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announcer: 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" , this is the world today with , maryam moshiri. the white house says israel is sending a team to washington to discuss a potential military operation in gaza's southern city rafa. the u.n. says gaza is on the brink of famine. its chief says there is still time to halt the crisis. president putin thanks supporters in red square after claiming a fifth term as president. also coming up on the world today, broadcasting watchdog ofcom fines some programs have

broken impartiality rules. and than to banksy, the anonymous street artist confirms a mural that appear in north london overnight is his. ♪ hello and welcome to the world today on bbc news. the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is told u.s. president joe biden in a call on monday that he will send a team to washington to discuss a potential military operation in gaza's southern city of rafah. let's hear from the white house national security advisor jake sullivan. >> the president has rejected and it again today of the straw raising questions about rafah is the same as raising questions about the feeding hamas. that is just nonsense. our position is that hamas should not be allowed safe haven in rafah or anyone else but a

major grou operation there would be a mistake. it would worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis, deepening anarchy in gaza, and further isolate israel international. more importantly, the key goals israel wants to achieve in rafah can be done by other means. allma -- on the call today, president biden asked for a team composed of military, intelligence, and humanitarian officials to washington in the coming days to hear u.s. concerns about israel's current rafah plan, and to lay out an alternative approach that would target key hamas elements in rafah and secure the border without a major ground invasion. maryam: that was jake sullivan. on the ground, the body used by the u.n. and governments worldwide to assess food security says famine in gaza is imminent and expected between now and may in the north of the strip. you and aid agencies have been warning about rising levels of

hunger in gaza for weeks. children in northern gaza are already dying from malnutrition. the report by the -- says around half of gaza's population, 1.1 million, are already facing catastrophic hunger. for famine to be declared, at least 20% of the population must be suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children maliki -- acutely malnourished. the u.n. secretary general antonio guterres reacted to the findings. >> palestinians in gaz are enduring horrifying levels of hunger and suffering. this is the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger ever recorded by the integrated food security classification system, anywhere, anytime. maryam: meanwhile, israel has denied preventing food from getting into gaza, blaming aid

agencies for delays and accusing hamas of diverting supplies. but speaking at a gaza aid conference in brussels, the european union foreign policy chief accused israel of using starvation as a weapon of war. >> this is not a natural disaster. it is not a flood. it's not an earthquake. it's entirely man-made. by whom? by whom? by the one that prevents humanitarian support entering into gaza. by the acute insecurity inside gaza. insecurity in itself prevents distribution of help. but the problem is hundreds of trucks are waiting on the border, and the ones who control the border prevent them from coming in.

and i dare to say, well, yes, israel is provoking famine. maryam: meanwhile, the israeli military says it has taken control of the al-shifa hospital and what it calls in operation to thwart terrorist activity. the hospital is in gaza city in the north of the strip. the israeli said troops came under fire and that 80 people were detained and others killed, including a senior commander of hamas's internal security service. these are images from the raid. you can hear the gunshots, as witnesses described heavy exchanges of fire around the site or thousands of displaced people are currently sheltering, and medics are also still working with patients who are being treated. gaza's health ministry said israel was committing a war crime. let's hear from an israeli government spokesperson now. >> this morning the idf conducted a precise operation to

thwart terrorism in the al-shifa hospital area. footage shows terrorists firing from deep within the shifa complex. our forces engaged the terrorists. tens of hamas terrorists have been detained in the shifa hospital. maryam: the spokesperson was talking about these images. they were released by the idf who say they showed troops coming under fire. it is a short clip and is not confirm the timing or sequence of events per it gaza health officials have repeatedly denied the accusation that hamas operate inside or underneath al-shifa or other hospitals. these pictures show the aftermath of the raid. the israeli military said there is no obligation for patients to leave and the hospital could continue functioning. but several staff inside the hospital told the bbc electricity had been cut and they had been instructed by the prohibiting them from properly

treating patients. international medics who have worked in gaza say the medics need to be protected. >> i do not believe the idf have prevented any credible evidence since october 7 and indeed before them that these hospitals were being used as hamas command centers. i have been in shifa hospital many occasions and i've spoken to people who have worked there for many years and i do not believe there is any evidence to suggest that. maryam: let's cross live not to rafah and speak to james elder, spokesperson for the u.n. children's fund. thank you for joining us here on bbc news. let me ask you first of all for your reaction to what we have been saying today about the potential famine that is going to hit gaza very hard in the coming months. james: it is hitting gaza. we might wait for an official classification but the reality is that will not mean a lot to

people on the ground here. we are now seeing children dying of starvation come of malnutrition. normally malnutrition is the underlying cause. to see a child die from numbers, they are terrifying.the we have never seen anything like this before in gaza. the ipf, the classification on famine, we have never seen a classification as severe as this one, the percentage of people. when you drill it down to a child, a child dying of malnutrition in a hospital, they will look for a vein, the body will look constricted, highly traumatic. they will probably look for a vein in e head, and eventually the child will die. our very real fear is we are going to see it on a sle we have never seen before. maryam: what do you think now needs to happen to turn the tide? because aid agencies are saying

that it is not too late to turn the tide. james: the secretary-general is dead right. the frustrating thing is it is not that complicated. it requires more land routes, and there are land routes within kilometers aware i am more land routes to get aid in. yes, we see air drops, we see ships coming. the ship that came in will be equivalent of 12 or 13 trucks. today as i came back into gaza and i passed hundreds and hundreds of trucks. we need a facilitation of those trucks by the occupying power who has a legal obligation to facilitate them with the food that is literally just a matter of kilometers from me. and of course a cease-fire. a cease-fire to enable people to breathe again. you probably cannot hear the drones but they are relentless. there is a trauma hitting children here just as hard as the food deprivation.

