this is bbc news. i'm kasia madera. our top stories: in israel, dozens of people are killed in a stampede at a religious festival attended by tens of thousands of ultra—orthodox jews. my husband, the president of the united states, joe biden! president biden holds a rally in georgia, the first stop on a tour to encourage americans to support his sweeping economic plans. actor noel clarke denies sexual harrassment allegations after newspaper reports led to a suspension from bafta. and astonishment as a new gene therapy improves the vision of some patients with a rare inherited eye condition.

welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. local media quoting emergency services in israel say at least 38 people have been killed in a stampede at a jewish festival. tens of thousands of people had gathered at the foot of mount meron in northern israel to celebrate a jewish holiday. the emergency services have been treating people at the scene, but have found it difficult to evacuate the injured due to dense crowds. prime minister benjamin netanyahu has called the incident a "heavy disaster". the annual celebration was closed last year because of the pandemic and there were concerns raised that despite israel's vaccination programme going well, the event could be a super spreader if large crowds were present this year. yanki farber is a journalist with the jewish orthodox news website, behadrei haredim, and is near tel aviv.

he was due to go to the festival himself. basically, i go every year to the place because, you know, it's very exciting and like sometimes we have, like, like, just, you know, 500,000 people coming to celebrate this event but because it is a weekend and, you know, some people are afraid they will not be able to get back before saturday, before the shabbat, you know people who keep shabbat, 0rthodox people who keep shabbat, they — it's a bit complicated to go because it's quite far and it takes a long time to get back and the the streets are very full of traffic so people don't really go. that's why i didn't go, but usually i go. and i watched live — it was live from the place, on all websites, all tv channels and everything — and eventually, you know, let's say like over 1000 people together tried to go down a very, very smooth place, very narrow place, road,

and theyjust fell on top of each other. nothing collapsed, theyjust fell on top of each other. and so far, we know there was like almost five oh, 50 people dead, probably, definitely 44 — they are thinking about 50 — and about, you know, more than 100 people injured very badly. now, the reason why not much — i mean, much more people audio cuts out but the thing is, there is a lot, there is like 100 of, you know, medic people go to this place every year. i mean, the people who celebrate themselves audio cuts out medic people but so many audio curs om— they, you know, they quite — they quickly saved a lot of people and so many ambulance and the israeli idf and israeli air force and idf inevitably joined together and they — they — the place is are already, you know, how do you say clean. i mean, all the people — all the injured people are in the hospital.

but they counted bodies, probably like 44 definitely. the families don't know yet because it's impossible to identify every single one of them. some of them probably would not have any identification on them. and yeah, it is a big disaster and it is a little bit ill, you know, to blame people - and sali— i don't know what audio cuts out going to pay for it because, | you know, push 2000 people in one tiny little place. this is really, you know, an open place to be a disaster and i don't know what's going to happen but at the moment, the place is closed, shut down, no celebration, all music off. the police and, you know, and the transport — transport service are only taking people from the place to — back to the — to jerusalem, tel aviv, and all over israel. they not allow — nobody�*s coming to the place any more. it is a very, very small place and when, you know, you have, like, more than 500,000 people coming to the place, there is a lot of traffic so police blocked everything, stopped everything.

by the way, they also even stopped the roadwork. no — usually they do at night, all the work. but they stopped them because they want, you know, everybody should get out of the place as quick as possible and a lot of my friends were there and theyjust said we saw people falling on top of each other, stepping on top of each other. a lot of people didn't have air, couldn't breathe, so key unintelligble. lucky there was not any babies because, you know, usually babies don't go to such places but kids and i don't know, i heard most of the people were young — the one who died, you know — aged 17—20. i really don't know what's going to — the exact amount of people, but it looks like around 50 people dead. yanki, it is good of you to bring us up to date with what you have heard and i have to say we are — we cannot confirm exactly how many people, but we — we are quoting emergency services, who are saying at least 38 have been killed in this stampede. just help us to explain a little bit because as you were saying, you had planned to go.

