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they care about what i want, my needs, my career path, i matter here. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" s world news america. s president trump moves to pause u.s. federal funding. thousands of more displaced palestinians make their way back to northern gaza. 350,000 people have already returned. we take a look at some of the victims of the war in ukraine. the bbc speaks to one woman who said it affects three

generations of her family. ♪ hello. i'm samantha simmonds. welcome to bbc news. the administration of u.s. president donald trump has froze what could amount trillions of dollars of government funding. the memorandum calls for a pause on nearly all federal grounds and loans. the white house says the freeze will allow agencies time to ensure that they can comply with a rash of executive order signed by the president. karoline leavitt who at 27 is the youngest person ever to be white house press secretary said at her debut media briefing said the freeze is not for individuals but for pensions, health care, and food assistance. sacraments -- sec. leavitt: what does this mean? no more funding for the green new scam, that has caused

american taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. it means no more funding for transgenderism and wokeness across our agencies. no more funding for greenville social engineering policies. people who are receiving individual assistance, you will continue to receive that, and president trump as being a good steward of your taxpayer dollars. samantha: government departments are scrambling to work out the consequences of the freeze. attorneys general from 11 states including california and new york are suing to stop the pause as it is a coalition of nonprofits. they want assurances -- despite assurances the payments will affect individuals, they state this affects grants for lower income americans, medicaid, has been deactivated at all 50 states. the white house insist it will be back online shortly. senate top democrat

majority leader chuck schumer says it is unconstitutional and will hurt the american people. joining us now are tom bateman and molly. what was the atmosphere like? molly: it was packed, as you can imagine, and all of the seats had been taken, lots of people with their cameras. there was a sense that donald trump might show up. karoline leavitt, the youngest ever prospect for press secretary, so many questions to ask her because donald trump has tied up so many actions in the last week or so. she is very loyal to donald trump. probably one of the main reasons why she got the job. speaking to a lot of the points

that he has made. i think the general consensus is, you know, that she did a pretty good job. one of the things i find interesting is she talked about how in the future, legacy media, which is networks in this country, will not get priority when it comes to deceiving and asking questions, that they want to bring in new media like podcasters and influencers. samantha: the federal funding halts just went into effect, didn't it? it seems to be causing a lot of confusion. bring us up-to-date on what the trump administration has done on that. nomia: there is some confusion, because they are in mine, federal assistance thanks so much in this country. we are talking about children's education programs, you know, not just health care, although

health care is one of the big issues, medicaid and medicare affects millions of people, as you mentioned. there are reports that the online systems to track the funds are down. democrats are coming together to say that this is hugely damaging and the white house has said this will not affect people who are getting direct payments. they are also saying that it has nothing to do with this funding freeze. they are aware of what is happening. the argument that it won't affect, yet there is a lot of confusion. at this point on the democrats, so far they have struggled to really get together and articulate a real comprehensive, substantive pushback on donald trump. so much of that is because he announces things a sort of every minute. it is really hard to keep up with what he is doing. but they have been holding press conferences and trying to get the message out to americans, they believe that what he is doing is unconstitutional. there are those lawsuits being filed.

but i say hugely damaging, disruptive, and confusing for millions of americans. samantha: nomia, thank you. let's cross to tom now could just explain what the pause on leave is going to have globally. tom: this is from president trump's executive order last week, which talked about, in his language, and industry and neuropathy of foreign aid that he said was not aligned with american values. we then heard friday from the state department the memo that was circulated to foreign missions, embassies abroad, to across the spectrum of state department officials ordering a stop work notice, as it is called, on all foreign aid work that is carried out, that is funded by the state department. now, this is absolutely huge, because this is a $70 billion spend by the united states government, foreign assistance

that goes into humanitarian and development work. this has cost, i think it is fair to say, an earthquake across the four aid, humanitarian development industry, while they try to absorb what this means, the u.s. is its biggest global donor for humanitarian projects across the world. we are hearing now multiple cases of projects that have simply been told to stop the work they do. for example, one of the big ones, the u.s.-led global project to suppress the spread of hiv and a.id.s., that was given a stop work order, one of many things. i sent an attempt to row back now within the state department, trying to redefine which projects might get wavered, but

it is affecting a huge amount of confusion around humanitarian and aid world globally at the moment. samantha: stay with us, tom. we will go back to nomia with breaking news just coming into us around the administration's freeze of federal loans. while the u.s. judge has just temporarily paused that freeze. this story developing by the moment. we did know there was legal opposition to this. give us your analysis of what this will now mean. does that put a pause on this whole entire policy for the moment? nomia: it well for the moment. this federal judge temporarily blocked this. sorry, tom. yeah. on the federal assistance, so basically, federal grants and loans that could total trillions of dollars. so just to give you the update, u.s. district judge blocked the action just minutes before it is set to go into effect.

