live from washington, this is bbc news. as fighting rages on in gaza, negotiators present a new proposalfor a ceasefire and hostage release between israel and hamas. ukraine destroys a strategic river bridge in the kursk region as it continues its cross—border offensive. medical workers begin a nationwide strike in india after the rape and murder of a female doctor. hello, i'm rajini vaidyanathan. welcome to this hour. us presidentjoe biden says a deal between israel and hamas is "closer than ever". it comes as mediators put forward a new proposal to try

and bridge the gap between the two sides at talks in doha. qatar, egypt, and the us said that the past two days were "serious,constructive" and "positive". mr biden shared the news with reporters as he hosted an event in the oval office a little earlier. one of the reasons why i was late is i was dealing with the ceasefire effort in the middle east. we are closer than we have ever been. i don't want to jinx anything, but as my grandfather would say, with the grace of god, the goodwill of the neighbours and a lot of luck, we may have something. but we're not there yet. but it is much closer than it was a few days ago. keep your fingers crossed. hamas wasn't present for negotiations, but the group is in direct communication with the mediators. it's said it wouldn't participate as it wanted to stick to the terms of an earlier deal. it accused israel of changing what was agreed to. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said the success orfailure of a deal was up to hamas, and urged other countries to pressure

them to agree. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, is heading to the region this weekend, in hopes of getting a deal over the line when talks resume next week. more from our state department correspondent tom bateman. these two issues have become entirely intertwined now in a potential breakthrough in the ceasefire talks and around's threaten retaliation to israel because they think the american feeling is very much that it heightens the possibility of an iranian strike significantly if it looks as though the ceasefire talks are falling apart. so what we have now is, after 48 hours of talks in doha, as you have been hearing, a lot of very positive messaging from the americans. you heard whatjoe biden said there thinking that they are really close was just hearing from a senior us official who described "a new spirit to

drive this to a conclusion and quote. from the talks in doha. so they think there is momentum. on the other hand, the palestinian version not so positive at all. you heard that from hamas and other such statements believing in effect the americans are trying to string everyone along, that they haven't got the israelis to move to drop the new conditions that hamas have a set that israelis are attached to this. i think mr blinken is really about piling public pressure on all the sides to keep the engagement going and to try to take a deal. tam to try to take a deal. tom bateman _ to try to take a deal. tom bateman there. _ earlier, i talked with david daoud, a senior fellow at the foundation for defense of democracies, a thing tank that takes a hard line on iran. first of all we heard there from president biden, who was fairly optimistic that those so—called gaps can be narrowed. are you as optimistic? thank you for having me on. i'm rarely not that optimistic and i think there are already reports of some snags. hamas has publicly criticised

the offers on the table, now american officials have said not to take that face value. but at the same time there are unbridgeable gaps in the positions between the israelis and hamas that we have seen in the past was not we're talking about the identity of the hostages to be released in exchange for what palestinian security prisoners are going to be released. the number of hostages to be released and, you know, what phases they are to be released, how many are going to be living versus, you know, not still alive. this has been a snag that has been in the past. i wouldn't see that this would necessarily change. there is also the issue that israel's objectives in gaza to dismantle hamas militarily and as a governmental structure has not necessarily changed. this is obviously something hamas cannot live with. they are not going to agree to surrender and where we have seen progress there have been israeli reports that have said there has been progress

on certain issues, but it has really been between israel and the mediators than between israel and hamas. so, there are perhaps signals for optimism but i think there are equal signals that caution against this kind of optimism that president biden is presenting in his speech. david, i was speaking to a commentator earlier who suggested that one of the challenges is that president biden�*s clock is ticking in terms of the time he has left on his presidency, so he is going at a greater pace than perhaps israel or hamas want to go out for various different reasons on either side. that's perhaps true. i mean, president biden has handed over the torch for the 2024 election to his current vice president, kamala harris, and he might want to give her a clean late to start with when she's competing with former president trump in the general election. he might want to wrap up this gaza issue that is putting

a strain on the coalition that he built out of the 2020 election. so it very much could be so, whereas israel's considerations, its security, whether a deal with a mass could guarantee notjust a return to an 6 october situation, but real security, real permanent ceasefire in the genuine sense of the term, these things may be working across ends or, as you said, the timeline might not be overlapping. hamas also has its own considerations. it wants to survive, it wants to rebuild as its leadership has stated over the course of this now io—month war and they plan to continue attacking the israelis in the future. so we have three different positions here, three different interests and it's going to probably take a bit more effort to get them to overlap. david, you talk about three different interests, and, of course, there is something else in the background here which is, of course, the region on high alert for some kind of retaliation from iran. it is notjust iran.

