hello. i'm helena humphrey. good to have you with us. gaza is under intense bombardment as israel's war against hamas enters its fifth week. the territory's north has seen heavy air strikes and huge explosions. phone and internet services have once again been cut. over the past 2a hours, the israeli military says that its forces have divided the gaza strip in two, separating the north from the south, with gaza city completely encircled. meanwhile, the search for survivors continues at the al—maghazi refugee camp in gaza. the site of the attack is in the centre of the strip and the hamas—run health ministry says at least 45 people have been killed in what it said was an israeli air strike on saturday.

israel's military says it is looking into whether it was operating in the area at the time. daniel clarkey said troops have allowed isolation corridor. translation:— allowed isolation corridor. translation: ., ., translation: today the unit and circled the city _ translation: today the unit and circled the city of _ translation: today the unit and circled the city of gaza, _ translation: today the unit and circled the city of gaza, they - circled the city of gaza, they reached the beach at the southern part of the city of gaza and they've encircled gaza and today we have gaza north and today we have gaza north and gaza south. they've reached the shoreline, they are hoping the shoreline, they are hoping the shoreline, they are hoping the shoreline, we are still allowing for a corridor to enable the residents of the north of the gaza strip and people of the residents of the city of gaza to go south. it is a one—way corridor going south and we will continue to strike forcefully, we're going to our ground offensive in the north of the gaza strip and the greater city of gaza. lie greater city of gaza. us secretary _ greater city of gaza. us secretary of _ greater city of gaza. us secretary of state antony blinken made an unannounced

visit to iraq sunday. he said he'd had reductive talks with the iraqi prime minister on efforts to prevent the israel gaza conflict spreading and allow more aid to reach the besieged gaza strip. it is important that the pause advance a number of things. one of them is hostages. we are intensely focused — the united states, israel, every other country that has a citizen being held hostage by hamas — to bring them home. it is important that as we are engaged in pursuing a humanitarian pause, this could be something that advances the prospect of getting the hostages back. it can also advance other things that we are committed to doing, as is the government of israel and other partners in the region. mr blinken is now in turkey where president erdogan has been calling for a ceasefire. jordan postma king abdullah says the air force has provided

aid to gaza. in a post on x, formerly twitter, he said urgent medical aid was delivered by airdrop to the jordanian field hospital in gaza, adding his country would always be there for that, quote, palestinian brethren. earlier i spoke with paul adams injerusalem about the in jerusalem about the humanitarian situation injerusalem about the humanitarian situation in in jerusalem about the humanitarian situation in gaza and efforts to secure aid by mr blinken. paul, good to see you there once again. the israeli ground forces say now they have essentially cut gaza in two. it appears we have been seeing some intense fighting there as well. what is the latest you can tell us about the ground operation on the gaza strip? certainly very intense signs of fighting after dark this evening. a whole series of air strikes which lit up the sky and were visible from some distance away. what the israelis were saying today was essentially confirming something we have more or less known for the last day or so which it is they have

now cut off the northern third of the gaza strip from the rest and they are pushing ever closer to gaza city which they regard as a major hamas stronghold. the problem for them is there are still as many as 300,000 palestinian civilians hemmed into that area in desperate conditions there. they are not receiving any aid. water is running out. they are clustered around some of the very facilities which the israelis allege that hamas is using as cover for their military activity, and that means that the longer this operation of squeezing gaza goes on, the more those people are in grave danger of being caught up in the violence. paul, talking about those dwindling aid supplies, the dire humanitarian situation on the ground, us secretary of state antony blinken is in the region. he made the unannounced visit to baghdad and said that humanitarian

pauses would "be "welcomed by all." do we know how feasible they are looking? well, this is not a ceasefire. these are just little gaps in the fighting, probably limited in time and geography to allow the aid operation to run more smoothly in the southern part of the gaza strip. this has got nothing to do with the north. nothing to do with gaza city. but it is just not happening because the israelis say they will not allow any pause in the fighting while there is no progress on the issue of hostages. they want to get more information on the fate of the 240 or so hostages, israelis and foreigners, still being held in the gaza strip. they want the icrc, the international committee of the red cross, to gain access to the hostages, something hamas has not yet allowed, so as long as that problem is unresolved, this question of the humanitarian pauses is on hold, and, of course, that is a major problem in terms of the humanitarian situation in the south. antony blinken also saying

