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startups have this energy that energizes me. i'm thriving by helping others everyday. 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". >> i'm helena humphrey in washington and this is "bbc world news america." the white house says it is committed to a future palestinian state, appearing to disagree the latest comments. as primary season in the u.s. person initial election heats up, the issue of abortion rights is expected to take center stage. in the annual meeting of the

world economic forum wraps up in volvo's with the war in ukraine topping the agenda. -- wraps up in davos with you wore in ukraine topping the agenda. welcome to world news america. it is good to have you with us. israel is melting a new assault into southern gaza's main city after intense airstrikes and streetfighting. concerns go on for audits of thousands of civilians, most of whom were displaced from other parts of the territory, this as israel appears to have fallen out with its principal ally the united states over gaza's future. washington has long maintained a palestinian state is the only way to ensure israel's lasting security and re-construction of gaza. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu said thursday those suggestions would not work for his country. friday, john kirby, a spokesman for the u.s. attorney council,

said president biden remains committed to a two state solution. >> the president still believes in the promise and possibility of a two state solution. he recognizes that will take a lot of hard work and leadership come in the region particularly on both sides of the issue. the united states stands firmly committed to eventually sing that outcome. right now and we are talking to them about post-conflict gaza and what governance needs to look like and the importance of an independent published in the instate for long-term security, not just for the palestinian people but the israeli people as well. currently of course we are rightly focused the opening statement on making sure israel has what continues to have to defend itself. helena: our correspondent in jerusalem sent this update. reporter: benjamin netanyahu's comets are no surprise because he has spent his entire political career opposing a palestinian state, but it is

about timing. israel is under intense pressure with almost 25,000 people killed in the offensive according to the hamas-run health ministry and this is a very public rebuttal of the biden administration, yet another, and it is seen as really israel thumbing its nose at the u.s. and benjamin netanyahu falling back on the far right that is propping up his government. he believes he is sticking his political survival on opposing a palestinian state. public opinion is increasingly falling on the prime minister, only 15% of israelis believe he should stay on after the conflict ends, but he believes the majority of israeli public opinion is still opposed to the creation of a palestinian state and too traumatized to accept that after october 7. at the same time as israel's relations with the u.s. are becoming more strained, so our

tensions boiling over within the israeli cabinet. a member of israel's war cabinet gave a prerecorded interview saying mr. netanyahu barristers possibility for leaving israel exposed on october 7, that he is not being truthful with his promise to push for complete victory against hamas, and that there should be fresh elections to restore trust. you get the sense that israel is particularly -- mr. not yahoo! is isolated and the divisions are deepening, not just with israel's most import and ally the israeli cabinet itself. humphrey: israel's military campaign against hamas has destroyed or damaged more than half of gaza's buildings, laid waste too much of its infrastructure. the united nations once it is creating a society where order is broken down and a generation of children could lose out completely on their education and future. reporter: the impact of israel's

bombing campaign in gaza is astonishing. its aim to completely crush hamas has also destroyed or damaged more than half of gaza's buildings. more than 24,000 people have been killed, says the hamas-run health ministry. the war has also laid waste too much of gaza's infrastructure and civic society. this you when school blown up by celebrating israeli troops, who accuse hamas of using these buildings. major universities and more than 100 schools have been damaged or destroyed. like any society, gaza's future is its children. but here they are the victims of war and says the united nations they ma lose out on whaty should be rightfully theirs. >> you have today more than half a million children in the school system. how do they go back if you

cannot bring people back to their homes which have been completely destroyed? i'm afraid that here we are taking away a generation. reporter: gaza's health system is broken. the world health organization said only 13 of gaza's 36 hospitals are functional. those who need treatment often go without. >> i was receiving regular medical treatment for my cancer at the hospital here in gaza, but during the israeli aggression medical treatment have not been provided for the past four months. reporter: since the war began, israel's unprecedented bombing of gaza's main city has laid much of the territory to waste. very few areas from north to south have escaped without damage. israel disputes the scale of gaza's humanitarian crisis and says it does not target civilians or public infrastructure unless it is suspected of being used by armed