last year — this is an annual festival — last year it had been — it had been postponed, it was closed because of the pandemic. of course, we are hearing about the success of israel's vaccination programme. what was the thinking this year? of course, it did go ahead but were these the numbers that one would have expected normally, annually, that we saw? because we believe it was tens of thousands of people who were there. yeah. well, two things. first of all, yeah, because israel has been out very quickly of the pandemic — i mean, you know, more than half of the country has been vaccinated. by the way, i mean, you know, britain, you know, england, basically, you did not bad. i mean, unintelligible. but you did very, very well. i mean, i watch the news and i read all the time bbc and i watch bbc, i read on the website and you are doing a very good job. england, it looks very, very good, so i mean, i see the shops and, you know, shopping centres in england

being open, so the same here in israel. you know, we have learned from each other and we did a very good job so some people said "well, you know, no pandemic, let's go and celebrate" but i want to say there was less than 100,000 people. usually, there is, like, 400,000 people, 500,000 people. people are still a little bit afraid from the corona, from the pandemic, so they still think twice before they leave the house, you know, to a place where too many people get together and, and as you said, 38 people died on the scene, another six died at the hospital, and they are still struggling to save lives of people who are very badly injured. yanki farber there. as you heard, he was planning to go to that festival himself and we will keep you up to date on any developments. president biden has spoken at a rally in the us state of georgia to mark his 100th day in office. it's the first stop on a tour to urge americans to support his plans to spend trillions of

dollars rebuilding the economy. during his opening remarks, the president was interrupted by hecklers objecting to prisoners being held in privately—run detention centres. yelling. i agree with you. i'm working on it, man. give me another five days! cheering and applause. horns blare. folks, you all know what they are talking about. there should be no private prisons, period. none, period. that's what we're talking about — private detention centres. they should not exist and we are working to close all of them. well, the president went on to explain how his muliti—trillion dollar spending plans would be funded.

it's about time the very wealthy and corporations start paying theirfair share. it's about time. cheering and applause. horns blare. it's as simple as that. and, folks, i'm not going to bore you with the details but i promise you, no—one making under $100,000 a year is going to pay a single additional penny in tax, no—one. as i said last night, the middle class and working people of this country have already paid enough in taxes. it's time for the richest 1% of americans in corporate america to start to do their part. well, earlier i spoke to american economist, robert reich, a former us labour secretary who served in the administrations of presidents ford, carter and under bill clinton. i asked for his reaction to president biden�*s ambitious spending plan. well, it's very large, relative to other spending plans we've seen by previous democratic presidents but to call it socialist, well,

that is kind of a broad brush. the fact of the matter is that american workers, american people of middle class, working class people don't have many of the benefits that other workers in developed countries have in terms of paid family and medical leave, early childhood education or preschool, some help with higher education costs, and so on. these are not radical positions. the fact of the matter is that most americans actually do need them and the pandemic has revealed to most americans the extent of that need. so how much of this is going through historically in terms of helping people within the united states? and how much of his spending plans is due to, does he feel he can do, because of the pandemic, because of what we have been seeing over the past year? well, i think actually quite a lot of it. the pandemic revealed to most americans the extent of inequality but also revealed to much of the middle class

and working class how thin ice they are actually skating on, the extent to which the extent they really need to have a stronger safety net to catch them, should they fall. and many people in the united states have found themselves either unemployed or in danger of being unemployed. most americans live pay cheque to pay cheque and there is not the sort of underlying props that you find in most other developed countries in terms of unemployment insurance — yes, there is, but only 30% of americans were out of work qualify for unemployment insurance. you find in area after area — public health is another area where most americans discovered during the pandemic how bad the american system of public health actually is. so although rugged individualism still prevails in the united states, joe biden, the oldest president

