary in any type of operation within rafah, in such a densely populated environment. however, we're also committed to israel's defence and we stand with our partner and ally in the region. israel is in its fight against a terrorist organisation that uses civilians as human shields, that buries itself within tunnels. and as you will probably remember, and i know as you have covered on your programme, just a few weeks ago, we saw an unprecedented attack by iran towards israel, and we came to israel's defence. so we have to remember the security environment that israel is also living in. israel is also under attack from iran and hamas and hezbollah, and they have the right to defend themselves

and we will give them the supplies they need to defend themselves, but we can have those tough conversations and we are urging them to take great care of the civilian population population within rafah, which is why we don't feel that 2,000—pound bombs are necessary in such an area with such a densely populated community. pentagon deputy press secretary sabrina singh. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some stories making news in the uk. a jury at manchester crown court has found a teacher guilty of having sex with two schoolboys. 30—year—old rebecca joynes groomed the youngsters from the age of 15. she was on bail for sexual activity with the first child when she became pregnant by the second. neither teen can be identified. more than 100 people attended the funeral of a teenager who was killed in a sword attack in east london last month. 14—year—old daniel anjorin died near his home as he walked to school in hainault. the attack also left four people injured, including two police officers.

pastor tope koleoso, who led daniel's funeral service, said it was "gentle", "peaceful" and a "celebration of daniel's life". the number of confirmed cases of the bug cryptosporidiosis in south devon have now more than doubled to 46. the water—born parasite causes vomiting and diarrhoea and around 16,000 homes and businesses have been told to boil their water before using it. the boss of south west water apologised for the outbreak caused by contamination. you're live with bbc news. cctv footage has emerged appearing to show the rap artist sean "diddy" combs physically assaulting his then—girlfriend cassie ventura in the corridor of a hotel in 2016. ms ventura made allegations of rape and physical abuse against him in a lawsuit that was settled last year. mr combs is at the centre of several civil lawsuits accusing him of sex offences. a warning, this report by our correspondent emma vardy contains images which may distress you.

cassie ventura claims she suffered years of abuse in her relationship with p diddy, one of the most influential artists in hip—hop. in the cctv footage, she is seen leaving a hotel room. sean combs appears to run after her before carrying out a violent assault. the full tape shows her being kicked as she lies on the ground. after taking her items, next, the rapper seems to be seen throwing an object towards her. the video — obtained by the american news channel cnn — has not been independently verified, but lawyers for cassie ventura, who has not objected to it being shown, say it confirms p diddy�*s disturbing and predatory behaviour. last month, homes linked with sean combs were raided by police in what they said was an ongoing investigation into sex trafficking. officers searched properties in beverly hills, new york and miami associated

with his production company. cassie ventura had previously brought a lawsuit against sean combs in relation to the incident in the video at a los angeles hotel. she reached an out—of—court settlement, but since then, several other women have come forward, accusing him of sexual abuse. sean combs has previously denied all the allegations. his lawyer is calling it a witchhunt and saying he would fight to clear his name. but the video appears to corroborate one of the incidents described in cassie ventura's case. her accusations and others against p diddy — a self—proclaimed bad boy — now part of a dramatic downfall for one of hip—hop�*s biggest names. emma vardy, bbc news, los angeles. as russian forces make advances in ukraine, president volodymyr zelensky has signed new laws to boost army recruitment. under the new legislation, some prisoners will be allowed tojoin the military. they'll be released on parole to enlist under special contracts.

certain prisoners, however — including rapists or convicts who have murdered two or more people — are not eligible. the new law also raises the penalty for men who ignore the draft. that fine is now 650 dollars. it comes amid heavy fighting in the north—east of ukraine. while president putin has said he had no plans to capture the second largest city, kharkiv, russia is making its biggest terrioritial gains there in 18 months. our defence correspondent, jonathan beale, sent this special report from the front line. near the village of lyptsi, the russians are closing in. the fire from a recent rocket attack near a ukrainian position. we are told to immediately head to a bunker. taking shelter, recently arrived ukrainian reinforcements. a week ago, they were fighting elsewhere on the front. andrei tells me the situation

is dynamic and tense. from a drone feed, they are nervously watching and waiting for another attack. he says it's time to leave. they've just spotted enemy forces advancing. this is where they are directing artillery fire. they are telling us to get out. they've said this area is under threat, and we're going to go. at a field hospital further from the front, medics are treating victor. he has lost his fingers in a mortar explosion. he says he and his men were fending off wave after wave of russian attacks. they were outnumbered and also outgunned. translation: they have - everything, whatever they want, and we have nothing to fight

with, but we do what we can. ukraine's been starved of ammunition, but president zelensky says the shortage is now being addressed. at an artillery line outside the town of vovchansk, they've just received another batch of shells, for their old soviet—era gun. ukraine is just about holding the front here in the kharkiv region, while the russians have launched this fresh assault, but only by pulling units like this from elsewhere on the front, in places where the russians have been advancing. these guys have just been given a new target. but they are frustrated, too, that the russians were so easily able to cross the border. translation: we could have built some sort - of fortifications and lost less human lives, fewer villages. now, we will have to

fight for it again. we will need to use more resources. we could have used logs and concrete. now we will have to use shells and people to take this land back. kharkiv was fortified, but these defences were built well away from the border, beyond the range of russian artillery. too far to make a difference. explosions further east, where the russians are also gaining ground, ukraine is building more defences — a recognition it may have to pull back here too. but digging so close to russian lines is dangerous and difficult, as we're about to find out. johnny, johnny! johnny! get down! we are told to take cover. quick, quick, quick. as a russian armed drone hovers right above us, scanning for potential targets.

