my first conversation with would be a part of my banned book club, and when i should talk about literature and writing and the pressures that it is under in america. let s do that another time, but thank you for being with us this morning. i appreciate it. tony kushner is a tony award winner in a pulitzer prize-winning activist. thank you so much for watching, alex witt reports begins right now. a very good day of all to you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york. welcome everyone to alex witt reports. it is noon here on the east coast. six pm in gaza, and we begin with breaking news on the israel hamas war. here s what is new at this hour. there you hear it. israel s grinding retaliation in gaza bringing new claims of attacks on schools, refugee camps, and ambulances. and new calls for humanitarian pauses. israel s military temporarily shut down a main highway to allow evacuations in gaza, but israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says a big no to secretary o
now, they re also out. england s cricket world cup hopes ended by who else but australia. i feel like we ve let ourselves down, we ve let people down at home, the people who support us through thick and thin. fighting like dogs manchester united end their troubled week with a response their manager promised and a win their fans craved. from the eighth tier and the corner of the country, ramsgate are the day s big fa cup first round winners. also coming up on sportsday: emma hayes record breaking career as chelsea manager will end next summer the club announces she s leaving. and world number ones, now with the world s best player england win the wxv title and a bit of world cup revenge with it. hello again. welcome along to the programme. it s not been in very much doubt for a while now, but england have been knocked out of the cricket world cup the final blow of a disastrous tournament dealt, perhaps fittingly, by rivals australia. the defending champions lost a s
we ll get to you in a moment, wolf. we re watching several new developments across the middle east as israel pushes through hamas. secretary of state antony blinken met with arab foreign ministers in georgia for a summit. blinken made it clear that now is not the right time for israel to enter a ceasefire. it s our view that a ceasefire now simply would leave hamas in place, able to regroup and repeat what it did on october 7th. you don t have to take my word for it. just a few days ago a senior hamas official said it was their intent to do october 7th again and again and again. we re seeing more air strikes across gaza today as israeli forces close in on gaza city. and significant developments at the rafah border crossing between scriegypt and gaza. the u.s. official says israel is blocking until it guarantees ambulances can make the crossing. we re continuing to watch major developments on the ground here in the region. cnn international diplomatic editor nic robertso
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 coverage with a report from our cor