live from washington, this is bbc news. several countries have condemned the us for vetoing the latest un resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in gaza. instead, the us offered its own draft. two major parties in pakistan agree to form a coalition government, nearly two weeks after a contested vote failed to deliver a clear winner. and, frozen embryos are �*children�* — that's the ruling by alabama's supreme court. hello. i'm sumi somaskanda. the us is facing widespread condemnation at the un security council in new york, after it vetoed a resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in gaza. )it�*s the third time washington has blocked the move.

13 out of the 15 council members voted in favour, while britain abstained. france, a us ally, expressed regret that the measure had failed to pass, given what it called "the disastrous situation on the ground". the us argued the text would jeopardise sensitive talks to end the war between hamas and israel, and proposed a temporary ceasefire instead. washington's resolution opposes israel's plans to invade the overcrowded city of rafah, saying it would harm civilians and push them into neighbouring countries. it also rejects any actions leading to the systematic demolition of civilian infrastructure and condemns calls by some israeli government ministers forjewish settlers to move to gaza. as a condition of the truce, it calls for the release of all hostages still being held by hamas. it's not clear when or if the text will be put to a vote. our north america editor, sarah smith, has more. it is really significant you have the white house for the first

time using the word �*ceasefire�*, a sign of how concerned they are at the white house of what could happen with a ground offensive in rafah, and how frustrated they are with the israeli government. president biden has said in public he thinks the israeli conduct has been over the top and it is watered behind closed doors he uses much stronger language. until now it has been private conversations between president biden and president netanyahu when they have been discussing this. recently mr biden told him he would oppose any ground operation in rafah unless israel came up with a credible and to evacuate palestinian civilians and white house officials told us today they have seen no evidence of any such plan. that is one of the reasons you are seeing american diplomacy playing out what public, and this proposed motion going to the un, where they are talking not about an immediate ceasefire about a temporary ceasefire, not to happen

immediately but as soon as is practicable, not exactly where the rest of the community are but it is moving a lot closer to it because the white house says israel does have a right to go to rafah to go after hamas fighters there but they want to avoid what they say could be a disaster with that ground offensive. for more on this i spoke with luis moreno ocampo, former prosecutor of the international criminal court. states vetoed calls for a permanent ceasefire. instead of putting forward a resolution for a temporary ceasefire because they said the former would jeopardise sensitive negotiations happening at the moment. what do you make of that? i think legally it is valid but i feel the us very weak. president biden cannot stop benjamin netanyahu.

that is what is happening. because in december, the us voted in favour for a different solution. ordering exactly to provide humanitarian assistance and creating the condition for a ceasefire. that resolution was adopted in december, not vetoed. now almost two months later, the us is back in a very bad position, they cannot stop benjamin netanyahu. the problem is now, 2 million people are dying, starving, and this in the international court says is genocide. civilisation is dying. the us needs to support the law and civilisation but biden is

supporting benjamin netanyahu who is destroying israel. i want tojump in there. i'll come back to the icj in a moment, you mentioned the political aspect in thatjoe biden is in a weak position and cannot stop mr netanyahu but i want to come back to the argument that we saw at the un. they need to let negotiations play out right now rather than calling for a ceasefire. do you think that could be a valid point? no. when i was a chief prosecutor i saw that, no, don't indict them now because there is a negotiation coming. after you indict they say don't arrest him. it's all the same, they belief we need to stop everything and it will fail because benjamin netanyahu is very clear that there is no return. he knows that if he stops the war, he's not the prime minister anymore and will properly go to jail. that's why he has no option. that is destroying israel. let me be clear on that.