it's the broader resistance axis and primarily hezbollah. you know, in some ways the negotiations are, if you looked at this from this perspective, notjust between israel and hamas, but the broader resistance axis, the iranian—led regional alliance and the israelis. hezbollah, for example, has set as its objective from the outset that it preconditioned to it ceasing its attacks that it initiated against israel on 8 october that there is a ceasefire in gaza. once that happens, secretary general hassan nasrallah said on 3 november, in his first speech, after the onset of the current war and injuly he again reiterated this that once there is a ceasefire in gaza hezbollah will cease its attacks. now, matters have become complicated over the past few weeks, but the strike that happened from hezbollah that killed 12 israeli children, the israeli counterstike, and the assassination

of haniyeh, now this puts in position where the resistance axis, which i don't think wants a war with israel now, they're not in the stage where they can launch this promise regional war that would degrade israel out of existence, this is still a long—term project, they would rather avoid a full confrontation now, but these two assassinations and their public need to put them in a position where they have to strike at the israelis in a pretty painfulfashion and that could put the region on a path to conflict. now, the ceasefire negotiations, their prior commitment to ceasing fire themselves if there is a ceasefire in gaza could give them an off ramp. they could say, look, we forced the israelis through these support fronts, as they have been calling them, to stop their attack on gaza, we won, we have really started to see this from iraqi shia militias that are allied with iran and that could be sufficient to save face and obviate the need for the responses for fuad shukr, the hezbollah military commander that was killed in beirut by the israelis, orfor ismail haniyeh, who was assassinated in tehran.

david daoud there. the un says pauses in fighting are desperately needed to vaccinate 600,000 children in gaza against polio. the disease has re—emerged in the strip for the first time in 25 years. the un secretary general antonio guterres said preventing a polio outbreak will require a stop in fighting. let's be clear. the ultimate vaccine for polio is peace in the immediate humanitarian ceasefire. but in any case, a polio pause is a must. it is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over. and amid the humanitarian crisis in gaza, violence also flared in the west bank. jewish settlers stormed a village thursday night, killing one palestinian man. the attack took place injit

in the north of the occupied west bank. benjamin netanyahu condemned the attack. our middle east correspondent lucy williamson reports no—one knows who made rashid asidi a village hero. who shot the young it worker as he threw stones to keep armed jewish settlers at bay. but they know who to blame. translation: even the ambulance that came for him was blocked - by the army. they waited until he died. the blame is more on the army, because they are not controlling the settlers. they protect them. his mother said she didn't know if it was a settler or a soldier who fired the fatal shot. rashid's brother mahdi took me to where he was killed. the village boundary fence, broken in several places. a neighbour said dozens of settlers gathered here last night, and that he heard a hail of gunshots. he said he called the israeli army, who took two

hours to arrive. the army said they deployed within minutes. residents say the settlers were masked, armed and organised into groups. some dressed all in black, some all in white. hassan was at home with his family when they came down this road. his surveillance camera caught the moment they confronted him, setting fire to his car and entering his family compound. translation: they were all. armed with automatic weapons, light weapons, pepper spray. their attack was organised. they had a clear goal to kill or burn. here we are, unarmed. they have the government supporting them. we have nothing except ourselves. israel is under fierce international scrutiny over settler violence in the west bank. israel's army says it has launched a thorough investigation into last night's attack. those gathered for rashid's funeral prayers had little

faith injustice. the body of rashid asidi is leading a procession of anger through the village ofjit. people here trace this violence right back to the behaviour of israeli security forces and the policies of israeli politicians. a palestinian village surrounded by israeli settlements, distrustful of israeli forces, burying their anger along with their grief. lucy williamson reporting there. ukraine has destroyed a strategic river bridge in the kursk region, cutting off a russian supply route as it continues its second week of a cross—border offensive. officials in moscow say destroying the bridge will disrupt evacuations, and make it harderfor the kremlin to supply its troops. the head of the ukrainian

military says troops are strengthening their position, advancing between one and three kilometres further into the region. ukraine claims it has taken control of 82 settlements over an area of 1,150 square kilometres, or 444 square miles, in the region since 6 august. meanwhile in eastern ukraine, russian officials say a series of ukrainian strikes wounded at least seven people and set a shopping centre ablaze in the russian—controlled city of donesk on friday. our ukraine correspondent james waterhouse sent us this report. ukraine isn'tjust targeting russian troops, but their supply lines too. a missile makes light work of a major bridge in russia's kursk region. it was a counteroffensive which surprised just about everyone. apart from the ukrainian paratroopers who've released this footage.

