hello, i'm michelle fleury. israel premised a benjamin netanyahu says a date has been set for an israeli invasion of rafah, gaza's last refuge for displaced palestinians but did not reveal the date. miss netanyahu said invading the area is critical to reach his country at�*s goals are releasing all hostages and destroying hamas. but as many asi million people are believed to be sheltering in rafah, more than half of them children. mr dutton yahoo face international pressure including from the us to not invade the city without a specific plan as to how to keep civilians their say. here is us state department spokesman matthew millar responded to the prime minister was made out of it. ~ ., ., prime minister was made out of it. ~ . ., . ., ., it. we have made clear to israel that _ it. we have made clear to israel that we _ it. we have made clear to israel that we think - it. we have made clear to

israel that we think a - israel that we think a full—scale military invasion of rafah would have an enormously harmful effect on those civilians and would ultimately hurt israel opposing security so it is notjust a question of israel presenting a plan to us, we've made clear to them that we've made clear to them that we think there is a better way to achieve what is illegitimate goal which is to degrade and dismantle and defeat the hamas battalions at the silver mane and rafah. battalions at the silver mane and rafah-— and rafah. displaced palestinians - and rafah. displaced| palestinians returned and rafah. displaced i palestinians returned to complete ruin in high newness on monday. ferret outcomes as the israeli military withdrew its troops from the area temporarily on sunday —— matthew carney is. lucy williamson reports. for months, khan younis was a city of targets, its apartment blocks and hospitals seen by israel as hiding places for hamas. residents returned today searching for their city homes inside the concrete mountains as israel continued talks with hamas on a cease fire deal.

translation: the| destruction is huge. khan younis has been destroyed. it all needs to be rebuilt now. it's not suitable for animal to live in, let alone human being. translation: | wasn't . expecting this destruction. our biggest request is that they withdraw from our land. it's better for us to have tents on the rubble of our home rather than being displaced. hamas launched rockets from khan younis, the army said, even as its troops withdrew. it hit back with airstrikes. israel's prime minister has promised total victory in this war, but hamas is still fighting and the withdrawal leaves just a skeleton israeli presence across the middle of the strip. this is being presented as a temporary tactical withdrawal and that buys benjamin netanyahu more time. under american pressure

to agree a cease fire deal and pressure from his own cabinet to keep the war going, he's framing this as a pause, not an end in the fighting, keeping both foreign and domestic allies on track. translation: we are working constantly to l attain our objectives. first and foremost, the release of all of our hostages and the achieving of total victory over hamas. this victory requires entering rafah and eliminating the terrorist battalions there. this will happen, there is a date. returning residents to their homes could smooth the path to a cease fire deal, but it could also help those in israel who want to continue the war. israel is facing tough us demands to move refugees out of rafah before any ground offensive there. a day after the israeli withdrawal, it's clear how much the face of khan younis has changed, much less the face of the war. lucy williamson,

bbc news, jerusalem. it is reported that hamas says the israeli proposal it received from qatari and egyptian mediators did not meet any of the demands of palestinian factions, however the group added in a statement that it would study the proposal and respond accordingly. i spoke to andrew steinfeld, formerforeign policy advisor to the chairman of the usjoint chiefs of staff the mall on the upcoming talks and the offensive and potentially in rafah. we've heard from the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu that there is now a date set for the offensive in rafah. we know there are more than a million palestinians sheltering there and the us has said they don't want to see a full—scale invasion. what do you think will happen in this upcoming fight? i think this puts president biden in a very difficult position because he has agreed from the start that the goal of this operation should be the destruction

of hamas and of course the israelis believe that you can't leave rafah the way it is without destroying hamas. previously we have requested a formal plan from the israelis about how they intend to protecti million plus people as they go into rafah and i don't believe that has been provided to us either so we are in a moment of great uncertainty, i would say, as is the situation in israel very tumultuous at the moment. what do you make of the increasing split between the biden administration and the israelis? i think it is inevitable that that will happen given the brutality first of the october seven event, now unbelievably six months ago, and the subsequent very tough israeli policies in rooting out hamas in gaza. in some ways for me this points to a lot of what the institutional problems are in the bilateral relationship.

