appropriately, from the artificial intelligence summit at bletchley park. the other big story this week, though, has been the quite eye popping testimony at the public inquiry into how the government handled various phases of the covid epidemic. and, i mean, it has massively, massively taken me back to those scary, uncertain days in early spring 2020. and i spent a lot of those days sat in this very studio and the person sat across from me and being very reassuring at all times was laura k, who s back in the studio. not in the studio. no, i m not. but i m logistically distanced today, not socially distanced. and i m very pleased to hear that i was reassuring back in those early days of march 2020. you were one of the only people i saw! well, i m pleased. well, it was very nice. we were a tiny little band of people, carrying on, trying to do ourjobs as everybody wondered what on earth was going on. and it s been a very strange experience watching this, hasn t it? because i was
secretary of state antony blinken that there must be an immediate ceasefire in gaza. but mr blinken wants humanitarian pauses . israel, though, insists there will be no temporary truce until all hostages are released. thejordanian foreign minister ayman safadi said the killing of civilians by israel could not be justified by its claim of self defence. he said the entire region was sinking into a sea of hatred that could define generations to come. secretary blinken s visit is exactly four weeks after the hamas attacks on israel in which 1,400 people were killed, and there is no let up in the israeli military response in gaza. its offensive is focused on the north of the territory, where it s thought up to 400,000 people are still living, even though israel has urged civilians there to move south. the hamas run health ministry in gaza says more than 9,400 people have been killed there in the past four weeks. we will have more on the diplomacy shortly, but we start our cover
between its arab allies and israel. at a meeting in amman today, arab foreign ministers told us secretary of state antony blinken that there must be an immediate ceasefire in gaza. but mr blinken wants humanitarian pauses . israel, though, insists there will be no temporary truce until all hostages are released. thejordanian foreign minister ayman safadi said the killing of civilians by israel could not be justified by its claim of self defence. he said the entire region was sinking into a sea of hatred that could define generations to come. secretary blinken s visit is exactly four weeks after the hamas attacks on israel that left 1,400 people dead, and there is no let up in the israeli military response in gaza. its offensive is focused on the north of the territory, where it s thought up to 400,000 people are still living, even though israel has urged civilians there to move south. the hamas run health ministry in gaza says more than 9,400 people have been killed there
hamas says 15 people have been killed in an explosion at a un run school and israel says it is investigating the circumstances. earlier today, the us found itself diplomatically stuck between the between its arab allies and israel. at a meeting in amman today, arab foreign ministers told us secretary of state antony blinken that there must be an immediate ceasefire in gaza. but mr blinken wants humanitarian pauses . israel, though, has said there will be no temporary truce until all hostages are released. thejordanian foreign minister ayman safadi said the killing of civilians by israel could not be justified by its claim of self defence. he said the entire region was sinking into a sea of hatred that could define generations to come. translation: the numbers of people who were killed i from civilians in gaza over the last few weeks, including working in relief and journalists cannot be justified any way. and in this regard, we are still asking for an immediate ceasefire a
at least 157 people. houses are destroyed and people are digging through rubble to rescue others. and russell brand faces a fresh allegation of sexual assault. the claim is made in a civil lawsuit filed in new york and dates back to 2010. hello. i am anna foster, this is bbc news, live from jerusalem. israel s military has again urged civilians in gaza s north to leave the area. it reopened one of the strip s main highways. allowing people to drive south. strip s main highways. the road was scheduled to be open for three hours and that window was due to close just moments ago. the rafah crossing to egypt is also closed at least temporarily. no one has used the crossing so far today. we are hearing that gaza border authorities will not permit foreign passport holders to cross into egypt until the injured people in gaza s hospitals are allowed to travel to rafah. hundreds of foreign citizens have escaped gaza through the crossing in the past few days. our bbc arabic corresp