so a cease-fire, and get the trucks that are so close and yet so far, get them across gaza to the families who so desperately need them. maryam: we have been breaking news in the last half an hour that israel is sending a delegation to washington to talk about a potential military operation that has been muted by a while by israel inside rafah. give people watching this a sense of what that would mean to the over one million people who are inside rafah right now, if there were to be a military operation of any sort. james: that is mind-boggling. it makes my body shake. rafah, it is very hard to walk in rafah. there are informal settlements and tents, and anywhere someone can move to, because they were told to move here three or four times having been evacuated under incursion or offensive from a shelter they were in. it is very hard to move in rafah . it's a city of children,

600,000-plus children, twice the population density of new york city. but no high-rises, everyone is on the ground. an offensive in that area? it's terrifying. it's offensive to imagine. we just hope that calm heads can prevail, because that would be utterly the data -- utterly devastating for children. and we have already seen her renders devastation in gaza. maryam: james elder, thank you very much for joining us live from rafah. the british prime minister rishi sunak has brushed away questions about his leadership of the conservative party, saying he is not interested in westminster politics. it comes after the business secretary admitted small majority of tory mp's are keen on ousting him. so how bad is it for rishi

sunak? this is the pole updated as of last week. rishi sunak's conservatives are 23%, and the opposition leader party a long way ahead on 44%. mr. sunak was asked about the speculation earlier and here is he had to say. >> i'm not interested in westminster politics. it does not matter. what matters is the future of our country and that is what i am squarely focused on. that is what i get up every morning working as hard as i can to deliver. whether it is cutting people's taxes, increasing the state pension, increasing apprenticeships and talking to small businesses. those are the things that matter to people. as we have seen, our plan is working. inflation is coming down, wages are growing, the economy is growing again. and if we stick to this plan i can deliver a brighter future for everyone in our country. that is what i am doing. maryam: let's speak now to our political correspondent hannah miller who is in westminster for us.

we have been talking about this for a while now and yet it does not feel like there is any conservative momentum in the conservative party or appetite for another leader before a potential election. hannah: that is the question, would you rather carry on with rishi sunak if you are a conservative, or would you rather have yet another change of leader? there have been rumors swirling over the weekend that there is a well-developed plot to oust him. i think those rumors are quite wildly exaggerated. but that is not to say that there is not discontent among some conservative backbenchers about the state of their party at the ment. there are really three reasons for that. the first is when you look at the polls, they have not really shifted all that much. the conservatives on average are significantly behind the labour party. and the kind of opportunities there have been for the conservatives to pull some of

that back, perhaps cuts to national insurance that were announced, don't seem to have landed all that much with the general public. there is that going on and then at the same time there is a perception among some conservative mp's that things keep going wrong and could perhaps be handled the little bit that are. if we look for example at the comments that were reportedly made by conservative donor frank hester last week, some mp's are concerned about the amount of time it took downing street to describe those comments as racist. there is also the loss of the backbencher lee anderson to reform u.k. he had been suspended over comments he had made. it is one thing to be suspended from the party, it is another to be actively campaigning against the conservative party for reform u.k. some feel he could pose something of a threat to them when the next election comes along. i think it is fair to say there

are some brighter spots essentially on the horizon for rishi sunak's leadership. there is a possibility his rwanda legislation may get through the houses of parliament , possibly as soon as this week. there is also an issue that many people care about, the economy. there is the possibility that we may see that inflation is coming down. so the question for many backbenchers really is whether they are better off sticking with rishi sunak as things are, or going through yet another change in a situation where we know the general public don't tend to reward parties that are divided and battling among themselves. maryam: thank you very much indeed. let's stay with politics, because 10 downing street at a very special visit today. the former u.s. president barack obama turned up for undisclosed talks with rishi sunak. here he is leaving number 10, described as a courtesy call while he was in the country. we know nothing about the

discussions. mr. obama of course has visited before during his term in office. david cameron was prime minister when he was at the white house. still to come on the world today, let me put in's victory lap. the russian president addressed his supporters after h landslide victory granting him a fifth term. and we g on -- and we go on board one of the warships sent to the red sea to protect merchant fleets from houthi rebels. around the world and across the u.k., this is the world today on bbc news. ♪

maryam: president putin has been addressing supporters in moscow's red square after his landslide win in russia's presidential election over the beacon. he won more than 87% of the vote, but with no real opposition.