there is a certain dependence on united states the israeli side — the $3.5 billion which is actually less than i% of their gdp — but more than that is the political support they are continually get from the administration. the biden administration of course in the middle of an election year and it is being pulled in many different directions. we have the white house national security spokesman john kirby over the weekend saying they could be alternatives to a full ground incursion in rafah. what might some of that look like? having spent time in afghanistan, i think that the view in washington is when you are trying to root out a terrorist organisation, one of the guiding principles that the american generals have always had is to protect the people, and the view in washington is that israelis have done

everything but that in gaza. the situation obviously is very different in gaza for israel than it was in afghanistan for the united states but i'm sure that a lot of our generals are talking to the israelis about much more pinpointed strikes in rafah to root out what is ever left of hamas, but again, if they are in tunnels and there are i million people above them in tents, that becomes extremely difficult to do which is probably what the israelis are arguing back to the americans. millions in north america watch the solar eclipse with the sun experiencing a total blackout, also known as the point of totality. that's when the moon perfectly obscures the sun. on this map the red line shows the path of totality outside of the moon's tract, viewers only saw

a partial eclipse. here whether she is as totality hit in mexico where people camped out on sunny badges to catch a glimpse behind the safety of solar viewers. the fog and mist around niagara falls made it tough to see the eclipse but it did not stop the crowds from trying. the bbc had correspondence all over north america, taking it in. here are some of their reactions. it is a multisensory experience but you want to see the corona. you want to see that moment and the weather lucked out for us, thankfully. cheering and applause everybody...just taking that moment in. it is incredible. there it is! it's peeking through the clouds! mother nature is teasing us! there it is! wow! that is spectacular! oh wow, that is fabulous!

our reporter helena humphrey has more on the excitement from ohio. the word people used to describe how they felt about this total solar eclipse in ohio time and time again is �*awesome' and they describe it in the truest sense of the word. that feeling of awe — saying they felt connected to something bigger than themselves, feeling part of the universe, wondering how small they are being part of that universe, and i think here in ohio we have one of the best seats in the house for totality. we came here early in the morning, there was quite a bit of cloud cover but you can see behind me all of that cloud burnt off to leave a beautiful clear blue sky over lake erie and when we had that moment of totality, over four minutes, i think one of the best ways to describe it is it was a combination of the fourth ofjuly here in the united states and new year's eve.

we had a beautiful dusky like sunset, fireworks going off across the lake here, over lake erie. cheers among the crowd and then just that moment of quiet as people marvelled at the sky and what was happening and it certainly is a rare event here. this part of ohio hasn't seen a total solar eclipse since 1806 and it won't see another one for some 400 years. that said, this solar eclipse really connected people right across the united states. 99% of them being able to see it whether it is partial or total and it will be a talking point. where were you during the great solar eclipse of 202a? and i think everybody feels very, very lucky to have been here to witness it. monday was notjust monday was not just a monday was notjust a big day for space enthusiasts but also scientists who conduct a number of experiments during the event. this is the view from

one of the 600 balloons that scientists launched into the atmosphere to study how the eclipse affects weather conditions. the bbc spoke to one scientist, angela desjardins.— one scientist, angela desjardins. one scientist, angela des'ardins. ., ., desjardins. the goal of our nationwide _ desjardins. the goal of our nationwide eclipse - desjardins. the goal of ourj nationwide eclipse projects desjardins. the goal of our i nationwide eclipse projects is to understand how that cold, dark shadow of the moon on the earth affects the atmosphere. it is like night in the middle of day and that definitely has effects on the atmosphere and studying how the atmosphere changes in a special case helps us understand the eclipse in general which therefore the eclipse and atmosphere, which helps us understand things like climate change because we can better understand what's happening. better understand what's happening-— better understand what's haueninu. �* ., ., ., happening. around the world and across the uk, _ happening. around the world and across the uk, this _ happening. around the world and across the uk, this is _ happening. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc - across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look another story making use. researchers have found that people living with long covid have information in their blood which could provide clues for treatment. a study looking at hundreds of people who have been seriously ill