palestinian groups. israel also rejects accusations that it is deliberately turning gaza into a wasteland so people will have no option other than to leave. israel says it wants to allow in as much aid as agencies can distribute and it is not trying to demolish gaza specific structures. with key institutions like law courts and gaza's parliament also in ruins, there is not much left of a society. humphrey: joining us now is aaron david miller, senior fellow at the carnegie endowment in washington. great to have you with us once again. what we are seeing here is israel and the united states clearly are at odds when it comes to the future of a two state solution. kind of position do you think that puts washington in in terms of supporting its key ally israel? >> i think the intentions all along over the last several

months with the absence of says sufficient human sharing aid, which the administration is expecting, not just hoping but will significantly altered by the end of the month or early february. i think there are strains. the last phone call the president had, he all but hung up on net yahoo! -- on benjamin netanyahu. president is still committed to israel's aims, it is a race for the presidency for a does not want to leave himself open to republican attacks by being too critical of the israelis. so i suspect tensions will increase, but i think he will manage. that is joe biden style, it is not to confirm, it is to accommodate with a view towards trying to leverage quietly or discreetly. whether that will work or not remains to be seen, but i suspect by the middle of february. helena: if you look at some of the comets coming out of the war

cabinet, we have been hearing from the far right national security minister who has been saying we must promote a solution to encourage emigration of residents of gaza, essentially leaving the gaza strip. could these ideas take hold? >> it is the most extreme government in the state of israel. it is extremist, homophobic, jewish supremacist in terms of these people, but they are not members of the war cabinet and i doubt frankly they are brought in. they have some stability and moderation. i doubt whether or not the expulsion of palestinians from gaza is going to become unofficial policy. should it, then you would see a major confrontation, with the minded of administration -- with the biden administration it would probably go beyond anything we have witnessed. helena: i wonder your assessment

of the stability of mr. benjamin netanyahu as promised are very he has some desires coming from far right factions, he has the israeli population increasingly calling for as a first priority for those hostages to be brought home. where does this leave him and his tenure? >> under a lot of pressure, but he needs 61 votes to maintain a majority of the government. he had 64, and with the others an additional 12. member he is on trial for bribery, fraud, breach of trust, three years running he is supposed to testify next month. he must remain promised or if he has any chance of beating this indictment and avoiding jail, assuming he is convicted. i think all politics is local and part of the reason he is

reacting to the way he has on the issue of palestinian statehood is because of the pressure, but again this is israeli politics and we expect a bumpy ride. it will be a ride i'm afraid, my own view, with benjamin netanyahu, who has conflated his own political interests, legal interests with the security needs of the state of israel. it is a very bad time to have that kind of leader. helena: may i ask briefly, do you think there is any chance essentially netanyahu is trying to cast himself in opposition to washington, to drum up support at home? >> i think to integrate -- i think to a degree he will play on the issue of statehood. the israelis cannot engage in two states or the withdrawal of israeli settlements from any of these issues. that will have to wait in my judgment.

should mr. biden get a second term, i think serious progress might be possible because by then i suspect you may have a new government in israel, and that i think is essentially critical for any of this to succeed. helena: aaron david miller, senior fellow at the carnegie in washington. turning now to the u.s. presidential campaign, a race for the republican nominations's will heat up tuesday when new hampshire voters take to the polls in the first primary of the 2024 election cycle. tuesday's primary will test president trump's front runner status after his landslide victory in iowa. the governor of south carolina nikki haley is looking to establish yourself as the main rival to mr. trump with a strong showing of the great estate. florida governor ron desantis is focusing on south carolina. with primary season underway, president biden is seeking to galvanize democratic voters