in american history, someone with a history himself of being a centrist, is coming into an administration right now and into the oval office with probably the largest and most ambitious plan any president in the post—world war ii history has provided. perhaps lyndonjohnson�*s great society is the only competitor. former us labour secretary robert reich. bafta has suspended the actor noel clarke, just weeks after he received one of its top awards, following newspaper allegations of sexual harassment. he denies the allegations. in a statement, bafta said it made the decision "in light of the allegations of serious misconduct", in the british newspaper, the guardian. the kidulthood, bulletproof and doctor who actor was presented with the outstanding british contribution to cinema award this month. 0ur correspondent tim muffett has more. bafta has issued a statement. it says that "in the light of allegations of serious misconduct regarding

noel clarke in the guardian, bafta has taken the decision to suspend his membership and the outstanding british contribution to cinema award immediately and until further notice". now, this comes following a series of allegations in the guardian concerning the actor's behaviour. noel clarke has said he vehemently denies any allegations. he has said in a statement that "in a 20—year career, i've put inclusivity and diversity at the forefront of my work and have never had a complaint against me". tim muffett reporting. stay with us on bbc world news, still to come: the ground breaking new treatment helping people who have a rare form of inherited sight loss. nothing, it seemed, was too big to withstand the force of the tornado. the extent of the devastation will lead to renewed calls for government help to

build better housing. internationally, there have already been protests. sweden says it received no warning of the accident. indeed, the russians at first denied anything had gone wrong. only when radioactivity levels began to increase outside russia were they forced to admit the accident. for the mujahideen, the mood here is of great celebration. this is the end of a 12—year warfor them. they have taken the capital which they have been fighting for for so long. it was 7 o'clock in the morning on the day when power began to pass from the minority to the majority, when africa, after 300 years, reclaimed its last white colony. this is bbc world news, our main headline:

israeli media report at least 38 people have been killed in a stampede at a jewish festival. let's stay with that story now: amie liebowitz reports on religion, particularlyjewish culture and anti—semitism for our colleagues at world service radio. she says it's an event celebrated all over the world. that has been reported that there were over 100,000 people attended the event in mount meron. i must say that lag b'0mer is celebrated byjews all over the world. this particular festival is on the eve of the lag b'0mer. that is where hasidicjews come to the mountain to visit the burial of the second century sage who supposedly has ca balistic, mystical powers. i see. this is an annual festival as well?

yes, definitely. we celebrate this every year. in terms of the importance of it, of course, it is incredible how we see so many people coming to this. it was cancelled last year, it's an annual event but cancelled last year because of the pandemic and back on as we are seeing now. yes, definitely. israel's vaccination rates are extremely high, and a lot of the country is open and active as per usual. there weren't so many restrictions coming up to the event but police were aware and this was months and weeks of planning. the infrastructure that goes around this. the national bus service in israel has been planning this for a very long time as well. they did expect these sorts of numbers. however, i'm sure they didn't expect what happened today. no, of course, and like i say

the details at the moment are still coming in, and some of the images we can't show what happened in this stampede because they are just simply too devastating to see. talk us through the — how this looks in terms of people because what we're seeing are quite narrow areas through which people are going through. how does this look on the ground? according to reports, and i have spoken tojournalistsjust a few minutes ago, someone had fallen into these narrow spaces and created a chain reaction, which then created a stampede. unfortunately, as people panicked and they can see what was happening, police were confused, people were unable to leave the area and unfortunately there were images of people suffocating in the space. so how does this work normally then? where are people going to when they are in this religious festival? i can only assume that being in the grandstand that they

were singing together, prayers, harmonising together, talking about the festival. however, lag b'0mer is celebrated in many different ways, through bonfire, music, singing and dancing, but it has been reported that there will be no further events occurring due to the event. amy leibowitz for us there. england's top league football teams are boycotting twitter, facebook and instagram from friday, in an attempt to urge social media companies to do more to stop online abuse. men's and women's clubs are taking part, as well as the sport's governing bodies. england's rugby and cricket teams will alsojoin, as well as british cycling. they say they want to show their collective anger at social media companies. high—profile players have been repeatedly sent threatening and racist messages, despite the firms promising to take action. the boycott will last four days. earlier, i spoke to

