♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors

advice to help you live your life. life well planned. george: actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. it's exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". >> from london this . israel expands operations in the gaza strip, central and southern regions being the focus of the assault. the u.s. secretary of state is meeting mexico's president as they seek a solution of migration across their border. new york times sues microsoft

and openai i claiming chatgpt has used millions of articles without permission. a storm is sweet think -- sweeping across the u.k.. and the architect of the modern [inaudible] has died at age 98. ♪ i'm samantha simmons. we start with the latest on the israel-gaza war. the military is keeping up their offensive across the gaza strip. in the past day israel says they carried out strikes on at least 200 hamas targets in gaza. hamas is holding around 130 hostage in gaza and is a terror organization.

their health ministry says at least 195 people were killed as a result of the strikes. the united nation human rights organization says they are deeply concerned about the continued bombing of gaza's middle area. and turkey's president has lashed out comparing israel's actions to atrocities committed by the nazis. in the red sea, a danish shipping company says there is a threat of attack by houthi rebels in yemen. you might find some elements of this story distressing. reporter: no funeral. no dignified burial. no tombstone. a bulldozer carries their bodies into a mass grave, their final resting place. israel forces are expanding their ground offensive into refugee camps in central gaza and this is the scene at a

neighboring hospital. overwhelmed, they are treating the injured on the floor and in the halls. >> health capacity is 20% of what it was 80 days ago. almost all the hospital beds and services have stopped functioning. reporter: on foot, body parts on the back of trucks. those who have fled northern gaza have come here for safety but the war has chased them out again. bombardment continues to the south and there are not many places left to go. israel says the war will last for months and insists the aims are clear. >> we cannot destroy the hamas ideology but we can remove them from power and prevent them from having control over this territory and that will do a lot to save lives and prevent future

conflict in the region. reporter: in the west bank, and airstrike killed six palestinians. the military says they were armed militants but locals deny it. this as the president of palestine warns the area could implode. a new refugee camp has been set up for those twice displaced, first from northern gaza, now from the center. this man lost six family members. there houses are destroyed. this is what is left. he says it is worse than hell. more than 21,000 people have died in gaza according to local health officials. those who have survived are running out of places to flee. samantha: on wednesday, erdogan

said this about benjamin netanyahu. >> all values of humanity have been destroyed before our eyes for the last 80 days. we saw israeli nazi camps. they are the way we were talking about hitler. how does benjamin netanyahu and hitler differ? is there anything benjamin netanyahu does that is less than hitler? no. >> he hits back saying erdogan is in no position to preach morality. i spoke with the former project director of the crisis group and asked them about the escalating violence in all of israel and west bank. >> israel is using drones to attack targets in west bank,

that is a development we had not seen for years, really going back to [indiscernible] on the border with lebanon there is a low intensity war than is already broken out and is at risk of spiraling out into a full-fledged war on a huge scale and everywhere in the region we see that this war is threatening to expand. >> what is your assessment of israel in gaza of how likely it is to reach the goals short and long-term? we heard from the idf say they think their operation could last several more months. and we heard from a spokesperson of netanyahu or his advisor that they accept now that the ideology of hamas cannot be wiped out but they plan on wiping out the leadership.

what is your assessment of how long that could take? >> it is welcome development that they have started to walk back the unattainable goals the israeli government put forward. they keep putting forward that they wish to eliminate hamas and there is zero chance they will achieve that. public opinion shows a hamas is stronger than it has ever been. it is not just in the west bank, it is in gaza and the diaspora so no matter what israel does militarily to degrade hamas in gaza, they will remain a powerful political force in at the end of the day, israel does not want to occupy gaza indefinitely and it will need palestinians to control gaza. that means it will have to negotiate with hamas, one of the two largest political parties, over the future of gaza and the west bank. samantha: antony blinken is

talking with that mexican president on how to deal with the number of people trying to reach the united states. he is accompanied by the u.s. secretary of homeland security and the meeting takes place as a new influx of migrants, 6000, are walking from mexico to the u.s. border. president biden is securing some means of easing the way they try to cross the border. democrats and republicans are both calling for practical solutions. reporter: this is a high level meeting between the u.s. and mexico and it comes amidst the unprecedented surge in the number of migrants making their way from mexico into the united states, 2 million people so far

