buy its palm oil. it's seven in the morning in singapore, and two o'clock in the morning in gaza, where president biden has warned he will stop sending bombs and artillery shells to israel if they launch an invasion of rafah. there has been heavy fighting and bombardment near the city of rafah, where the israeli military says it began a limited operation on monday. with almost one million displaced people taking refuge there, aid agencies have warned the consequences could be devastating. the un says around 600,000 palestinian children are among those currently sheltering

in rafah, let's hear from some of them. we are afraid of war and terrified of the storming of we are afraid of war and terrified of the rafa h. rafah. we help the world will end in that we return to gaza. we feel very uncomfortable and we cannot be here any longer. this_ we cannot be here any longer. this is— we cannot be here any longer. this is distressing for all of us we _ this is distressing for all of us we hope to warble in soon and _ us we hope to warble in soon and we — us we hope to warble in soon and we can go home. people of lost sense _ and we can go home. people of lost sense of comfort and security— lost sense of comfort and security and we are more scared at night — security and we are more scared at night due to the bombardments. they kill everyone _ bombardments. they kill everyone without - everyone without differentiating. everyone without - differentiating between children _ differentiating between children and _ differentiating between children and old - differentiating betweenl children and old people. differentiating between- children and old people. the whole — children and old people. the whole thing _ children and old people. the whole thing is _ children and old people. the whole thing is terrifying - children and old people. the whole thing is terrifying andl whole thing is terrifying and have — whole thing is terrifying and have been— whole thing is terrifying and have been experiencing - whole thing is terrifying and have been experiencing 12 l have been experiencing 12 months _ have been experiencing 12 months of— have been experiencing 12 months of suffering - have been experiencing 12 months of suffering and l have been experiencing 12| months of suffering and no have been experiencing 12 - months of suffering and no one considers— months of suffering and no one considers us _ months of suffering and no one considers us or _ months of suffering and no one considers us or cares _ months of suffering and no one considers us or cares about - months of suffering and no one considers us or cares about us. i well, we've been hearing joe biden has warned israel against an invasion of rafah. he also said in an interview to cnn that the bombs the united states has supplied to israel in its war against hamas have been used to kill palestinian civilians. i'm joined live from

washington by our correspondent, will vernon. will, this is the clearest signal yet that the us isn't happy with how israel is conducting its military offensive in gaza, isn't it? what else did biden say? we are still waiting for the full interview which should be coming out about now but in the two minutes or so clip that cnn of our descendents, mr biden has said america will continue to support israel in a bid to defend itself including supplying interceptors for its iron dome air defence system but, america would not supply heavy bombs, artillery shells, heavy bombs, artillery shells, heavy weapons that could be used in a ground assault and major offensive in the southern city of gaza. weapons that could be used in population centres. we know earlier in the day the us officials confirmed that one shipment of these heavy weapons was delayed over

concerns of the way in which that war is being fought in other shipments of the state department are being reviewed and this was extremely significant move is the first time in a0 years that america has withheld any kind of arm shipments to israel for this kind of reason. these heavy weapons are exactly the kind of destructive military supplies that human rights groups say i majorly responsible for the devastation in gaza for the deaths of civilians in america is the most important supplier of supplies to the israelis and most important ally and mr biden will get a lot of flak for this decision from republicans in congress who will accuse him of abandoning a key us ally but is hoping that this move will fire a warning

across to the israeli saying look, if you go ahead with this, we will put major and put a lot of pressure on you to change course and i think that is what mr biden is hoping will be the result. the humanitarian situation on the ground is already dire and getting worse. an investigation by bbc verify has found over half of gaza's water and sanitation facilities have been damaged or destroyed since the start of the war. here's caroline hawley. water in gaza is in short supply causing serious risk to the population more than 600 water and sanitation facilities. here, they represent a mixture of water wells, tanks and sewage treatment plants in the red dots are all those have been destroyed or damaged at that is

