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♪ >> this is bbc world news america. divisions on capitol hill and disappointment from israeli officials over president biden's warning at u.s. could suspend certain weapons to israel amid mounting concerns over boeing's safety record, we asked people to judge what the biden administration is doing to keep planes safe. >> we have been on the process of -- in the process of putting boeing under a microscope ever since the incident with the alaska airlines flight, they need to demonstrate they are meeting the quality standards and safety standards the faa has set forward. >> and tense exchanges at donald trump's criminal trial as stormy daniels' testimony wraps up. ♪

welcome to world news america. we begin in the u.s., where lawmakers are bitterly divided over president biden's remarks putting conditions over shipments to israel after the u.s. suspended sending some heavy bombs to israel over concerns about protecting civilians in southern gaza. in a rare warning from mr. biden wednesday, he reserved the right to suspend further u.s. arms shipments should israel proceed with an all-out offensive into rafah, saying the u.s. will continue to support israel's right to defend itself but when it comes to the rafah ground operation, the u.s. is "walking away from israel's ability to wage war in those areas." in response republican lawmakers wrote an open letter calling on the president to immediately end the blockage saying security assistant to israel is critical to the defense of the u.s. and the free world. republican senator lindsey graham has called the decision to halt arms absurd. >> i just want to emphasize one

thing, this is all about president biden and lloyd austin trying to take over the war from israel. i've got one message for israel. don't let them do it. >> many democratic lawmakers have come out in support of biden's decision to halt certain munitions to israel. here's what democratic senator chris coons told bbc. >> of course israel has not just the right but the obligation to go after hamas and finish the job and restore a sense of security to the israeli people after the horrific attack of october 7. but, since there are a one million refugees in gaza who have moved from the north to the center to the south and are now trapped up against the hard border with egypt, and egypt is not allowing any of them in, before going in at scale to attack the remaining battalions in rafah, we are calling on

israel to provide a pathway out. >> president biden's remarks prompted strong responses from israeli officials. benjamin netanyahu vowed to press ahead with military operations in gaza saying in a statement if we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. from -- for more on israel's reaction, we have this update from jerusalem. reporter: israel is really stung by this. since 1992, the u.s. has not withheld weapons from its closest ally in the middle east. there's talk of betrayal. one far right minister in the israeli cabinet tweeted on the social media platform, x, hamas , heart emoji, biden, hamas loves biden, there is a cereal that by the u.s. threatening to withhold military support to israel, that that is emboldening and strengthening hamas at the

very time that israel needs to try to wring concessions out of hamas to get hostages the -- to get the hostages out. both delegations have left. the israelis and hamas. fundamentals are still in place. they have still agreed in the sense that there is talk of a limited period of calm, 42 days, an exchange of captives, for palestinian prisoners in israeli jails. buit remains as to how this conflict ends. >> israel's military says it already has enough weapons for its mission and rafah and thursday the army continued heavy shelling of the area. palestinians are still evacuating, with the yuan agency saying 80,000 people have fled so far -- u.n. agency saying 80,000 people have fled so far. we will speak to the president of the middle east policy

council. ambassador, really good to have you on bbc news. i want to ask you, what do you make of what we have heard from many republicans here in the u.s. who say president biden with his remarks is abandoning israel and helping hamas? >> unfortunately, i believe those are politically motated statements. the president has been very clear, he is standing with israel in regards to its defensive capabilities, so continuing to provide whatever is needed for iron dome to protect -- to prevent attacks from outside. we are talking about gaza. the bombs used in gaza against civilians. >> israel says it has to go in offensively into rafah to defeat the remaining hamas battalions they have identified there. >> the president has been very clear that they have to have a plan that allows for the safety and security of civilians.

