welcome to bbc news — i'm maryam moshiri. our top stories: heavy israeli airstrikes and palestinian rocket fire continues through the night — joe biden says he hopes the violence will end soon. from the other side — palestinian militants fire rockets into israel — hitting an apartment building — and seriously wounding a young child. colombia is rocked by weeks of deadly protests — we report from the city that's seen the worst of the violence. can new zealand make tourism more environmentally reponsible as it reopens its travel bubble with australia? and the power of the mind — the paralysed man using brain implants to convert thoughts into words.

hello and welcome. the deadly conflict between israeli forces — and palestinians — has continued well into the night, with palestinian militants firing waves of rockets into israeli cities.us secretary of state anthony blinken has called palestinian president mahmoud abbas and condemned the rocket attacks and reiterated the need for tensions to be de—esculated — a point similarly made in a call between presidentjoe biden and israeli prime minister benjamin netunyahu. 67 palestinians and 7 israelis have been killed since the latest flare up in violence began on monday. our middle east correspondent tom bateman, begins our coverage, you may find some scenes in his report disturbing.

the world's asking if the region is on the brink of war. people who woke to this feel it's already here. palestinians in gaza faced the fiercest israeli bombardment since the last all—out conflict. israel says it's going after militant leaders. some were killed in their homes. but civilians died in this strike, say palestinian health officials. in gaza, a territory under blockade, grief quickly turns to anger.

dozens have now died since the violence erupted on monday. and they are still counting their dead. rocket fire from gaza has continued deep into israel, and the sirens are near nonstop in towns close by. ok, that's an interception — let's get in. as we've heard air strikes pound the gaza strip just a couple of miles away throughout the course of this morning and into the afternoon, more retaliation, more fire, from gaza. underfire, asha and his son ran for the safe room. but their neighbour, an 89—year—old woman, didn't make it. she is seriously injured. her carer died in the strike.

there are growing international calls for restraint, but for now it seems that no one here is listening. it is the intensity of these attacks that has led both sides to say they will step up their strikes in retaliation. a descent into much further violence seems inevitable. more rockets are shot down in israel's skies, and the streets are burning too. tonight in a mixed jewish—arab town i saw how fear and chaos are spreading. violence betweenjewish people and arabs inside israel is the fear is spiralling. spiralling. here, jewish extremists attacked an ambulance and then check a car to see if arabs orjews are inside. along the coast, a popular arab restaurant comes under attack. in another mixed town, a jewish

man is beaten by arab—israelis. a synagogue has also been torched. israel's leader calls it anarchy. a wave of anger that began injerusalem has spilled out to the occupied territories and into israel itself. the country is engulfed in multiple flashpoints. it may be too late to contain it now. tom bateman, bbc news, lod in central israel. mosab abu toha is a writer and poet from beit lahia in the north of gaza. he told me what the situation on the ground has been like in the last few hours. the firing of the rockets continues to this moment. i can hear it in the background. the bombing by the israelis and some rockets into israel,

i mean, just in the few last minutes, the israelis have bombarded a residential building near my town. a few minutes ago a couple of people were pulled out from under the rubble, killed, while other people from theirfamilies, sorry, were rescued and taken to hospital. so it is still growing more and more tense here. and what are the perceptions of gazans of the conflict? do they still support the action by hamas? most people believe that the reason this started because the hamas military wing spokesperson told the israelis that if they do not stop their attacks, and their expulsion of people in sheikh jarrah in east jerusalem and they gave them a deadline at 6pm last monday, and it seems like israel did not heed that threat that hamas gave them and at that moment an israeli military regime was targeted by a missile

and it achieved a hit directly. mostly, and nine of them were killed 30 minutes after that attack. six of the nine were children. and then it took from there, the firing of rockets and more bombs on houses, on streets, on you know, different parts of gaza. and we are still living in

the aftermath of this exchange. do you think there is a roadmap to peace now? i believe there should be peace but this should be based on equality between us and the israelis. i think many people, i mean, if you ask people "would you like these clashes to continue?" you would get one of three answers. some people would say no, we do not need to go on with this. it is enough, what we had in 2014 where more than 2000 people were killed and hundreds, thousands of buildings were destroyed. and those houses and buildings have not yet been reconstructed until this moment so why are we going into something like that? so these people want this to stop, the attacks. and then other people would say now israel killed, the number rose to 69, 20 of whom were children. so some, maybe a minority might say ok, those people who were killed, why? at what cost? and then the third group of people would say we need to just live a normal life, we do not need more of this or that.

