it s singapore, this is bbc news. it s news. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. we start with the us secretary of state antony blinken, who is headed to the middle east to visit israel, the west bank and seven countries over the next week. the us state department says during mr blinken s trip he will seek immediate increase in aid to gaza as the strip continues to deal with a humaniatarian crisis. the trip comes as the uk foreign secretary, david cameron, warns israel must allow more aid into gaza in order to avoid starvation and large outbreaks of disease. and there are reports of dozens more deaths from air strikes in southern gaza as israel continues its military operation there. and in lebanon, people gathered for the funeral of deputy hamas leader saleh al arouri. he was killed earlier this week in an explosion. hezbollah a powerful iranian backed group in lebanon has blamed that attack on what it says was flagrant israeli ag
welcome to the programme. plenty of elections around the world this year. now know a bit more about what could be happening here in the uk. rishi sunak says the general election is likely to happen in the second half of this year . he didn t rule out it happening earlier but says his working assumption is later this year. take a listen. so, look, my working assumption is we ll have a general election in the second half of this year, and in the meantime, i ve got lots that i want to get on with. that means cutting people s taxes this saturday. that s a tax cut worth £450 for the average person in work. we can do that because we d halved inflation. i want to keep going, managing the economy well and cutting people s taxes, but i also want to keep attacking illegal migration. last year, we got the numbers down by a third, and now we need to get our rwanda schema through parliament, up and running, so we have a full deterrent. and that s how we are really going to solve this
welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. we start with the us secretary of state, antony blinken, who is headed to the middle east to visit israel, the west bank, and seven countries over the next week. the us state department says during mr blinken s trip, he will seek immediate increase in aid to gaza as the strip continues to deal with a humaniatarian crisis. the trip comes as the uk foreign secretary, david cameron, warns israel must allow more aid into gaza in order to avoid starvation and large outbreaks of disease. and there are reports of dozens more deaths from air strikes in southern gaza, as israel continues its military operation there. and in lebanon, people gathered for the funeral of deputy hamas leader saleh al arouri. he was killed earlier this week in an explosion. hezbollah a powerful iranian backed group in lebanon has blamed that attack on what it says was flagrant israeli aggression . israel has not commented, but
also on the programme. the latest developments in the middle east. including the funeral of a hamas deputy leader in lebanon. thousands of people were there. prince andrew and bill clinton are named in files relating to sex offenderjeffrey epstein. we ll look at what we ve learnt. and ai terrorism, stethescopes and keyboard keys. all in our weekly look at artificial intelligence ai. decoded is coming up. plenty of elections around the world this year. now know a bit more about what could be happening here in the uk. rishi sunak says the general election is likely to happen in the second half of this year . he didn t rule out it happening earlier but says his working assumption is later this year. opposition labour party leader keir starmer says sunak is squatting in downing street for months on end . here s our political editor chris mason reports. can i welcome to you this morning, rishi sunak, the prime minister? mansfield in nottinghamshire a town the conservatives
through the streets. hezbollah a powerful paramilitary and political group in lebanon blamed that attack on what it has called flagrant israeli aggression. israel has not claimed responsibility. our middle east correspondent, hugo bachega, is in beriut with the latest. crowds gathered in beirut for the funeral of saleh al arouri, the deputy hamas leader who was assassinated in an attack here in beirut, on tuesday. some people were carrying placards with his face, some were waving hamas and palestinian flags. and this assassination was a blow for hamas, but it also hit its lebanese allies, hezbollah, because it happened in an area of beirut that is a stronghold of hezbollah. so this has raised fears of a wider regional conflict, but there have been some indications that both hezbollah and israel are willing to take steps to avoid an escalation