with covid found that their immune system remains overactive long after catching the virus. fergus walsh explains more. the study followed more than 650 patients in the uk who have been treated in hospital with severe covid. six months on, two in three were still experiencing symptoms including heart and lung problems such as shortness of breath, fatigue, gut issues, anxiety, depression and brain fog. the researchers analysed their blood and found these proteins which are markers for inflammation of the immune system which are useful while the body is fighting an infection, but not once a virus is gone. scientists say there are strong evidence that long covid is caused by different types of post viral inflammation. you alive with bbc news. russia says it shot down a ukrainian

drain attempting to attack the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on monday a day after the plan was damaged by three direct hit. zaporizhzhia is europe was like largest nuclear power plant occupied by russian troops since moscow's invasion in 2022. it was the subject of attacks early in the war but sunday was the first time since november 2020 that it has been directly hit. kyiv and caple have both denied being behind sunday puzzle attack. rafael grossi director general of the international atomic energy agency told the bbc sunday's attack was unacceptable. you cannot attack _ attack was unacceptable. you cannot attack a _ attack was unacceptable. you cannot attack a nuclear - attack was unacceptable. you. cannot attack a nuclear power plant in whatever way, in whichever way, plant in whatever way, in whicheverway, because plant in whatever way, in whichever way, because the consequences are a discriminant, so no—one could conceivably derive any military or political advantage by targeting a facility like this. earlier i spoke with edwin lyman, director of nuclear

power safety at the union of concerned scientists. given we're talking about one of the reactors we understand was attacked, how much damage could an attack by a drone like this have caused? well, unfortunately, the capabilities of the drones that have been employed in the war is increasing and the payloads, the size of the explosive charges that they carried and the designs are increasingly damaging to structures including potentially the nuclear power plant containment structures so i think there is great concern that the role of drones, if directed towards sabotaging or damaging this plant, could actually cause a catastrophe. the un international atomic energy agency warned that this could lead to some kind of major nuclear mistake.

what is the worst case scenario that we are talking about here? it is important to remember that the zaporizhzhia plant, all six reactors have been shut down for 18 months or more. that provides a lot of extra time in case there is a loss of cooling to those reactors, so the risk is lower. but the fact is that a catastrophe could happen — it is still possible that a combination of events could lead to court melts or damage, the containment structures around these reactors. this is why it is so troubling that these increasingly capable drones, if penetrating a containment structure at the same time, that damages done to the cooling system of or more

of the reactors, you could be talking about an event much worse than the fukushima accident injapan in 201! and even approaching that of chernobyl. how should we think of this? how does this compare to other attacks on the zaporizhzhia nuclear plant? we were just saying back there that the last direct hit was in 2022. yes, well, so far there hasn't been any damage to the plant that could actually threaten the safety systems in a significant way. there is a fire originally when the russians first invaded in 2022 but that did not, fortunately, it didn't spread to the systems that actually protect the reactors. and there have been random artillery shells but these are relatively small munitions so again, the advent of bigger and more damaging drones i think does add a new element of danger to the plant that we should be increasingly concerned about and certainly

demonstrates that there needs to be a greater effort to insulate this plant from military conflict that is surrounding it and increasingly threatens its own perimeter. united nations began its riveting food in sudan since its year—long war began. this is the country risks triggering the world's largest hunger crisis according to the world food programme. many charities left sudan after heavy fighting broke out. the conflict started when the head of the sudanese army and leader of a powerful rebel group fell out and began battling for control of the country. our corresponded mercy juma visited neighbouring chad to speak to some victims of the conflict. on a street in sudan, five unarmed civilians are threatened by an arab militia at gunpoint. what happens next is too graphic to show.