complete with dramatic music and muscular armour from when they first overwhelmed a russian border crossing and the soldier manning it. after a blistering land grab in the kursk region, ukraine's gains are starting to slow. russia is diverting resources, like these artillery units, to stem the tide. nevertheless, ukraine is bringing in more troops to consolidate what it's taken. this is the main route from ukraine's sumy region into russia itself. you have to imagine it as an artery. and as advances start to slow, the question becomes, what next? kyiv took this territory relatively easily, with the element of surprise and elite forces. but keeping hold of it, as russia turns its head and redeploys thousands of troops, that will be very different. arnie signed up to defend ukraine with the full—scale invasion. translation: no-one likes war, we want to finish it. _

i am not keen to fight. but for our ukraine, for our people, we'll stand till the end. anatoly has just returned from russian soil and has noticed a difference in progress. translation: we are still advancing. - it's slowed down a bit, but we are moving forward. as long as we have orders and instructions, we'll keep on moving. anatoly hopes his effort will relieve pressure on other parts of the front line. as of yet, that's not happening. regardless, ukraine's goal seems to be shifting from liberation to producing bargaining chips for a future peace deal, whenever that might be. james waterhouse, bbc news, sumy region. medical workers in india have begun a 24—hour strike in protest against the rape and murder of female doctor at a kolkata hospital last week.

all non—emergency hospital services will shut down across the country on saturday. the indian medical association has said it's time the authorities acted to ensure the safety of doctors in hospitals and on campuses. one doctor, a resident at madras medical college in chennai, explained why she and her colleagues are on the picket line. so, the brutal incident has happened and calcutta has brought to the limelight about the safety of the women dock is all over the country so they could have happened to any of us here, it can happen again, because the working environment is not very safe and secure, especially in government medical colleges. so we believe that this incident brings in some reforms in thejudiciary that we get proper acts that protect the doctors against violence and also ensure the safety of women in general and the women doctors working in the women doctors working in

the government hospitals and all hospitals. the the government hospitals and all hospitals.— all hospitals. the nationwide strike follows _ all hospitals. the nationwide strike follows a _ all hospitals. the nationwide strike follows a wave - all hospitals. the nationwide strike follows a wave of - strike follows a wave of protests across india following the death and the rape of that young female dock the. —— docter. our reporter archana shukla has more from a protest site in mumbai on friday. they chant, demanding justice, slogans demanding safety at workplace. these are the junior doctors gathered from across government hospitals in mumbai, and they are angry. they are here to protest against the lack of safety at workplace in most government hospitals. remember, these are the junior doctors that handle patient work in government hospitals, work overload hours, are underpaid and mostly are at the forefront of any violence inflicted

at healthcare staff. one of the biggest demands they have is of a central law to curb violence against healthcare staff. a lot of the anger is directed towards the political establishment and that the government who, the protesters say, has not done enough to bring safety at workplace for women. there are laws but they are not effective on the ground. but now, these protests are going regionwide and they have support from the private doctors�* association and across the country non—emergency services will come to a standstill as protests put pressure on the government. crime against women have not come down over the past two years, despite laws being in place. over the last four years, violence against women has gone up by 4%, according to the statistics of the government. that is something that all of the doctors here and across the country people

supporting the protests are demanding. here in the us, vice president kamala harris has announced her vision for the economy, with a focus on bringing down prices. speaking in north carolina, the democratic nominee called for the first—ever federal ban on "price gouging" for grocery items. harris said she'd take on companies who continue to charge high prices as inflation falls to under 3%. many of the big food companies are seeing their highest profits in two decades. and while many grocery chains pass along the savings, others still aren't. look, i know most businesses are creating jobs, contributing to our economy and playing by the rules, but some are not and that is just not right and we need to take action.

the speech outlined her first major policy proposals of her campaign. they also include $25,000 to help first—time homebuyers with their down payments. harris said she wants to implement a $6,000 child tax credit for families during the first year of a child's life. and she says her plan will eliminate medical debt for millions of americans, and cap prescription drug costs. and on the issue of drug costs, earlier this week kamala harris appeared with president biden to celebrate the outcome of the first—ever medicare drug price negotiation. the white house announced price reductions for ten major drugs, with the highest reduction being the diabetes drug januvia at 79%. our north america correspondent nomia iqbal has more on harris — and trump's — visions for the future of the economy. the vice president has been accused of being all style and no substance. this was her first major opportunity to show americans what president harris

would look like, how would she govern? what would herfirst 100 days in the white house looked like. she unveiled all proposals to see how she would lower the cost of living. what struck me about her speech was she had much more of an easy way of talking about policy. simple sentences, examples from her own life, in the way president biden was accused of not being able to do so. the vision she had was not hugely radicalfrom his but she delivered her speech about 30 minutes, shorter than biden speech. shorter than the speeches donald trump has been giving on the economy recently. she also accused donald trump of coming up with proposals that would only benefit rich people, billionaires, executives of big corporations. mr trump tried to tie kamala harris to the cost of living going up and inflation as well.

