president ie! joe biden and donald president joe biden and donald trum- ma joe biden and donald trump may competing visits to the us—mexico border to address a surge in illegal crossings which is a key theme for voters. thousands of south korean trainee doctors or refused to return to work on thursday, the day the government says is a deadline to end the mass walk—out. we start this hour with events in the middle—east. more than a hundred people are reported to have been killed in gaza as they tried to reach a convoy carrying food aid. crowds of people had gathered to get close to the lorries: israel's military told the bbc tonight that it killed a handful of people they believed were a threat — a palestinian witness told the bbc that most of those who died were run

over as the aid convoy moved away. in the last hour, the un security council has been meeting behind closed doors to discuss the situation. it comes on the day that the hamas government says more than 30,000 people have been killed in the territory since this conflict began in october. our special correspondent fergal keane reports from jerusalem the hunger created by war made this tragedy. that is a fundamental fact of what happened today. the dead and wounded were starving people, simply hoping to feed their families. translation: | am| one of the wounded. i was on al—rashid street. we were there all day in order to get food for our children, but we paid for that aid

with our blood. thousands had gathered in the predawn darkness. they'd heard trucks were coming with aid. there were farmers, mechanics, our bbc cameraman, teachers, a doctor from a local hospital. an israeli drone filmed people crowding the aid trucks. it is a striking depiction of human desperation. the military said tanks were securing the convoy to ensure aid was distributed, and blamed people in the crowd for the chaos. some began violently pushing and even trampling other gazans to death, looting the humanitarian supplies. the unfortunate incident

resulted in dozens of gazans killed and injured. the army also said troops opened fire, first in the air as a warning and then at the legs of people it said posed a threat to soldiers. watch this man crawling along the ground away from the food convoy. hospitals in northern gaza say they treated many gunshot wounds. translation: after the israeli military stopped shooting, - we went back to get our aid. this survivor was shot and run over. translation: by the time i got flour and some canned goods and took it i down from the truck, they shot at us, they shot me, and the truck driver left

and ran over my leg. we go to get flour for our children. we have been eating animal feed for two months and even that ran out. what are we supposed to do? where are we supposed to go? this incident comes on a day when gaza marks a reported 30,000 deaths since the war began over four months ago. there is the dying that happens in the open and suddenly. and there is the hunger silently attacking life. in kamal adwan hospital, there are babies with severe malnutrition. like ahmed moussa. translation: this child is suffering from severe dehydration _ due to lack of milk. his mum breast—feeds him but she hasn't eaten and there is no artificial milk.

he was rescued from the rubble when he was one—month—old. he lost 2a members of his family. the girl in the red incubator died as our cameraman filmed, an already serious medical condition worsened by hunger. nearby, great struggles still for little bodies. fergal keane, bbc news, jerusalem. dr amjad anwar is an er doctor who works at al shifa hospital in north gaza. he was at al rasheed street when israeli troops opened fire and told the bbc what he saw. as we've heard, the hamas—run health authorities in gaza say more than 30,000 palestinians have been killed since israel started its military action in october. bbc verify has been examining how many of those killed were members of hamas. here's frank gardner. they have been covering this war ever since the october the 7th raid on israel. it is a war that has ravaged one of the most crowded places on earth, home to over 2 million people.

the red areas on this map are all the parts of because of that are all the parts of gaza that have been destroyed since the start of the campaign. how has this figure been arrived at? based on the number of dead bodies brought to hospitals and then identified in the world health organization is previously endorsed gaza health ministry casualty figures as being credible. if anything, 30,000 could even be an underestimate due to body if anything, 30,000 could even be an underestimate due to bodies still buried under the rubble. let's break this down. as you can see from this graph, the first majority of those killed have been women and children. nearly half of gaza's population is under 18. separating out civilian deaths from hamas fighters is not easy. those fighters are often embedded amongst the civilian population, some are in uniform and some not, israel has accused hamas of using the civilian population as human shields. but there is no question that those civilians are suffering the brunt

of israel's military operations. how many hamas and other military fighters have been killed? at the start of the war it was widely assumed that hamas had around 30,000 fighters. 0n februaryi9, hamas reportedly admitted, 6000 of theirfighters had been killed but they later denied that. as of today, the israeli military says they have killed at least 30,000 fighters and some of them were as young as 16 or 17. but in the end, the most shocking thing about these 30,000 deaths is the extraordinarily high proportion of civilians killed and that is down to a combination of a densely packed residential area from which there was no escape and overwhelming israeli firepower. this conflict is now the most lethal one for palestinian civilians since the creation of the state of israel. officials in bangladesh say a massive fire at a commercial building in the capital dhaka has killed at least 43 people. reports said the blaze started at a restaurant and spread quickly

