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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". ♪ anchor: i am caitriona perry in washington. this is bbc world news america. the u.s. blocks another resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in gaza while circulating an alternative resolution. major eight agencies stop deliveries to gaza due to deterioration of security conditions. and julian assange back in court making a final bid to the u.k. courts to avoid extradition to the u.s. ♪

hello and welcome to world news america. i am caitriona perry. pressure is mounting on israel. the countries most important ally the united states proposed an alternative resolution to the united nations security council calling for a temporary cease-fire before vetoing an earlier resolution. until now the united nations has avoided using the word cease-fire during votes on the poor and comes as the united nations world food program is pausing deliveries to northern gaza because of conditions on the ground. because the proposed resolution is still being circulated, the american resolution opposes plans to invade the overcrowded city of rafa saying it would harm civilians and push into neighboring them countries and would reject actions by neighboring parties to reduce the territory of gaza on a temperate or permanent basis including widespread systematic demolition of survey

and infrastructure and condemns calls by some israeli government ministers for jewish settlers to move to gaza and rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in gaza that would violate international law. it is not clear when or if the text will be put to a vote. on tuesday because vetoed a draft united nations resolution which demanded an immediate cease-fire and 13 council members voted in favor of the text drafted by algeria while britain sustained. america's ambassador to the united nations linda thomas-greenfield said u.s. co uld not support a resolution that puts negotiations in jeopardy. >> we believe it would negatively impact those negotiations. the mending an immediate unconditional cease-fire without an agreement requiring hamas to

release the hostages will not bring about a durable peace. instead, it could extend the fighting between hamas and israel. it could extend the hostages time in captivity and experience described by former hostages as hell and extend the crisis palestinians are facing in gaza. none of us want that, so i reiterate the united states belief that while numerous parties engaged in sensitive negotiations this is not the time for this resolution which jeopardizes these efforts. caitriona: for more on this, our correspondent joins me now from new york. this is among some of the strongest language we have heard from the u.s. about israel's assault on gaza and yet voted against that first resolution. what was being said to address those concerns we heard from the

u.s. ambassador there at about its impact on the negotiations? correspondent: yeah, well, from the 13 members who did support algeria's draft, there was a very different tone. you know they did not really agree with the u.s. assessment that a resolution would not helpful at this time. you know those talks have stalled. there remains major gaps in those negotiations and we heard fear about a looming catastrophe in rafa where one point 5 million palestinians have been forced to seek shelter. we have heard from the united nations that they are warning that the incursion into rafa could lead to a slaughter in the assault is unparalleled in brutality intensity and scope like the rest of gaza, so from councilmember is a concern about the fate of palestinian civilians there that the security council should be

calling for a cease-fire based on its mandate to respond to threats to international peace and security and also from members we heard this real clear concerned that this could quickly escalate into a wider war if the situation in gaza which has part it all is not resolved quickly and immediately. caitriona: has there been any indication from the other security council members as to whether they might except the u.s. draft resolution and vote on it? correspondent: yeah, you know, i spoke with the french ambassador, the ambassador from slovenia, asking about their opinion on the u.s. draft, and because it has not been formally circulated not many members were willing to say one way or the other if they would support it, but we did hear from russia and china specifically in the council. note that there is a divided

relationship in the council, so certainly when it comes to russia in particular, because of its divisions with the west on its war in ukraine, russia took this opportunity to save this proposal by the united states was just a distraction. it was a bad faith attempt to distract from its veto, and brushes said the council already waited too long, in china as well said the u.s. position is untenable, so even if they get the support of nine members we could see russia and china veto any resolution that comes to that vote, as they have done in the past, if it does not call for a cease-fire. caitriona: thank you for that. as you heard, until now, the united states has avoided using the word cease-fire during united nations votes on the war. this is the second resolution proposed by the united states in the eighth resolution over all about the war that the security

