it could come as soon as may as the war continues. the un is warning that 1 million people, that's half of the territory's population, are now facing starvation. the european union's foreign policy chief, josep borrell, accused israel of using starvation as a weapon of war, a claim israel rejects. here's what us secretary of state antony blinken said a short time ago. according to the most respected measure of these things, 100% of the population in gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity. that's the first time an entire population has been so classified. we also see again, according to, in this case, the united nations, 100% — the totality of the population — is in need of humanitarian assistance. blinken�*s comments follow us presidentjoe biden�*s first call with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu in over a month on monday. mr biden told mr netanyahu that a major ground operation in the city of rafah would be a mistake. mr netanyahu defended the possibility saying opposing the operation was akin to opposing total defeat of hamas. us national security adviser jake sullivan called that �*nonsense�* and a �*straw man�* argument. some 1.5 million palestinians from other parts of gaza are seeking refuge in rafah. that's almost half the population. the big issue is where you move these people to to make sure they are safe in the face of new israeli ground offensive. i spoke a little bit earlier to a representative of unrwa and he described the situation there. we have been saying for several weeks now, the situation is extremely catastrophic. it is beyond grim in rafah, i look out of my window and there are literally people everywhere, the place is teeming with people who have nothing. many have been displaced several times, multiple times, this includes unrwa staff as well. but the place is full of people who have nothing. they are waiting, they are fearing, they wake up every morning with dread that this promised incursion into rafah will happen. they spend their nights listening to bombardments in khan younis, they also wait for news of relatives, friends, family who remain in the north where situation is difficult. here in the south it is beyond catastrophic in gaza city and northern gaza. where you are, the closest point to the rafah crossing where aid comes in. we have heard about the dire situation in the north, and you were reflecting on it, but even where you are, even at that point closest to entry there still isn't anywhere near enough aid arriving. no, there isn't enough aid arriving, there hasn't been now for several months since the borders was closed in early october. we struggled to get shipments in. obviously, the situation is complicated, the with volume of aid in egypt, but it goes far beyond that. it is the procedures that are in place, the time it takes to bring aid in, the fact that if a truck has one item in it that doesn't meet the restrictions of the israeli authorities, the entire truck is turned back. we have functioning crossing points or crossing points that could function in the north of gaza that aren't being used either. the un community and international ngos have trucks of aid backed up on the border. i think it is important to say, i think one of the reasons why the situation is so catastrophic, you can't feed a population on aid alone. people need fresh food, they need proteins, ingredients that it is simply very difficult to bring in on a large—scale basis through humanitarian aid shipments. this is why we are calling repeatedly for the commercial sector to begin functioning and to be allowed to resume functioning. just describing the conditions where he is in rafah. at the same time as we are talking about this new planned israeli ground offensive in rafah with no timescale attached to it yet, at the same time in qatar there is a israeli and hamas negotiating team in ceasefire talks. a real contrast between those two things. those talks started yesterday and they will be looking at a new hamas plan foot forward last week and putting forward the israeli position. there are still sticking points when it comes towards things like palestinians being able to move back to the north, the number of hostages, who would be released and how many palestinian prisoners would be freed from israeli jails. that ratio is also being discussed. we know that those talks are ongoing, there are times when the two sides haven't been engaging at all so there is cautious optimism. in terms of timescale, everything we talk about takes a matter of weeks and it may be nothing concrete comes from those talks for at least a fortnight. there is potentially an update today, we are keeping across all threads of the story and bring them here on bbc news. there will be more from eastjerusalem but for now back to the studio. now lets bring these live pictures from germany. this is the ramstein us air base, where secretary of defense lloyd austin makes opening remarks ahead of hosting a meeting of the ukraine defense contact group. it is the seventh ukraine defense support group meeting. the main issue is weapons and munitions supply to ukraine. this is coming as the president of ukraine has made an urgent appeal in the last few weeks for more ammunition. ukrainian defence minister is also present, that is him there. we will bring you more from that meeting as we have information coming in. a new photograph that appears to show the princess of wales, has been published just over a week after she admitted editing an official portrait of her, and her children. the sun newspaper has printed the picture on its front page, as well as the video it was taken from. catherine is seen smiling and walking alongside prince william. the paper says the video was taken at a farmer's market in windsor. the princess has not been seen in public since attending a christmas day church service and underwent abdominal surgery injanuary. our correspondent simonjones gave us this update from windsor. take a look at this. this is the front page of this morning's sun newspaper, the headline is "royal world exclusive, first picture." and then it says, "great to see you again, kate." this picture the suna says was taken from a video filmed by someone who was visiting the farm shop behind me on saturday. the paper has spoken to the man who took the footage. he says he was doing a bit of shopping, when he looked over towards the bread aisle and then he said he saw a woman who looked rather familiar. he couldn't quite place her. he said when he saw the man, he thought, "is that the royal couple?" after leaving the farm shop he went to this car and decided to film the couple as they left. it is possible that in the past, the sun and other newspapers may not have published an image like this because the couple were on a private trip. it wasn't any sort of official royal engagement, but the newspaper said it decided to publish the image and release the video because it says it wants to end what it calls the madness of recent social media speculation. ever since it was announced that kate had gone into hospital to have abdominal surgery, there has been a huge amount of speculation online about what exactly she was suffering from, how her recovery was going. and that speculation reached fever pitch when on mothering sunday, kensington palace released a picture of catherine surrounded by her three children, but from the word go people thought the picture looked odd, something didn't seem right about it. the following day, catherine apologised saying she had edited the image like many amateur photographers. and she said sorry for any confusion. kensington palace will be hoping that this picture in the newspaper today might help dampen down some of the more fevered speculation, but certainly looking at social media this morning the conspiracy theorists are still very much out in force. