In gaza, after hamas gave what it called a Comprehensive Vision to mediators. Mr netanyahu . Office said he also planned an assault on rafah, the city in the southern edge of the gaza strip where more than half of the territorys two and half Million People at residing. Meanwhile, a ship carrying Food Supplies for gaza has arrived, and is now waiting off the coast in a test run of what is hoped will become a new route for aid into the territory. The us secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has been speaking about the negotiations. Answering questions from the press in austria, mr blinken said both sides were working to bridge the remaining gaps. He said he was yet to see a plan for the Israel Military in rafah. You asked specifically the Israel Military in rafah. 7m. Asked specifically whether weve seen the plan, and now we have not seen the plan, and now we have not seen it. Regarding the hostages. Yes, there has been a Counter Proposal put forward by hamas, i cant get into the details of what that involves. But what i can tell you is that we are working intensively with israel, with qatar, with egypt to bridge the remaining gaps and to try and reach an agreement. We have conversations that are happening now as we speak here, and i am convinced that they will go on into the coming days. Israel has sent back a Negotiating Team to pursue this and i think it reflects the sense both of possibility and emergency. To getan to get an agreement, to get a ceasefire, to get the passengers back, and more humanitarian assistance in. This is something we are committed to, and we will work as long and as hard as it takes to get it done. As long and as hard as it takes to get it done as long and as hard as it takes to et it done. , �. , � ~ get it done. That is Antony Blinken over the last get it done. That is Antony Blinken over the last 24 get it done. That is Antony Blinken over the last 24 hours, get it done. That is Antony Blinken over the last 24 hours, more over the last 24 hours, more pressure on israel out of washington. Today, President Biden has praised the speech made by the Us Senate Leader chuck schumer, where he called for elections to be held in israel. Yesterday, schumer, the highest ranking jewish partition in the us described Benjamin Netanyahu as a threat to peace. The president said he thought that mr schumer had expressed concerns shared by many americans. Do you have any comments around senator schumers Speech On Israel yesterday . Senator schumer contacted my staff, my senior staff, he was going to make that speech. And he. Im not going to elaborate on the speech, he made a good speech and i think he expressed a serious concern shared notjust by him but by many americans. Lets turn to what is happening in gaza. That aid ship who spent two days arriving to gaza has got there. I spoke to one of the groups responsible for the relief, where i was told more about the progress of this mission. They distributed in the moment. Logistically, how can because it has this mission been . Of course, getting together a bus load of aid is one part of the mission but being able to land it anyway, was first of the many challenges, wasnt it . Yes, actually, this is the tricky part. And i think that is why this corridor wasnt open so far. I mean, it was open since november, if im not mistaken. But this is the first ship arriving there. And it is because the waters are very shallow in this last mile and the big ships cant go close. I mean, even ourship cant get close enough. So thats why we decided to charter a barge, 200 square meter barge, and then we load it with this 110 pallets all together, more or less 200 tonnes. And we just push this barge by using our ships, our rescue ships, crafts, our Rescue Crafts to get it close enough to the jetty. And then theyjust take the lines and fix it to the ground. Give me an idea of what is probably happening as were speaking now. Does the aid have to be inspected again by the israelis or has it been inspected already before the start of this journey . It was inspected before we start from cyprus. So im from cyprus. I dont know if it will happen again. I dont think so, because it was once it was inspected, we couldnt get any more load or we couldnt even get inside or outside of the ship or step on the barge. So its since that moment, its completely secured. Do you have any idea because this, of course, in operation together with world kitchen, in terms of the distribution, where are you hoping this aid actually ends up in gaza . Whereabouts and how is it actually going to be distributed, do you know . No, im afraid i cant answer those questions. I mean, we are this is a joint operation between open arms and world central kitchen. But i think we only fill this gap at sea from the moment that we link this barge to the ground. They are the ones taking all the food and taking the responsibility on how to distribute this food. A final quick thought, because i know a second operation is being planned. Do you have any idea of how frequent shiploads could actually use a route like this potentially . I mean, this is the first operation. And obviously, the amount of food that we brought here isnt enough. Its just a tiny part of the daily needs. But we have to thinking it on as a test and we are doing it. So open hours obviously is a small ship, but bigger ships can come closer and then we can just transfer the goods to open arms to this barge and then we can repeat this last part of the