council has considered. all members condemned mosses attack on israel and called the release of hostages and urged restraint on both sides. the first resolution was put forth by russia on october 16 nine days after the war began the called for an immediate amended herein cease-fire but was vetoed by france, the u.s., and u.k.. two days later on october 18, brazil introduced a resolution calling for a cease-fire as well as the protection of hospitals and demanded israel rescind its order for civilians to leave the north of gaza. the u.s. voted no halting that effort. a week later, russia introduced another resolution. the u.k. and the u.s. vetoed that. the same day russia and china vetoed an american resolution condemning hamas and reaffirming countries rights to defend themselves. the council has only passed one resolution on the 15th of november that called for a humanitarian pause. u.s. abstain. a week later, israel and hamas

began a humanitarian pause that lasted one week before hostilities resumed. a week after that, the u.s. opposed the new cease-fire resolution and that killed it. on december 22, the council adopted a watered-down resolution calling for immediately speeding aids to people in gaza and plea for an urgent suspension of positives between israel and hamas. well, pressure is mending on israel's government to pause its offensive in gaza. even the prince of wales has weighed in, calling for an end to the fighting in a rare statement and said too many have been killed. he cold for more humanitarian support to gaza. his statement comes as aid organizations and critical infrastructure struggle to operate amidst the chaos. as we mentioned, the world food program said it was pausing deliveries of food aid to northern gaza until conditions allow for safe distribution. and in the south of the world

health organization said it has effectuated over 30 nations including children from gaza. the hospital stop functioning last week after an israeli raid which israel described as a precise unlimited operation. the who said in a statement that the condition of the hospital was indescribable in the hospital has no electricity or running water, and that medical waste and garbage are creating a breeding ground for disease. efforts to transform her the patient's continues on the who has released video of evacuation missions are diplomatic correspondent paul adams has this report. >> one patient in the wheelchair. one patient is in the ambulance. striker some patients a chance -- correspondent: for some patients, a chance to escape. the war is nearby.

this was not a simple operation. we don't see them here but israeli soldiers control the hospital. the mission had to be carefully coordinated. the hospital is filthy. large parts of it are deserted. >> and it is a death zone. correspondent: the hospital director look shattered. and a handful of staff keeping patients alive during days of military season occupation. >> my words are not enough to express what i'm feeling for these people who work here. if you >> think about the war situation, you multiply it by 10 and this is the war situation i have in my life. the debris, working in the darkness, patients everywhere. correspondent: israel said it had no choice but to rape the hospital. a mass it says was here -- hamas

it says was here in force, arresting scores of suspected gunman. in the car parked vehicle stolen from israel during the attacks of october 7. and in the pharmacy, chilling discovery medication supposed to be given to vulnerable is really hostages, medications remain, the hostages are gone. israel insists that the hospital is functioning, but the united nations still wants to get patients out and one aid organization says the hospital is no longer capable of treating patients and what is left of the health system in gaza is barely functioning. paul adams, bbc news, jerusalem. caitriona: you heard him mention medicine for israeli hostages. on tuesday, the qatari foreign ministry confirmed on x that hamas, an organization considered a terrorist group by the u.s. and other countries, had started delivering education to hostages in the enclave. maas took 240 people hostage

into gaza on october 7. since those attacks, around 200,000 people have been displaced from israel's northern and southern borders and some israelis are starting to move back into communities bordering the gaza strip. our middle east correspondent looks now occurring pressures from israel's displaced community. correspondent: where to call home is what the conflict here is all about. much harder to destroy than buildings or streets. a museum that the hamas attacks, the first residents have returned. >> in this house -- correspondent: she says it is lonely here at night. >> they were not successful, so they burned the house down. correspondent: dozens were killed and taken hostage here was hamas gunmen overran it on

october 7. the war in gaza a mile away now the backdrop to life. no one else has come back to > ♪ live here full-time world news america. faith in israel's ability to protect left in tatters. >> we bought into the con .may be they condo themselves, convince themselves what they were saying was the truth, but obviously it was not. it was not polite and we all will bought into it, definitely. a lot will have to change. correspondent: by the sea of galilee we met residents from the area near israel's northern frontier, a village targeted by missiles from hezbollah, an ally of hamas. lunch is brought in from the village each day. costs and frustrations arising,