that the us is continuing "vital and urgent work to stop the conflict spreading." at the same time we have seen in the israeli military say, "terrorist vehicles in lebanon had been hit." what more do we know about what happened there? and is this raising any questions about the potential for escalation in the north? those questions have been around and have been on everyone's minds since this crisis erupted a month ago, and we have seen regular clashes along israel's northern border with lebanon throughout the past four weeks. the details of today as well, the israelis said that hezbollah fighters fired anti—tank weapons which killed an israeli civilian. the lebanese are saying that a vehicle carrying a grandmother and three children was hit and they were killed. so, this was another escalation in a whole series of escalations that have been taking place on that northern border.

0bviously, all of that is extremely worrying. it is partly why antony blinken continues to trot around the region, talking to all the regional players about what they can do to contain this crisis. the director of the cia william burns has arrived in israel tonight. he is also going to be travelling around the region, trying to use his influence for the same purposes, and the fact that you have to united states top diplomats and top spy in the region at the same time tells you a lot about the attention the biden administration is giving to this crisis. an administration which until about a month ago thought the israel—palestine situation was more or less under control. 0ur diplomatic correspondent there, paul adams. paul, many thanks. russia says its new nuclear—powed submarine has successfully completed a test launch of a ballistic missile. the sub launched the ballistic missile from the barents sea. russia's defence ministry

says it hit a target in russia's far—east. however, it's unclear exactly when the test launch happened. it comes after the kremlin withdrew russia from a global nuclear test ban treaty last week. turning to ukraine now, and in an interview with nbc news on sunday, ukraine's president volodymyr zelensky says the war is not at an impasse. his remarks follow a recent assessment by ukraine's top general saying that there will likely be no breakthrough after 20 months of fierce fighting. on saturday, mr zelensky said the israel—gaza war was taking focus off the war in ukraine. well, as ukraine braces for winter, both russia and ukraine are trying to consolidate their recent military advances. ukrainian counteroffensives in the east saw small territorial gains around such cities as robotyne and bahkmut. meanwhile, renewed russian assaults on the town of avdiivka with increasing use of heavy artillery along the front line is forcing thousands of ukrainians to leave their homes. earlier, i spoke with michael bociurkiw in tel aviv. he's global affairs

analyst and senior fellow at the atlantic council who is often based in 0desa in ukraine. michael, you are there in israel. we often speak to you from 0desa. and there have been comments this week from president zelensky that the israel—gaza war is taking away focus from fighting in ukraine. at a time when there was already war fatigue setting in. what does this mean — what does the new war in the middle east meanfor ukraine? good to be with you again. it isn't very good news whatsoever. the big dealfor ukraine, of course, is the big funding bill proposed by president biden, $106 billion of which $61 billion would go to ukraine and $14 billion has been approved by the house, as you know, for israel. not likely to pass the senate and certainly won't be approved by mr biden. so that huge money is in the air right now. and also ukrainians are very

mindful that given the state of the us electoral landscape right now it could be that the republicans take over. and mr trump could take over and that would be bad news for ukraine. another quick thing which has shifted here is media attention. most of the journalists who used to cover ukraine are actually here. i met with them, and this is a very expensive war to cover. whether news agencies will have resources later to cover ukraine is questionable. it is a bad time for ukraine for that attention to be shifted because the point has to be made if mr putin is not pushed back in ukraine, he will go further and further and the war will become more costly resource—wise, military wise, and in human lives for the entire world. there are a number of reports that president zelensky could pay a visit to israel. how likely do you think that is? if you asked me that 2a hours ago or so, it would be more