through the building, trapping dozens of people. earlier, i spoke to our south asia regional editor, anbarasan ethirajan. families are trying to find out what really happened to their loved ones who just went out on an evening to eat in a restaurant which is right in the heart of the capital when this fire started trapping dozens of people and this 7—storey buildings and clothing shops and several mobile phone shops as well and people suspect that the fire could've started in one of the restaurants and because they all use cooking gas cylinders and then it spread very rapidly to the building and one witness was saying how panicked people ran towards the rooftop and there was no emergency exit meaning they were trapped because of the single staircase and that was one of the reasons why, according to one fire department

that officials and the people tried tojump from the building because they could not get out and they were seriously injured and according to the health ministry, more than a0 people have been cured and some of those injured are said to be in their critical are said to be in a critical condition and people are evaluating what really happened by the fire department says now, the fire has been brought under control. and i suppose investigations are underway and have you been given information about what they think may have caused the fire? it is about the restaurant and those in the building, they were talking about how many were left in the staircase itself and that was on the reasons why the fire spread so rapidly in this building and many people are worried because some of those injured in the hospital were really affected by the smoke most of the victims were due to suffocation and smoke.

and there are about a0 people in hospital and now authorities are trying to find out what were the safety measures which were not followed by this building, whether this building had all of the firefighting equipment or they had emergency exits and why there was only one staircase especially in a commercial building. so, in bangladesh it's not very uncommon to have fire accidents because mostly, they are blamed on lax safety rules. we're looking at live images with the victims being taken in quite a large crowd gathering outside and not uncommon and bangladesh, do you think they'll be a large outcry over another fire like this happening? every time this kind of incident happens, there's a lot of debate about what they should be doing and it's a densely populated city with high—rise buildings and several residential and commercial buildings in bangladesh and bangladesh is home

to one of the largest clothing factories. ten years ago, there was a majorfire killing dozens in two years ago in 2021, there was a major fire in a full processing factory that killed more than 50 people. they all blame this on the lack of safety rules and how far the authorities are really serious about giving fire safety clearance to these commercial buildings because first of all, they have to give these fire clearance so that these commercial buildings can operate and people might question how come this building was allowed to operate so many restaurants with cooking gas cylinders and without an emergency exit? bbc�*s south asia regional editor, anbarasan ethirajan. to texas, where both presidentjoe biden, and former president donald trump are visiting the us — mexico border. the pair locked in a high—stakes political duel, on an issue which could ultimately decide this

year's presidential election. joe biden is visiting a border city called brownsville, its recently seen a drop in the number of people illegally crossing into the us. donald trump meanwhile is in eagle pass, the texas border town where republican governor greg abbott has defied the biden white house by using state national guard soldiers to detain undocumented migrants and erect border barricades. 0ur north america editor sarah smith sent this report two rival border visits from two men who will know migration will be who know migration will be a top election issue. joe biden wants to highlight a plan to beef up border security and close up particularly busy crossing points. a plan he says was cynically sabotaged by donald trump and republicans. he said a planned policy was issued, instead of telling members of congress to block this, join me or i willjoin you. immigration is donald trump's signature issue. visiting borderfortifications with the texas governor, he is promising more of this

if re—elected and the largest deportation ever of illegal immigrants. now the united states is being overrun by the biden migrant crime, it's a new form of vicious violation to our country. 0n patrol along the border, law enforcement officers like deputy constable santos constantly having to intercept and detain migrants. they say they are being overwhelmed and think this crisis needs to be tackled from the top. i'm at the bottom of the totem pole, to be honest. the president needs to give the orders to shut down the border or top or federal government to see how they are going to stop this because it's getting out of hand. the river marks the boundary between mexico and america. and if the deep waters are not deterrent enough, a few metres in you have this really long boundary fence, which is covered with razor wire but even that doesn't prevent migrants from getting through, which pretty much symbolises

the problem that's now become the most divisive issue in american politics. major reforms to try and stem the flow of migrants were almost agreed in congress last month and then blocked by republicans at the behest of donald trump. democrats say republicans don't want to fix immigration before the election. for years, they have been crying and whining the sky is falling on this issue and we had the perfect opportunity. they failed not only their party and constituency but they failed our country. but this is now the starkest dividing line in american politics. a 3000 kilometre long battleground over which the next presidential election will be fought. sarah smith, bbc news, eagle pass, texas. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. by

by election update. counting is continuing with the rochdale by election and this was the scene the rochdale legislature where the votes are being counted with a final declaration expected in a few hours. voters in the greater manchester area choosing a new mp following the death of sir tony lloyd injanuary. there are another set of candidates for the green party which were disowned by the parties and two former labour mps and simon dance standing infor former labour mps and simon dance standing in for the workers party of britain and uk respectively and galloways team think they have one and we will be live at half past midnight by the suspect live page continuous on the bbc news website you can find that on bbc dot com. we can find it on the bbc news web app.