but conditions for living on the front line as change. >> the situation has changed since we have been evacuated. suddenly we realized that going back to something that we used to live that way is no longer an option. it is no longer an option that we are under the threat of some guy in beirut that would like to pull the trigger anytime he likes. correspondent: hostility along the northern border is mounting. war with hamas is the way to restore security in the south, israel's prime minister says, but here at the northern front, meters from lebanon, they face a better equipped, better trained enemy, so what is his solution here? israel's defense minister said that diplomatic hourglass is running out and israel's war with hamas has led some to say it should take on hezbollah too,

but hezbollah is a different kind of enemy, and this would be a different kind of war. israel says hezbollah must retreat from the border before residents can return, but neither time nor diplomacy has moved the dial. empty homes, domestic hostages of this conflict for which israel's government is paying a rising price. lucy williamson, bbc news, jerusalem. caitriona: julian assange began his latest attempt to fight his extradition from the u.k. to the united states. he is wanted in the u.s. for disclosing secret military files more than a decade ago. if he fails, he will have exhausted all appeals and will enter the process of extradition. we had this report now from london's high court. >> u.s., u.k., hands-off julian assange. correspondent: a moment of legal reckoning, but not going

quietly, the scene outside the high court as julian assange just lori's prepare for what might be his last opportunity to persuade british judges to stop his extradition. hundreds of the wikileaks founder's faithful turned out, outraged at his treatment and believing he has exposed major war crimes and is being punished for revealing the truth. the road to this here and started with these shocking pictures from 2010, leak u.s. footage published by his organization. >> light them all up. >> come on fire. correspondent: showing a military helicopter gunning down sabeans in iraq. two years later, julian assange was here at ecuador's embassy in london claiming a silent emmett fearing he would spend the rest of his life in a u.s. jail and was dragged out seven years later to face extradition to the u.s., in order approved two years ago by the courts and the home secretary. but in court today, edward fitzgerald for mr. assange said

he was the victim of a politically motivated plot and his client was being prosecuted for engaging in ordinary journalistic practice of obtaining and publishing classified information, information that is both true and that obvious and important public interest. former president donald trump had even asked the cia the detailed options on how to assassinate mr. assumptions lori's claimed. outside court, his wife acknowledged time my be running out. >> julian or tried to ring his case to the european court of human rights and try to obtained an order to stop the actual extradition of him being put on a plane. in this case, there would be irreparable harm, so we are confident the european court of human rights will recognize that julian's life is at risk. correspondent:correspondent: the court will hear from the united states team tomorrow and they say the cases is totally misrepresented and want their man, and they are not giving up.

bbc news, at the high court. caitriona: to discuss all this i am joined by the executive director of the national security institute at george mason university, and has also helped many intelligence positions in the u.s. government. this has been described as a last ditch attempt by julian assange to avoid extradition to the u.s. but you would like to see him return here? >> obviously. he has violated law disclosing information knowingly and conspiring with others to hack into computer systems and break passwords and the like and should face justice for those violations. caitriona: he would say he was doing that in the public interest. we saw some of what was exposed there just now and he would say that is ordinary journalistic practice and was made by his lawyers today. >> that argument has been rejected by authorities in british courts, but as you know,

julian assange does not abide by the traditions of the journalistic profession, the ethics of journalistic protection, never redacted document and disclose information he knew would put people's lives at risk including other journalist and human rights activists. caitriona: the profession is changing so it is not fair for me to say what is or is not a journalist at this point but his lawyers also said today that this effort to prosecute him is politically motivated and that his life would be -- >> the challenge is two different political administrations and two different parties have charged him and fought him on the prosecution. so the idea that somehow there is political motivation here is not what is going on. there is no chance his life will be at risk. he is going to a u.s. prison like anybody would. any criminal in prison has some