it causes the freeze until monday. so it goes until monday, so, you know, we will see what happens after that. but yes, a federal judge has temporarily blocked that freeze of scheduled grants and loans that was due to go into effect shortly. samantha: thanks for that. sorry, tom. back to you. tell us a little bit more about the u.s. aid and opposition to that and what's tied to that as well. tom: there certainly will be challenges. i was on a call yesterday in which a very large number of contractors who get money from usaid and from the state department to carry out this kind of work were seeking advice basically from experts and lawyers in the field about how they might continue their work and continue to try to get different grants to overcome this phrase. a lot of this is going to be about applying for raises.

but in a sense similar to what nomia was talking about, i think with the administration is driven by here is they say donald trump was elected on a mandate by the american people to effectively redefine what they see as humanitarian work, and they don't want money going into anything that might involve, for example, family planning policies that they disagree with. we heard the spokesperson talk about condoms going to gaza. they put a block on that, 50 million dollars worth of condoms going into gaza. and also what they define as "will policies." they believe, for example, there may be cases of such policies being, in their view, hidden within other grants for humanitarian work. there is a culture of suspicion on behalf of the administration. they want to route these things out. but others in the field, former officials have said to me, you don't need to put as a stop on the entire program in order to do that.

you can do a top to bottom review without this potential disruption and a sense of chaos that is emerging from people who work in the industry at the moment. samantha: ok, tom bateman and no mia iqbal in washington, thank you. u.s. president donald trump is expected to receive his first visit by a foreign leader next week. he's invited israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu to the white house on february 5. on tuesday, the un security council held an urgent meeting on israel's ban of the u.s. agencies of palestinian refugees, which takes effect in two days. the move will end on road's operations on israeli land, including occupied east jerusalem. back impact education, health care, and other services to tens of thousands of services. the agency is accused of carrying out and a relentless -- a relentless assault against it. flying into gaza for the first

time since the cease-fire between israel and hamas started more than a week ago. it's apparently carrying urgently needed medical supplies to 1.9 million displaced palestinians. aid efforts are critical in gaza come with tens of thousands of palestinians making their way back to northern gaza. one of the first journalist to join her in the air mission into a situation jordanian officials described as horrific and inhumane. the helicopters landed in the south of the territory, and the israeli border. from there, he sent this report. >> they've been waiting for this moment. now with the cease-fire, the airlift can begin. we joined the jordanian air force first mission to gaza since the truce. before we left, on the ground, the loading of aid, including this from britain. a lot being brought today is

medical aid, which is crucial, because the health system and gaza has been battered. before we took off, there was a message from jordan's government. >> we think this is inhumane and must stop. we think palestinians in gaza deserve to live in dignity and give enough support from the world at the humanitarian level. >> we flew out, heading away from the base. on the hour long journey to the gaza strip. we passed over the jordanian territory. then over israel. jordanian troops made this possible. on the ground it is very limited.

it is very tough to get down on the ground. we dipped and began the final approach to gaza. this is close to the area. the ruins in the desert testament to more than a year of war. the israelis pounded areas where they hunted and fought hamas. the cost for civilians was devastating. touchdown inside the strip. now from the ground, looking across the fence, we can see the devastation of gaza. this just one small part of a broken place. this is the beginning of an air bridge into gaza. there are 15 more choppers backed out, waiting to bring in badly needed aid.

it's not fair. the ruins were tens of thousands of people took refuge, they are now in the middle of a cease-fire, hoping that it lasts, so that this aid can get there. aid delivered and more on the way. it was time to go. this won't heal gaza. that is the longest journey of all. fergal keane, bbc news, inside the gaza strip. samantha: the crisis in eastern democratic republic of the congo is intensifying, with the afp news agency reported more than 100 people have been killed in the city of goma. the fighting between rebel groups and government forces escalates. the news agency at nearly 1000 others are wounded. we are looking at pictures of armed people outside of goma's airport, which is under the control of around 23 fighters.

the u.n. says hospitals in goma are struggling to handle the number of people injured in the conflict. south africa says more of its peace peak -- peacekeepers serving the mission have been killed, in addition to nine already reported. 17 u.n. peacekeepers from the not multinational mission have been killed in recent days. experts have long accused rwanda from backing the n23, something wanda denies. they called -- the you and calls on them to restart strikes. they say the international community has not done enough to stop the fighting between m23 and government forces. the embassy among those under attack is closed until further notice. u.s. citizens have also been urged to leave the country.