chief social scientist, dr marc smith, from the social media research foundation in california. he says these platforms should be taking more responsibility. 0ur organisation will be watching this and my colleagues in the uk will be cooperating with the effort to monitor this event and social media. the question really is do the platforms need the leagues and clubs more than the legs and clubs more than the legs and clubs need the platforms? that beas clubs need the platforms? that be . s the clubs need the platforms? that begs the question, _ clubs need the platforms? that begs the question, do - clubs need the platforms? that begs the question, do they? well, yellow, we will find out, there are many willing to contribute content to the platforms and not clear whether during the boycott these discussions will not continue between the legs and clubs but it also will eventually come out whether or not this hurts the legs and clubs more, having said that, the call for action seems like a valid one. this is

a marketplace of ideas and so a boycott in that market seems like a perfectly fair action to take. i wonder, when you have --eole, take. i wonder, when you have people, because _ take. i wonder, when you have people, because tangibly - people, because tangibly someone we could look at, the former arsenal in france struck a thierry henry, he removed himself from social media in march because of racism and bullying across platforms, what kind of an impact is someone as well—known as thierry henry removing himself from social platforms would have? —— striker. platforms would have? -- striker. ., , ., platforms would have? -- striker. ., , striker. for his own purposes, i'm sure _ striker. for his own purposes, i'm sure it _ striker. for his own purposes, i'm sure it helped _ striker. for his own purposes, i'm sure it helped him - striker. for his own purposes, i'm sure it helped him and - striker. for his own purposes, i'm sure it helped him and i'm sure his experiences were very toxic and the question is the platforms act not as publishers, they have said that but they are hosts of venues and if we knew about a conference centre or a convention hall that routinely had violence and conflict, we may hold the surveyors and managers of the venues to

account. we do have legitimate issues with the platforms. they need to do a betterjob. the question i think is how can we have some power over that? how can we shape their behaviours? i boycott is a good first step. i boycott is a good first step. i guess on the field, there is a referee to whom you can appeal. the question now is on the platforms, he was the referee for social media? when will ou referee for social media? when will you see _ referee for social media? when will you see the _ referee for social media? when will you see the kind _ referee for social media? when will you see the kind of- referee for social media? when will you see the kind of racisml will you see the kind of racism and bullying that people are experiencing, how, what kind of responsibility should these platforms take? if somebody did that to you _ platforms take? if somebody did that to you and _ platforms take? if somebody did that to you and i _ platforms take? if somebody did that to you and i pump _ platforms take? if somebody did that to you and i pump my - that to you and i pump my understanding, i studied that to you and i pump my understanding, istudied in great britain, you can be banned from a pub. if this was a restaurant, if this was a pub or club and people behave this way towards one another in that venue, i'm pretty sure management would be involved.

my management would be involved. my argument is we cannot really necessarily assume that the platforms will take care of this. it is a big problem, a big plan, but it could help fix the problem by letting us for ourselves. 0ur organisation seeks to get data from the platforms that would allow players for example to document in great detail how much abuse they receive in an effort to make the case that it should stop. doctor smith on that social media boycott which will start a little later on friday. patients with a rare inherited eye condition, which causes gradual sight loss have said they are astonished and delighted by the success of a new form of gene therapy. 0ur medical editor, fergus walsh, has more, and just a warning — his report includes images of the operation. jake has been gradually losing his sight since birth but no longer, thanks to

a ground—breaking gene therapy. i've just been able to see facial features on my own face, it's something that i never used to be able to do. jake, from county durham, has a rare inherited condition which means his central vision is largely a blur. since his right eye was treated a year ago his peripheral vision has improved. i'm in the best place i've probably been in 2a yea rs of life. last year for a lot of people was a dark and miserable year but for me it was probably the best year of my life. after a year's delay due to covid, jake has now had his other eye treated at moorfields eye hospital in london, which it's hoped may further stabilise and perhaps improve his vision. the one—off gene therapy, called luxturna, is delivered via injection. it costs £600,000 but the nhs has agreed a discounted price with the manufacturer novartis.