more than 300 facilities across the gaza strip. gaza used to have six functioning waste water treatment plants which are crucial to preventing the build—up of sewage and the spread of disease, this was one of them. destroyed or damaged — that's more than 300 facilities across the gaza strip. here it was before october 7th. and now after. three others are also damaged or destroyed. and we've been told the remaining two are out of action, largely because of a lack of fuel. to compound the problem, officials in gaza say they're struggling to repair damaged infrastructure after an attack on a key warehouse where fuel and spare parts were stored. this shows the warehouse before... ..and after it was struck at the end of january. the idf said it was targeting hamas fighters nearby. it's accused the group of storing weapons and ammunition inside civilian structures, including in and near water facilities. all of this has had a very direct human consequence. the world health organization says that the average person needs 15 litres of water each

day for drinking, washing and cooking. but most people in gaza are getting just a fraction of that. and that scarcity of water and untreated sewage are causing dehydration and disease. we are seeing death coming from the outbreaks of disease in the highly vulnerable and the small children, in the elderly, in pregnant women. hepatitis in pregnant women is very, very dangerous. this is killing people. people in gaza have told us that they are queuing for hours to access drinking water. others are drinking dirty water. aid agencies would like to truck in more water, but say they can't because of limited access to fuel. and this is notjust an acute problem now, exacerbated by the current israeli operation in rafah. gaza's infrastructure will take years, decades, to rebuild. you can see our full analysis on the bbc news website. another conservative mp has defected to labour — the second in less than two weeks. natalie elphicke — the mp for dover —

said the conservatives under rishi sunak "have become a byword for incompetence and division". she made the movejust minutes before the prime minister faced mps in the commons at prime minsiters questions — for the first time since suffering heavy defeats in local elections in england. here's our political editor chris mason. natalie elphicke, shoulder to shoulder with the prime minister when rishi sunak invited reporters to dover last summer to talk about stopping the boats. less than a year later, she has stopped being a conservative mp. look at the leader she's appearing with now. i must admit, when i got up this morning i didn't expect to hear this today. natalie elphicke, the labour member of parliament for dover and deal. i think she speaks for very many tory voters in saying that the tory party has changed, it has left the centre ground. but equally the labour party has changed and we are very clearly the party of

the national interest. really good day. it has been a great day. cue the mildly awkward first date with the cameras in tow vibes ahead of her criticism of their prime minister. he is not stopping the boats and he is letting the country down. meanwhile, under labour, they are clear that it is important to have defence and they want to make sure they have good national security. so i think we should have confidence that labour are the party who will tackle this issue of the small boats crossings. and this is what crossing the floor, as it's known, looks like. natalie elphicke being led to the labour benches. she takes a seat behind keir starmer and gets another handshake from the new boss. little wonder the labour leader appeared to be enjoying himself. he's also lost 1500 tory councillors, half of his party's mayors and a leadership election to a lettuce. how many more times do the public and his own mps need to reject him before he takes the hint?

this time last year i reminded him of some advice, actually, from his own mentor, tony blair, who had said at the time, he can be as cocky as he likes about local elections but come a general election its policy that counts, mr speaker. smiles on the labour front bench, but elsewhere on those labour benches today, plenty are taken aback. certainly backbenchers are really confused. i mean, my stance on immigration and refugees and asylum seekers for example has always been completely different to natalie. i'm not sure what that means now about labour's view on those things. is it me or is it hers? i'm as baffled as everyone watching this. i am really in a rush to geti to this meeting, i'm afraid. you can't spare us a sentence? conservatives were baffled too. that meeting was rishi sunak talking to his mps about last week's local elections. good afternoon, any words for natalie elphicke? it's a shame, with natalie being further to the right than me i would be surprised if she finds a home

with the labour party. if you look at the things she has said in the past, her criticisms of labour on immigration policy, on the boats, it seems completely incompatible with her position now. pfft, it's up to her. any words to offer her? i only go through dover for the ferry. natalie elphicke became an mp in 2019, replacing her then—husband charlie elphicke, who she's seen talking to here. he was charged with sexually assaulting two women, and later convicted and jailed, at which point she announced that their marriage was ending. tonight, labour will hope the focus is on the big picture. two defections from the conservatives in less than a fortnight. natalie elphicke today, after this man, dan poulter, a week last sunday. let's take a look at some of the stories in the headlines in the uk. john swinney has become the seventh first minister of scotland. his appointment was rubber—stamped by the king before he was sworn in at the court of session in edinburgh.