gunshots ahmad is one of the men in the video. incredibly, he survived the street execution. the 30—year—old shows us this exit wound where a bullet ripped through his body after they were shot at point—blank range. translation: l was hit| in the shoulder and i also have some other wounds. three of us survived. we laid down as if we were dead, then someone told us, "anyone who is just injured should get up and run away." like so many survivors of the darfur violence, ahmad now lives here in one of the camps across the border in neighbouring chad. 20 years after accusations of genocide, the memories are still fresh here, and now the un is opening up a new investigation into the latest war crimes and ethnic cleansing. the violence continues to spread across darfur. this group of men were abducted and forced to run to a local airport by the rapid support forces,

where they were beaten and tortured. some disappeared, never to be seen again. here we have heard story after story of people being killed, kidnapped or abused — targeted, they say, because of their ethnicity. it comes as little surprise that these sorts of allegations and others in the wider sudan conflict have made the international criminal court say it has grounds to believe that war crimes are being committed. this is a genocide. it is 100% genocide. if i had other terms to use, i would use. but i think some of the international communities, they are silent. they don't react, or theyjust condemn but there is no intervention. shouting reports of alleged crimes committed by both the rapid support forces and the sudanese military continue to grow. the rapid support forces told us the majority of accusations against it are untrue, that its troops are held accountable when incidents occur.

everyone in these camps knows someone who has been killed, injured or is missing, but survivors like ahmad still believe there will be an end to this brutal war. translation: we know one day - it might not be today _ or tomorrow, but one day — justice will come. despite the international outcry over the hundreds of thousands of deaths 20 years ago, no—one has ever been convicted. the victims of this conflict are likely to face a similarwait. merchuma, bbc news, on the chad—sudan border. rescue workers in mozambique are searching for survivors from a boat that sank off the northern coast with dozens of people on board. some passages have been found alive at almost 100 are now drowned. authorities in a private say most were i to reach an island

following a panic caused by disinformation about a cholera outbreak. tony hill has more from johannesburg. official c-130 from johannesburg. official c—130 also people were crammed onto what they are described as converted fishing boats which they say was overcrowded and unsuitable transport of passengers. unclear what led the boat to sink nor do we know why there were so many people on board. a local politician has said that at least some of those passengers are believed to have been fleeing the mainland for this island because they were concerned about cholera. there is been a big outbreak of the disease in a number of southern african countries in recent months, this particular part of mozambique, the province has been one of the worst affected with something like 30,000 cases, sorry, 15,000 cases and i3 cases, sorry, 15,000 cases and 13 deaths so that as one wider enquiry although at the moment the other focus is very much on search—and—rescue, as you

sea rch—and—rescue, as you expect, search—and—rescue, as you expect, people in the area have been reacting with shock, not least because of the high number of victims and so many children said to be among the dead. i think that this will perhaps increasing pressure on the authorities, local journalists have told the bbc that therapy and in recent times about boat safety and ferry operators and the authorities coming under calls to try and improve standards, no doubt this particular tragedy or simply serve to strengthen those demands. former us president donald trump lost a bid to delay the start of his 15 april criminal trial on charges stemming from hush money payments made of former adult film star. meanwhile mr trump clarified his policy position on abortion safety issue should be left for individual states to decide. effectively rolling a national abortion ban if he becomes president. north america correspondent tom bateman has more from washington.