likely, but apparently his visit was leaked by israeli television and there are concerns from his side about security here. he wanted that to come up when he landed here in israel. but he wanted to come here earlier. i think he was rebuffed by the israeli side. he was one of the first to call prime minister netanyahu and offer his support. he has also equated putin's invasion of ukraine to also hamas's attacks here on israel. so one other quick thing is one of the israeli defence correspondents i spoke to said if mr zelensky does come here he has high popularity ratings, he has proved himself as a wartime president. maybe he will want to stick around a bit longer and give mr netanyahu some advice. that is a really interesting point because mr netanyahu is coming to his own war off the back of a lot

more political baggage. and ijust wonder what is the sense that you are getting from people, speaking to them on the ground, about their support for him. yeah, a lot of anxiety. a lot of anger. i mean, just before coming on air, i had a conversation with some internally displaced israelis. we all ran together to the bomb shelter twice this evening. you only have seconds to reach bomb shelters here. unlike in ukraine, you have a lot more time. so, for average israelis, the ones i've spoken to, their sense of security and calm has really been shattered in many ways. 0ne israeli told me this morning that, you know, "we used to be able to go anywhere in the world, "we felt secure, protected by israel, if there was a tsunami "or an attack, and now in our own homeland we don't "feel that," and also there is concern about the equilibrium here between the different

groups that used to exist. a lot of this is being blamed on arrogance from the netanyahu administration that they just took their eye off the ball, ignored the warnings, and that his political life here is going to be very limited. lots of anger at him. and one more thing — he hasn't apologised for what has happened — many other intelligence and military officials have. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. a hostage situation at hamburg airport involving a young child ended after 18 hours. a 35—year—old man drove through a security barrier on to the airport's tarmac on saturday night with his four—year—old daughter in the car and parked under a plane. the man eventually turned himself into authorities without resistance and was arrested, the child appeared to be unharmed — according to police.

nearly 32,000 migrants have reached spain's canary island on small boats this year, according to regional authorities. this year's crossings surpassed the previous record posted in 2006. hundreds have been rescued off el hierro. two people were found dead in four boats, two others died later in hospital. uganda's president is rowing with the us over washingotn�*s decision to remove his country from a major trade pact over human rights violations. uganda has faced international criticism for a harsh anti—gay law adopted in may. by president yoweri museveni. you are watching bbc news. thousands of people are spending another cold night outdoors after their homes were damaged by a strong earthquake that hit nepal friday. a cremation ceremony was held on sunday. 157 people died in the quake. more, now, from our south asia

correspondent samira hussain. rescue officials have made their way to the affected area, but, of course, what makes it difficult is just how remote the area is. if you're looking at some of the videos that we have seen, you will see there are homes that have been completely flattened, others that are severely damaged, and residents that are trying to pick through the damage to see if there are any injured that they can help. now, as you rightly mentioned, more than 130 people have been reported dead and there are several that have been injured. now, this area is not — it is accustomed to earthquakes. this region at the foothills of the himalayas sees quite a bit of seismic activity, but you have residents that have been spending the night — has spent the night outside because of the night outside because of the earthquake, but, then, of

course, there are the after—shocks, and they have felt at least three after—shocks in the evening. here in the us, we are officially one year out from election day. nine republicans, four democrats and two independents are running for president in 202a. but it is looking like a 2020 rematch. joe biden, taking on former president donald trump. that's according to the latest cbs news yougov poll, which suggests biden and trump would be in a statistical tie if the election were held today, with trump leading 51 to 48 percent among likely voters. it comes as mr trump is expected to take the stand in his new york civilfraud trial. and on wednesday, republican presidential candidates will meet for their third primary debate in miami, florida. earlier, i discussed these us politics headlines with washington post live anchor, leigh ann caldwell. leigh ann, great to have you with us here on bbc news. let's kick off with that poll that has got everyone talking. we are one year out from the election. it is a long time in politics, but nevertheless biden now trailing trump slightly. why — why do you think that is?

