welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm mariko oi. the headlines. thousands gatherfor oi. the headlines. thousands gather for the funerals of 12 palestinians killed during israel's two day military operation in the occupied west bank. , , . , operation in the occupied west bank. , , ., , ., bank. this is about sending a very powerful— bank. this is about sending a very powerful message - bank. this is about sending a very powerful message that, | very powerful message that, despite everything that has happened, they are not beaten, they are still here. in fact, in their belief they are victorious. the us treasury secretary janet yellen heads to beijing, seeking to ease tensions between america and china. instagram's parent company launches its foot arrival at in more than 100 countries.

and triubutes pour in for hong kong—born pop singer coco lee who's died at the age of 48. hello and welcome to the programme. we begin injenin in the occupied west bank, where thousands of people have attended a funeral procession for 12 palestinians, who were killed during israel's two—day military operation. these are the images, taken by the bbc, from inside a refugee camp injenin — where, as you can see, palestinians have been returning to, widespread destruction in their homes. the city ofjenin lies in the west bank — which israeli forces captured and occupied back in 1967. previously, it was ruled byjordan. thousands of palestinians live

in thejenin refugee camp — which was set up after the first israeli—palestinian conflict in 19118. our international editor jeremy bowen reports from inside the camp and a warning you may find some images in his report distressing. with the israelis gone, the palestinians ofjenin were able to bury their dead. they processed out of the refugee camp and, on a finaljourney, passed the homes of the dead men and around their town. israel says it has closed thejenin terrorism factory. but armed men from the militias that control the camp were everywhere. in 48 hours, israeli forces did a lot of damage in what they call a successful operation to find and destroy weapons. but someone's livelihood will have disappeared along with that van.

and smashing the refugee camp's infrastructure, electricity, as well as water, alarmed the un. it looks more like collective punishment. "there is no solution," said aymen al saadi. "not until we get back what we lost in 19118. "we are refugees here. our lands are there." he means in israel. in the camps are descendants of palestinians who fled or were forced out of what became israel in 19118. mourners brought the bodies back to the camp to be buried. palestinian leaders say their people have a right to defend themselves. israel says the palestinian armed men here firing into the air to salute their dead are cowards, terrorists and the tools of iran. this is about sending a very powerful message that,

despite everything that has happened, they're not beaten. they are still here. in fact, their belief, they are victorious. the conflict sucks in the generations and suffocates hope. at the cemetery, men got into the graves to lay them to rest. israel says this is no longer a protected place for terrorists. palestinian leaders say there are no terrorists here. the poorand angry injenin camp have a deeply rooted culture of resistance to israeli occupation of land palestinians want for a state. israel's military hails its two days injenin as a professional, highly effective operation, but the key to a better future lies in politics and diplomacy,

not anyone's bombs and bullets. and jeremy bowen has given us this analyisis of the israeli operation injenin. well, after these things, both sides like to claim victory. the israeli position is that they put in a very professional force of troops a new specialforces brigade that was able to achieve what it had to do in terms of destroying weapons, getting suspects all in two days and they got out. so they feel they've done theirjob very well, but against that, the palestinians were palestinian fighters were walking openly around the camp this morning carrying american—made assault weapons. and i think that, you know, these are people who will not be thinking about surrender. they'll be thinking

about revenge. and, yes, they've lost a lot of weapons and explosives. but there's also ways here of replacing them on the black market. you can buy apparently american m—ii or m—16 rifles for about £30,000. ironically, many of those have been stolen from israeli army stores. so i think that while all this messaging is going on about claiming victory, the messaging that isn't happening and hasn't happened for many years now is between the two sides and the message with the message, you know, we better talk about this, guys, because actually, if we don't, it's going to get worse. and i think in the continued absence of that, because there is no peace process and there are none of those contacts going on, i think the situation with everything else happening here remains just another couple of bad incidents

away from the next serious crisis. the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, said that — he's ready to launch more operations, if needed. this is a sign of the of our next steps. this is just the first step. it's not, by no means the last action that we will take. we will do what we can from the ground, from the air, with superb intelligence. we will do what we can to fight the terrorists. they shall have no safe haven. the white house press secretary, karinejean—pierre, says, the priority is to restore infrastructure for civilians in jenin. as you all know, and we have said this many times, we support certainly israel's security and right to defend its people against hamas, palestinian islamichhad and other terrorist groups. it is imperative to take all possible steps to protect civilians from harm, and measures need to be taken to improve the humanitarian situation on the ground and restore critical services like electricity and water

