Is provided by. Woman a law partner rediscovers her grandmothers artistry and creates a trust to keep the craft alive. A Raymond JamesFinancial Advisor gets to know you, your passions and the way you enrich your community. Life well planned. Brook these are people who are trying to change the world. Startups have this energy that energizes me. Im thriving by helping others every day. People who know, know bdo. Man cunard is a proud supporter of public television. On a voyage with cunard, the world awaits. A world of flavor. Diverse destinations. And immersive experiences. A world of leisure. And british style. All with cunards whitestar service. Announcer funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. And by judy and Peter Blum Kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. Announcer and now, bbc news in washington this is bbc world news america. A bill that could ban tiktok in the u. S. Passes alvin l heads to the senate as its users protest. Five people are killed in an explosion at a United Nations warehouse in Southern Gaza with more aid heading to the north of the strip and the bbc talks to a former spice girl mel b about writing about her experience with domestic abuse. Welcome to world news america. U. S. President joe biden want the senate to take swift action to pass a bill that could force tiktoks chinese owners to sell their stake in the social network or face a national band. The house of representatives passed the legislation with a large majority wednesday. Lawmakers backing the proposed laws say it is meant to protect american data from the chinese government. Tiktok is a subsidiary of a chinese internet giant, bytedance. Like most Large Companies in China Bytedance has links to the Chinese Communist party but the social platform says it is mostly owned by nonchinese investors including large u. S. Based funds and none of its Board Members are communist party officials. Tiktok collects large amounts of information on users including location and personal contacts. The company says that data is rarely shared with theres owners in china and its working on a project to keep american data even more protected. In a statement tiktok warned the bill is an outright ban of tiktok no match no matter how much the authors want to disguise it. The legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million americans and deprive Small Businesses of a platform they were land to grow and create jobs. Tiktok is mobilizing its users to lobby against the bill, using the app to push them to lobby members of congress. We spoke to tiktok us. I am aware i am giving away my data. Let me make that decision. Everything on the internet is a Security Risk to be honest. This might have a Parent Company that is foreign, but we have just as many Security Risks with domestic companies. I would love to see lawmakers spend this much time and energy to pass more Data Protection overall, for all americans on all platforms on everything. Representative seth moulton a democrat from massachusetts voted in favor of the bill today and i spoke with him elier. Congressman you are a big supporter of the bill in the name of protecting National Security. I want to ask you what we have heard from tiktok and china. Tiktok has said it has worked very hard to protect u. S. User data and also there is no actual proof user data is being accessed or tiktok is being used to spread propaganda. What does the evidence show . Clearly there is a 2017 National Securit law in china that requires tiktok to be willing to hand over the private data of its users. Tiktok might be trying. I will give them that. But they arent succeeding in there have been numerous reports out of the socalled texas project where they have tried to localize u. S. Data in texas. Its not working. They still have to abide by their masters in beijing and beijing effectively has access to the data. I want to ask you about response in the u. S. Tiktok has 100 separate very vocal. Some of the Small Business people, the young people we spoke with says that this will affect the way they vote. Are you concerned about that sentiment . I understand that people have concerns. We should put our Country First over politics. That is the first principle i operate by. Second i think users will see tiktok improve aually. Tiktok is trying to say we are banding tiktok. Thats not true. We are just trying to say that the Chinese Communist party cannot own tiktok. If the Chinese Communist party is not dictating what peoples social media feeds are, i think tiktok will be more representative of its users, more representative of the american people, and live up to our value to the values of the Chinese Communist party. Works china says it doesnt want bytedance to divest from tiktok. That essentially would mean a band, wouldnt it. Thats what they are saying now. We will see what happens after this is actually passed into law. Right now china is desperate for International Money because their economy is in freefall. I find it hard to believe they would not want to earn several billion dollars, most likely, by selling just one of. I want to go through arguments we have seen through callings in congress that did not agree with you on the bill. A florida democrat representative, maxwell frost of the younge member of Congress Said it would be a violation of freedom. We saw a democratic congresswoman say it would be unconstitutional and face a challenge inourt. You see that happening . Whats not at all. What is a violation of freedom is having the Chinese Communist party tell you what you can put online. We have already heard of instances of people being banned from tiktok just because they talk about the genocide going on with the leaders in uighurs in china. That is one example of how china cant control what americans see. There are 170 million americans who use tiktok. About 45 of the country gets news on tiktok. I do nothing during the height of the cold war, that britain would have agreed to sell the bbc to the soviet union, or cnn to the soviet union. We would not allow that and it is the same here. I want to ask about one of the criticisms from the other side of the aisle. Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene said the following quote. If we cared about american data we would stop the sale of american data universally, not just with china she added what is to stop china or the u. S. Government in the future from forcing the sale of another social Media Company claiming it is protecting american data from foreign adversaries . My response is the bill is very clear and sets out clear guidelines. It is not just go after tiktok. It says what qualifies for having Foreign Ownership and where that is dangerous. I agree we should have better data privacy protections in america writ large. We are behind europe in this regard. I have been an advocate for this for a long time. I suspect a large part of Marjorie Taylor greenes concerns its the fact that donald trump changed his mind and all of a sudden decided because he talked to a wealthy donor he is opposed to selling tiktok. He wrote an executive order and assign it under his presidency to basically do the exact same thing this bill does, but he talked to one wealthy donor that said he would lose money if that happens so all of a sudden donald as opposed to the legislation. That shows how easily donald trump can be bought and sold. Do you expect to the senate as well . The Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer has not committed to actually taking it up. E has not committed, but there is tremendous momentum out of the house. It was an extraordinarily bipartisan vote at a very politically divisive time in america. Overwhelmingly, democrats and republicans voted to pass this in the house today great i think the senate will do its job for once and actually get this done. Great to talk to you, congressman. Thank you so much. Good to talk to you too. Take care. President Vladimir Putin says russia will deploy troops to finlands border following finland and sweden joining nato after russias invasion of ukraine in 2022. Mr. Putin thinks finland joined the alliance to become a member of an western club. Why they needed this i frankly do not understand. It is an absolutely meaningless stepped from the point of view of insuring your own national interests. Nevertheless, it is up to them to decide. That is what they decided. We did not have troops there. Now they will be there. There were no systems of destruction there. Now they will appear. Why . The finnish Prime Minister denied Prime Minister blue president putins claims same brush under its leadership poses an existential threat to western countries. Finlands nato membership means the alliances border with russia has more than doubled, and unsettling developing for president putin. Russia is evidently repairing for a long conflict with the west. This represents a permit and essential military threat to europe. If we come as a united europe, failed to respond sufficiently to this challenge, we will be throughout filled with danger and the looming threat of attack. Russian president ial elections are set to kick off this friday and throughout the weekend. Vladimir putin is one of four candidates on the ballot but none of the others pose a realistic challenge. A high turnout would help the kremlins efforts to legitimize president putins continued command. Global pressure is increasing on israel to low palestinians more access to northern gaza where the United Nations is delivering food for the first time in three week. In Southern Gaza at least five people were killed including one unwra staff member. Israel has not commented so far on the incident as the u. S. And other urge israel not to launch a fullscale assault on rafah for over a million palestinians have taken children in recent weeks. Here are images of the warehouse taken in the muted immediate aftermath. Some of the images are too graphic to broadcast. Tensions remain in the west bank and East Jerusalem were five palestinians were reportedly killed tuesday night by Israeli Security forces including a 12yearold boy holding a firework. Our jerusalem correspondent reports. Shaky video shows a palestinian boy with a lit fireworks. He was fatally shot. He was just 12. With tensions running high for ramadan in East Jerusalem he was killed by an Israeli Border policeman and today a five far right minister praised his action saying it was a disgrace military police were investigating the officer. A combatant comes and does exactly what we expect from him. It is simply the biggest scandal that they brought him here for questioning. Overnight there were other palestinians killed. Two here, one aged 16 in a village near jerusalem. This morning there was a stabbing at this Israeli Military checkpoint. Israeli police say they shot and