leaders from the rochdale by election. you're live with bbc news. it was a crime that shocked britain, in 2021, an off—duty police officer kidnapped, raped and murdered a young woman in london. now an inquiry has found that he should never have been allowed to join the police in the first place. the series of events sparked protests and widespread calls to reform the way police officers were recruited. wayne couzens was jailed for life for his attack on sarah everard. june kelly reports. he was a predatory sex offender in a police uniform. a criminal with state—sanctioned powers. wayne couzens should never have been allowed to join the police, and constant flawed vetting meant he was able to continue in his role despite a series of red flags. these are the stark conclusions of today's inquiry report. the metropolitan police service told the inquiry in 2022 that it would still have recruited him if provided with the same information.

i found this astonishing. without a significant overhaul, there is nothing to stop another wayne couzens operating in plain sight. the report describes how in 2004 and 2008, kent police turned down his application to join, but allowed him to work voluntary as a special constable. in 2011, another force, the civil nuclear constabulary, took him on — despite a recommendation that he shouldn't get through the vetting. in 2018, he transferred to the met. an indecent exposure allegation, which was on the system, was missed. and by 2020, he was part of the parliamentary and diplomatic protection, and was carrying a gun. what this report lays bare, a very low base that we are starting from. and so whilst those improvements have started, we have a long way to go to build the high degree

of resilience and strength to reduce to an absolute minimum the threat of anybody so horrific being within policing. couzens used his police powers to falsely arrest sarah everard in 2021, accusing her of breaking covid lockdown rules. he then raped and strangled her. today, everyone was aghast at even more shocking details in a case which has become synonymous with women's safety. anyone who is not fit to wear the uniform for whatever reason must be removed from policing, and every effort must be made to ensure that similar people neverjoin. this report should be a watershed, but we said sarah everard's murder three years ago should be a watershed, and far too little has changed. how long must we go on and say the same things? a week after sarah everard's disappearance, wayne

couzens was arrested. described as a man of "diverse and deviant sexual interests", he allegedly committed a very serious sexual assault against a young girl before he joined the police. at a mcdonald's drive—through in the days before he abducted sarah, he exposed himself to staff more than once. the report concludes there may be more couzens victims. he's also alleged to have had indecent images of children. the coming days will see the third anniversary of sarah everard's death. in the report, herfamily welcome its recommendations. they say the loss of sarah pervades every part of their lives. june kelly, bbc news. russia's president vladimir putin has warned western governments against considering any deployment of troops to ukraine, and accused them of trying to weaken his country. in his annual state of the nation address in moscow, he claimed his forces were advancing confidently inside ukraine, two years after the invasion. 0ur russia editor steve

rosenberg reports. it was president putin's 19th state of the nation address. and he used it to send this warning to western nations. "don't send your troops to ukraine." translation: they need - to understand once and for all that we have weapons, too, that can strike targets on their territory. and everything they think up and scare the world with risks a nuclear conflict and the end of civilisation. regarding russia, he pledged to reduce poverty, boost the birth rate and raise incomes. well, there is an election coming up. the kremlin clearly wanted russians to see this speech. it was shown live on billboards. even in some cinemas.

although this moscow movie house wasn't exactly overflowing. putin and popcorn, not an obvious combo. this address was part campaign speech, part state of the nation, and state of the world as vladimir putin sees it, with warnings to the west and promises to his people that life here will get better if he stays in the kremlin. as for the current wave of repression in russia and the intensifying crackdown on dissent, there was no mention of that. and the audience, russian mps and senators, had little to say about the death in prison of the country's most famous opposition leader. are you not concerned about the state of the nation or its reputation after the death of alexei navalny? who's that? i am ready to comment on the message which vladimir putin delivered but not on other issues, so thank you.