we just want to be safe in our houses, especially because of the children and i have three children myself and i am fearfulfor them. let's get some of the day's other news. the colonial pipeline in the united states has restarted operations after being forced to shut down following a cyber attack last friday. petrol stations have been running out of fuel following the attack. colonial pipeline, which accounts for forty five percent of the east coast�*s supply, says it will not pay the ransom demanded by the hackers, but has opted instead to rebuild its system with cybersecutiry experts. the company says the process will take several days.

at least 27 people have been killed in colombia, where thousands of demonstrators clashed with police over the past two weeks. police grappling with protesters in colombia. for two weeks now the country has seen the worst outbreak of protests and violence in its recent history. "they kill him, they kill him", people shout. tehy curse at a policeman who has just gunned down two protesters. this is how it starts with a massive protest of students, indigenous people and workers. then the police come, and it takes over this area, they start shooting. they are investigating at least 1000 cases of police brutality. this is also the most violent wave of protests in recent to introduce a tax reform which caused outrage among many colombians who say they are already struggling to feed theirfamilies during the pandemic and find jobs.

the government quickly withdrew the tax proposal but it was too late. the protests had intensified. no longer against tax reforms but against police brutality, inequality, and the lack of opportunity in a country lacerated by decades of armed conflict and drug trafficking. in response, the government has sent the army to the streets. people are enraged at the actions of riot police who are using live ammunition to disperse protesters. dozens of people have died. amidst all this violence and division, colombians are turning against each other. here, the people dressed in white who live in this exclusive residential complex say they were being attacked by indigenous people.

here you can see one of those same people in white against a backdrop of violence, the colombian president says the police have a right to defend themselves. people say they will continue to protest even if it puts their life in danger. because for them, colombia needs a fundamental change. let's get some of the day's other news. the colonial pipeline in the united states has restarted operations after being forced to shut down following a cyber attack last friday. petrol stations have

been running out of fuel following the attack. colonial pipeline, which accounts for forty five percent of the east coast�*s supply, says it will not pay the ransom demanded by the hackers, but has opted instead to rebuild its system with cybersecutiry experts. the company says the process will take several days. republicans in the us house of representatives have sacked liz cheney, a vocal critic of donald trump, from the party's third highest position. ms cheney had been chair of the house republican conference, but her vote to impeach the former president — and her continuing criticism over mr trump's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen — has made her unpopular in the party. she has vowed to do everything to ensure the former president never gets back into the white house. the electric car company, tesla, has announced it will no longer accept bitcoin in payment for vehicles. in a tweet, tesla ceo, elon musk, said they were concerned about the rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions. the cryptocurrency�*s price

has fallen on the news. ellen d'generous has announced she is ending her us talk show next year after nineteen years on air — saying the show is just "not a challenge anymore." the ellen show is a household name — but a few months ago faced accusations of being a toxic place to work. stay with us on bbc news — still to come: new zealand looks at how it can make tourism more environmentally reponsible as it re—opens its travel bubble with australia. "the pope was shot, the pope will live" — that is the essence of the appalling news from rome this afternoon that, as an italian television commentator put it, terrorism has come to the vatican. the man they called the butcher of lyon, klaus barbie, went on trial today in the french town where he was the gestapo chief in the second world war. winnie mandela never looked like a woman just sentenced to six years injail. the judge told mrs mandela

there was no indication she felt even the slightest remorse. the chinese government has called for an all—out effort. to help the victims - of a powerful earthquake — the worst to hit the i country for 30 years. the computer deep blue has tonight triumphed over the world chess champion, gary kasparov. it is the first time a machine has defeated a reigning world champion in a classical chess match. america's first legal same—sex marriages have been taking place in massachusetts. god bless america! this is bbc news. the latest headlines: continues through the night. joe biden says he hopes the violence will end soon. israel's president appeals forjews and arab israelis to avoid descending into what he called a "senseless civil war".