around the contentious issue of abortion per his can paint is expected to focus on reproductive rights in the wake of the supreme court's landmark overturning of roe v. wade. abortion rights activists have been on a winning streak in the polls, with voters in seven states projecting -- protecting abortion access since june 2022. in washington antiabortion activists gathered on the snowy national mall for the annual march for life rally, held every january since 1973 when roe v. wade guaranteed abortion access nationwide. with me to talk about all of this is our digital reporter who was at the march on the mall. great to have you with us. what was getting people out on a very snowy day? reporter: the weather was tough, and it has been a tough year for the pro-life movement and antiabortion movement. they had a landmark victory in overturning roe v. wade, clearing the field to get to the

ultimate goal, national abortion ban. that hasn't happened. things have not gone according to plan if you want antiabortion activist. they have seen growing political resistance. a gallup poll showed 69% of americans support some access to abortion, that is huge. facing the election it will be a tough climb to keep the movement going forward. helena: as an election issue, we saw yesterday between president biden and vice president, the harris when it comes to abortion rights. how big will this be? reporter: in 2022 most people predicted a horrible outcome for the democrats and in fact republicans underperformed. people on both sides of the aisle agreed it was because of abortion. your expected the same thing in 2024. people say to me that biden needs to talk about abortion every other sentence. it will get democrats engaged. republicans are scared to talk

about it. they know it is a losing issue for them. helena: with regards to republicans and how they are managing it, how are they when they can see the appetite? reporter: i spoke to a republican pollster who said we are getting our bus kicked. we don't know how to speak about it. we are scared of the activists who say that we want to see national bans, heartbeat bans, but the general public does not with that. the phrase that i keep hearing is the dog that caught the car. they have been wanting the end of roe for years, but there appears to be no plan to address the electorate that seems probably in favor of abortion rights but placating the base. helena: holly, thank you so much. the annual meeting of the world economic forum wrapped up friday in davos. artificial intelligence top the agenda, but the wars in gaza and ukraine garnered attention. president zelenskyy address them

tuesday. he urged sanctions against russia while helping to rebuild ukraine and foster a peace process. i spoke with a political activists who just returned from davos. bill, think you for being with us on "bbc news." i understand you just got back from switzerland where you have been making the case that the west should confiscate frozen russian friends from the central bank so ukraine can use them when it comes to defense, reconstruction as well. how has your message been received? >> i have been proposing this solution basically since a few weeks after the war started two years ago. when i first started, it was a nonstarter. people wanted nothing to do with it in different governments. they thought it was a radical idea. but here we are two years later, there are so bill huge financial

requirements for the war and no end in sight. and i would argue it has been a much more well received message this year than ever before purely for financial reasons. helena: any countries in particular? >> interestingly, the u.k. is out front and leading on this. the foreign secretary david cameron has basically been promoting and proposing this idea in davos come in washington and publicly. the united states seems to be more amenable to this idea than they were before, saying not publicly but privately they are ready to go forward on it. the big bottleneck right now is the eu. the eu is where the lion share of the money is out of the 300-plus billion, i think 220 billion is in the eu.

the eu is still to be convinced. i think there is a desire to do it, but they are sort of dancing around the head of a pin in terms of trying to find the way forward. helena: why do you think there is that reticence? is there concern of tit for tat with russia? >> there is always concern of tit for tat. in this case it would be ill-founded because the russians don't have the ability to do the "tatting." it's not like western central banks keep their money in russia. so they cannot do it reciprocally. and to the extent they are threatening western businesses that have assets in russia, russia has already started appropriating those businesses long before this ever happened. i was just in davos meeting with executives from hyundai and they had a $3 billion car operation in same petersburg expropriated. the same with carlsbad brewing

and many other companies. so the idea we should be worried about western companies losing their assets in russia is really not a reasonable explanation for not doing this. helena: something else i wanted to ask, whilst you were there in switzerland we had the iowa caucuses in the united states. we saw a decisive victory for president trump in those caucuses. watching this, president putin of russia, what do you think he made of that? >> putin is looking at trump as his hail mary, that even if pruden is losing hundreds of thousands of men on the battlefield, if trump comes in he is effectively promised to cut off funding for ukraine, and putin sees that as his big opening. this may be his opportunity to win a war which he has pretty much been losing. which also begs the question of,