the injection delivers working copies of a faulty gene, rpe65, into the retina at the back of the eye. the dna is encased in a harmless virus which breaks into the retinal cells. once inside the nucleus of the eye the replacement gene kick—starts production of the rpe65 protein essential for healthy vision. this is really transformational. it provides an opportunity, hope for people, not only with the specific condition, but people with other similar conditions hope that they can protect their sight in the long term. i keep noticing subtle improvements. i noticed one today coming into this park. i noticed that there are railings above the entrance to the gate. matthew from london has the same rare inherited condition and has had one eye treated. the second operation is next month. aged a8, his vision had already deteriorated much further than jake's.

i lost my central vision about ten years ago and it had a really severe impact on how i live and who i am. if the treatment means that it puts off another decline like that then that's going to be amazing. matthew's wife has noticed he is more independent. he doesn't have to ask me every little thing. is this on the right setting? the washing machine, the coffee machine — you know — those things that are just everyday people take for granted, matthew can now do himself. around a dozen people in the uk have received the gene therapy, including several children — who stand to benefit most, as it may halt their sight loss before permanent damage is done. fergus walsh, bbc news. before i go, our main story, israeli media has reported 38 of been killed in a stampede at

eightjewish festival. this is a story we are continuing to monitor, a developing situation. stampede at a jewish festival. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @ bbckasiamadera. hello. april will continue to try to make amends with a bit more rain before the month is done during friday, in the form of showers that will continue into the first weekend of may, and it will stay on the cool side with a risk of frost at night. and then for the bank holiday — look at this area of low pressure — a long way away but it's coming for us on monday. until then, we find ourselves in the wake of low pressure. unstable air, meaning showers and the flow of air coming in from the north—east. some cool direction. temperatures below average for the time of year, and another frost out there for many, as we start the day for friday morning. rather patchy in nature, more likely in the countryside than in the town and city centres, but it will be chilly. there'll be plenty of sunshine. already a few showers running in towards the north sea

coastal areas. but after the early sunshine elsewhere, some cloud is going to build and the showers break out more widely. some heavy, perhaps with hail and thunder. not everybody will catch them, though, and as for temperatures, it is quite cool, particularly along north sea coasts — many of us just in the range of 9—12 celsius. perhaps fewer showers in northern ireland compared with thursday, so more in the way of dry, sunny weather. as ever, the showers — not everybody�*s going to catch them — they will tend to fade away after dark overnight and into saturday morning and with another chilly start, with another patchy frost, but a lot of sunshine to start the weekend, to start saturday. but wait for it, it all happens again. the shower clouds build, the showers break out, some heavy with hail and thunder. they will be wintry, too, over the higher hills and mountains, particularly in scotland. maybe temperatures a degree or so higher on saturday and the winds are light, so if you are in some sunshine, it will feel reasonable, as it will again on sunday after a chilly start, but the showers will get

going once again. more cloud gathering out to our west — that's the area of low pressure i showed you coming in for the bank holiday. now, there's still something to play for in the timing of the arrival of this wet and windy weather moving in from the atlantic on monday. it may well be that the far north of scotland, the far south—east of england stay dry for a large part of the day before the rain gets in. but if you think rain is coming on the bank holiday, the winds are going to be picking up as well and it is going to still be on the cool side for the time of year, you won't go far wrong.

this is bbc news, the headlines: dozens of people have been killed and scores more injured in a stampede at a jewish festival in israel. tens of thousands of ultra—orthodox jews had gathered at the foot of mount meron in the country's north to mark a jewish holiday. president biden�*s held a rally in georgia on his one hundredth day in office. he said that he wanted the very wealthy and corporations to start paying their share of tax. it's the first stop on a tour to urge americans to support his sweeping economic plans. actor noel clarke has denied sexual harrassment allegations that have appeared in a british newspaper. the report in the guardian led to the kidulthood and doctor who star having his bafta membership and an outstanding achievement award suspended. now it's time for hardtalk.