scientists at stanford university in the us have found a way to help a paralysed man write on a computer by using chips implanted into his brain that converts his thoughts into words. the man was asked to imagine that he was using a pen and paper to write sentences, which the chips decoded. the system has reached an average texting speed with 94% accuracy — farfaster and more precise than previous methods. frank willett is the lead author of this study and joins me now. very good to talk to you. just explained to viewers at home what exactly this chip is all about. what does it allow us to do? , , , ., , about. what does it allow us to do? , , , ., , do? these sensors are very small, do? these sensors are very small. 4x4 _ do? these sensors are very small, 4x4 millimetres, - do? these sensors are very i small, 4x4 millimetres, arrays of tiny electrodes that are placed on the outer layer of the brain, and they are

interfacing with actionable single neurons, so we are listening to the electrical impulses, single nerve cells in the brain. impulses, single nerve cells in the brain-— the brain. what is new about this particular _ the brain. what is new about this particular research? - the brain. what is new about | this particular research? what is new about _ this particular research? what is new about it _ this particular research? what is new about it is _ this particular research? what is new about it is the - this particular research? what is new about it is the idea - this particular research? what is new about it is the idea of l is new about it is the idea of using handwriting, so previous brain computer interfaces work by allowing people to move a computer cursor on the screen using their thoughts, using their brain activity, and to type things they would click on keys one at a time, but we found it is actually much faster to have them instead of doing that, to try to handwrite each letter they want to write, so they are paralysed, so the hand is not moving, but as they try to make their handwrite these different letters, it evokes these patterns of brain activity that we are able to translate into text on the screen and this can achieve speeds that are almost as high as normal handwriting. i5 speeds that are almost as high as normal handwriting. is it actionable _ as normal handwriting. is it actionable normal- as normal handwriting. is it actionable normal handwriting when it is written out eventually?—

when it is written out eventually? when it is written out eventuall ? ., , , , eventually? no, this is 'ust translatingi eventually? no, this is 'ust translating it into i eventually? no, this is 'ust translating it into text, h eventually? no, this isjust translating it into text, so l translating it into text, so you can type on the computer, or maybe you can use it to type on your phone, descended texts, this is about restoring someone who was severely paralysed, we're talking about people who are locked and cannot speak and have no other way of writing an e—mail or expressing their thoughts, so this is about allowing them to type something on a computer. we're not necessarily at reconstructing the motion of the pain and allowing them to make an image of a letter, although we have actually looked at reconstructing those shapes, but that's not how the device works. i5 but that's not how the device works. , ., ~' , but that's not how the device works. , ., ~ , ., works. is it working my reading someone's _ works. is it working my reading someone's mind _ works. is it working my reading someone's mind or _ works. is it working my reading someone's mind or is - works. is it working my reading someone's mind or is it - works. is it working my reading someone's mind or is it more l works. is it working my reading| someone's mind or is it more to do with the brainwave activity? is not reading their mind in the sense that it is reading their inner thoughts, all it is doing is listening to the brain activity that tells the system what you are trying to move, what you are trying to move, what movements you are making, so it is listening to that activity that is saying i want

to move my fingers in this way and i want to try and make my imaginary pen do this kind of stroke or that kind of stroke and it is deciphering dad and figuring out what the letter is in allowing you to type it. this is really exciting and will help a lot of people eventually. what are the next steps in terms of commercialising this? this ri . ht commercialising this? this right now _ commercialising this? this right now is _ commercialising this? this right now is a _ right now is a research demonstration, a proof of concept that this is an exciting method that could in theory be really useful for someone who is locked in and severely paralysed, but translated you would need to do a few things, you would need to make these brain chips, these sensors, fully implantable and wireless, and you would also need to make this system really easy to use commas are right now, it takes a while to actually train the computer how to recognise each of these different letters and have a decode from the brain activity, so in a real product you would want to streamline that so the user does not have to train the system for very long. fascinating to talk to you, thank you so much.