what do we do if trump comes in? what does ukraine do if trump comes in? that's where the $300 billion of central bank reserves could make the difference. if the west were to come up with a plan to confiscate that money before trump comes in, i would see it as effectively trump insurance for ukraine. helena: briefly if you don't mind, we are in a situation where the biden administration even we are seeing more aid for ukraine blocked and facing stumbling blocks in congress. do you think those are stumbling blocks or do you think the tide has turned to a certain extent in terms of support for ukraine from the west, that some fatigue has set in? >> certainly some fatigue has set in, but what is washing -- what is happening in washington is a small number of far right republicans in the trump wing of the republican party have used various legislative

tricks to block the aid. i've met with many people in washington, republicans and democrats, and there is an overwhelming support for ukraine in congress. so i'm sure we will be able to find a way through and ukraine will get the money in the short-term. the real question is what happens if trump becomes president after the november elections this year. then things could radically differ. helena: bill, think you very much for speaking with us. friday japan became only the fifth country to reach the moon. a robot spacecraft that did it is in trouble. solar cells are unable to generate electricity, which means it will not be able to work for long on the lunar surface. our science correspondent has the story. reporter: japan's lunar lander has touched down with a soft landing. it solar panels are not working. as soon as it is -- if it is not

fixed, the spacecraft will run out of power. experts say the mission has achieved 99% of its aims. >> this was all about precision landing. they haven't confirmed the exact precision of the landing, but they are the fifth nation to land successfully on the moon, and that is a huge success. reporter: flight engineers are pouring through the spacecraft data and will report next week on what went wrong. what an awful lot went right. they successfully tested and advanced space recognition system to hone in on the landing site. it also deployed one of its mini lunar rovers, able to hop were no rover has hopped before. but not another one, which can literally roll back the frontiers of knowledge. >> it is a new way of doing space exploration and a big part of it is to bring down the costs so that we can de-risk these missions, do more of them and a

faster turnaround and hopefully get more science and explosion out of each. reporter: the team are building instrument for a future mission involving both japan and india as well as the u.k. japan's achievement is the start of a new rush to the moon. india got there last year. later in 2024 there will be several u.s. attempts. by the end of the decade there will be chinese and european missions. it is all getting very interesting. in the 1960's and 1970's, it was all nasa. but now it is an international race. a small fleet of spacecraft are on their way to lay the ground for humans to return. they are going because there are minerals and resources on the moon which will be used to build launch sites to go to mars and beyond.

this time the plan is to stay for the long term. helena: let's turn to some important news around the world. souls police chief has been charged with negligence after a crash left 159 young people dead in 2022. he is the highest rocking police official to be charged in relation to the tragedy. he is accused of failing to ensure enough officers were deployed to the area were over 100,000 people were gathered to celebrate halloween. involuntary manslaughter over a fiddle movie set -- over a fiddle movie set accident. review charges against baldwin were dropped. he was practicing with a pistol when it will and off, fatally striking a cinematographer. baldwin's attorneys said they will have their day in court. madonna is being sued by two fans for being late to her own

show in new york pretty they say last months performance started two hours after the time printed on the ticket and did not finish until 1 a.m., which met they struggle to get home afterwards. madonna has faced all the lawsuits from fans complaining about her timekeeping over the recent years, but all have been dismissed. i'm helena humphrey. thank you for watching "world news america." 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. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> good evening. i'm geoff bennett. on the newshour tonight. the biden administration cancels another $5 billion in student loans. how the president is erasing debt for millions of borrowers after a supreme court ruling struck down his earlier plan. ahead of the new hampshire primaries, judy woodruff with the governor about why he's trying to stop donald trump from becoming nominee. a family struggle. an american helping afghans start their own businesses held captive i the taliban.