the white house has insisted it continues to back israel in its fight with hamas in gaza. the us national security council spokesmanjohn kirby says washington wants to help israel target hamas leaders and stand up an alternative government in gaza. he was speaking after president biden paused the supply of some us munitions to israel amid fears over a major israeli assault on the city of rafah. one of israel's far—right ministers condemned the decision saying it showed �*hamas loves biden�*. in the last few minutes, we've heard the israeli delegation as well as the cia director william burns have left cairo after the latest round of talks aimed at reaching a truce. yolande knell reports from jerusalem. let's speak to our security correspondent frank gardener, injerusalem.

what is the latest on those talks? i would not necessarily use the word progress, they have ground to a halt. both hammers and the israeli delegations of left cairo in the gap between them appears to be unbridgeable at the moment. that doesn't in the talks are dead and there is enormous pressure to make this work is also the domestic pressure here in israel. and there are protesters trying to put pressure on the israeli government to do a deal and they have an expression in hebrew meaning deal now and they think that this government, this relatively far right government of benjamin netanyahu is really more interested in crushing hamas and getting their hostages out because there was a

time back in november when negotiations, mediation and arch of five hostages out alive in almost every week, there's more bad news of hostages who have died either in captivity or found to have not survived the atrocious raids on october seven and the cease—fire talks of the moment appeared to have hit a bit of a stumbling block in that block is because of the end state. hamas wants an undertaking that once and not block us because of the in—state. hamas wants an undertaking that once it signs up to this deal at the end of the cease—fire process, that will be the end of it no be no more fighting. at least from the israeli side. israel says it cannot make that commitment if hamas contact, it is in its objectives —— it has failed in its objectives. remains intact. criticism by his statements and yet, is there a point in which there is

some truth in the facts that israel's position, its strength in negotiating talks is weekend if america openly says that you cannot, you can go so far but not beyond in terms of the rafah assault? definitely because hamas has remaining battalions in the side of the gaza strip is where they are dug in properly below ground in some places and israel would like to go and finish them off but some of the weaponry that it has been using in this war should never be used and built up civilian areas and the us has paused the delivery of two different kinds of weapons, £2000 £200 bombs and £500 bombs and the effect of this on humans is

absolutely horrific. you can target at precisely the people hundreds of metres away will of the lungs blown out. ~ ., , metres away will of the lungs blown out. ~ . , ., ., ., metres away will of the lungs blown out. . , ., ., ., out. what is the information coming from rafah now? _ out. what is the information coming from rafah now? very _ out. what is the information coming from rafah now? very limited - out. what is the information coming | from rafah now? very limited target israeli operations _ from rafah now? very limited target israeli operations in _ from rafah now? very limited target israeli operations in eastern - from rafah now? very limited target israeli operations in eastern rafah i israeli operations in eastern rafah appeared to be expanding reports of shelling in areas outside of eastern rafah of targeted air strikes and people turning up the hospitals talking about shillings through the night and the humanitarian situation is not good because rafah crossing is not good because rafah crossing is shot and it is open from the israeli side and the trucks cannot get into to the fighting on the gaza side of the border and that's a real crisis of her getting fuel into the territory and the hospitals will eventually run out and aid cannot be delivered.

the adult film star, stormy daniels, has clashed with donald trump's lawyers as they cross—examine her in his trial in new york. the former president denies falsifying business records to cover up a hush money payment over their alleged sexual encounter in 2006. prosecutors say this amounted to election fraud, ahead of his 2016 presidential election win. reporters inside the court say ms daniels is responding defiantly to tough questioning by the defence. let's speak to nada tawfik, our north america correspondent. what is been happening in the last couple of hours there. i just what is been happening in the last couple of hours there.— couple of hours there. i 'ust ran out from being * couple of hours there. i 'ust ran out from being in h couple of hours there. i 'ust ran out from being in the _ couple of hours there. ijust ran out from being in the overflow. out from being in the overflow courtroom and the defence finished its cross—examination in the prosecution is back on redirect questioning but i can tell you inside that it was a very intense cross—examination. a battle of wits as stormy daniels replied defiantly