america has been very supportive of israel being able to defend itself but there have been those who have said from the beginning , these overwhelming attacks and extra ordinary number of civilian casualties actually works against raeli security. that is the reality. >> we have heard very disappointed voices from israel, of course, how big of a rupture do you think this is right now between israel andhe u.s.? >> i know it is a shock for israelis to have their leadership be called up on the carpet as it were. we have been clear the president has been clear and the secretary of state, members of congress, this has not been a sudden change. the warnings have been put out. the position of the american leadership and people have been very clear tget us to this point. but it certainly can be reversed with a change in policy and action from the israel government. >> let's talk about rafah. if you listen to the briefings

from the white house today, they indicate their assessment of a possible ground operation in rafah would be catastrophic. netanyahu says they will fight with fingernails of needed. where do you think this is headed? >> it is hard to say how much of what the prime minister is saying, because he actually intends to do it full force, or to play to the coalition on the right, he has been balancing for 17 years, he has made american presidents uncomfortable for years, resisting, pushing back, disagreeing, disrespecting from time to time, as we saw during the obama administration. but then he has got to weigh what the costs are. the american support and diplomatic cover, staunch friendship that has been with israel from the beginning is something that he cannot afford to lose, nor do i believe

israeli citizens want him to lose. he's got calculations to make. >> a difficult position for him you are saying. what do you think is all means for efforts to secure a cease-fire? from what we are seeing, negotiators indicate the process continues to be sold. >> it certainly has exacerbated the problems. we have to keep in mind what are hamas calculations? netanyahu went in to add additional pressure on hamas. unfortunately, hamas has proved repeatedly that the deaths of palestinians in gaza is not something that is going to persuade them to change what they are doing, we also have to keep in mind the hostages in the israeli attack, it is also putting them in danger. >> we will have to see how the situation develops. always good to have you. thank you so much for having us today. problems continue to mount

for the u.s. aerospace company boeing after another string of safety incidents. thursday morning a boeing seven 37th 300 passenger aircraft crashed during takeoff in senegal. 11 people were injured, four severely when the plane ran off a runway and caught fire. the flight was taking off from the senegalese capital to mali. two investigations are underway in turkey. also on thursday nearly 200 passengers were evacuated from a boeing 737 800 after one of its tires burst on landing. it comes a day after a fedex airlines boeing 767 cargo plane landed at istanbul airport without its front landing gear. this all comes as a boeing whistleblower tells the bbc he found up to 200 defects on a plane -- on plane parts being ready to shipping for boeing. the former quality ipector at boeing's larger suppliers -- largest supplier says he was pressured to conduct less

rigorous inspections and boeing prioritized profits over passenger safety. >> the whole time we were there, boeing knowingly knew that we were sending fuselages with many defects, many of them, bad, they knew it, they were aware of it. spirit was wrong for sending defective fuselages, but at the same time boeing was also wrong for accepting them. >> in a statement, spirit's spokesman says the spirit strongly disagrees with the allegations made by mr. paredes. we a vigorously defending against his claims. boeing declined to comment. sources within the company say it is working hard to help spir address quality issues. it is also in talks about taking full control of its supplier. for the latest on the investigations, i sat down with the you a secretary of transportation, pete buttigieg. i asked him about baltimore's recovery efforts after the francis scott key bridge collapse, global supply chains and other transportation issues affecting the u.s. and the

world. thank you so much for joining us in our studios today. i want to start with some bbc reporting. we spoke to a whistleblower who worked for spirit aerosystems in kansas, the subsidiary a boeing, he says he often found up to 200 defects on parts being readied for shipping to boeing and spirit strongly denies the allegations, it is important to say that, but he told us he was finding a lot of missing fasteners, vent parts, sometimes even -- bent parts, sometimes even missing parts. are you sure that boeing is meeting its commitment to safety your department sets? >> the faa is investigating this right now. when you hear concerns like that, they have to be taken extreme the seriously. the context is, we have already been in the process of putting boeing under a microscope, ever since the january incident with the alaska airlines flight. they need to demonstrate that they are meeting the quality standards and safety standards faa has set forward. that's part of why we have taken

the extraordinary step of restricting their ability to increase production until they demonstrate they can do that safely. the u.s. aviation safety record is an extra ordinary thing. you can not ever take it for granted. maintaining that requires this heightened level of scrutiny and that is exactly what's going on with boeing right now. >> if they don't meet the safety standards, what happens? there are planes in the sky in the meantime. >> if a plane is not safe, it cannot fly. that's why faa grounded all those 737 maxes until it was established that had been inspected following the plug door incident. the faa holds these aircraft to a standard of billion to one or better in the probably of something going catastrophically wrong, that is why we have these are generic -- this extraordinary safety record that we do. in order to safeguard and defend our record. >> today, there was a boeing 7:37 crashed during takeoff in senegal and injured 11 people.