level of risk. there are guards to protect against that but his life would be no more at risk than in british prison today. it makes no sense. caitriona: they say state retaliation and they have evidence of efforts at the highest level to assassinate him. >> if the u.s. government wanted to assassinate him, everybody knew where he was in the ecuadorian embassy. they kicked him out because he was not behaving appropriate. he was on bail until he violated his bail conditions, so if that was the theory that american government want to kill him, it is easier to kill him abroad than in the unites states. there are laws against that. caitriona: there is bipartisan support for returning him here. >> absolutely strong bipartisan support in the united states across multiple administrations and members of the political party. julian assange has violated american law repeatedly knowingly over and over again and now should be held accountable. caitriona: well, that will have

to be proven in a court of law appeared we cannot say that for a fact. >> allegedly. that's right. caitriona: he is innocent until proven guilty like anybody else. if he fails at this effort in the u.k., he has one more avenue in the eq but how does that play out? >> if he is returned here is he will come into u.s. custody in england and be handed over to u.s. authorities and flung to the nine states and held in federal prison pending the disposition of his charges. his lawyers will file some of claims in the u.s. courts that they filed abroad including his rights as a journalist, as if he has rights of free speech, he's not a u.s. citizen so it's an open question, but he's being prosecuted in united states and will assert those rights and be tried ultimately if he's not able to get out of it and then there will be asking if he is convicted where he should start that sentence, australia, as i said, serving sentence in australia, that would be another issue for the u.s. government to deal with if and when he is convicted of the charges and held accountable. caitriona: if that does happen

and he's extradited that sounds like a long process you are describing that has already lusted many many years. >> that's right. the process will take a long time. he will have many appeals to the court of appeals in the u.s. supreme court eventually. like any criminal defendant, he has all the rights that pertain to him and those court so he will have a very fair trial in process all the way through coming here and if he is convicted. caitriona: we will have to see what happens in the courts. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. caitriona: well, u.s. president joe biden says he is working on a new package of sanctions against russia in response to the depth of the russian opposition leader alexei navalny. it came as alexei navalny's mother demanded to see her son's body after failing to find answers at the prison where he died in mr. navalny supported few of the kremlin is trying to cover up evidence he was deliberately killed. on tuesday russian authorities said they were searching for alexei navalny's brother to face

unspecified charges. that is not in russia and all authority faces charges for supporting his brothers protest. let's turn to other news from around the world. a moscow court ruled american journalist evan gershkovich will remain in jail until the end of march. the wall street journal reporter has spent nearly a year and russian prison. he is the first journalist to be held on espionage charges since the cold war and claims the u.s., claims that u.s. and others denied. 30 in russia arrested a woman with dual american-russian citizenship accused of taking part in pro-ukrainian rallies and fundraising for kyiv. 33-year-old lives in los angeles and now faces treason charges. russia has detained several u.s. citizens and recent years. south africa's unemployment rate rose to just over 32% in the last quarter of last year. that means nearly 8 million people in the country did not have a job.

set up the car already has the world's highest unemployment rate. the lan and post bands on heavy motor vehicles operating during the day and limited industrial activities after experience a period of severe error in -- air pollution. it is leading to a smoggy haze sweeping over the city. the regional government does not think the smoke will lift anytime soon. astronomers have discovered what could be the brightest object in the universe, a quasar in the galaxy powered by a black hole 17 billion times the mass of our sun and 500 trillion times brighter. reported say it consumes the mass equivalent to one sun every single day. that is it for the moment. remember, you can find more on all the days news on our website , bbc.com/news and see what were

working on anytime on your favorite social media platform. i am caitriona perry in washington. thank you for watching bbc world news america. ♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... 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. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: "usa today" calls it, "arguably the best bargain in streaming." that's because the free pbs app lets you watch the best of pbs anytime, anywhere.

william: good evening. i'm william brangham. geoff bennett and amna nawaz are away. on "the newshour" tonight. wikileaks founder julian assange makes a last-ditch attempt to avoid extradition to the united states on spying charges. then, taiwan's top diplomat in washington discusses the island's relations with the u.s., as both confront china. >> we trust that we will continue working closely with the u.s. administration as well as congresso