and indignantly and really trying to undercut the esters that he makes assertions that are coming from donald trump steam that she was trying to get money from donald trump and yet be about his indictment in trying to profit off it, including the website selling merchandise. she said look, you're trying to get things back need to say things that are not true to the donald trump slaves. these are just like donald trump is. stormy, she is leaning casually to the side and doesn't appear to be intimidated at all and is keeping donald trump's lawyer on his toes.— all and is keeping donald trump's lawyer on his toes. she's got some olitical lawyer on his toes. she's got some political support — lawyer on his toes. she's got some political support with _ lawyer on his toes. she's got some political support with them - it was a full bench behind donald

trump today as he had his usual campaign adviser and those in the civil cases and one of his political allies, the florida senator rick scott and spoke to a few of the press you're telling us and parroting a lot of donald trump's talking points to keep him off the balance and that he had a great record on securing the southern border with mexico on the economy. this is not the first politician we have seen come here as a kind of campaign surrogate for donald trump and i'm sure we'll see many morbid donald trump, he was warned last time by thejudge not donald trump, he was warned last time by the judge not curse audibly when stormy daniels was testifying and he warred donald trump's lawyers that he would not stand for that. donald trump would close his eyes he can characterise this as a protest from having to be there and listen

to stormy daniels testimony and he talks to his lawyers and engages with them and donald trump certainly has made it very public how he feels about having to listen to stormy daniels. mp natalie elphicke — who defected from the tories to labour — has apologised for comments she made supporting her ex—husband after he was convicted of sexual assault. some labour mps had raised concerns about her saying he was "an easy target" for false allegations because he was "attractive". let's speak to bbc correspondent nick eardley this case is a bit different. no doubt it is _ this case is a bit different. iir> doubt it is a blow to the conservatives in the government for one of their mps to turn their back

one of their mps to turn their back on the party and someone who made a big issue of illegal immigration in small boats crossing the english channel and that is bad for rishi sunak and chatting to mps today, quite a few think this is slightly back fired on the labour party as well because naturally, she is pretty controversial, she seen as being on the right of the conservative party at a lot of labour mps walked around in parliament scratching their heads been thinking why someone who was never shown any interest in the policies of the labour party in the past been admitted to the labour party in parliament. sir keir starmer come the labour leader made a pretty simple observation that the voting party will pay attention to the details of the ins and outs of those in other conservative turning their back on the government and saying conservatives can't be

trusted and it's time for a labour government. but the fact of this going on for more than a day now and there's so many liberal politicians were nervous about herjoining the fault, i think this will probably be not the story exactly that labour is hoping it will be. she not the story exactly that labour is hoping it will be.— hoping it will be. she has apologised _ hoping it will be. she has apologised for _ hoping it will be. she has apologised for past - hoping it will be. she has - apologised for past comments that have been criticised in a way, the question by this decision to allow her tojoin as a question by this decision to allow her to join as a labour mp, decision by the labour leadership and labour are so farahead by the labour leadership and labour are so far ahead in the polls we are less talking about huge labour victories in the local election here and is there a question about keir starmer�*sjudgment has and is there a question about keir starmer�*s judgment has been and is there a question about keir starmer�*sjudgment has been raised by this decision? yes starmer'sjudgment has been raised by this decision?— by this decision? yes and some are raisin the by this decision? yes and some are raising the question _ by this decision? yes and some are raising the question about - by this decision? yes and some are raising the question about who - by this decision? yes and some are raising the question about who has| raising the question about who has it right. i do not think it is easy to answer by whether this is a