both of them are going hard on the economy. the economy is the number one issue for voters. the polls suggest it is the one thing they really care about going into the selection. they both have delivered speeches from north carolina. key paragraph states where they stayed they are statistically tired. when it comes to economy, polls suggest voters do trust trump a lot more about. it's known as "snowball earth" — the longest and deepest ice age in our planet's history. exactly how it came about has long been a mystery, but a small group of scottish islands may have just given scientists the key to understanding it. the garvellach islands, in the inner hebrides in the west of scotland, offer the best geological record of the earth's transition into an ice age 720—million years ago. the findings could open the door to a better understanding of why it happened — and how it laid the groundwork for animal life to evolve here.

our science correspondent pallab ghosh has more. these tiny islands, in the inner hebrides of scotland, hold the key to how the first animal life emerged on earth hundreds of millions of years ago. each layer of this rock face in the garvellachs captures a snapshot of the planet's distant past. scientists have now dated fragments of the rock and shown them to be from the only place in the world to have a detailed record of how our planet plunged into the most severe and prolonged ice age in our history. these tiny grains prove beyond any doubt that the garvellachs are the best and most complete record of a critical period in our history called snowball earth when, for 80 million years, pretty much the entire planet was covered with ice. if we winds the calendar hundreds of millions of years, we see that scotland

was in a completely different place, because the continents have moved over time. it was south of the earth's equator and had a tropical climate until it, and the rest of the planet, became engulfed in ice. but then, something remarkable happened. after the melting of the snowball, we suddenly start to get bona—fide, modern—looking animals. it seems counterintuitive that such a big freeze that could have prevented life was actually the spur to generate this explosion of life. after the snowball melted, of course, everything that had adapted to that and diversified in those specialist niches would have had to then compete with each other in some kind of arms race. geologists have been studying the rocks on the garvellachs for decades — first, on foot, using the only building on the island as a base, and more recently, using drones to create detailed, computer—enhanced images of the rock layers.

if the results are confirmed, these islands could be awarded a golden spike. that's an actual spike, hammered in, to celebrate the location of a planet—changing geological moment. the researchers will find out next year whether they and scotland have won the golden spike. pallab ghosh, bbc news. and before we go. it was a dramatic scene on north carolina's outer banks coast. chicamacomico banks fire and rescue officials say this home collapsed due to rough waves from ernesto. the category 2 hurricane, which is some 600 of miles off shore approaching bermuda, has created dangerous conditions on the us state's coast. there is more on all of this shows we have covered in this bulletin on the abc news website or the bbc news app.

that is it from here in washington for the moment. do stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. we're into fine settled spell of weather now, just in time for the weekend, and we should see a lot of sunshine on both saturday and sunday, especially across england and wales. winds light in the south, always a bit fresher further north. that's because scotland is closer to this area of low pressure over iceland, but the azores high, bringing plenty of sunshine and lighter winds to england and wales. but it will be quite a cool start to saturday morning. cool and fresh, with temperatures in single digits out of towns and cities. but there'll be plenty of sunshine to begin the day, cloud tending to bubble up into the afternoon, and that will bring a few showers to northern and western scotland and northern ireland through the day, where it'll stay quite breezy but light winds further south. temperatures here 24—25 degrees. mid to high teens across the north, maybe 20 degrees across northeast scotland. now the showers tend to fade away across most of the north, the odd one continuing across the highlands through saturday night.

lengthy clear skies again, light winds to the south. so it's going to be another fresh night to come with seven to 12 degrees for sunday. the azores, high across the south, just nudges up a little bit further northwards. so large parts of england and wales, maybe northern ireland, southern scotland will see lighter winds, but still quite breezy across the north and west of scotland, where again we'll have a few showers and a few showers, perhaps for northern ireland, maybe just one or two across western england and wales, but similar sorts of temperatures, mid 20s in the south and mid to high teens further north. now as we head out to sunday to monday, our area of high pressure begins to get squeezed out in towards the near continent as low pressure takes over across western areas, it goes downhill through the day across the north and the west. wetter and windier but central and eastern parts of the country will stay dry. plenty of sunshine and light winds, too.

further north and west it will be turning blustery with that rain, so temperatures here high teens at best, quite warm and turning increasingly humid across the southeast 25, maybe 26 degrees. tuesday looks more unsettled generally across the country. could even see a few showers in the southeast. it'll be a breezier day to come, but the heaviest of the rain will tend to be across the north and west of scotland. temperatures here again mid to high teens up to around 20 to 24 in the south. further areas of low pressure will cross the country, bringing wet and windy spells to the north and west, but it should tend to stay largely dry, quite warm, humid and breezy across the southeast.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. i'm katie razzall. this week, how is elon musk getting involved in politics, and what impact will it have on x? plus, a masterclass in sports commentary from an olympics broadcaster. it's all coming up on the media show. in recent weeks, parts of the uk have seen violent riots fuelled by misinformation online and anti—immigration sentiment. hello. good evening. the prime minister has condemned the violent disorder that's been seen in a number of english towns and cities today and over the last six days since the murder of three