to the civilian population. and so don't have anything more to share beyond that. but certainly we are certainly we are monitoring things very closely. speaking outside the un security council chamber, ambassador riyad mansour, the permanent observer of palestine at the un, condemned israel's actions injenin. it's a horrific situation. it's a barbaric situation by the israeli occupying forces in which they used aircrafts. they used the large number of forces and inventories and mechanized units to attack this small refugee camp. and they wanted to destroy the camp completely, and they failed to do so. but they created a lot of suffering for our people. we condemned in the strongest possible terms these, this aggression

against our people. meanwhile in tel aviv, an israeli driver has rammed through an anti—government demonstration, injuring one person. protesters took to the streets after the city's police commander quit the force. he cited political intervention by members of the cabinet — whom he said wanted him to take tougher action against anti—government protesters. in the next few hours, the us treasury secretary will arrive in china for a long—anticipated three day trip. it's part of the biden administration's push to ease tensions between the two countries. these are the pictures of janet yellen�*s departure from washington earlier on wednesday. it's the second trip by a cabinet official, since ties worsened earlier this year.

secretary of state antony blinken visited beijing a few weeks ago — meeting with china's president xi. let's now bring in professor eric how it's from the university of hawaii and eric's work focuses on china's economy. thank you so much for joining us on the programme. i guess secretary yellen is seen as friendlier to beijing compared to mr blunn can. do you think she can achieve more than their secretary of state? think that janet yellen�*s portfolio is more amenable to the kind of issues that china is interested in resolving between the two countries. the us and china had record trade, a total of $690 billion last year with the end of covid. it

was a record and so this is a fertile field for agreement between the two countries. secretary of state blinken had a different set of issues to talk about, taiwan, national security, human rights and so while secretary yellen will probably have to bring up some of those topics, the issues that she wants to discuss will be ones that will find more agreement between the two countries. figs agreement between the two countries-— countries. as you said trade between — countries. as you said trade between the _ countries. as you said trade between the two _ countries. as you said trade between the two countries l between the two countries continued to grow despite those tensions butjust ahead of her visit beijing announcing those export controls on rare metals, also trying to introduce some new laws on foreign relations as well as counterespionage and so on. why is asian playing hardball?— so on. why is asian playing hardball? ~ . ., hardball? well, i mean part of the recent. — hardball? well, i mean part of the recent, as _ hardball? well, i mean part of the recent, as you _ hardball? well, i mean part of the recent, as you said, - hardball? well, i mean part of the recent, as you said, the i the recent, as you said, the sanctions on germanium, gallium, those are probably a little bit of a message to secretary yellen that china still has leverage over the

economic relation. but i think secretary yellen wants to try to de—escalate that kind of tit—for—tat sanctions, this comes in the wake of american sanctions on chinese semiconductors and so a whole wave of american sanctions are responded to by the chinese. but i think that there are some areas of agreement that janet yellen can talk about for example artificial intelligence. there can be some global agreement on that kind of issue, african countries and galloping countries, china might be some amenable to some sort of agreement there and perhaps even increasing participation and american agricultural products which is key to american interest through i think there are some cases where secretary yellen can achieve success for the american side and then china can agree to those kind of measures as well. indeed, some areas where _ measures as well. indeed, some areas where they _ measures as well. indeed, some areas where they can _ measures as well. indeed, somej areas where they can co-operate areas where they can co—operate but want to ask you about those

tariffs and sanctions on especially chinese tech companies, it's not like secretary yellen can remove them but what is beijing after, do you think? are they after further talks, do you think? are they after furthertalks, may do you think? are they after further talks, may be further visits among each other? well, es. i visits among each other? well, yes- i think _ visits among each other? well, yes. i think secretary _ visits among each other? well, yes. i think secretary yellen . yes. i think secretary yellen has been able to come because of the end of covid restrictions, because there has been a window of opportunity, no spy balloons coming over american territory in the last few months, and also secretary yellen has been more sympathetic, i think, yellen has been more sympathetic, ithink, to lifting some of the tariffs from the trumpet error. she said recently that decoupling the economies would be disastrous in her soi so i think going forward she wants to try to prevent an economic cold war between china and the us, similar to president biden�*s idea of competing but not defeating china. ., ~' ,, competing but not defeating china. . ~ . competing but not defeating china. . . ., china. thank you so much for “oininu china. thank you so much for joining us _ china. thank you so much for joining us on _ china. thank you so much for joining us on tuesday - china. thank you so much for joining us on tuesday this - joining us on tuesday this

morning. —— newsday. in the last few minutes, social media giant meta, which owns facebook and instagram, has launched its new app, named threads. it'll be linked to instagram and is widely seen as a major rival to twitter. meta describes it as a �*text based conversation app'. the move is the latest in a rivalry between the meta boss mark zuckerberg and twitter owner elon musk. threads will not be available in the european union because of regulatory concerns. let's ta ke let's take a look at other stories and the dutch government has said that mobile phones will be banned from classrooms at the start of next year. it is a bid to stop the devices from interrupting learning stopping there will be of course some exceptions including for students with medical needs or a disability and classes focused on digital skills the authorities in south africa say 16 people have died