positive or negative for labour actually because opinions are very divided and chatting to one member of the shadow cabinet and one was a big fan of keir starmer and said what i go to lunch with her, absolutely not. but, this person went on to argue, ultimately, this will be seen as another conservative turning their back on the party and embracing keir starmer instead and i expect we'll see more from keir starmer with natalie and him embracing the decision and sing when it comes to that issue of small boats crossing the channel, even from conservative mps do not trust the prime minister. it allows conservatives something they've been doing a lot of the past few weeks and will do again that keir starmer doesn't have any principles. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

human rights watch says the paramilitary rapid support forces in sudan may have committed genocide in the main city in west darfur. it says the leaders of the group and its arab allies should be sanctioned for carrying out crimes against humanity and war crimes by systematically targeting massalit communities. our africa correspondent, barbara plett usher is in nairobi. there's been a lot of reporting about the waves of attacks against the predominantly non—arab masalit population of al—junaynah. but this is one of the most comprehensive investigations so far. human rights watch interviewed more than 200 people and scrutinised more than 100 images and it concluded that the rsf and its arab allies had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity within the context of ethnic cleansing, it says, by systematically targeting masalit neighbourhoods and displaced persons camps and it talks about widespread killing, widespread rapes, and of course we know that many of the masalit people left al—junaynah and have now

taken refuge in chad. the human rights watch report also says there may have been an intent to do this. there may have been the intent to destroy this community in west darfur, and if that were the case then it would be genocide. and so it calls on the international community to investigate whether the facts support that kind of conclusion. now, the rsf leader, general hemedti, has said all along that his forces do not target civilians. he has said that the massacres were the result of tribal violence, which was not related to his campaign. but human rights watch says that he is among those who had commanding responsibility over the forces who were involved. the united states and the prosecutor general for the international criminal court have talked about war crimes, the potentialfor war crimes on both sides. the us has also specifically said that the rsf did carry out ethnic cleansing and humanitarian crimes against humanity, but neither have

specifically talked about genocide. now to the chinese president xi jinping's european tour — after visiting france and serbia, he's beginning two days of meetings in hungary. president xi was welcomed with a military parade in budapest — later, he'll meet the hungarian prime minister viktor orban. beijing sees hungary as one of its closest allies in the eu — and there have been high levels of chinese investment there. let's speak to our correspondent nick thorpe, who's in budapest for us. i see there is huge security with us today. i see there is huge security with us toda . , . ,., ., i see there is huge security with us toda. , . ., today. very much so, a massive security operation _ today. very much so, a massive security operation just - today. very much so, a massive security operation just me - today. very much so, a massive security operation just me with l today. very much so, a massive i security operation just me with the negotiations have been taking place in 400 strong chinese delegations of been staying as i weird here on the other side of the river and it's a pretty nice view and very important visit for hungary here and important scenes and great success story for

m. important, seen as a great success story for prime minister victor orban, a small country with 9.7 million people are attracting the president of a country of 1.4 billion strong. very keen and relatively good railway networks and good infrastructure and so hungary is offering china to export and move different productions, cars, electric vehicle factories and other items across the eu and that is very important at a time of the eu is investigating china over alleged subsidies and threatening to put import tariffs. if you can imagine hundreds of thousands of chinese cars being imported suddenly being subjected to the tax, as of next

yearin subjected to the tax, as of next year in hungary as a hungarian foreign ministry said, just this afternoon, that is where some 300,000 chinese cars of the company will be produced and they would not be subject to import tariffs. pretty useful with a hungry�*s strategic role as an economic up for china. a british toddler who was born deaf can now hear unaided, after becoming the first person in the world to receive a new gene therapy treatment. shortly before opal sandy's first birthday, she was given an infusion in her ear that replaced the faulty dna with a working copy of the gene. michelle roberts reports. recorder plays note. yay! 18—month—old opal is learning how fun making noise can be. yeah! she's the first person to get a new type of gene therapy treatment for an inherited deafness she was born with. her parents, jo and james, say it was a really