kate forbes has become scotland's youngest ever deputy first minister as mr swinney announced a largely unchanged cabinet team. is the privilege of my life and is the privilege of my life and i look forward to dedicating my future to serving the people of scotland as i have done so for so many years and to do this as first minister is an extraordinary opportunity to change life for the better and i intend to use every moment that's available to me to do so. the home secretary, james cleverly, has announced to parliament that a russian defence attache will be expelled from the uk for being a spy. he also told mps that he would remove the diplomatic status of a number of russian—owned properties which the government believed "had been used for intelligence purposes". prince harry has attended an event to mark a decade of the invictus games — the international sporting event that he founded for military personnel wounded in action. a spokesman for the duke

of sussex says he won't be able to see his father while in the uk this week — because king charles has a full programme of engagements and will be too busy. chinese president xi jinping is in hungary on the final leg of his european tour. he arrived in budapest in the past couple of hours — just in time for a gala dinner with hungarian prime minister, viktor 0rban. president xi is due to hold talks with hungarian president tamas sulyok, before visiting chinese investments in hungary. earlier on wednesday, xi was in belgrade. his serbian counterpart aleksandar vucic told thousands of supporters — many waving chinese flags — that the government in beijing was a sincere friend. elaine dezenski is a senior director at the foundation for defense of democracies, she told me why president xijinping has made serbia and hungary a part of his tour. i think it is pretty clear that

xijinping doesn't have i think it is pretty clear that xi jinping doesn't have a i think it is pretty clear that xijinping doesn't have a lot of friends in europe and going to serbia and hungary pretty much guarantees that you'll get a friendly reception and these are two countries that are actively pursuing greater investment from china and they've been recipients in significant infrastructure investments and then signed cooperation agreements that are moving from the economic sphere to the security sphere and there is a very strategic intent behind those two countries. br; intent behind those two countries.— countries. by the first eur0pean _ countries. by the first european countries i countries. by the first european countries to countries. by the first - european countries to sign on to china's initiative and what more should we know about the relationship? it more should we know about the relationship?— relationship? it is an interesting - relationship? it is an interesting case - relationship? it is an - interesting case because of relationship? it is an _ interesting case because of the chinese perspective, they see it as an opening to the broader european economy in the market and to political engagement and he's been very supportive of this relationship for many

years and as perceived benefits from this growing investment and it certainly costs some disturbance within the european union and certainly in brussels where there is a growing concern about the nature of this relationship but the implications are more broadly for the eu. it is setting up a bit of attention that i think is an interesting and potentially challenging narrative facing xi jinping of the future. he's taking a bit a gamble by taking this divide and conquer kind of approach by going to hungary and going to serbia and pushing back against some of the concerns that the eu has raised around the relationship with china. so, it is creating a bit of a divisive environment at the same time, i

think with the europeans really looking for is a bit more assurance about access to the chinese market and about the quality of the trade relationships and you have these dynamics that are working perhaps against each other and it is a difficult narrative to balance, particularly for xi jinping. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

new analysis shows that the world's oceans have broken temperature records every single day over the past year — caused mainly by climate change. the news comes as figures from the eu climate service, copernicus, also show that last month was the warmest april on record for our oceans. they absorb around a quarter of the carbon dioxide that humans produce and soak up excess heat, so evidence that they're heating up at record levels raises concerns they won't be able to do this as effectively as before. activist greta thunberg,

who was fined on wednesday by a judge in sweden over a protest blocking the entrance to the swedish parliament, said she disobeyed police orders because she wanted to highlight the climate emergency. with more, here's our climate editor, justin rowlatt. the menai bridge between north wales and the island of anglesey. scientists have been monitoring the plants and animals on the sea shore here for almost 70 years. it's invaluable and it tells us so much about where species were, how quickly they've moved. they've been going back to the same places all around the uk, creating a unique record of the changing populations on our country's rocky coasts. in that time, sea temperatures around this country have warmed by an average of about one degree celsius. the big thing that i've seen is species aren't all moving at the same rate — so things are moving further north, but not at the same speed. so, all the community compositions are changing everywhere because different species are moving at different rates. some creatures can't move at all — like barnacles.