the u.n. spokesperson said it secretary-general spoke with them on tuesday. >> he's been very clear both publicly and privately on the need for wanda to see support for the m23 and withdrawal from the deals. it's not going to be solved in 24 hours. what is clear is that it will not be solved through military operations. by different governments, different militias. samantha: africa barbara plett-usher has the latest. barbara: we did get that briefing, as you said. u.s. officials said there were bodies in the streets. they said there were hundreds of casualties, many with gunfire and shrapnel wounds, and also some of the health workers have been shot at with patience getting caught in the crossfire, including babies.

quite a difficult humanitarian situation. the international committee of the red cross and the world food program said some of their wealth to houses -- their warehouses had been looted. food insecurity and also a surprise situation given that the capital is cut off by the fighting. that is a very serious thing because goma had been a hub for humanitarian work. there's hundreds of thousands of displaced people there, people who sort of migrated to goma over the past couple of years, where there's been a lot of fighting in eastern congo. this is where they have ended up, trapped with very little surprise -- little supplies to help them. there was fighting around a biomedical research lab in the city, and they were afraid that pathogens there, like the ebola virus, might not be secured. so it sounded like a very strong appeal for an end to the fighting in the risk and consequences it is creating.

samantha: russia's army says its forces have captured a large village in ukraine's eastern kharkiv region. it has now changed hands three times during the conflict. i was correspondent orla guerin met a woman who lost her mother, daughter, and grandson on the same day in november. here is her story. orla: russia's war has taken almost everything from yulia. her mother. her daughter. her grandson. "my little kitten," she says. all three were here at home

last november, where they should have been safe. then russia attacked. just at that moment, a bomb fell. it flew into the house and exploded. right there. so in one moment, we lost almost the whole family. i lost my mother, my daughter, and grandson in one second. now, i don't know how to live. i can't see the point in living. this is her grandson, filmed by his great-grandmother, tatiana. one hour later, they were both scared. along with his mother, sofia,

three generations gone. when the war started, sophiia made it to safety in the u.k.. sheissed her parents and her country. after coming back home, she gave birth to her sun, who love the birds, the moon, and the stars. yuliia shows me adam's red coat, which was found under the rubble, torn by shrapnel. it is something she and adam's grandfather can touch and hold, all they have left of him, along with one of his favorite toys, now a family treasure. after the bombing, they spent days searching through the ruins.

nine civilians were killed here in all. "ukraine must fight on," they say, "not talk peace." >> my view on the negotiations is negative. so many of our people have already died. that is no longer possible. when the enemy is on our territory, the only contact we can have with them is combat. orla: back at the cemetery, we meet hannah, a cousin of the family. she is a volunteer who brings supplies to the army. that kept her away from sophiia and adam. hannah: after the war, i will do what i want, i will spend whatever time with the people i

love, but i won't. orla: yuliia and serhiy come back often to remember what they lost, but they know that there is still a war in ukraine, and that russia is still killing civilians. orla guerin, bbc news. samantha: let's get to some of the day's other news now. serbia's prime minister has quit over weeks of protest after the collapse of a railroad station -- railway station that killed people. serbia's main opposition people accepted the resignation -- said the resignation is an attempt to buy time. russian state media says

moscow's allegations to visit syria since its former ally of bashar al-assad has arrived in damascus. members of the delegation are expected to meet syria's new leaders. russia said it will be the focus of talks. russia granted him refuge in december. a new study suggests climate change was a major factor in the recent devastating wildfires in los angeles. decades of drought followed by heavy rainfall made surrounding areas more vulnerable to burning, as justin rowlatt explains. just in: at last it has rained in l.a., and it brought mudslides that have blocked a major road but also means more people can return home, because after three long weeks, the wildfires are finally being brought under control.

today's study, produced by imperial college london, found the hot and dry conditions that drove the fire were made one-third more likely by human caused climate change and said the chances of the low autumn and winter rainfall that preceded the fire had more than doubled since the preindustrial era. the scientists also found climate change means fire-prone conditions are now likely to persist for 23 days longer, increasing the chances fighters will coincide with the strong, seasonal winds. but the study was complex and the findings uncertain. >>'s got mounted on one side, the coast on the other. it's very limited, but we've looked at different elements of the weathers feeding into the likelihood of these fires commend all of evidence are pointing in the same direction or suggesting that, yes, climate change has played a role in them. justin: it comes days after

president trump had visited l.a., having comprehensively shredded u.s. climate policy did he has, however, valve the city will be rebuilt. justin rella, bbc news. samantha: all of these stories and more are covered on the bbc news website. that is it for now with me, sam announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ announcer: "usa today" calls it, "arguably the best bargain in streaming." that's because the free pbs app lets you watch the best of pbs anytime, anywhere.

♪ amna: good evening. i'm on bus. geoff: the white house defends a sweeping freeze of federal spending after a judge orders upon the action. waxed global experts sound the alarm on how u.s. spending cuts could impact health around the world. >> it's a big deal and thi