hard decision to make. it was really scary, but i think we'd been given a really unique opportunity, with no real evidence that any harm or adverse effects was likely to come to her. surgeons carried out opal�*s procedure just before her first birthday. the infusion replaces the faulty dna causing opal�*s genetic condition. a modified, harmless virus delivers a working copy of the otof gene. that treats the sound—,sensing cells in the inner ear or cochlear. that treats the sound—sensing cells in the inner ear or cochlear. the new gene means they can carry the signals they should. opal�*s operation went to plan. gene therapy in her right ear and a cochlear implant in her left. clapping. just a few weeks later, she could hear loud sounds. absolutely mindblowing. i was at work at the time and you messaged me to say what had gone on. and i'm not sure i believed

it at the start. kept my phone up. i said it wasjust a fluke, she must have reacted to something else. now she can even hear whispers in her gene therapy ear. that was 24 weeks post—surgery, and we heard the phrase "near—normal hearing." she was turning to really soft sounds. yeah. they played us the sounds that she was turning to and were quite mind—blown by how how soft it was, how quiet it was. opal�*s part of an international study and experts hope the treatment could work for other types of profound hearing loss, too. this is a very specific gene for quite a rare type of hearing loss. so what i'm hoping is that we can start to use gene therapy in young children, restore hearing from a variety of different kinds of genetic hearing loss, and then have a more one and done type of approach. big sister nora has the same rare gene as opal. good girl! keys for daddy.

more than half of hearing loss cases in children have genetic causes, so there's big potentialfor this new type of therapy. michelle roberts, bbc news. earlier we spoke to doctor richard brown. he's a paediatric consultant at adenbrookes hospital and one of the investigators of this ground—breaking gene therapy work and i asked him how he felt. it has been just wonderful, seeing how much it means to opal sandy's family that she is able to say, daddy and as you showed in that video package, to respond to sounds, so it is really exciting and it is exactly what we would have dreamt of. can you explain a bit more for me how it works? we saw that you are changing the gene using a virus, is that right? that's right, i thought your package explained it really nicely. what happens is basically the cochlear hair cells, which is in the inner ear,

that's where your sound is sensed and they are working perfectly to do the sensing, but they can't talk to the acoustic nerve, which takes the signal into the brain because of a genetic problem there. and basically what we do as we drop in the genetic material that is necessary to cope for a protein called o2 furling and what that means is the cochlear hair cells can send a little signal between that gap between the hair cell and the acoustic nerve, which is called the sign—ups, and everything works perfectly, so once we have done the gene therapy then the whole system is working as it should do. what is the impact of this, how many others could be helped with this therapy? we can think of that on a number of levels, so it is just brilliant to see the impact for opal and herfamily. with this trial we are recruiting 18 patients, both in the uk and in spain and america.

when we think about all patients with the mutation of this protein, then there are many patients worldwide. this is still a very rare disorder and it is even more exciting to think about using this type of technology to treat other types of genetic hearing loss, some of which may be more common. we have other treatments in the pipeline for that that we hope to use in therapeutic trials. and then once we look even beyond that we can start to think about beyond genetic hearing loss, so just thinking more generally about children with rare diseases. about one in 17 people within the uk has a rare disease, although they are individually rare. and up until now, actually, real meaningful intervention in terms of possibly even cure has been very rare for those disorders, but with this sort of technology we are starting to see a glimpse of the future.

do you think this thing could be rolled out on a mass scale and if so, how long would that take? i think this specific treatment is only for the otof mutations and so that certainly won't be a mass scale, but is it possible in 10—20 years' time that paediatricians who diagnose a rare genetic disorder may be able to prescribe a precision treatment that is potentially curative for that treatment in no condition? then i think that is our hope. dr richard brown, thank you very much indeed, paediatric consultant at addenbrooke's hospital. thank you very much indeed, congratulations again and thank you to everyone involved in this work. and tel aviv, the pictures we have seen of the families and supporters of those one of the hostages returned, calling for a deal with the cease—fire deal. and we are

hearing that many israelis, politicians and the media have reacted to the alarm at the prospect of the us withholding some of its most destructive weapons and security minister tweeted that hamas loves joe security minister tweeted that hamas lovesjoe biden and was reprimanded by the israeli president saying that was irresponsible and hurtful but the ambassador to the un did hand at a sense of betrayal saying that they face enemies in the north, the south and iran is launching missiles and this is the time to impose restrictions on israeli arms. a great deal of debate as been caused by the us lying on weapons there is a lot of concern internationally of the prospect of israel going further into rafah —— us wine.