from inhaling toxic gas in an informal settlement near johannesburg. the emergency services say they believe the nitrate which leaked from a gas cylinder could be linked to illegal mining in the area. a search and rescue operation is under way for anyone else who might have been effect by the gas leak. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. 207 shipping containers with baked goods and drugs were recovered in more than half. this year size, 580 tons, is described as monumental quantities. police say the seizure is the largest in uk history. 0ver seizure is the largest in uk history. over two weeks, 100 officers were involved, backed up by brand experts and counterfeit experts. the shops

have virtually _ counterfeit experts. the shops have virtually gone. _ counterfeit experts. the shops have virtually gone. this - counterfeit experts. the shops have virtually gone. this area | have virtually gone. this area of manchester _ have virtually gone. this area of manchester has _ have virtually gone. this area | of manchester has historically been known as the uk capital of counterfeit trade. 0peration falcon is the lightest to make letters response. gangs have been said to have targeted the area. the cadenzas themselves can also act as a trading point for online businesses. —— containers. you're live with bbc news. the un's nuclear watchdog says it needs to be able to check the whole of the russian—occupied zaporizhzhia plant in ukraine to confirm there are no mines or explosives there. it comes after kyiv again accused moscow of planning to stage an incident at the plant — and blame it on ukrainian shelling. on tuesday, volodymyr zelensky told france's president macron that russia was planning �*dangerous provocations' at zaporizhzhia. moscow disputes those claims,

in turn accusing kyiv of planning to attack the site. our analysis editor ros atkins explains why this plant is so significant. this week, ukraine had a warning. translation: now| we have information from our intelligence that the russian military has placed objects similar to explosives on the roof of several power units of the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. president zelensky didn't provide proof of this, but america says russia is playing a dangerous game and should think long and hard about whether they want to risk causing a nuclear catastrophe. russia denies it's taking that risk. but because of russia's invasion, europe's largest nuclear power plant is in a war zone. the plant is in south—eastern ukraine. before the war, it supplied one fifth of the country's electricity, but after the invasion, russia took control of it. and in september, un inspectors paid a visit. it is obvious that that the plant and the physical integrity of the plant has been violated several times. as well as that the plant has become militarised. russia is in control.

russia has stationed military equipment in the plant, actually within the reactor halls itself. on occasions it is mined the area around the plant it claims for defence. russia claims ukraine has shelled the plant, something ukraine denies. and a few days ago, un inspectors were back saying they found no visible indications of mines or other explosives, but that they still need additional access to carry out further such checks. in other words, they couldn't inspect all of the plant. and ukraine insists that russia is placing explosives and that if detonated, they would not damage the reactors but would create an image of shelling from the ukrainian side. russia dismisses this and has turned the accusation around.

russia also claims zelensky is going to conduct a terror attack on the plant, but it's provided no evidence for this. and as ukraine and russia trade accusations, bbc verify has been looking at satellite images of the reactors. this is from the 5th ofjuly. no objects resembling explosives can be seen, but the fear of sabotage or military damage is real, not least because of the nova kakhovka dam. in earlyjune, it was destroyed. ukraine and its military allies say it was russian sabotage. russia blamed ukrainian shelling, whatever the cause. thousands of people's lives were affected. with zaporizhzhia, there is some reassurance. dr mark webman from imperial college tells us the reactor

buildings are able to withstand earthquakes and aircraft impact strikes and that it would take a very concerted effort to damage the containment building and cause any form of radioactive release. the risk to the reactors may be low, but zaporizhzhia is getting so much attention because the stakes are high. ros atkins reporting there. the uk's ministry of defence has confirmed, for the first time, that uk special forces are at the centre of an inquiry, into alleged war crimes in afghanistan. the mod had previously refused to confirm or deny the claims, that the sas killed scores of unarmed civilians, between 2010 and 2013. 0ur reporter, joel gunter, has more. the background is during the time the british forces were fighting in afghanistan, special forces units were carrying out raids on hundreds of homes and villages and those raids have now come under scrutiny because of allegations that the special forces units murdered unarmed people and civilians. bbc panorama revealed one sas unit killed 5a people in suspicious

circumstances in 16—month tour. the reporting the two calls for a public enquiry which is now under way to examine these underlying allegations of war crimes. in an unexpected reversal today the ministry of defence, as you said, confirmed, for the first time, that uk special forces were involved in these rates that are now being scrutinised. but the ministry of defence is still asking for widespread reporting restrictions on the republican enquiry. lawyers for the bread families, the bbc, and other media organisations are calling for as much of this evidence to be held in court as possible so the public have as much access as possible. ——on the public enquiry. some sad news to bring you now — singer coco lee, who enjoyed pop stardom in asia