there is a lot of reasons why that is and that is that it's one poll, and a national poll, and a lot of people will dismiss national polls, since we have an electoral college programme to elect a president, where swing states matter. but the challenge is that even polls in swing states have biden behind donald trump. there was a new york times poll out today that shows that in five swing states that president biden won in 2020 against donald trump, he's behind donald trump. a lot of voters say that president biden is too old, that he's not doing a good enoughjob on the economy, and now there's another challenge — there is the war in israel, where there is a generational divide on that issue where younger democrats, especially, think that there should be a ceasefire, that president biden is siding too much with israel. so, it'sjust issue after issue president biden is having trouble — not only with the base

of the democratic party, but with independent voters, as well. leigh ann caldwell, we have donald trump set to testify in new york over his civil fraud trial there, with regards to his business empire at stake. how damaging do you think it could be for him a — personally and, b — with would—be voters? well, with voters it is hard to tell. there does not seem to be anything, hardly, that would — that voters, in the republican party, anyway, that would deject with donald trump. personally, though, this trial, especially this fraud trial, could be very damaging for his business, for his own pocket

book. this could be pretty devastating for him, personally. but politically is a whole other story. now, what he seems — he's continuing to dominate the republican field — you mentioned the debate that is going to happen wednesday, the third republican debate. donald trump is once again going to be a no—show. and the fact that he is not participating in these debates is having no impact on the republican primary. he's still 30 points ahead in some of these key states of iowa, south carolina, and so, as of now, regardless of his legal troubles, he is still dominating the republican field. regardless of those legal troubles, as you say, we're still seeing some momentum there. so even if that doesn't change voters' or potential voters' minds, supporters�* minds, ijust wonder when it comes to the georgia criminal case with regards to alleged efforts

to overturn the 2020 election — we are now seeing co—defendants taking plea deals, which means which means that some of them, of course, will be testifying. do you think that could pose a potential risk to the former president? well, so, there's two different issues here. in the primary, it might not have any sort of impact. even this georgia race. because donald trump has done such a good job of convincing his supporters that he is the victim here, that the election was actually stolen, and that he is a target of the justice system. when it comes to a general electorate, if he is able to win the republican primary, regardless of — like we said, despite all of his legal challenges — that is where it is going to become more interesting. where if these independent voters, or these "soft republican voters" still stand by the former president. so, first, we have to see how he fares in the republican primary as all of this is happening and then if he is able to be successful in the general

election against president biden, and that is where president biden�*s campaign team thinks that donald trump is going to be vulnerable. when it's actually a race between the two. when voters are reminded of the chaos of donald trump. when they're reminded of his legal challenges. when he claims, falsely, that the last election was stolen, that they could be similar challenges in 2024 as well, and that is where president biden�*s team becomes more confident that they will in fact be able to win against donald trump again. washington post live anchor echo two, great to have you with us. —— washington post

live anchor leigh ann caldwell. prince william has arrived in singapore. he's there to champion the work of his earthshot prize, which gives out its annual environmental awards this week. the event gives five projects from around the world £1 million each for their solutions to climate challenges. 0ur royal correspondent daniela relph has been taking a look at one of those solutions, which is seaweed. for the arrival of the prince of wales, on came the world's biggest indoor waterfall at this oasis inside singapore's changi airport. amid a walkabout and endless selfies, prince william comes to asia for his earthshot prize — a search for solutions to the big climate challenges. flying from the uk to singapore is a long journey for an environmental prize. but the prince's team has offset its travel and stress that this is a global project and its impact relies on prince william taking his earthshot vision around the world. is there a chance we could get you an earthshot burger? one of last year's winners has seen the benefit of having prince william on board when promoting their project. coming right up. morning, everyone! the packaging for these burgers was made by the company notpla.