into rafah —— us line. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. temperatures have been creeping up day by day. high pressure has brought plenty of sunshine around, but a weather front launching across northern scotland has brought thicker cloud here, some spots of rain and thursday was another grey day here with outbreaks of rain. now, as we move through tonight, it does look like that weather front will eventually move northwards, become confined to the northern isles for a while through the night before it clears away. it becomes drier here, but a dry night to come for most areas. bit of mist and fog here and there, temperatures ranging from 9—12 celsius. friday, then, our area of high pressure continues to bring a lot of fine and settled weather. we lose that weather front from northern scotland, so, apart from a bit of early cloud, some mist and fog, most places should have a fine dry day.

widespread sunshine, particularly for england and wales, into northern ireland, central and southern scotland, but some sunshine into the highlands as well. that'll lift temperatures up to 22 celsius perhaps, in aberdeen. 23—24, perhaps, in the warmest spots in england and wales. through friday night, it looks like we'll see mist and fog returning in places. a bit of low cloud, sea fog pushing into eastern england, east anglia and the south—east. that could creep a little bit further westwards into the midlands first thing on saturday. but again, those temperatures, 9—12 celsius. now for the weekend. it does stay warm, there will be some good spells of sunshine around, but the shower risk will start to increase, particularly as we head into sunday. that's because we've got a weather front and low pressure developing, pushing towards our shores, particularly by sunday. and into next week, it'll be a lot more unsettled than we've had this week. saturday, though, another warm day to come, a bit of early mist and fog and some low cloud across eastern england. otherwise, plenty of sunshine, though we could see a few heavy showers develop across the high ground of northern england, central and southern scotland into the afternoon.

that could be thundery as well. but a warm day to come, quite humid too, the low—to—mid—20s quite widely. sunday probably the warmest day of the week across southern areas. it could be up to 26 celsius, plenty of sunshine. but then the showers and thunderstorms could become a bit more widespread through the afternoon. and the temperatures may be coming down a little bit across western areas as the clouds build up in the sky. then as we head into next week low pressure takes over, it will become a lot more unsettled, showers or longer spells of rain at times. but there will still be a little bit of sunshine too, take care.

this is bbc news, the headlines... the white house says it continues to back israel in its operation against hamas, as a member of israel's government condemns the us decision to pause the supply of weapons. donald trump's lawyers clash with stormy daniels, as they cross—examine her in his hush—money trial in new york. the hush—money trial in new york. bank of england ha interest the bank of england has held interest rates at 5.25% for the six time in a row, but there's a hint rates may come down in the summer. and natalie elphicke has apologised for saying her ex—husband was an easy target following his conviction for sexual assault. japan says it's to start hunting fin—whales as part of its commercial whaling operations.

now with all the latest sport, here's gavin. we'll start with football and european action continues tonight — with aston villa the sole british club left in the latter stages of a competition, they're in action in the europa conference league semifinal. they have some work to do, if they're to reach the final. they trail olympiakos 4—2 before the second leg in greece, with their manager unai emery saying his side must handle a "difficult" atmosphere on what is the biggest game of their season. it will be difficult to come back, but this is a really good moment to watch, and we have to be competitive like they were at home against us, and improving on some things we didn't do. two semi—finals in the europa league later to tell you about later, as well. xabi alonso's bayer leverkusen team

have won the bundesliga and reached