what we saw today was donald trump rejecting some of the hard—line positions that his republican colleagues have been arguing for — that being a nationwide ban on abortion. that is significant because donald trump has sold himself as the architect of the supreme court decision a couple of years ago stop to overturn roe v wade. that was a landmark ruling from 1973 that enshrined protections, constitutional protections for women across america to abortion. what donald trump is doing here is being strategic when it comes to the presidential election. he has seen that some of the harder positions on the issue of abortion haven't played well for many republicans, most notably in the mid—term elections a couple of years ago. he is very aware of that in an election that will be decided to a certain degree in the suburbs of several marginal swing states. so i think a lot of this

is about the electoral politics and he is saying it will basically be up to states themselves to decide how far to go on abortion bands. but already he is being severely criticised by pro—life groups — one of the leading ones said it was deeply disappointed in his decision. as for the democrats, well, joe biden intends explicitly to make this an issue that he is going to attack donald trump over and already his campaign had come out and said that donald trump was responsible for stripping away the rights of women. it said that women in america were, in their view, in the extraordinary position of having fewer rights today than their mothers or grandmothers because of the policies enacted after donald trump was president. that is all from me for now. you can set up—to—date on all our top stories, lots of coverage on the solar eclipse and plenty more by following last on social media. check out my website, bbc.com/news, all

the bbc news up. i'll be back at the top of the half—hour. stay with us here on bbc news. thanks for watching. hello. monday was quite a quiet day of weather, really. we had some sunny spells breaking through the cloud, for example, here in cambridgeshire. and across large parts of england — it was a warm day for april, with temperatures topping out at 19 degrees celsius at kew in london. these temperatures are around five or six degrees above average. it's going to be a much cooler kind of day for tuesday. notjust cooler — it's going to be wet and windy for many as well. the change is down to an area of low pressure. this area of cloud you can see swirling to the south—west of the uk and that's essentially pushing northwards and eastwards over the next 12 hours. we already have quite a bit of rain with us at the moment and the rain across northern ireland and scotland could be heavy enough to cause

some localised flooding. 20—40 millimetres of rain, not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things. however — edinburgh, for example, has already had over one and a half times the april average rainfall, even though we're onlyjust over a week into the new month. so this extra rainfall could be enough to cause some localised flooding. the weather will tend to brighten up from the west as we go through the day. sunshine and showers follow our main band of rain through. it's also going to be a windy, gusty kind of day. particularly for england and wales, gusts widely running into the forties of miles now, but could reach around 50 or 60 miles an hour around some coastal areas, with the rain reluctant to clear away from eastern scotland and parts of northeast england. our temperatures are about 10 to 12 degrees for most. that will clear through and be left with some colder air as we head into the first part of wednesday. potentially chilly enough to give an odd nip of frost for the early part of wednesday morning. should be a fine start to the day with sunshine. then it clouds over with the next weather system moving in from the west, bringing more rain. now, even as the rain pushes through across wales and south—west england, it probably will stay rather cloudy.

the weather that follows, however, it will start to turn a bit milder again with south—westerly winds, temperatures around 13—15 degrees. and that warming trend continues as we head into thursday. again, we've got south—westerly winds with us, but this time after a cloudy start, the clouds should tend to thin and break up and we'll see some spells of sunshine coming through quite widely. yeah, there'll be a few showers for the north and west of scotland, but otherwise it's mostly dry. and those temperatures, 17 for aberdeen, 17 for belfast, but highs could reach around 19 or 20 across parts of eastern england. it stays pretty mild then towards wales and england as we head into the weekend. temperatures could reach the low 20s for some.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we will have the headlines for you at the top of the hour, which is straight after this programme. for as long as i can remember, i've wanted to go back home. home to the place where i was born. a home i hadn't seen in 30 years. it's also 30 years since the genocide, which killed about 800,000 people. i was one of the lucky ones.

my family and i got away, but many didn't. now i'm returning to my home country to trace back my escape route when i was just 12 years old. there's no sound that fills me with so much joy as the sound of children in a classroom. as i am reunited with my family, i also want to uncover the country's journey to healing and reconciliation. this is one of the groups that carsa has, made by genocide survivors and the genocide former perpetrators. and i'll be hearing from those who had a role in the killings and their survivors. translation: to me, - he was not only a murderer, but a monster. beeps

i'm victoria uwonkunda and i'm a reporterfor the bbc.