drone whirs there is palpable relief when it passes. this is a war in which it is getting harder to hide, where the enemy's watching your every move. yeah, let's go. jonathan beale, bbc news, kharkiv. in georgia, thousands of supporters of the country's powerful orthodox church have marched in the capital tbilisi to mark family purity day. it was established by the country's orthodox church to counter international day against homophobia. it comes amidst the ongoing mass protests against a controversial "foreign agents" law adopted by the georgian parliament earlier this week. our correspondent rayhan demytrie sent this report. today, georgians are marking family values day. may the 17th is the international day against homophobia and transphobia

in the rest of the world. here in georgia, some years ago, there were serious attacks against lgbt activists on this very day, 17th of may, and after that, the georgian orthodox church proclaimed it as family purity and family values day. so important to us to have a family which is very strong, which has a strong base, based on georgian traditions, history, and mostly on georgia's religion. it's like family is love, i think, and god is love. and we should celebrate this day. a lot of people here, thousands and thousands of people, conservative groups that are affiliated with the church and traditionalists, they're marching towards the country's main cathedral. this rally is taking place amidst ongoing mass protests in georgia against a controversial law which the government passed earlier this week.

it's called "on the transparency of foreign funding", and it targets non—governmental organisations and independent media. translation: of course i support this law. - we should have adopted it a long time ago. we don't know how these ngos are spending their money, and they are doing everything against the faith and against the motherland. the people that are marching today are the ones that the government is trying to appeal to when they talk about the threat that is coming from non—governmental organisations that are being targeted by this controversial law. they accuse these non—governmental organisations of lgbt propaganda, for example, and that's what these people also oppose. they see their country's future as part of the eu, but they are absolutely adamant that georgia has to preserve its traditional conservative values.

us zoos may soon be panda—less, as preparations are under way for the final zoo with the bears to say goodbye this autumn. officials at zoo atlanta said they're set to return parents lun lun and yang yang to china, along with their american—born twins. pandas here in washington, dc were returned last november. but not all hope is lost, as pandas could arrive at the san diego zoo as soon as this summer. that's it for the moment. you can keep up—to—date, of course, on our website. and you can stay with us here on bbc news. i'm caitriona perry. thanks for watching. bye—bye. hello there. it was another day of contrasts across the uk on friday, with some of the bluest of the skies, the highest of the temperatures across northern scotland — 24 celsius in altnaharra. compare that tojust 13, 14 degrees for some north sea—facing coasts, plenty of fret and haar lasting for much of the day and a cool onshore breeze, too.

now, there will be more mist and fog forming through the weekend, a weekend of sunny spells and some showers. but there will be plenty of dry weather, with a large area of high pressure out in the atlantic starting to nose in. low pressure over the near continent, and that's going to send some rain tracking westwards across southern england as we head through saturday morning. otherwise, a dry start to the day. it's mild. there'll be plenty of mist and fog, general murk and some sea fog, too, out towards those north sea coasts. now, all of that is going to be burnt back by the warm, strong may sunshine. plenty of that throughout the day, lots of dry weather, too. the rain in the south will gradually clear away, but some heavy, thundery downpours perhaps developing for western areas. more isolated showers further east. here, it should stay largely dry. and it's cloudier and cooler across northern ireland and northern scotland. still cool again for those north sea—facing coasts, maybe 24 degrees for the central belt of scotland. otherwise, temperatures just slightly above the seasonal average — high teens, low 20s. and all of that mist and murk,

sea fog willjust reform again as we head through saturday night into sunday morning, a slightly fresher feel to the morning. and again, that mist and the fog first thing is going to start to burn back with all of the sunshine developing. again, it's quite cloudy, i think, towards parts of northern scotland. some of that mist and fog could gradually sink southwards down towards parts of north—east england as we head throughout the day. but there will be a lot of sunshine around, a scattering of showers again, perhaps towards the south of england and again across south—west scotland. once again, it's cooler and cloudier for northern scotland. should be some sunny spells developing across northern ireland. monday is looking largely dry for most. again, some mist and fog, some isolated showers, but then this area of low pressure is going to start to move in from the near continent as we head through tuesday and wednesday. so through the middle parts of next week, it could turn rather unsettled and a little cooler again, but temperatures building again perhaps

by the end of the week.

this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme.

coming up on this week's show... it looks like a flotation device. it does! you could probably get into that. here we go. bon appetit. skibbereen! thank you so much. so, i can taste the kind of familiarity, and then i'm waiting for the alcohol, but it hasn't arrived. it's like wine light. now, one thing that gets most of us excited when planning a trip is the chance to tuck into tasty, authentic dishes from other parts of the globe, from traditional delicacies

to spicy street food, and even maybe michelin—starred