i want to ask you one more question about the un security council before going onto the icj, you say the us is in a weak position, do you see this body is being capable of doing anything right now to stop fighting either temporarily or permanently? well, the security council, 90% of the world is asking for an urgent ceasefire to protect 2 million people living in gaza. that is important. 90% of the world is saying stop this and president biden is saying no, i will not stop it, but i will try to stop benjamin netanyahu and he's not able to do it. that's the problem. the world food programme said it will pause aid deliveries to northern gaza until conditions allow for safe distribution. the agency says its crews have faced crowds, gunfire and looting. the un has been warning of looming famine in the north since december. and in the south,

more than 30 patients, including children, have been evacuated, from gaza's nasser hospital. the hospital stopped functioning last week after an israeli raid, which israel described as a �*precise and limited' operation. the world health organization says the hospital has no electricity or running water, and conditions inside are ripe for the spread of disease. our diplomatic correspondent, paul adams, reports. one patient in a wheelchair. one patient on a stretcher can be set in the ambulance. in the darkness of nasser hospital, a rescue under way. for 14 patients, some of them elderly, a chance to escape a hospital on its knees. the war is nearby. this was not a simple operation. we don't see them here, but israeli soldiers control the hospital. the mission had to be carefully coordinated. the hospital is filthy, large parts of it deserted. you can think about the worst situation ever. you multiply it by ten and this is the worst situation i have seen in my life. it's the debris,

it's the light, working in the darkness, patients everywhere. israel says it had no choice but to raid the hospital. hamas, it says, was here in force. the army finding weapons and arresting scores of suspected gunmen. and in the pharmacy, a chilling discovery. medications supposed to be given to vulnerable israeli hostages. the medications remain, the hostages are gone. israel insists the hospital still works, but the charity medecins sans frontieres says nasser can no longer offer proper care. what's left of gaza's health system, they say, is barely functioning. further north, desperate scenes as trucks carrying flour are mobbed. gaza city hasn't seen aid in weeks, but after two chaotic convoys with shots fired and drivers beaten, the un has once again suspended deliveries. it's all too much for marianne, her home destroyed, herfather dead.

"what do you lack?" she's asked. "everything," she says. "i miss bread." and the war still rages, despite distant talk of a cease—fire. in darabela in the middle of the gaza strip, air strikes are claiming dozens of lives. another hospital inundated — the injured, the confused, converging on a place that should offer refuge but only contains horror. like rafa, israel says it is yet to send troops into darabela for all the grief and death, it appears it can still get worse. paul adams, bbc news, jerusalem. in a rare move, prince william has weighed in on the violence in the middle east. he's released a statement calling for an end to the fighting, saying

he remains, "deeply concerned about the terrible human cost of the conflict." the prince's comments come after a meeting with humanitarian workers. daniella relph reports. visiting the british red cross headquarters in london. every engagement the prince of wales does, every word he says publicly, is carefully considered. intensely traumatic. today he was briefed about their work in the middle east. he also heard about mental health support provided for victims of trauma. and he spoke directly to those working on the ground in gaza. i just wanted to hear a little bit about what's going on out there, pascale, and how you're all coping. was forced to move several times with a health system that is totally collapsed. earlier today, the prince of wales issued a statement where he spoke about the human cost of the conflict. "too many have been killed," he said. "i, like so many others, want to see an end to "the fighting as soon as possible. "there is a desperate need for increased "humanitarian support to gaza.

"it's critical that aid gets in and the hostages are released." prince william and his team will have pored over every carefully—chosen word of that statement. they stress that they don't see this as a political intervention. instead, it is focusing minds on what the prince calls the sheer scale of human suffering. the prince visited israel and the palestinian territories in 2018, the first member of the royal family to do so. it was a trip he said made a lasting impression on him and has led to a continued interest in the region. as he left the red cross today, prince william told staff he'd been deeply moved by what he'd learned. next week, he'll visit a synagogue to meet with young people and those fighting anti—semitism. daniela relph, bbc news. one day after alexei navalny�*s widow, yulia, posted a video blaming

russian president vladimir putin for her husband's death, alexei's mother has posted a video of her own, in a direct appeal to putin. lyudmila navalnaya says that she just wants to bury her son with dignity. take a listen. translation: behind my back is a colony, k—3, where on february 16 my son alexei navalny died. it's the fifth day that i cannot see him. they won't hand over his body to me and they won't even tell me where he is. i speak to you, vladimir putin, the decision on the question depends only on you. let me finally see my son. i demand you immediately hand over the body of alexei so that i can bury him. the kremlin on tuesday rejected a call by the council of the european union for an independent examination of navalny�*s remains. president biden said tuesday the us will announce a major sanctions package against russia in response to navalny�*s death. the white house has offered limited details but said the sanctions will target: a range of different elements

