translation: | wish they were still alive l and that we could be one family again, but it is over. we fell apart. a former us ambassador to bolivia has been accused of spying for cuba for more than a0 years. and a huge explosion destroys a home in a suburb of washington dc as police executed a search warrant. welcome to our show. israel is expanding its ground offensive in southern gaza, with witnesses there saying israeli tanks are building up around the south. hospitals say they are overwhelmed with new arrivals. the world health organization says israel warned two of their medical warehouses will be targeted. the who head, dr tedros adhanom ghebreyesus, urged israel to withdraw the order, saying israel should:

israeli authorities have denied the who's claim. the israel defense forces are now telling civilians to leave areas around khan younis — a city israel told civilians to flee to for safety earlier in the conflict. our diplomatic editor paul adams has more on the latest on the ground. so israeli ground forces, including tanks, other armoured vehicles and bulldozers, have been operating close to the city of khan younis in the southern gaza strip, the largest city in the southern gaza strip for the last couple of days. and it seems likely that an assault on the city may be coming fairly soon. but we are hearing that there are very, very heavy air strikes in parts of khan younis. some of those parts are areas that the israelis have told palestinians to evacuate. the un is saying though areas

that everyone population of 350,000 so there is a fear being voiced by the un that we may see large numbers of palestinians on the move once again, some of them for the second, third, fourth, fifth time. last week when the us secretary of state antony blinken was he, one of the things he asked the israeli to make sure they did not do was displace large numbers of civilians once again as they did from gaza city. international pressure on israel is building. the un chief says he is "extremely alarmed" by fighting resuming in gaza, and there there is "nowhere safe to go." the us government says it is too early to tell whether israel is doing enough to protect civilians. for more, i spoke with mark schwartz, a former us security coordinator for israel and the palestinian authority. i want to start with what the state department said today about the conflict. it has seen an improvement by israel in narrowing targets in gaza. do you agree? from what i have seen reported,

certainly the release of this evacuation zone grid that was discussed earlier and the idf has said that they are implementing, that is certainly one step in the right direction, provide safe areas for the palestinians, but as you stated earlier, very difficult to do when you've got in excess of 350,000 to 400,000 palestinian civilians around khan younis where the next major offensive is going to take place. so i believe that the idf are taking steps, is very challenging just given the population density. the other note i think is the fact that there is still humanitarian assistance coming in, not to the degree that was in the pause, but i understand also that within the war council today in israel with the israeli government, they were talking about increasing the amount of humanitarian aid coming

into gaza as the offensive continues. as you just said, the south, as we have been mentioning, is a part of gaza where civilians have been fleeing too. the idf now says all of gaza is part of the operation. what should the us be doing, the department, president biden, the white house be doing about the concerns for these to civilians? i believe the administration have been very strong, the secretary of defence was very strong in his remarks over the weekend about the importance of not sacrificing strategic success through the targeting like they did during the first phase of the ground offensive. so i believe that that dialogue and the continued pressure by the united states and the community will continue. i have noticed the idf

are publishing a lot more precision strikes that they have conducted since the reinitiation of offensive operations to demonstrate that they are going after terrorist, hamas terrorist fighters and weapons, etc. regardless, we have heard from the hamas run health ministry that more than 15,000 palestinians have been killed in the fighting so far. officials have said there is no time limit or know and yet to the conflict. we heard the white house say they have talked to israel about the length of the operation in gaza. should the us be pushing israelis on a plan when this operation ends and what that would apply? i think putting a time limit on it, i would not advise to do that. this is event—driven. the event is the elimination of either killing or capturing hamas military capability and terrorist capability really inside of the gaza strip, that will take several more weeks, if not months

to accomplish. even when the majority of the fighting is complete, there is still going to be hamas terrorists that are moving around gaza because they are so ingrained in the population... if that is the case, terrorists still moving around gaza, what would a victory look like for israel? i think from a tactical and operational sense to where they have reported, the idf, they have killed or captured the majority, if not all of the hamas leadership, the battalion commanders you have been hearing about in the news lately all the way up to the leader, the military leader inside of the gaza strip. and then, again, providing security so that, ideally, the palestinians that have been forced out of the north to do this conflict and move back north, obviously with the amount of infrastructure that has been destroyed, it will be extremely challenging,

but what is still going to have to take place is identifying, training a viable security force that can replace hamas, and that will take years, not weeks or months. inside gaza, communication services and internet are down, and the humanitarian situation is worsening. the gaza—run health ministry says more than 15 thousand people have been killed in israel's retaliatory campaign, and that includes about 6000 children. bbc arabic�*s dalia haidar and freelance journalist mohammed al—kahlout have been following the story of omar lubbad and his five siblings who lost their parents in shelling in southern gaza after fleeing their home in gaza city. a warning that you may find this report distressing. a strong bond between father and child. soon broken by the horrors of war. 13—year—old omar says his final

goodbyes to his mum and dad. they were killed in an air strike in southern gaza. translation: this is my father. he was martyred here under the rock. my mum was next to him and my little sister was in between, but she is ok. when they bombed our house, ifelt lonely and without a family. omar and his five siblings are now orphans. their uncle who has been displaced with his family is now the only caretaker. translation: now my family got bigger. - these children need to live with me. it is challenging with the expenses, medicine and education. they are all little. the youngest is one—year—old. the eldest is 16.