operation. So i think we can bring a lot of food if this operation ends well. And again, this Isjust A Test and probably we can continue and scale it up. So as a test, its worked so far. Yes. It is working so far. I mean, its still ongoing. But i mean, we did the most difficult and now we are just waiting to and disembarking on the food. Lets start with what russia is calling a � democratic election� but which is not. Russians are heading to the polls with Vladimir Putin the only serious candidate in the president ial elections and certain to win. The three day voting exercise, comes a month after the death of the main russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, in an arctic prison colony, with the kremlin widely seen as responsible. Russias only independent Election Monitoring Organisation has been deemed a � foreign agent� and banned. Let me show the live pictures from moscow, just one of the Polling Stations, because a steady stream throughout the course of the day, we saw the Pictures IliaVladimir Putin. He was voting online, so not at a polling station, but three days of voting ahead. I have been speaking, as we watch these pictures, to an actor and playwright, asking people to come out at noon to the Polling Stations inside russia. The russian authorities have already said that to be seen as an illegal gathering. I asked her whether she is putting people in harm� s way, given that russian authorities have banned such gatherings. We� re hoping to see a turnout of people who are against current regime, who are against those fraudulen, we know forfact, elections and so called re election or reinstatement of Vladimir Putin and obviously against the war. And we saw the we saw that kind of a something we took out from the funeral of Alexei Navalny. But what Alexei Navalny funeral showed is that even though there were a lot of same kind of sort of threats, really, there� s no better word for that from the authorities before the funeral. A lot of people, maybe not hundreds, but definitely Tens Of Thousands of people showed up. Many young people showed up, even though a lot of them are students. And they were warned by other universities that there will be consequences. They went to the funeral nevertheless. So and of course, people make their own mind up. We can� t really, and will never will force anyone to do anything of this nature. Vladimir putin was a service, he� s got a mandate to be in power. Just to train final thoughts, because you have been labelled as i think i� m right in saying, for an agent. You did go back to russia to protest a few years ago. Give me an idea of the difference between russia then and the russian now. The difference between russia then and the russian now. There was hope, and the russian now. There was hope, and there really and the russian now. There was hope, and there really was and the russian now. There was hope, and there really was a and the russian now. There was hope, and there really was a chance and the russian now. There was hope, and there really was a chance that and there really was a chance that unfortunately we might have wasted. We overestimated ourselves, and an estimated dictatorship that was already there in place, and only becoming stronger. So, yes, we wasted that chance back ten years ago when we should have rallied People Better around us. The Repressive Machine was ahead of us, and we wasted a chance, they put everything in place to make sure people are scared of us. We no longer have that momentum, really. Not ever since then, we� ve not had it once. Today, as you mentioned, there are so many people here in the country that are afraid to speak, or just attend events. I hearfrom friends of mine, acquaintances, they tend some sort of social gathering and people look into their plight, afraid to speak. That is where we are at today, and that a site. Having said that, there are a lot of great people, we are talking about huge countries. We might be dropping the brackets. We hope there is still something in the future to turn things around. Something in the future to turn thins around. � ,. ,. , things around. Thats in organising the protest things around. Thats in organising the protest on things around. Thats in organising the protest on sunday. Things around. Thats in organising the protest on sunday. Anthony i the protest on sunday. Anthony gutierrez condemns the effects of the russian federation. Those commentsjust the russian federation. Those comments just coming the russian federation. Those commentsjust coming in the russian federation. Those comments just coming in from the russian federation. Those commentsjust coming in from un Secretary General in the last few moments. Let� s get some of the day� s other news now. Labour have accused rishi sunak of chickening out of the next General Election. The Prime Minister rose as having a General Election on the 2nd of may, ruling that out yesterday. That to be the same day as the local elections in england. He said previously as assumption is in the second half of the year. Mps will get a 5. 