thank you very much. so i'm going to apply a little bit of it. based in london, they turn seaweed into packaging, lining boxes with a biodegradable film that's even edible. they've relished their status as an earthshot winner. the earthshot prize has been a game changerfor us. obviously, the £1 million helps a lot. the moment we won the earthshot prize, people returned our calls, they wanted to be associated with us. and that's something that money can't buy. and that's something that has accelerated this far more thanjust, like, £1 million from another source. to make the packaging, notpla need the seaweed. they've invested in uk—based seaweed farms, including cary—y—mor in pembrokeshire, which has had a royal visit. the potential of seaweed is vast. it's fast growing, it captures carbon, it can replace single—use plastic and even be an alternative to cotton. in a remote corner of tasmania is a nominee for this year's

earthshot prize. sea forest is growing seaweed that can be used as a small supplement in animal feed to dramatically reduce the methane produced by cows. if we got 10% of the world's livestock on this supplement, it would be the equivalent of taking 100 million cars off the road. so it would make a huge difference here. absolutely enormous. of all prince william's public work, the earthshot prize has become an absolute priority for him. he knows there are challenges in scaling up big environmental ideas, but wants a mood of urgent optimism to surround this week's events. daniela relph, bbc news, singapore. and, before we go, diego, a brown bear, who set to be euthanized in sweden, has been saved. the wildwood trust, a conservation charity helped rescue diego, the last

remaining bear at sweden's 0rsa predator park, after it permantly closed moving him to his new home in devon. diego made the trip via the eurotunnel after storm ciaran made travelling by ferry too risky an option. and we are happy to report that, according to trust's director of zoological operations he arrived "awake, but tired and sleepy". that makes two of us, then. you are watching bbc news. good night from all of us here at bbc news in washington. goodbye for now. hello there. we've seen some strong aurora pictures coming in over recent hours here at the bbc weather centre. this beautiful one was from the aberdeenshire area in northern scotland. but this one is from folkestone. the significance of this is if you can see the northern lights in folkestone here in the uk, you can see it pretty much everywhere. so the aurora is very strong. it's worth taking a look outside.

use a camera or a mobile phone to see the best views, because those bits of equipment are more sensitive than our eyes to low levels of light. but you have a chance over the next few hours. now, weather wise, 0k, there will be a few showers coming and going, but we'll also see some fairly lengthy, clear spells. so whilst it's dark, you do have a chance of spotting the aurora. 0n into monday's forecast, and it's a day of sunshine and showers, really. starting off, most of us will have a fine morning with plenty of sunshine around. most of the showers really get going into the afternoon. and there could be some slightly longer spells of rain coming into west scotland and maybe northern counties of northern ireland. 0ur temperatures continue to be a little bit below average for the time of year. now we've got more of those showers to come on tuesday. again, a lot of sunshine, the showers have been most frequent into the northwest of both england and wales. then we get this ridge of high pressure building in during tuesday afternoon. now, that should kill the showers off in northern ireland. central and southern wales and south west england having a fine end to the day as well. now that ridge of high pressure

is going to be short lived, pushed out of the way by this next weather system coming in off the atlantic for wednesday. it's going to be a wet day then, with around 20mm to 30mm of rain expected, could bring one or two more issues. we'll have to be careful, i suppose, in northern ireland, where it has been so wet over recent times. the rain does clear through, followed by showers, with the winds picking up later in the day from the west. now, temperatures will start to come down a little bit across northern areas, 8—10 celsius for scotland and for northern ireland. 11—13 celsius for england and wales. but towards the end of the week, this area of low pressure is going to swing through the uk, and as it does so, we'll start to get a chillier flow of air coming in from the northwest. now, temperatures might not change very much on the face of it, but i think those north—westerly winds will start to make the weather feel a little cooler. and there'll be some showers around in the week with more general outbreaks of rain heading in, it looks, for some of us, into next weekend.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. theoretical physicists are on a never—ending quest to better understand the universe and how it works. from albert einstein

to stephen hawking, the knowledge base has expanded, but still, we humans are very far from that holy grail, a theory of everything. my guest today, carlo rovelli, is one of the world's best—known physicists. in his youth, he was a revolutionary. now he lobs metaphorical grenades at the scientific status quo. how much do his remarkable ideas matter to you and me? carlo rovelli, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much, stephen.

i want to begin with a thought about your youth,