have crossed this year and in the last week, 10,000 on average crossing, which is double the number crossing during the pre-covid era. so that gives you a sense of how overwhelmed to both countries are with what is happening at the border. you asked what they want to come out of the meeting. the u.s. has been trying to put pressure on mexico to do more to ensure that mexico stops the migrant before the cross the border into the u.s. and what has happened in the last couple of weeks is that several border crossings have been closed, including railway crossings, as the u.s. has deployed patrol officials across this 3000 kilometer border at the legal places to try to stop migrants from coming in. but mexico says it is doing all it can but it hopes some kind of

understanding can be reached. the meeting is taking place. it also says the u.s. needs to look at addressing broader issues. many migrants are coming from countries like venezuela and cuba, countries the u.s. has imposed sanctions on and which according to them have created economic crises. many of the migrants coming from latin america are economic refugees. so this is where they stand. the u.s. wants to see mexico doing more but mexico also wants to make demands in return. samantha: let's get some headlines. police and the czech republic have confirmed they discovered a suicide note in the home of the man who carried out last week's mass shooting in prague in which he confessed to an earlier double killing. he admitted to killing two people one week prior to the

attack on charles university, in which he killed 14 people before taking his life. donald trump will be able to contest the primary election in michigan, which is suing in court that trump be allowed to participate despite accusations he led an insurrection. colorado recently ruled he cannot contest the primary in that state. wolfgang schaeuble has died, aged 81. the former finance minister played a big role in negotiating german reunification after the fall of the berlin wall. he survived an assassination attempt that was -- and was widely viewed as one of the most influential postwar politicians in germany. the new york times is suing companies behind chatgpt. they alledge the ai program used millions of articles for

training without permission. they seek damages and an order that the company stop using the content and destroys the data. defendants have yet to respond. for more i spoke with new york times technology reporter ryan back in los angeles. >> it was reported as of this morning that the new york times believes openai has been infringing on the copyright as well as microsoft so it was reported this morning. samantha: how long do you allege it has been going on? >> the complaint says there is content that goes back to as early as the 1950's that has been used for openai training models and chatbot's to develop these technologies and the company is enforcing its copyright. samantha: can you tell us more

about how the u.s. law operates in terms of your expectations for the case? is there any guidance on what kind of permission ai generator is required to ask for the use content? >> that is at the crux of the case. companies like openai, with massive valuations and funding, have essentially scraped the web and taken content, a lot of which is copyrighted, for free and used it in their technologies. the new york times is going to court to argue that that was not legal. samantha: so this is effectively a text -- test case in this arena? >> it is one of many. there are ongoing lawsuits from other [indiscernible] you look at actors who have sued openai's, authors, this is sort of the beginning, getting images

to train generative aia to create realistic images. we are at the forefront of this and we will wait to see what happens. samantha: a south african playwright and composer has died . he was killed in a car crash this evening. he was recognized in the nationally following the success of his musical, serafina. in 1992 the play was adapted into a film starring will be goldberg. in 2002 he made headlines over a song that accused south african indian population of not resisting change. in the u.k. jeremy hunt will unveil the spring budget on march 6 in what could be his last chance to introduce tax

change before a general election. reporter: the budget is likely to be the last big fiscal event. there are moments where the government can announce big spending plans before a general election. there is speculation about what the chancellor might do. some is around inheritance tax. there was talk about him maybe abolishing that. in the nt did not do it but we see it come back again -- but we are seeing it come back again, even though he did not do it. some would like to see it. they do not like it as a tax. there are other conservative mps who are saying to the chancellor you should instead focus on things like reducing income tax. the tax burden is at a historic

high. the budget will be the last opportunity for the government to set out the big plans. what is and it will likely shape the election campaign although labor is saying whatever the government does in march will not be able to repair the damage done to the economy and democrats saying it is to late to turn the tide. there has been a lot of speculation about the date, march 6, and does that tell us there will be an election in may? i think it leaves that as an open option. talking about intent -- inheritance tax, downing street was asked about this story and said they would not comment on speculation and pointed out it is only paid by a small number of households. samantha: a major incident has

been declared in scotland. storm garrett has been sweeping across the u.k. bringing high winds and rain. 20,000 homes are still without power in northern scotland and roads, trains, fairies, airports have delays. reporter: as you can see, we are stuck just south of done many. a major incident was declared between perth and the highlands. this man was at a standstill with his wife and daughter for six hours trying to get home to bristol after christmas. >> when we set out it was raining and it seemed to be ok but as soon as we got to darwin e it was a white out.