omar and his siblings are just some of the children orphaned by war in gaza. doctors here say they are seeing a rise in numbers, but unicef says it is very difficult to count and organise care for them. translation: my dad used to | take us out and show us around. my mum used to do embroidery. she was an artist and we were very happy together. i wish they were still alive and that we could be one family again, but it is over. we fell apart. new evidence has come to light about the way sexual violence was allegedly used by hamas in the october 7th attack on israel. hamas denies the abuses. israel held an event at the united nations focused on sexual violence against women. israel has been critical of the world body's response to the attacks.

here's israel's ambassador speaking at the meeting in new york. on october 7, hamas perpetrated rape and sexual violence, exploiting these unforgivable crimes as weapons of war. these were not merely sick, spur—of—the—moment decisions to defile and mutilate israeli women and girls, to parade their naked bodies in the street while onlookers cheered. this was premeditated. this was planned. this was instructed. an israeli women's rights campaigner and lawyer has also told the bbc that hamas had a premeditated plan to use sexualviolence, based on the evidence she's seen. i spoke with the bbc�*s nada tawfik about this. a warning, some of the details in her reporting are graphic. can you tell us what the evidence was that was presented about these allegations

of sexual violence? yeah, i think it is important to remember that israeli police say they have so far gathered more than 1,500 testimonies from witnesses and medics, and we heard a few of those at the un today. the police representative, the chief superintendent spoke about women being found without clothes, raped, mutilated bodies, and she played previously released recorded testimonies that were given to police investigators. one person who was described as a rescuer at the rave who helped evacuate bodies there said they found bodies with their hands cuffed behind their backs, a woman's corpse bleeding from the genital area, a paramedic who gave first aid say they saw a lot of gun wounds, shootings targeted at sexual organs of both men and women and amputations, and a survivor of rape said she saw a woman gangraped. so some testimonies

there from investigators. now, it is important to note that hamas has rejected those accusations today as well, saying that they were unfounded lies, they were allegations to demonise the palestinian resistance, and a un commission of enquiry says they will investigate war crimes on both sides, specifically focused on sexual violence. just horrific testimony. very briefly — what is the us saying about this? the us says that they have been briefed extensively on a number of their findings, but that they don't have their own independent assessments to make right now because they don't have people on the ground obviously conducting those assessments. so they haven't used the word �*rape' or �*sexual violence' when talking about the atrocities of hamas. but the united states says they have no doubt — have no reason to doubt the reports of sexual violence and there is very little they would put beyond hamas when it comes to the mistreatment of civilians. our reporter in new york there for us. thank you so much.

around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. the uk government has announced plans to slash net migration. it's increasing the minimum salary needed to receive a uk work visa to the equivalent of 42,000 usd a year. the home secretary james cleverly says there will be tougher restrictions on dependents, too. around 150,000 visas were granted to defenders or sponsors students in the year september 2023. "153,000. today i can announce that we will go even further than those provisions already in place with a five—point plan to further curb immigration abuses, and that will deliver the biggest ever reduction in net migration. in total, this package, plus our reduction in student dependents will mean around 300,000 fewer people will come in future years than have come to the uk.

the most recent official figures show net migration soared to a new record in 2022, and the government had been under growing pressure. you're live with bbc news. an explosion destroyed at least one home in a suburb of washington dc as police executed a search warrant. you can see the house on fire here. before the blast in arlington, virginia, police said someone from inside the house had used a flare gun as officers tried to enter. officers on the scene reported only minor injuries. it's not clear if the suspect was injured or apprehended. some residents in the surrounding area said on social media they felt their homes shake. the fire department says the main fire is under control. however, crews continue to battle smaller fires at the scene. the fbi says it's assisting the investigation. a former us ambassador to bolivia has been charged with spying for cuba for a0 years. manuel rocha held several