of russia's defense industrial base, sources of revenue for russia's economy, as well as actions to hold putin accountable for two years of war in ukraine. the white house said the sanctions will be unveiled on friday, which marks the eve of the two—year anniversary of russia's invasion. britain's foreign secretary, david cameron, also vowed that the uk will punish russia for navalny�*s death. there will be consequences and what we do when these situations is look at how someone�*s human rights have been damaged and the individual people who cause that and we are able to go after those people with particular measures. meanwhile, russian authorities are now actively searching for alexei navalny�*s brother, oleg navalny — that, according to a russian state—owned media report. it said russia has opened a new criminal case against oleg, but did not say why he is being investigated. he was already on russia's wanted list for charges that critics have compared to those placed on his brother. in pakistan, two major parties have reached an agreement to form

a coalition government after days of negotiations. the deal will see asif ali zardari of the pakistan people's party become the main candidate for the presidency. and shehbaz sharif, the younger brother of former prime minister nawaz sharif, will be the coalition�*s pick for prime minister. the agreement ends days of uncertainty following the february 8th vote, in which candidates, backed by the party of former prime minister, imran khan, won the largest number of seats in parliament. but they did not win enough for an outright majority. farhat javed with bbc urdu has more. these two parties have a long history of building cases against each other, corruption cases that they have been calling politically motivated but in the last few years we have seen there have been sitting together for example. these two parties of these were to measured parties to oust a former minister imran khan from his office in 2022. then for the next two years

they successfully ruled the country and now once again there is this alliance. running the government will not be easy for pakistan because the last two years there has been a political turmoil and there is economic instability, pakistan's economy has been on the verge of default and there is a rising internal security situation, there have been terrorist attacks across the country and his other challenges that any coalition that forms the government in pakistan will face and is not easy to tackle. the process for electing the prime minister involves a parliamentary vote, which is expected by the end of february. a separate election to decide the next president will be held in the coming weeks. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some top stories in the uk. police in london say a body has been found in the river thames by officers searching for the chemical attack suspect abdul shokoor ezedi. the suspect had been on the run following an attack on a woman and her two children in south london injanuary.

authorities said distinctive clothing on the body led them to believe it is ezedi but they have not made any official confirmation. britain's prime minister announced plans to help british farmers. in a speech to the national farmers union annual conference, rishi sunak outlined details of how to boost the uk's food security. the union largely welcomed the news, but said the scheme includes no new actual money. farming groups say more needs to be done to protect the sector from overseas competition. the body shop has started to shut almost half of its 198 stores in the uk, after it went into administration last week. the move will lead to hundreds ofjob losses. the company's administrators say the cuts would help reenergise the brand. the stores immediately affected include four in london, where rents and other overhead costs are particularly high. you're live with bbc news. the wikileaks founder julian assange began his latest attempt to fight his

extradition from the uk to the united states. he's wanted in the us for disclosing secret military files more than a decade ago. assange�*s lawyers accuse the us of state retaliation over its bid to prosecute the wikileaks founder. speaking to the bbc earlier, assange�*s brother discussed what he sees as the dangers involved with being sent to the us. if he were to be extradited, his life would be at risk and it could lead to his death. there's also a chance that if he is extradited, his prosecution is changed to include the death penalty which exists under the espionage act. there is a very real risk that him being extradited could lead even to him being executed under the espionage act if his prosecution is looked at again. it's a very real risk. if this latest plea by assange�*s legal team fails, he will have exhausted all appeal routes in the uk and will enter the process of extradition. the bbc also spoke about