officials and turkeys a 190 passengers and crew were safely evacuated from a boeing 737 that had a tire burst during landing. it is a safe mode of transportation. the record has bn strong. but do you understand why people feel weary at best when looking on getting on a boeing? >> not just one, the safest that we know. the most natural thing in the world is when you step into a metal tube that is going to fly hundreds of miles an hour through the sky, you will have concerns that absolutely everything h been checked to make sure that is a safe experience. that's not something we can ever treat as a destination, we achieved safety, we are good to go. it is continually renewed. continually refreshed. anytime a threat of a problem emerges weather in the design or the process or maintenance or operation of a flight, faa will look at that very closely. >> and yr trust boeing to rectify this. >> we don't just trust, there is an auditing process.

there is a 90 day clock. we are roughly 60 days into it that the administrator has put boeing on, you have to demonstrate encumbrance of plants to tackle the quality issues. they have a responsibility to meet our standards. >> do you think they will? >> we don't take it on faith. we hope and expect that they will and hold them accountable to do so. >> i want to talk to you about the francis scott key bridge that collapsed. we know the bodies of all six men who died have now been recovered. unified command in baltimore confirmed they are looking to open the channel in the coming days, weather dependent. do you think that transport in and out of that port will get back to normal soon? >> i do. today there is been an opening -- has been an opening of the partial channel. it's not the same as having everything back open. this is an important port, especially for vehicles. the number one port in the u.s. for vehicles coming in and out. it has specialized facilities,

that right now in the meantime, as places like georgia and rhode island accept shipments, sometimes they still have to bring them back to the grounds for some of the processes that go on there, it's a very important facility. most important for the workers whose lives have been disrupted by not having the vessel traffic in and out. the u.s. army corps of engineers leading the wreckage from the channel have said very ambitious -- set very ambitious targets. i'm fully confident by the end of may, they will have the vessel out of the way on the wreckage out of the way and the channel ready to go for normal operations. >> what is the impact -- has the impact bent on global shipping and supply chains? >> there's been an impact, it's something we've been watching closely, using new tools to do so. ever since the major disruptions on the u.s. west coast in 2021, we have created new capabilities in our department of transportation and president biden's infrastructure package established a new multimodal fr

eight -- freight for things like this. we could not have foreseen houthi attacks in the red sea, the bridge collapsed in baltimore, but we knew that there would be more disruptions. >> you were talking about shoring up supply chains and transportation in the u.s. but there are global shocks as you mentioned in the red sea, how do you mitigate against those factors? >> the first lesson of supply chains is how globally interconnected they are. we reminded of that again and again. how can beatings with parties involved -- i had coening us with the parties involved in the red sea and a gathering of the transport ministers to discuss our response. bottom line is there cannot be enough communication and coordination. that's what we are doing, promoting that with the private

sector and getting players who sometimes were frankly suspicious of each other or did not see any reason to cooperate, to n cooperate in ways that are still appropriate, not sharing business information that should not be shared but sharing more data so they can anticipate and absorb these temporary disruptions. >> he mentioned the infrastructure law. i want to ask you about that. this was signed into law late 2021. politico released an expensive report looking at how much of the president's builds back better agenda has been deployed. bear with me with the numbers quickly. less than 17% of the $1.1 trillion for climate, energy, infrastructure has been spent as of april. if you look at transportation, the awardees have not spent much from many of his infrastructure law programs, highway planning and construction was about $110 billion awarded, 52% has been spent.

that's a bit of a higher number. why is it that so much of this money has not been spent yet? >> the nature of infrastructure is some projects are very quick, streetscape conversion and small communities that can be done in a civil season and some of these things are like building cathedrals. the hudson river tunnel project stands to be perhaps the biggest transportation public works project in the eastern half of the u.s. and more than a generation. it will take more than a decade to deliver. some projects are shovel ready be a good others we call shovel worthy. knowing sometimes we need to fund the planning process to get them on the drawing board. that's exactly what it's like when we are fronting not just one season and one summer or one year of economic stimulus, but a decade of investment in a stronger supply-side for the u.s. economy. >> i want to ask you about the perception of the projects. few voters said they had heard about the infrastructure projects the president has been championing. some voters even gave the former president much credit for -- as much credit as biden.