new zealand's prime minister jacinda ardern says the government is exploring opportunities for quarantine free travel as she tries to formulate the reopening of the country. recently a travel bubble reopened with australia — it's biggest market but before the pandemic the country used to receive around 4 million visitors a year. and while it's likely to be many months before it gets back to that level some say it's the perfect moment to rethink how tourism can be made more environmentally responsible. from queenstown new zealand, the bbc�*s shaimaa khalil reports. yelling. it's the kind of high—octane adventure new zealand is famous for: a mix of dramatic scenery, adrenaline rush, and a whole lot of cold water. yeah! it's fairly busy here today because of school holidays — which is a welcome change — but still, nothing like it was before covid—i9 hit. pre—pandemic, operators ran eight boat rides an hour. this past year, it was down to only one.

don't start sticking your arms out the side of the boat, it's not good... in this tourist town, some operators have gone out of business since the country closed its borders. 0thers got by, relying on locals. we went from a business that was very accustomed to taking 1,200 people a day, having a lot of people on the ground to do that, to suddenly having to really enjoy the fact that we might have 200 in a day. before the pandemic, there were worries new zealand was getting too popular, risking the pristine environment which so many came to see. now, there are calls to use this lull as a chance to curb tourism's heavy carbon footprint. proposals presented to the government include limiting visitor numbers and a departure tax to help offset tourism's climate impact. it's a difficult prospect for an industry that has suffered so badly. it does feel a little bit like the dog's already down

and we're having somebody step on our throats. but everybody needs to look at themselves environmentally, because this is the product that we purvey. when you do compare it to the other major industries in the country, which are categorically larger carbon producers, is tourism really the appropriate thing to be looking at right now? there's never a right time to make change. yes, there's a short—term crisis to be managed, but long—term, we need an industry which is more sustainable. asking travellers to contribute a small amount as they leave our shores is the most constructive thing we can do. people are starting to say "i've got choices. where can i go, to a place which is responsible and takes this seriously?" polluting jet boat operators know they have to adapt. here, they're planning to use electric engines to cut carbon emissions and noise. worldwide, new zealand is seen as a success story for how it handled covid—i9. and despite its reliance on tourism, it remains reluctant to open its borders

beyond the travel bubble with australia. with more visitors eventually returning, they will find a country taking a fresh look at how to protect the natural wonders that millions have come to enjoy. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, queenstown. throughout the pandemic, people have been turning to unproven and often extreme methods to fight covid—i9 including drinking bleach and taking unlicensed drugs. but this one definitely doesn't pass the sniff test. some people in india have been using cow dung as an immunity booster. and a warning, some viewers may find the following report from courtney bembridge difficult to watch. the cow is a sacred animal in india, hindus considering as a symbol of life and earth. the animals roam freely on the country's roads, but this is not a regular site. in the

state of gudjurat, this group visits a cow shelter once a week to cover their bodies in dung and urine hoping it will boost their immunity against coronavirus i help them recover from the illness. translation: the biggest _ from the illness. translation: the biggest concern _ from the illness. translation: the biggest concern these - from the illness. translation: the biggest concern these days| the biggest concern these days is our bodies do not get enough vitamin d bi2. it is found in abundance in the cow. if we mix cow dung and urine and spirit on our body, the vitamin d get absorbed. on our body, the vitamin d get absorbed-— absorbed. while they wait for it to dry. _ absorbed. while they wait for it to dry. the _ absorbed. while they wait for it to dry, the group _ absorbed. while they wait for it to dry, the group do - absorbed. while they wait for it to dry, the group do yoga l it to dry, the group do yoga and on other cows. then they wash it all off with buttermilk. doctors have warned against the practice, saying it risks spreading other diseases. there is no scientific evidence to prove the cow dung can be used as a treatment or immunity booster against the corona infection. booster against the corona infection-—