the case with jamil n jaffer, who served as senior counsel to the us house permanent select committee on intelligence. he laid out what he expects to happen. i think what will end up happening if he is returned he will come to us custody, in england handed over to us authorities and flown to the states and held will file similar claims in us courts they have filed a broad including his rights as a journalist, if he has rights of free speech is not a us citizen he has been prosecuted in the us. he will be tried if he is not able to get out of court, then question if he is convicted where he should serve that sentence, australians have said he could serve a sentence in australia, that will be another issue for the us government to deal with and when he is convicted of the charges and held accountable. let's turn to some important news around the world. a prosecutor in the us charged two men with murder for last week's deadly shooting at the super bowl victory

parade in kansas city. a woman died and 22 others were injured. police say the men were arguing and that led to the gunfire. both men were wounded during the incident. republican presidential candidate nikki haley is vowing to stay in the race. speaking to voters in her home state of south carolina, the former governor promised to continue her campaign at least through super tuesday, on march 5th. south carolina holds its primary on saturday. polls there show her trailing rival former president donald trump by wide margins, which has fuelled speculation that ms haley might drop out. an appeals court in chile has ordered the re—opening of an investigation into the death of poet pablo neruda. the nobel laureate was a prominent member of chile's communist party when the dictator, augusto pinochet, seized power in 1973. relatives of the poet said last week that forensic tests had revealed he'd been poisoned while in a hospital for cancer treatment. in the us, reactions to an alabama supreme court ruling on embryos continue to pour in, with the white house criticising the decision that considers frozen, fertilized eggs to be children.

on friday, alabama's top court ruled that fertilised eggs created for in—vitro fertilisation, or ivf, can be considered children under state law and that individuals can be held liable for destroying them. the verdict allows three couples to sue for wrongful death, after their frozen embryos were destroyed in an accident at a fertility clinic. in the majority ruling, justice jay mitchell says: "unborn children are children without exception." the national infertility association calls the ruling: "a terrifying development," writing on social media: "this new legal framework may make it impossible to offer services like ivf, a standard medical treatment for infertility." to talk about this i spoke with kelly baden, she's the vice president for public policy at the guttmacher institute, a reproductive rights advocacy organisation. the justices, i want to talk to you about what they said. they cited the constitution and said "if foetuses "were killed while woman is pregnant and that falls "under the wrongful death

of a minor act and nothing "excludes extra uterine children from that as well. what you think of that argument? i think this particular argument in this case really demonstrate the extremism of the moment that we are in. the context cannot go unspoken, we are about 1.5 years since the us supreme court overturned roe v wade, and upended nearly 50 years of the prosecution and we are starting to see how the chaos and confusion is extending well beyond abortion. it is focused on ivf and so having ought in states where abortion is banned entirely including alabama is already bad enough but now when you look at this particular court and this particular case and really see them see how far they can go even beyond the already devastating abortion ban to think about how to target folks trying to build their family to ivf,

this shows the extremism of the moment we are in. i come back to abortion ban in a moment but specifically on this ruling in alabama. the judges say they have a duty to protect unborn life and legislative because at the policy. what you think this will mean for ivf clinics operating in alabama? it will cause a lot of confusion and devastation certainly in the short—term. families trying to use ivf to create and build theirfamilies, doctors, providers, lawyers will have to figure how to navigate in this complicated situation and i think unfortunately it is going to mean people will be priced out of what is already an expensive procedure and may not be covered by insurance and ultimately i'm not going to be able to create the families they want to create because some judges decided to step in between them and their healthcare needs. do you see other states following suit following what alabama has done here? it is certainly possible. this ruling opens the door to more states and courts

to consider how far they can go. we are ready know that overturning roe v wade was not their end game and this is another example of seeing how much further they can go and more states will certainly consider ways to push for this so—called fetal personhood agenda and see what they can push with. i would ask about that because after roe v wade was overturned we saw many reproductive rights campaigner saying fertility treatments will be the next target but most republicans say that will not be a target and the former vice president mike pence who was a conservative said that his wife had fertility treatments and he said that would never be a question that would be up for legislation. why do you think this could indeed then go beyond alabama and perhaps even nationally? i think we have to, unfortunately, wait and see. this is one particular case. it was heavily focused on a religious argument.