the president, too, has stayed silent on mr navalny�*s death. alexei navalny is expected to be buried tomorrow at this moscow cemetery. his allies have accused the russian authorities of blocking their plans for a public memorial service for him. as for the kremlin, the choreography here sent a clear message — that on russia's political stage, there is only room for one man. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. the formula one racing boss christian horner, who heads the red bull team, has again denied allegations of inappropriate behaviour, after a series of messages allegedly written by him were leaked. horner was cleared yesterday of inappropriate behaviour towards a female colleague, following an internal

red bull investigation led by an external barrister. 0ur sports news correspondent laura scott has been following developments: will stop received an anonymous e—mail containing a file of messages purporting to involve christian horner in the list of recipients include those from formula 1, the sports governing body, team principals in the media. in response, hornerwas principals in the media. in response, horner was been team principalfor response, horner was been team principal for nearly two decades said i will not comment on anonymous speculation but reiterated i have always denied the allegations. this comes after an independent investigation and allegations of inappropriate behaviour against horner were made by a female colleague and that culminated yesterday in the teens parent company sing that the grievances been dismissed but i was in the end of the matter because today, red bull's main rivals: for transparency on how this investigation have been carried out. tonight, we understand the key figures in the sport were urgently seeking clarity on this

latest development and once again, horner�*s future may hang in the balance. south korean officials and doctors are at odds over staff shortages. doctors walked out last week in protest against the government's plans to increase the number of people admitted to medical school each year. the deadline has now passed for them to return to work. anyone still striking on friday will have their licenses revoked. the defiant doctors argue that more recruitment won't deal with the fundamental flaws in the system. but the government is not backing down and has accused doctors of putting patients lives at risk. here's a government minister speaking on thursday curing patients, doctors exist for patients and the patients are anxiously waiting for you. if you want to oppose the government, leaving your patient is not the right way to do it. (pres)doctors have hit back — saying that issues such as poor pay doctors have hit back —

saying that issues such as poor pay and working conditions should be dealt with first. with tensions high, some of them feel victimised by the government. here's the view of one doctor. translation: please stop insulting trainee doctors by treating _ them like criminals. patients are waiting for us. and their families are anxious. that's all for now — stay with bbc news. hello there. well, february was mild on the whole, and it was also very wet for many of us, particularly across parts of east anglia, where some spots saw as much as three times the average february rainfall. now, as we head into march and the start of the meteorological spring, well, it's all about to turn colder. there'll be some frosty nights and the possibility of some

of that rain, the showers turn into snow over the higher ground. now, mostly any snow will be over 200 metres elevation. so that does include the high ground of northern ireland, the welsh mountains, the pennines and the cumbrian fells. and some of that rain and snow will be pushing towards the southern uplands as we head towards the end of the day where the snow levels could start to drop a little bit. but there will be a lot of heavy rain as we head through the morning across england, wales and northern ireland. it's all clearing its way northwards and eastwards showers, brighter spells following on behind for many of us, blustery winds up through the channel and for north sea facing coast as well. some of that rain clearing away from northern ireland. it's going to be feeling cold, largely dry across much of scotland until we get to the end of the day when we could start to see some snow just feeding its way in from the south and then gradually pushing northwards as we head throughout the night. the snow levels starting to drop. it's another cold night on friday in to saturday. there will be a frost out there for many sheltered spots. temperatures down to

low single figures. watch out for some icy stretches, of course, as we start off the weekend. now, on saturday, a low pressure is very much centred right across the uk and it's just spiralling around all of these showers. there could be showers just about anywhere as we head throughout the day on saturday. still brisk northerly winds blowing across the north west of scotland, down through northern ireland. but elsewhere, the winds will fall a little lighter. there will be some showers again, wintry over the high ground. it's still feeling cold as well, with temperatures peaking only between seven and nine degrees celsius. that's a little below the seasonal average, of course, feeling colder and exposure to the wind and underneath the rain. it's the same again on sunday, but it looks drier for most of us. so fewer showers around. but the showers that we do see again could turn wintry over the higher ground. the winds will be lighter as that low tends to fill. as we head through into the start of next week, another area of low pressure swings in from the southwest. so again, it's looking wet and it's looking windy at times. but after we get to tuesday and wednesday, things will start to settle down. it could turn a bit milder.

bye— bye.

you're watching bbc news. i'm nicky schiller with coverage of the rochdale by—election. this is the scene at rochdale leisure centre, where the votes are being counted. you can see the tellers counting the votes. the breaking news in the last couple of minutes is we have had the

turnout for the rochdale by election, and council officials there saying it was 39.7%. now, that compares to a turnout of 60% at the last general election in 2019, but of course turnout at by election is always lower than it is at a general election, so the turnout in rochdale, 39.7%. that, as i said, compared to a turnout of 60% in the general election in 2019. we know that the officials there are counting at the moment, we are expecting a result may be in the next couple of hours, but this has certainly not been a normal by election campaign. by—elections are often colourful and chaotic, but there has never been anything quite like the contest in rochdale just north of manchester. the vote in the town was caused by the death of the town's widely

respected labour mp, sir tony lloyd. on paper, it should have been relatively