booster against the corona infection. �* , , _ , infection. assigned say they have been _ infection. assigned say they have been fighting - infection. assigned say they have been fighting an - infection. assigned say they - have been fighting an avalanche of misinformation as the country battles a devastating second wave of the virus. india has recorded more than 23 million cases and more than 250,000 deaths, but it is via the actual numbers could be much higher as people struggle to find hospital beds, oxygen and medicine. there have been long lines outside vaccination centres as well, we demand far outstripping supply. translation: we are trying our best, with as much as we have. it is a little difficult to manage the crowd. in the absence _ manage the crowd. in the absence of _ manage the crowd. in the absence of proper- manage the crowd. in the - absence of proper treatments, some people will continue to look to alternatives. before we go, a brazilian pianist has been unable to play for decades after his hand was broken during a mugging, but now that has changed. with the

help of these are special bionic gloves, he has been able to play again, the gloves work by using a series of rods to help his fingers bring into place. a lovely story to end on. hello there. the weather is in a very unsettled mood, notjust for the next few days, even as we head on into the weekend and into next week. that's because we've got low pressure nearby. for the next few days, it looks like it will stay showery, some heavy downpour in places with some hail and thunder, but also some warm sunshine around, too. now, low pressure sitting on top of the country on thursday. this weather front bringing some wet weather to start the day for wales, up to the midlands, into the south and south—west of england. but it will tend to clear away through the day. away from the north and east of scotland, which will be rather grey through the day today, northern ireland, southern scotland and the rest of northern and eastern england will see some sunshine. but then the showers will get going again into the afternoon. and like the last few days, some will be heavy with a mix of hail and thunder in places. temperatures reaching 14—15 celsius for most, but rather cool again across

the far northeast of scotland. now, as we head through thursday night, it looks like the showers will tend to fade away from most areas, and that weather front will clear away completely. so, many places will be turning dry, but we will start to see some cloud rolling into northern and eastern areas, so that should stop temperatures from falling much below 6—7 celsius, so another frost—free night for most. as we head on into friday, we are in between weather systems, low pressure to the east, a new area of low pressure slowly encroaching in off the atlantic. and you will also notice the blue colours across the north of the uk. this colder air tries to get into the north—east of the country but doesn't get too far, but it will bring enough chill to the north and east of scotland, and in northeast england it will be quite noticeable there. but a rather grey, cloudy day for most, away from northern ireland, wales, the west midlands and the south—west where we will see some sunny spells. and that will set off a few showers again here, again, some of them will be on the heavy side. temperatures in the sunny spells 14—15 celsius, but noticeably cooler, like i mentioned, across the north—east. then as we move into the weekend, we see this weather front sweep across the country to bring

a band of rain, and then our new area of low pressure starts to push across the uk for the rest of saturday and into sunday. so it's back to square one with sunshine and showers once again. now, some of the showers again over the weekend will be heavy, there will be the risk of hail and thunder, and there will be some sunshine in between these showers. and the sun, of course, this time of year is strong, so it will feel fairly warm. low—pressure, though, wants to hold on into next week too, so unfortunately, it's looking pretty unsettled for much of the country, further showers at times. those temperatures below the seasonal average.

this is bbc news — the headlines: heavy israeli airstrikes and palestinian rocket fire have continued through the night. the israeli military said its targets in gaza included intelligence buildings, a bank and a hamas naval squad. palestinian militants have launched waves of rockets towards israeli cities. israel's security cabinet escalate the bombardment. tens of thousands of colombians have taken to the streets again in anti—government protests in the capital bogota and several other cities. it is the fifteenth day of marches, blockades and strikes which were initially fueled by anger about a tax reform plan, which has now been withdrawn. a new development has helped a paralysed man write on a computer using brain implants that converted his thoughts into words. neuroscientists at stanford university placed two computer chips into the man's brain and asked him to imagine that he was using a pen and paper to write sentences.