high—ranking diplomatic posts and served on the us national security council in the 19905. he's accused of helping cuba gather intelligence against the us since 1981. he was the us ambassador to bolivia from 1999 to 2002, but court documents unsealed monday allege mr rocha made several trips to cuba, where he helped advance interests of cuban officials. the us department of justice says the former diplomat was arrested last friday in miami after an undercover sting operation that lasted more than a year. here's attorney general merrick garland earlier. those who have the privilege of serving in the government of the united states are given an enormous amount of trust by the public we serve. to betray that trust, by falsely pledging loyalty to the united states while serving a foreign power is a crime that will be met with a full force of the department. our central america correspondent will grant is covering this story

and spoke with us earlier. this really is a remarkable story. what do you make of it? i think it's absolutely extraordinary. the very fact that the attorney general used this phrase that he thought it was "one of the highest reaching "and longest lasting infiltrations of the us "government by a foreign agent" says a great deal. and some of the details on that indictment are absolutely extraordinary. the idea that the former ambassador, the former us ambassador to bolivia, a man who reached that kind of level in the state department was, all the time, sort of working with the cuban government, if these allegations turn out to be true, is obviously extremely damning. in the details, it suggests he was having regular contact with his handlers in cuba from the 1980s, including the time that he was in cuba. he spoke to this undercover agent and is alleged to have said that the us was the enemy, that the cuban revolution — he referred to as "we". and although we aren't aware

exactly of the details of what he is opposed to a passed to the cuban government, it does have echoes of the ana montes case, just at the turn of the 21st century, she was known as the queen of cuba, she worked the dia, she was an extremely important piece in the sort of spy wars between the two countries and spent 26 years in prison. it seems that he perhaps, well, we don't know exactly what has passed, but certainly this is an extremely high ranking official to be accused of such a crime. but, will, given the fact he is not an acting diplomat anymore, how damaging do you think this will be for us ties with cuba ? yes, i think it is important that he wasn't sort of in active service right now, and it begs the question why on earth a retired diplomat would even be investigated by the fbi at this stage, i think it is because of that

language being used by the attorney general, that this was such an important figure in terms of his career and in terms of the years, the decades that passed while he was allegedly working for the cuban government. i don't know it necessarily has too much of an impact on the relationship at the moment, simply because things are so negative already. they can't get that much worse. it's always interesting in moments like this, it takes a while i think before cuba ever recognises there was a spy or there was any relationship and i don't think it will be until there is a conclusion in the case in miami before there's any word from the government in havana on this whole situation. it's been 250 days since american wall streetjournal journalist evan gershkovich was arrested in russia on charges of espionage. gershkovich was detained on march 29 and taken to moscow, where he was charged. both thejournal and the us government deny he has ever been a spy. just over a week later, the us

state department designated gershkovich as wrongfully detained and put pressure on russia to free him. russia has since extended gershkovhich�*s pretrial dentention three times and most recently, extended his detention by another two months last tuesday. earlier, i spoke to evan's sister danielle gershkovich and paul beckett, wall street journal's assistant editor. danielle, i want to start with you and ask you have received letters from evan, tell us how he is doing. i am amazed by evan, i am sure you can imagine over eight months a prisoner of russia, it would be difficult for anyone and he works very, very hard to keep his spirits up and he still makes me laugh in his letters. we do a lot of teasing and the sibling humour and a tell him about my day and try to keep them updated on a family news. and through that we tend to speak on lighter topics. but i feel evan is still there, he is still holding on.

does he know the message you and your family and colleagues have been speaking to and spreading the news about? yes. and he is so grateful for all support he has been receiving all the world. paul, what we know about the conditions eva is being held in? he has been in decent conditions under the circumstances. wall street journal's hired lawyers, who get into see him once a week or so and the us ambassador to moscow, lynn tracy, has been and periodically, so we do get a glimpse into it and, i think as danielle said, he is working very hard to maintain his composure. how have you and your family been coping, danielle? it's been getting increasingly harder, especially right now we are hitting the holiday season. so for thanksgiving his friends from berlin came and visited us. it was really nice. and we left a seat as our thanksgiving table

for evan and will continue to do so through the holidays, just a gesture he is still not here with us and we have to just continue to stay strong so that we can do everything it takes to bring him home. it must be really difficult. paul, if you look at what we saw recently just last week, a court in moscow extended his detention until 30 january, what more do we know about this? it is very vague, it is very opaque and that is part of the challenge of it. we know he will be detention until the end of january. they can hold him up to one year, which will be the end of march, is very flexible, if they want to hold him longer they can. at some point we assume he will go to trial and given the nature of the russian legal system we expect a conviction and we will have to see where it goes from there. we're just hopeful the us government can figure out a way to short—circuit that and bring an innocent man home. it has been 250 days