we know ivf is incredibly popular, about 1% to 2% of all births use the technology every year and we also know that abortion rates are popular, contraception is popular yet that support from everyday americans has not stopped politicians and judges from going after them, so we have to be prepared for the continuation of some of these worst—case scenarios stemming from that decision. we know abortion is on the ballot on a number of states this year. the majority of americans if you look at the polls support some level of access to abortion rights. do you think that will be enough of an issue to really drive voters this year? it is driving voters out so far, the ballot measures that have happened on reproductive rights on abortion rights since the dobb�*s decision have shown it's a winning issue, americans want to see basic protections of rights of our reproductive freedom to be maintained and so i think we will continue to see voters come out for that

but we are operating in systems and structures and states where many voters have been gerrymandered out of having their vote matter. it's not as simple as knowing the public supports reproductive rights or ivf, we have a lot of obstacles to consider to navigate to make sure elected officials and judges represent our viewpoints. we'll have to leave it there, interesting to get your perspective tonight, thank you. thank you. and, before we go, the fab four are making another appearance on the silver screen. or rather, four appearances, to be precise. oscar—winning director sam mendes is set to make a series of films about the beatles, each from the perspective of a different band member. it's the first time paul mccartney, ringo starr and the families of john lennon and george harrison have granted permission to make scripted films about the legendary group. mendes says he's honored to be telling their stories. the movies are due to hit theatres in 2027. that's all from the team here in washington. i'm sumi somaskanda.

thank you for watching. hello. with the ground saturated across most parts of the uk right now, the prospect of more rain is only going to enhance the risk of flooding over the next few days. and rain it will be, also accompanied by some stronger winds as well. now, rainfall totals for the next two days shows that all of us will see that wetter weather. but it's these darker colors and the bright greens in the west, which shows the highest rainfall totals on the hills — over 50 millimetres — and where it is actually linked into this strip of cloud which stretches all the way from the caribbean towards us, bringing up airfrom the mid—atlantic. so it's again mild air. so even after that initial dip in temperatures, by the start of wednesday morning, it is going to be milder there but a pretty wet, miserable rush hourfor many. driest and brightest weather across orkney and shetland, rain's with you through the afternoon,

but it's a day for some of you where the second half of the day is much better than the first. northern ireland brightening up by lunchtime. bright conditions developing across scotland, northern and western england and wales will stay cloudy. east anglia, the south east and in the channel it will stay pretty wet. a windy day across the board. winds touching gale force. and even though it will be mild on the face of it, 11—13 degrees, it's that wind which will temper the feel. now that first batch of rain gets out of the way, but it still links into some more persistent rain around the english channel through the night and into thursday morning. another batch of pretty lively downpours will work the way in from the west, and that will be dividing line between the milder air that sits there through the night in the southeast and something colder to the north and west with some frost and ice. and that colder air will gradually push its way in as we go through into thursday, pushing across all parts of the uk as rain gradually clears its way eastwards and it'll push us back really to the way february should feel now. it's a mild start for much

of england and wales, outbreaks of rain heavy at times strong winds developing through the english channel. the rain does edge out of the way british skies showers will develop and there'll be a mixture of rain, hail and also a bit of sleet and snow over the hills, too, with temperatures by the end of the afternoon in mid to high single figures. cold start to friday as well compared to what we've been used to. but again, it'll be a day of sunshine and showers. some of you have a better chance of staying dry than you will do over the next few days. but when the showers form again, they'll be on the heavy side, quite lively and it will be wintry over the hills just about anywhere. stay with the cooler conditions into the weekend. there will be some dry and bright weather. there'll be a few showers scattered around too. take care.

welcome to hardtalk. i'm stephen sackur. when donald trump said he would let russia do whatever the hell it wanted in nato member states that were not prepared to pay their defence bills, he set alarm bells ringing right across europe. add to that the politicking in washington, which is blocking further us assistance to ukraine, and there is a growing, urgent sense that europe needs to get serious about its own security. my guest is bulgaria's prime minister, nikolai denkov.

is the eu's poorest nation, where pro—russian sentiment is significant, one of europe's weakest links?