killed the attacker, a 15yearold palestinian boy. Ramadan is always a sensitive time in the israel palestine conflict. This year with no truce in gaza there is worry trouble could spread. A lot depends now on what happens on the ground. In the shadow of famine, the United Nations assess israels military opened a new route to allow this aid convoy to reach and gaza. There have been a new airlift to try to alleviate the deep humanitarian crisis. A charity ship carrying 200 tons of food is making its way across the mediterranean from cyprus. A new jetty is being set up so aid can start to come in by c. The United Nations says lorries are the fastest way to get aid to those that need it. Israel is continuing to strike in gaza. After more than five months, this war rages on with devastating effects. Bbc news, jerusalem. I the latest developments with former israeli ambassador to the u. S. Good to have you back on bbc news. We heard the United Nations saying trucks are the fastest path to get direly needed supplies to gaza and the secretary of state Antony Blinken today said e Israeli Government has a responsibility to do Everything Possible to ensure humanitarians can do their job. You think israel will open more land crossings to bring in the eight that is needed . In order to eliminated other contention in our relationship with the biden administration, yes, i do. What do you mean by that . Well, it is a war. It began with a terrible massacre. But, there is a humanitarian crisis. People are suffering and we should try to bring that to an end. Or justo minimize it. That is what i mean, for its own sake. It has certainly led to strife with the u. S. Over its policy. I want to ask you about what we saw from u. S. President biden. He called a Ground Invasion of rafah a redline and axios said today that u. S. Officials believe if there is a Ground Invasion it would put the u. S. And israel on a collision course. You agree with that assessment . Thats not an assessment. Its the u. S. Policy. To oppose extension of the war into rafah. I myself think it is not very realistic. I think that in terms of fighting, there is now much less fighting than before. I think the war is ebbing. I doubt it will continue with an attack on rafah. I think for the perspective of israels own interests, it is the objective to bring the war to an indent work seriously on preparations for the day after, to look at the Biden Program for the middle east as the best way out of the war. We spoke to another former ambassador that said he thinks that a Ground Invasion of rafah is inevitable and must be done to defeat moss pop. To defeat hamas. What makes you think we are seeing the war wind down . First, the scale. What you have now, most israeli reservists have been released. There are very few troops in a very limited path. What you see now is very different, a fraction of what the war was when it was fullscale. Now, there is a debate inside Israeli Government. And in the public on the question of whether there should be an attack on rafa. Personally i think it is more important for israel to start dealing with the day after. If we just defeat hamas on the ground but we dont prepare for the day after, for somebody to govern gaza, the military victory will be. You think israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu is ready and willing to talk about the day after . Know he is not. Unfortunately, that is the case. That is one of the points of friction between him and the biden administration. But, a Prime Minister is the Prime Minister. He is conducting the war. But he does not have a majority in Public Opinion in the country. Ambassador, it good to get your perspective on bbc news today. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me u. S. State department expects a Transitional Council in haiti to be appointed within two days. The body is meant to nominate a new Prime Minister to succeed ariel henry who announced plans to resign monday. Violence and unrest continues in haiti despite mr. Henrys resignation, which gangs demanded pay the u. S. Deployed a team of elite u. S. Marines to beef up security at its embassy in the capital portauprince. It remains impossible to deliver essential goods toesidents there. Hospitals and schools are closed and shops are running out of food. Lets go to our central and caribbean correspondent will grant standing by for us at the border. Good to see you again. Tell us more about what you have been seeing and hearing today. It feels like there is a steady stream of migration tracks coming into this border area. Basically, deporting undocumented haitians back to haiti. There are 6080 on each truck. It is a constant flow of trucks coming in from all over the Dominican Republic during the day. I see that as a message from the dominican authorities to say, no matter how bad things get in haiti, dont expect refuge here. They cant get much worse in haiti. Danes are at a critical level. It is facing an acute humanitarian crisis. You mentioned some things already. Food security, violence, gang violence. Other thin. Hospitals, schools being closed. Simply, the political vacuum, the power vacuum at the heart of government following the resignation of Prime Minister ariel henry. We have seen the Transitional Council is expected to take place in the coming days. To name a new Prime Minister. That help quell some of the violence that is continuing . It could on some