so, this is a really disruptive process for ecosystems? i think if i was a barnacle, i'd be quite worried, yes! if one species vanishes or a new one comes in, it can affect all the other plants and animals in the system. at aberystwyth university, scientists track the changes with the same technology the police use at crime scenes. i think we're going to put this down about five metres. the researchers collect the traces of dna animals leave in the water. it is known as edna, environmental dna. it's possible to use edna to to track the movement of invasive species. there is a japanese species of sea squirt. it's called a carpet sea squirt. they form a blanket, a carpet, if you like, over the sea bed. they prevent the growth of native organisms in the areas that they colonise. because they do so well in our environment, they can potentially take over huge

areas of the seabed. what we are finding is that the ones that are more invasive appear to be responding more strongly to global warming and increasing water temperatures. it is evidence ofjust how fragile some of our marine ecosystems are and stands as a warning that, as our seas continue to warm, we can expect unpredictable changes in the marine life of the uk. justin rowlatt, bbc news. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. north korea has reported the death — at the age of 9a — of the ruling family's former head of propaganda, kim ki nam. for six decades, he honed their party's message that only the kim dynasty could lead the country to prosperity. as the head of pyongyang's propaganda department, kim played a pivotal role during the famine of the 1990s — with the party crediting him with keeping the public loyal. hong kong's appeal court has approved the formal banning of a protest song previously used as a rallying call by pro—democracy campaigners.

a lower court last year rejected the government's application to outlaw the song, �*glory to hong kong.�* but officials have now successfully appealed against that decision. amnesty international described the ruling as: �*a worrying sign of the authorities�* growing unwillingness to respect human rights and uphold their obligations. thailand is to relist cannabis as a narcotic — two years after becoming the first country in asia to decriminalise its recreational use. the prime minister, srettha thavisin, said he wants usage restricted to medical and health purposes only. he said drugs were destroying thailand�*s future with too many young people addicted. the domestic retail market for marijuana has flourished in thailand since legalisation. australia is to raise the amount of savings international students will need to get a visa in order to study in the country.

it has also warned several colleges of fraudulent student recruitment practices as part of efforts to rein in record migration. from friday, international students must show proof of savings of at least 20,000 us dollars in order to get their visa. malaysia says it will start giving orangutans as gifts to major trading partners who buy its palm oil. the government says it hopes to generate the same goodwill as china does with its �*panda diplomacy�*. the development comes amid concern that the forests where the orangutans live are being chopped down to make way for palm oil plantations. animal protection groups say it would be better to concentrate on preserving these animals in the wild, rather than handing them out as gifts. the bbc�*s world service asia pacific editor, michael bristow has more. a conference for the

commodities administrator showed his desire to desire to give to orangutans two countries, major countries that trade with malaysia when it comes to palm oil, talking about india, china, european union countries and essentially, it is a goodwill gesture to try to convince those countries that malaysia is serious about notjust me its economy and palm oil in particular by protecting the national habitats which are vital for orangutans and giving these mammals, these apes to these mammals, these apes to these countries, it�*s a token of their desire to keep them alive. it�*s an amazing idea in many respects because many people don�*t know but it is in so many products, cooking, biofuels, cosmetics, detergent. all kinds of things and many

products all across the world that use palm oil. it�*s pretty efficient to grow and have a lot of oil in small amounts in fruit and it grows in tropical areas in most of the remaining national forests still survive in many cases, these natural for us or simply cut down and plantations are planted in their place and these plantations, they are often referred to as green deserts because they just do referred to as green deserts because theyjust do not hold anywhere near the biodiversity that we might find in a natural tropical forest. the flame for this years paris 0lympics has arrived on french soil after completing its mediterranean crossing from greece to the port of marseille. it will be one of the longest 0lympic torch relays in history. over the next ten weeks, about 10,000 people —

ranging from sports stars to survivors of terrorist attacks and a 102—year—old veteran of the french resistance — will take turns to carry the symbolic flame. the torch will travel through more than a00 french towns and territories and notable locations on the itinerary include mont saint—michel, the normandy beaches of the d—day landings and the space centre at kourou in french guiana. a family of lions rescued from ukraine have been released into their new home at a wildlife park in south yorkshire. ee—sa and her three 18—month—old cubs emi, santa and teddi were rescued from the donetsk region. they arrived at the yorkshire wildlife park in march and have spent the last two months in rehabilitation. the park said it was "heartwarming" to see the family reunited. that�*s all for now — stay with bbc news.