it is time to move back, back in the newsroom. has the us government said anything about when to expect a possible verdict? no. and we know things are under way but, afraid, if it has been 250 days he is not back then it hasn't been enough. danielle, we know there have been us citizens who have been held in russia who were then exchanged for russians were held in prisons here and there are analysts who speculate that is precisely why evan is being held as well, what is the us telling you about the prospect of such a swap for evan? we hold on every day to that president biden made a promise to our family that he was going to bring evan home, so we just continue to put our faith there. but we are willing to pursue any channels, any means necessary to get evan home. are they talking to you and your colleagues, paul, back channel negotiations on the topic? we have seen various glimpses of the last eight months. both sides say we are in negotiations and sometimes the other side pours

cold water on that they go back and forth little bit. we are confident everyone is taking it seriously on the us side, we just need to see some results, a prisoner swap is one of the ways it has been solved in the past. we are also interested in a creative way that means it doesn't take a prisoner swap and it doesn't take finding someone that the russians want back in order to get evan back because it is so absurd that he is there in the first place. we would like to find another way to bring him home. danielle, why do you think evan was targeted? i'm not sure. but i know that evan is an amazing journalist and he was very interested in russian people, his stories often had a lens through the russian people. but, unfortunately, i can't speak more to that. i think you have seen

in a number of these cases the kremlin trying to gain leverage of the united states by taking americans hostage and, in fact, this has had the added benefit from vladimir putin's standpoint of silencing what little is left of an independent press in moscow, and that includes the foreign press. so after evan was detained a lot of american reporters left and from putin's perspective he got what he wanted, which is a clampdown on the flow of information from a country that matters a huge amount of the world, the uk, and the united states. indeed. danielle, one more more question for you before we let you go, we know you can't speak directly with evan, but what message would you have for him if you could? i will give him the same message that he gave me, which isjust be patient, hold on, and that we are doing everything we can to get you home and president biden made that promise and we're going to hold him to that

and can't wait until is back home. we certainly hope so. danielle, paul, thank you so much for joining us. thank you so much. in indonesia — 11 hikers have been found dead and another 12 are still missing after a volcano erupted on the island of sumatra. rescuers worked through the night — carrying survivors down the mountain on foot. the marapi volcano is among the most active of indonesia's 127 volcanoes, which is making rescue efforts more difficult. that is the show at this hour. thank you for watching the bbc news. hello. it is starting to turn less cold. that process, the transition to mild weather has already begun but we're not really going to feel it until the end

of the week and into the weekend. in fact, there's still a chance of some frosts. now, let's have a look at the big picture then on tuesday. so low pressure close by with a wind off the north sea. so still a bit of an easterly, thick cloud and outbreaks of rain through the early hours across many parts of england and wales, maybe southern parts of scotland and into eastern northern ireland, but clear spells there in the north highlands and also around western parts of northern ireland. so a sharp frost in some spots early on tuesday, but not frosty in england and wales. and then here's the forecast for tuesday itself. in scotland and parts of northern ireland, it's a bright start with some sunshine in the afternoon. the rest of the country overcast, at least for the bulk of the day. chances are things will clear up a little bit in, say, the lake district, lancashire, wales in the southwest. but then that's towards the end of the day now, it's sunset soon, so i think the bulk of england and wales, let's call it a cloudy day with a chance of some rain. however, later in the day, on tuesday, towards the evening hours, skies will clear, the winds will fall light,

and we've got a frost on the way. so still that nip in the air first thing in the morning on wednesday, with temperatures perhaps as low as minus five in scotland and close to freezing if not below in the south. and the morning on wednesday will be very cold across many parts of the country, especially further east. could be some lingering fog, could feel quite raw during the day. so quite disappointing temperatures, again. four degrees, even could be optimistic in some spots, could be close to freezing. but out towards the west, we've got that warmth here, that mild air sweeping in, weather fronts coming in, bringing the outbreaks of rain. and that change really is under way towards the end of the week with a low pressure and westerly winds. now, this is the temperature anomaly map, so warmer than average or colder than average. and actually, you can see towards the end of the week and into the weekend, we've got these warmer colours indicating temperatures actually into double figures for some of us. so let's have a look at the outlook, then. midweek onwards, you can see a fair amount of cloud and some outbreaks of rain, but a steady rise in the temperature

as we lose the easterly winds and transition to westerlies. that's it for me. bye— bye.

voiceover: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme.

welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. the latest international climate conference is being hosted by a fossil fuel—enriched fiefdom, the united arab emirates. so does that mean the big oil and gas producers finally get it and are committed to decarbonisation? or could it be a sign that the much—vaunted energy transition is being de—prioritised thanks to geopolitical and economic realities? well, my guest is fatih birol, executive director of the international energy agency. is our addiction to fossilfuels proving too strong to break?