is this a question of communicating? >> i think so. that's why i m out on the the road constantly, making sure everybody understands these projects did not just fall out of the sky and did not happen at random, because president biden worked with democrats and republicans by the way in this bipartisan effort. the last administration, they talked a big game about infrastructure. the concept of an infrastructure week became a bit of a joke because they would always have infrastructure week with no results. we actually did it. we got it done. but people need to see it is actually happening and there is work taking place whether it is the physical construction i saw along i-70 in colorado which is an important supply chain that affects the whole country even if you don't live there, or a small neighborhood project taking place with some of the mayors that we work with to reduce the roadway deaths happening on streets.

some of these major train tunnels and airports we are working on our part of this bigger picture. >> we will have to leave the conversation there. thank you so much for your time. the adult film star actress stormy daniels was back on the witness stand thursday cross-examined by lawyers for donald trump in the new york hush money trial. prosecutors have charged trump with falsify business records over a payment to miss daniel's in 2016 before the november election. he maintains his innocence and denies the alleged affair calling the case a witch hunt. let's write to manhattan where our correspondent is standing by. to take us to what today was like. reporter: today was one of the most intense days of cross-examination yet in the trial. donald trump's team, trying to undercut stormy daniels' credibility painting her as somebody who is just after money and trying to get donald trump in jail. joining me as my colleague, kayla who was in the courtroom.

a very different demeanor from stormy daniels today. i was struck watching from the overflow room just how she was very casual. how she answered questions in a breezy way. very different than the last time, tuesday when she did seem a little bit more nervous and her quick answers. >> that was certainly the case. she kept her answers short. she kept her answers on topic. she tried to insert small bits of humor into her testimony but she stuck to what was being asked of her. it's important because tuesday the prosecution got in trouble for how long she went on some of her answers. the judge had to remind her to stay on topic and be sure to be a good today after a couple of days off, she can -- she came back with a different energy. >> how do you think the defense

did trying to discredit her and paint her as somebody who wants to see donald trump in jail? >> the defense once over every aspect of the story that stormy daniels has told about her encounter -- her alleged encounter with donald trump. they went over every little detail. they asked her to recount things. they tried to pull old interviews she gave about it, to claim in consistencies. they are trying to discredit her in the eyes of the jury. >> it was interesting how she said i hate donald trump, yeah i want to see him in jail if she is -- if he is found guilty. donald trump wants to be able to some of her testimony tuesday. his team argues it is so prejudicial that he should be able to be off the gag order essentially. >> one of the last things we did today was trump's lawyer argued exactly what you said, trump

should be able to speak publicly and respond to stormy daniels. the gag order bars him from doing that but the justice denied the order, saying it's not just about stormy daniels but the integrity of the entire case. however he has voiced concerns in a past gag order and said that he's concerned of the gag order being used as a cold short versus a shield -- sword versus a shield. michael cohen has been active on social media. >> they before denied prosecution claims because it was in response to michael cohen. if we look at the other bit of housekeeping at the end of the day, that defense again calling for a mistrial, what did the judge have to say about whether that was warranted this time? >> the judge denied the motion for a mistrial but gave a long explanation as to why, trump's lawyer was arguing that there was so much that came into stormy daniels' testimony that

he said was not relevant and prejudicial to the jury, that it was just too damaging. the judge did not agree, he said it is important the prosecution corroborate stormy daniels' story and allowed her to provide details. blanchard said the story was not true. it is important for the jury to decide what they believe, trump or daniels. but he agreed there were certain things he wished the prosecution had not asked her about. >> the judge certainly has a difficult job in this trial. the judge said the trial is moving on schedule, perhaps even ahead of schedule. prosecution will go on tomorrow and next weekend and onto the defense by then potentially. >> thank you so much for your reporting. that is our program. you can find more on all the days news on our website, bbc.com/news or follow us on your favorite social media sites. thank you so much for watching world news america. ♪

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wow, you get to watch all your favorite stuff. it's to die for. now you won't miss a thing. this is the way. xfinity internet. made for streaming. ♪ amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff bennett is on assignment. on the “newshour” tonight. israel bombards rafah as its leaders respond with defiance to president biden freezing some weapons deliveries. storan