plenty of business stories to get you through. hello. we�*ve got a long awaited spell of dry and sunny weather for many of us over the next few days. not quite dry everywhere. a bit of rain around across the far north of scotland. and we�*ll also see some misty, murky patches during the mornings. they could be a little bit slow to clear. so, not wall—to—wall blue skies for the next few days, but high pressure is bringing a lot of dry, settled weather, with light winds, too. now, we�*re likely to start thursday morning with that patchy rain in the far north—west, but further south, i think some mist and some fog patches around here and there, particularly so for parts of the south—west of england and wales. could be some mistiness creeping into east anglia. around some of these irish sea coasts, the isle of man,

towards cumbria, some of that fog could be quite slow to clear. for scotland, there�*ll be some brighter spells across eastern areas — like aberdeenshire, for instance — but there�*ll be more cloud and outbreaks of rain moving in across the western isles, parts of highland too. that rain looks like it eases away, pushes a little bit further northward. so for much of the uk, dry with sunny spells, and that�*s going to lift those temperatures to somewhere between around 19 to 22 degrees for many of us. just a little bit cooler across the north of scotland. now, through thursday evening, overnight into friday, we�*ve got some more rain that�*ll push across parts of highland. elsewhere, dry once again, relatively mild temperatures — in double figures for many of us. but again, i think friday morning could see a few misty patches that will gradually clear away. so friday itself, i think longer spells of sunshine on offer, light winds and those temperatures probably up a degree or so.

so more widely, we�*re looking at temperatures in the low 20s, possibly the mid—20s in the south. still a little cooler than that for stornoway and lerwick, for instance. into the weekend, high pressure still close, but it slips away towards the east, and that willjust open the doors for areas of low pressure to try and move in from the west. but i think saturday itself, a good deal of dry weather. cloud will tend to bubble up through the day, and that could just spark off one or two showers, perhaps northern england, southern scotland, but they�*ll be hit—and—miss. temperatures are again up in the mid 20s — could see 2a in one or two places. similar start to the day on sunday, but you�*ll notice these showers trying to push in towards the west. they could be quite slow—moving, potentially heavy and thundery in places. where it does stay dry, probably towards the south and south—east, we could well see temperatures again in the mid—20s, but then it looks like the showers will dominate as we head into next week. so, more unsettled weather on the cards for the start of next week. still a little bit warmer than average, but not as warm as the next few days.

more boeing safety claims. a former quality inspector at the company�*s biggest supplier tells all. plus, you know k—pop, but have you heard of p—pop? we catch up with one of the philippines�* biggest sensations. hello and welcome to business today. i�*m steve lai. let�*s begin with our top story. a former employee of boeing�*s biggest supplier has claimed that sections of 737 max aircraft regularly left its factory with serious defects. spirit aerosystems builds fuselages for the 737 max, which are then shipped to boeing�*s own plant for final assembly.

speaking publicly for the first time, former quality inspector santiago peredes told the bbc that some managers actively tried to discourage him from flagging up flaws in half—finished planes. 0ur reporter theo leggett asked him just how many problems he would typically find on aircraft reaching the end of the production line. anywhere from 50 to 100, 200. you were regularly finding more than 100 faults on a plane that was being shipped? oh, yeah. and that�*s because ijust inspect certain areas. so in totality, with all the inspectors, if you total them out, yeah, you�*d be over the hundreds. now, you were picking up on these faults, you were highlighting them, you were flagging them up to be repaired. what kind of response did you get from your managers? did they support you? my managers weren�*t always there. the production managers always made a fuss about why i was finding it, why i was looking at it, and they made a big fuss about everything that i everfound. and it was because of the stage

of where the plane was. if i�*m looking at a plane that�*s supposed to be getting