in the 1990s and 2000s, has died at the age of 48. the announcement came from herfamily, who said she had been treated in hospital, after attempting to take her own life on sunday. coco was born in hong kong and grew up in california. she was known for her performance as the voice of mulan in the mandarin—language version of the disney film. she performed at the oscars in 2001, and was also a star with her recordings in english and mandarin. brandon lewis is the founder of a pop culture and entertainment blog, when things go pop, and a little earlier he told me about her legacy. i think her impact is reallyjust broadening what was possible for east asian performers on the international stage. i became aware of her performance in the oscars 2001 associated with crouching tiger, hidden dragon which actually was recently re—released here in the theatres in the united states and should perform such a beautiful song and also having that relationship with disney through mulan where she was the voice in the cantonese, mandarin

version really broadened what was possible and really showcased a strong affinity for asian culture. and made it possible to — and opened doors for east asian performers on the world stage. yeah, you just mentioned how you became aware of her. what performance do you remember the most? i would — it would absolutely be the performance at the oscars. ijust — everything from the actual presentation of the performance. it — there was a beautiful choreographed scene based on the film. you know, just the choreography of her walking down the stairs, with her beautiful voice and beautiful performance of a love before time, it really stuck — it sticks with you and really brought

the themes of the film, which is, you know, unrequited love and love that stands a generation, i think that really struck with me and millions of people who were able to see crouching tiger, hidden dragon through that performance and then through that film's extraordinary success in the united states. she was also very active in making collaborations, wasn't she? michaeljackson concert in the late 1990s as well. yes. she was very active in the late �*90s and early 2000. she performed at michael — with michaeljackson and friends, she was also did a lot of us collaborations as well. and i think that really goes — that really sort of goes back to her ability to bridge the gap between, you know, east asian audiences and western audiences

and showing that there isn't — there isn't that much difference and that there is an audience in the west that is hungry and interested and accepting of this culture. and i think her loss is immense and i think she will be remembered for laying the groundwork culturally and musically. brandon lewis speaking with me earlier from new york. if you need support with the issues we've been talking about, you could speak to a health professional, or an organisation that offers support. details of help available in many countries can be found at befrienders worldwide. we also have information on the bbc website as well as a check that out if you needed. but for now, thank you for watching this edition of newsday. i'll be back with news shortly.

—— business news. hello. 0ur fairly unsettled spell ofjuly weather is set to continue through the remainder of the week, really and we're going to be seeing temperatures gradually on the rise over the next few days. but through thursday, some sunshine in the forecast, particularly so towards the east, but also a bit of rain mainly across the north—west of the uk. down to the fact that we've got this area of low pressure approaching from the atlantic, whereas high pressure across the continent is dominating things further south and east. so for thursday, fairly fresh starts the best of the sunshine will be for eastern scotland, eastern and southern parts of england and into wales, but cumulus cloud builds through the day and that will just bring the odd shower mainly in the north and the west of the british isles. more persistent rain arrives across northern ireland during the afternoon. it'll be windy here with gusts about a0 miles an hour and temperatures 15 to 22 degrees. don't think we'll see any interruptions at wimbledon today due to the weather, but just a very small chance of a shower in the afternoon as that cloud builds.

next few days at wimbledon, hot and humid on friday, thunderstorms and showers possible for saturday and for sunday. now back to thursday in the afternoon. in the evening, that area of rain drifts out of northern ireland across parts of scotland, becoming fairly light and patchy overnight, but across england and wales, quite a warm, humid night. temperatures certainly remaining in double figures overnight. they're not quite as fresh compared to wednesday night. but what we're going to see on friday as this area of low pressure, this frontal system drifts its way northwards, it'll open the doors for this warm and moist flow coming in from the south. so a hot, humid feeling day for some of us on friday, especially so across england and wales. a bit more cloud and showery rain at times for scotland and northern ireland with a bit of a breeze blowing too, but for the warmest spots we're likely to see 28 or 29 degrees on friday, typically the low 20s further north. now heading on into the weekend, we've got that warm, moist, humid air with us and then low pressure again moving in from the atlantic. so the combination of those two things means we could see some very lively weather on saturday. some thunderstorms possible almost anywhere where you see these heavy

showers and that hot, humid air, fresh airjust returning from the west later in the day. a bit of uncertainty about the timing, location of some of those showers still quite warm ahead of them with temperatures again in the mid 20s. so a brief spell of heat to think friday into saturday, but some thunderstorms through the weekend and they're going to continue the unsettled trend into next week. bye— bye. might have been effect by the gas leak. second cabinet

to beijing, the second cabinet amber to visit the chinese capital in two months. and facebook�*s owner matter launches its latest app, one thatis launches its latest app, one that is being