5 pay rise from april , meaning their annual salary will increase to over 91,000 pounds. The independent Parliamentary Standards Authority says the decision was in line with the award recently agreed for senior civil servants, adding that it aims to be fair. Both for mps and the public. Food Delivery Firm hellofresh denies taking subscriptions from customers who say they had cancelled their accounts. Some customers say their accounts reactivated with money taken for orders they had not made. They believe thatjust logging on to the app reactivated their accounts. You� re live with bbc news. How can we stop the arctic� s sea ice from melting away in a warming world . An International Team of researchers are carrying out a Remarkable Experimentjust North of mainland canada in the arctic circle, to see if they can do just that. They� ve been testing a technology to try to thicken the arctic� s sea ice. If it proves successful, the researchers believe it could help to slow or even reverse the sharp decline in the sea ice, providing welcome relief to locals, wildlife, and the global climate. Here� s our science correspondent pallab ghosh. Its it� s such a simple idea, but it� s surprising that no one has tried it before. The team here are Pumping Sea Water on top of the ice so that it freezes and thickens. The aim is to stop, maybe even reverse the loss of Arctic Sea Ice caused by climate change. We of Arctic Sea Ice caused by climate chance. ~. , of Arctic Sea Ice caused by climate chance. ~. , , of Arctic Sea Ice caused by climate chance. ~. ,. ,. , change. We are pumping around 1000 litres er change. We are pumping around 1000 litres per minute change. We are pumping around 1000 litres per minute of change. We are pumping around 1000 litres per minute of sea change. We are pumping around 1000 litres per minute of sea water. Litres per minute of sea water. Today we will add an extra layer, so we will add quite a bit of Ice Thickness in the area. This is the extent of arctic thickness in the area. This is the extent of arctic sea thickness in the area. This is the extent of Arctic Sea Ice thickness in the area. This is the extent of Arctic Sea Ice in thickness in the area. This is the extent of Arctic Sea Ice in 1979. L extent of Arctic Sea Ice in 1979. Its extent of Arctic Sea Ice in 1979. It� s a sharp decline since then is alarming. So could thickening the ice. This trend . If not, polar bears and other arctic Sea Creatures will be worse off, because the sea ice is the Air Conditioning System for the entire planet. This is the centre for Climate Repair. Researchers are assessing whether the Ice Thickening will work, and be implemented across the attic which is affordable and practical. If the attic which is affordable and ractical. ,. ,. ,. , practical. If we ust allow the sea ice to go. Practical. If we ust allow the sea ice to go. The practical. If we just allow the sea ice to go, the artic practical. If we just allow the sea ice to go, the artic ocean practical. If we just allow the sea l ice to go, the artic ocean becomes one of our greatest heat absorbers, rather than one of our heat reflectors. If we let it go, things will get worse. We have to try and fix that. ,. , will get worse. We have to try and fix that. ,. ,. ,. , ~ fix that. His team is also working with australian fix that. His team is also working with australian researchers fix that. His team is also working with australian researchers who l fix that. His team is also working i with australian researchers who are trying to reduce temperatures by Spring Salt Particles into the clouds to make them brighter, sir offending the sun cut heat into space. The idea of repairing the climate is a controversial one. If you can fix the damage, so the argument goes, then it� s a green light for countries, not reducing their emissions quickly enough. Researchers here believe the situation is so dire that there is no alternative but to do both. If gee no alternative but to do both. If we sto doinu no alternative but to do both. If we step doing effort no alternative but to do both. If we stop doing effort and no alternative but to do both. If we stop doing effort and leave it as it is, Then Stop Doing Effort and leave it as it is, then we stop doing effort and leave it as it is, then we will for sure results in a really is, then we will for sure results in a really had is, then we will for sure results in a really bad scenario. Are is, then we will for sure results in a really bad scenario. A really bad scenario. Are you personally a really bad scenario. Are you personally optimistic . A really bad scenario. Are you personally optimistic . Yes. A really bad scenario. Are you personally optimistic . Yes. Thats wh im personally optimistic . Yes. Thats why im working personally optimistic . Yes. Thats why im working here, personally optimistic . Yes. Thats why im working here, thats personally optimistic . Yes. Thats why im working here, thats why | personally optimistic . Yes. Thats i why im working here, thats why im doing why im working here, thats why im doing this why im working here, thats why im doing this research. Of course, and i want doing this research. Of course, and i want to doing this research. Of course, and i want to he doing this research. Of course, and i want to be optimistic. The researchers i want to be optimistic. Tie researchers expected i want to be optimistic. Tt;e researchers expected no i want to be optimistic. Tt;e researchers expected no by i want to be optimistic. Tte researchers expected no by next i want to be optimistic. Tt;e researchers expected no by next year whether there Ice Thickening has the potential to fix the attic. It could buy a bit more time to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions. Let� s speak to dr shaun fitzgerald, director at the centre for Climate Repair in cambridge. Welcome hits of the programme. A really fascinating idea