the rally was held to mark the tent in a verse three of russia's illegal annexation of crimea. standing alongside the three loyalist candidates who were allowed to run against him, president putin said that hand in hand, russians will move forward. western countries have condemned the election as neither free nor fair. the u.s. has called incredibly undemocratic. president putin described the donbas and other parts of ukraine occupied our russian forces as part of a new russia. let's hear some of what he had to say. >> donbas, the people living there in those days of the russian spring declared their desire to return to their native family. their path back was much more difficult. but we did it. and that, too, was a great event in the history of our state.

maryam: after he secured a fifth term as president, the foreign secretary david cameron said the election outcome highlighted the depth of repression in russia. he said that putin removes his political opponents, controls the media, and crowns himself the winner. this is not democracy. in the u.s., a white house spokesperson said russia's election was obviously not free nor fair. meanwhile, russia's allies have backed the result, with india's prime minister narendra modi said he looks forward to testing their partnership with moscow. mr. putin faced no credible opposition candidates, as the kremlin is very tightly -- controls very tightly russia's political system, media, and elections. our russia editor at bbc monitoring described the reaction to the results within the country. >> within russia, state television is obviously

celebrating what it calls unprecedented numbers of people who loaded for vladimir putin, people who turned out to vote. the reality is we cannot really check those numbers because the electoral system in russia is absolutely tightly controlled by the kremlin. and there is something that happened this morning that gives us an idea of how this electoral exercise worked. one of the other three candidates on the ballot, he represents a nationalist party called -- he said he was happy for vladimir putin to win. he said he knew this was going to happen. he said this was victory. maryam: that was vitaly shevchenko. earlier i spoke to amy knight, former specialist for the library of congress. i asked her for her reaction to what we have seen. amy: i think that this rally in red square is really interesting. it is almost like putin cannot

just sit back and enjoy the fruits of the election. he has to keep going. but i think it really points out that, first of all of course, the election, and ha -- as has been pointed out earlier, was not democratic. there were no viable opposition candidates. and the antiwar candidate who did want to be on the candidate's list, was deprived of that right because they claimed he did not have enough valid signatures. so, there was no alternative really for russians. also, putin used this appeal to russian patriotism. the night before the elections he was urging people, he spoke to the nation and said we are going through a rough time and we need you to show how patriotic you are by going to

vote. so this was kind of a natural reaction i think on the part of a lot of russians. because they are patriotic and they are nationalistic. but i wonder how deep their support for mr. putin really is, and that is a question. maryam: there has been more targeting of merchant shipping in the red sea over the weekend by gunmen from the houthi movement out of yemen. the flow of trade through vital sea lanes has been seriously disrupted since houthi attacks began last year following israel's assault on gaza. america and britain have sent warships to protect merchant fleets, with the uss do dwight d. eisenhower conducting strikes against houthi targets for the last four months. jonathan beale has been on board. jonathan: a u.s. carrier, a potent signal of american military power.

now being used against houthi rebels. the uss do dwight d. eisenhower operating in the white sea trying to protect merchant ships and themselves from houthi attacks. we are the first british media on board since it began this immediate -- this mission. flying scores around the clock. it has been relentless. >> yes, this is probably the most flight have done on a deployment. jonathan: it is the most intense so far? >> absolutely. every day we are flying a ton. jonathan: daylight tells the story of what they would be doing. the bombs the missiles fired at houthi targets on land, in the drones they destroyed from the air. on this one carrier alone, they have already used hundreds of munitions. but the houthis, too, are

developing more sophisticated attacks, posing the greatest threat to the u.s. navy in recent history. >> this is deadly stuff. this is the most since world war ii, easily. jonathan: the most intense? >> very much so. ballistic missiles, uavs, v's, underwater vessels. the game is all out there, and we have been doing this almost four months. jonathan: houthi attacks began soon after israel's assault on gaza. u.s. and u.k. military intervention since has tried to stop them to protect this key trade route. these u.s. jets have been flying missions to target the houthis every single day for months now. and yet all this u.s. firepower still has not been able to deter them, let alone defeat them. and america believes the houthis are not acting alone. but there are political concerns

about widening this conflict. >> we know i -- we know iran is in some way backing the houthis. they are providing targeting, also providing resupply of weapons. and they are providing them expertise as well. jonathan: shouldn't you be going after an? >> that is a policy decision. but the root of this does start with iran. jonathan: the question is how long can the u.s. maintained its military presence. jonathan beale, bbc news, on on board the wss dwight d. eisenhower. maryam: two people are being treated in slovakia after being attacked by a bear. this is footage showing the animal bounding down a road, lunging at a man on pavement, leaving him with a gash on the head. a woman suffered an injury to her shoulder. it came a day after a belarusian woman apparently fell to her

death as she fled a bear in the mountains. stay with us here on the world today. we have an exclusive interview with the human rights activist about the authoritarian regime in nicaragua. stay with us on bbc news. ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. bdo. accountants and advisors. cunard is a proud supporter of public television. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ amna: od evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the “newshour” tonight, russia's vladimir putin extends his presidency after securing a preordained fifth term. amna: a look at former president donald trump's violent language on the campaign trail.