the skies opened and within minutes it was just a complete white out and traffic came to a halt and we were going nowhere. reporter: away from the white house, the rain -- whiteout, rain caused issues. some residents had to be rescued from their homes after severe flooding in a town. special boats were brought in to help. >> i looked out and the street was just full of water up to my bed. i was thinking most things in my house will be gone. not what you want to wake up to just after christmas. reporter: and other areas, more than 20,000 are without power. wind reached over 85 miles an hour in some parts. >> storm garrett has mainly impacted scotland with around 20,000 people without cause --

without power. access is a challenge and the weather is expected to be worse again overnight. if you are in an area affected by the weather warning, prepare but please know that customer service teams and thousands of people are working around the clock to reconnect power as quickly and safely as they can. reporter: trains were hit. services were canceled. some passengers were stuck on board for hours. a tree fell h and it remains blocked. >> passengers, check before you travel. disruptions will continue into tomorrow in some parts of the country. reporter: football games were postponed. a series of rain and snow warnings are in place tonight and flood warnings and alerts will continue into tomorrow.

bbc news, glasgow. samantha: the architect of the modern eu has died at age 98. he helped create the single market allowing the free movement of people, goods, and services in the eu and was a key figure in the creation of the euro. reporter: he was the architect of modern europe. in the 80's and 90's, the president of the european commission thought the eu should come more closely together socially, economically and politically. some british conservatives reacted in horror. >> no. no. no. reporter: born to a working-class devoutly catholic family, he first was a banker. in 1981 he was appointed finance minister. four years later he headed for brussels. margaret thatcher signed up for

the single european act that tore down barriers to trade. >> this government has no intention on agreement of the imposition of a single current 2 -- currency. that would be entering [indiscernible] reporter: in 1992 the treaty laid the foundation of the euro. >> let's look to the future with economic and monetary union, the countries can hope to enjoy the greatest possible benefits of the economic era. reporter: arguments over the future led to the downfall of margaret thatcher and john major. tony blair and gordon brown disagreed on joining the euro.

in 2016 decided enough was enough, and left. >> the british people have spoken and the answer is we are out. reporter: at times, financial crises in europe have been blamed on the way the single currency was constructed, but the high priest of european integration never had a doubt. samantha: more than 50 french actors, writers and cinema producers have signed an open letter in support of gerardo bridger, who faces -- gerardo parra joe, who faces allegations of sexual assault. he denies any wrongdoing. reporter: he is one of the most famous faces and french film. he is famous for his work in over 200 films and tv series but

since 2020 he has been under investigation for rape and faces allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment from over 12 women and a documentary revealed sexual comments he made to and about women. he strongly denies the allegations and there was no court ruling against him but it has continued to spark controversy in france. emmanuel macron came under fire for an interview he did in december where he defended the actor, saying it was a manhunt and over 50 french actors have written an open letter to a french newspaper saying not to cancel him and that this is a case of lynching. here are some of the famous faces who have signed the letter, including former first lady and singer carla bruni. >> gerard is part of the history

of french heritage and has left an indelible mark. whatever you do you will not be able to erase it and we do not want to cancel him. he is essential to the artistic history of our country. reporter: the letter has sparked a backlash from feminist critics and divided opinion, including on the streets of paris. >> why should he be protected, just because he is an important figure? >> it is not just one person accusing. there are a few. i do not think it is eight lynching. i think these are real questions. >> as long as he has not been judged, we cannot attack him and take him down. on the other hand, we have to stop taking too many years for him to be brought to trial. reporter: he has called this dignitaries courageous and praised the letter but mounting accusations against him suggest he will not be out of the spotlight anytime soon.

samantha: a few days to go until new year's eve in the design of the ball has been revealed to drop in times square. it features a bowtie pattern and is two triangles shining together to make the shape. times square was once known as the bowtie. the ball is the new year's eve ball. it weighs nearly 5500 kilos. that is it for me. thank you for watching. narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. man: bdo. accountants and advisors. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs.

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♪ amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff bennett is away. on the "newshour" tonight. israel launches another round of heavy airstrikes in central and southern gaza, including in refugee camps. we hear from the israeli ambassador to the united states. a major caravan of migrants travels through mexico as record numbers continue to arrive at the southern border. and meat grown in laboratories moves closer to store shs