level. Because, it would provide some form of, at least, interim stability. But of course, the main factor in terms of the city portauprince, in terms of the capital, is that so much of it is dominated by gangs free the gangs control upwards of 80 of the capital. If they arent happy with the members on this to rim counsel interim council and it looks like some of the traditional political elites of haiti, a representative of the church, people from that traditional political groupings, and they may well continue their fight against the state. If they might continue to attack government buildings, contact no attack in burn police stations and essentially make it impossible to govern. Their take on all this, whether or not there would be amnesty for them from whoever is on that interim counsel, that you administration is a key factor in all this. You mentioned the humanitarian crisis. What is needed most direly now . The truth of the matter is, there is very little getting in and out on these land crossings. The airport is still closed. So the very short answer is at the airport needs to reopen. Aid agencies need to start getting aid into the country. There e so Many Political hurdles before that can happen. That is something a lot of haiti watchers are watching now. When can people, personnel, materials, and aid get in . Will grant reporting from the border of haiti, thank you so much for you she rose to International Fame as one of the spice girls. Despite selling millions of records and aching millions the singer mel b found herself struggling financially and living with her mother in a bungalow in leads. She says now she is out of an abusive relationship and hoping to use her experience to help others. Her former partner has repeatedly denied claims of abusive behavior made by the singer. Charlotte gallagher went to meet her. Mel b made millions from the spice girls. A few years ago, after leaving an abusive marriage she was left with almost nothing and have to move in with her mother in leeds. Her ex denies the allegations. It is shameful. I am all about girl power, yet, what am i living . A completely powerless situation. I was doing spice girls 2019 and i lived with my mom because of all of the emotional and Financial Abuse too. I did not realize i did not actually have as much money as i thought i had. Obviously any situation is better than being with your abuser. But when you have left that abusive situation, its like starting all over again. Has it helped to moving back . Definitely. My mum is one of seven so i am surrounded by friends and families, aunties, uncles, nieces,he whole nine yards for yet i put my head down and worked and lived frugally and i have been able to buy my own house. This is 5, 6, 7 ars on. I did not really have much. You said you are shopping at aldi. I still love shopping at aldi. I dont think i will ever stop doing that. I am still a leeds girl at the end of the day. A big part of her life now is campaigning on behalf ofb other Domestic Violence survivors. Cyber in awareness i bring awareness and i talk about abuse and im the voice of other survivors out there that cannot be heard or get their point across especially when it comes to things like trying to change the Justice System and trying to enforce more laws that are more supportive towards people that are coming out of an abusive situation. It is now 30 years since the spice girls first auditioned. If you sat with one of them, you have to ask this. Do you think there is will in the group to get back together as a five . There always has been. Its just a case of logistically getting it going. And used to have a Whatsapp Group . Yes. I might have a few wedding dresses, i have not decided yet. But she said yes. Lets look at quick headlines. Lithuanias president is braving blaming russia for attacking and aid of alexei navalny. He was assaulted while in his car in the less whiny and capital tuesday night. He released a video message blaming mr. Putin and urging people to carry on fighting for him. The European Parliament passed new rules on artificial intelligence, the ai act regulates the technology according to risk. Life facial recognition cameras can only tackle the most serious aie motion detection systems will be banned in schools and workplaces. The Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support forces vowed to continue their battle for support control of sudan ignoring calls for a ramadan ceasefire. Rss is in control of most of kha rtoum and dark for. The situation and darfur. New Research Shows playing sounds at sites where coral is degraded could encourage regrowth. They were more than seven times to settle on a damaged reef with sounds of a healthy reef. So the clicking and scratching that makes up its soundscape was playing. Thank you for watching world news america. Stay with bbc news. Somaskanda in washington. Stay with bbc news. Announcer funding for presentation of this program is provided by. Financial services firm, Raymond James. Bdo. Accountants and advisors. Cunard is a proud supporter of public television. Announcer funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. And by judy and Peter Blum Kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for americas neglected needs. Good evening. Tonight, a bipartisan majority in the house passes legislation that could result in a tiktok ban if the chinese owners do not sell. The race for the white house