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. you are watching bbc news. we've been reporting on the situation in haiti — and as the days go by, it's clear the country is sliding further and further into anarchy. our correspondent will grant was one of the first international journalists to gain access. he's described chaos and violence, and says the caribbean country is succumbing to a spiralling security crisis. gangs control much of the capital, port au prince, and are fighting militias armed with machetes, trying to protect their own neighbourhoods. america is hopeful a transitional council, might be able to restore order, along with the deployment of international troops. but for now, the fighting continues. here's will grant, reporting from cap—haitien. baby crying. just a day old — baby woodley�*s first cries are the same of those of children born anywhere — for food and for comfort. but as they get older, the children born in cap—haitien�*s maternity wing will find such essentials are far from guaranteed in haiti. markinsonjoseph tells me she would take her newborn boy out of the country altogether if she gets the chance. but she doesn't have the money to flee. the first ward for pathology. as he shows us around dark and empty wards, dr clervil says the gangs�* control of the roads is making it impossible to find enough fuel to keep the lights on, let alone to bring in the drugs and equipment they need. translation: as you can see, we have beds and staff, - but often the patients just can't reach us because of their economic situation — or, more often than not, their safety. for some, it has had terrible consequences. louisemanie was eight and a half months pregnant when she came into hospital. by then, she had dangerously high blood pressure, and lost the baby. pre—eclampsia is treatable, had she been properly monitored or the baby been delivered early. louisemanie knows her loss was avoidable. the head of unicef has called the situation in haiti horrific, and likened the lawlessness to the post—apocalyptic film mad max. the security situation aside, the humanitarian need here is critical, and the aid response so far has been painfully slow. the essential things of life are increasingly hard to find. in port—au—prince, farah oxima and her nine children have been forced from their home by the violence, and she's struggling to provide the food and water they need. "only god can change this place," she says, "because from where i'm sitting, i can't see where any other change is coming from." the gangs have such a grip of haiti, they are, in essence, dictating what happens next in this country — who can govern it, who lives in it, and who dies. will grant, bbc news, haiti. earlier i heard from francesco segoni — spokesperson for humanitarian aid organisation medecins sans frontieres. they've been operating in haiti since 1991. hearing that haiti has been literally buried under the violence of the last few days. fighting has spread to every few days, the hospitals face a massive influx of patients with gunshot wounds. the port was pillaged over the weekend, luckily we were able to retrieve our containers just before that happened but we are hearing that the containers of many aid agencies have gone. containers of many aid agencies have one. . , containers of many aid agencies have ione, ., , , containers of many aid agencies have one. . , , ., ., gone. the un has been warning of around 3000 _ gone. the un has been warning of around 3000 pregnant _ gone. the un has been warning of around 3000 pregnant women - gone. the un has been warning of| around 3000 pregnant women who gone. the un has been warning of- around 3000 pregnant women who may give birth amid all of this, could you tell us more about the health risks? , ., ._ you tell us more about the health risks? , ., ., risks? the needs today are everywhere. _ risks? the needs today are everywhere, caring - risks? the needs today are everywhere, caring for- risks? the needs today are everywhere, caring for the | risks? the needs today are - everywhere, caring for the many injured people in the violence, the direct victims. but also the indirect victims, people left without option for health care due to the breakdown of the health care system. the system has basically collapsed. there is still one functioning public hospital but the problem is not only health care facility shutting down, it is increasingly a problem with people not being able to move in the city because there is a fear of being caught in the crossfire.- because there is a fear of being caught in the crossfire. amid all of this, we caught in the crossfire. amid all of this. we are _ caught in the crossfire. amid all of this, we are hearing _ caught in the crossfire. amid all of this, we are hearing some - this, we are hearing some international response from the us, they are talking about a transitional council, potentially sending international troops. what do you believe the international response should be? for do you believe the international response should be?— response should be? for me, i believe is _ response should be? for me, i believe is an _ response should be? for me, i believe is an organisation, - response should be? for me, i believe is an organisation, wel response should be? for me, i i believe is an organisation, we are not really able to have a position, or advise on the political situation, that is not our role. but the international response needs to be massively scaled up from humanitarian point of view. we need a larger humanitarian response. the next preoccupation is the situation in terms of water and sanitation, with many thousands of displaced people living in unsanitary conditions. if a cholera outbreak happened in this situation, the results could be catastrophic. that was a spokesperson _ results could be catastrophic. that was a spokesperson from medecins sans frontieres. returning to our top story. the us has warned israel against a planned offensive in rafah. let's speak to tom bateman who is travelling with us secretary of state antony blinken. thank you forjoining us. you spoke to antony blinken about the situation in gaza, how did he respond? i situation in gaza, how did he remand?— situation in gaza, how did he resond? . ., respond? i asked him about the fact that we now — respond? i asked him about the fact that we now know _ respond? i asked him about the fact that we now know that _ respond? i asked him about the fact that we now know that he _ respond? i asked him about the fact that we now know that he will - respond? i asked him about the fact that we now know that he will travel to the middle east, he will go to the city ofjeddah and then to cairo. that is to try and whip up support from arab leaders, both for trying to get the ceasefire deal over the line but then for the entire issue of post—war planning, as they describe it. the question i asked him was the fact that we have this catastrophic situation on the ground in gaza, as you have been reporting, given that, was this then a harbinger of a post—war scenario, given the security has collapsed in many parts of the strip and there is no agreed plan for governance? even the most basic things like getting in humanitarian supplies, we see the americans repeatedly press israel to let more in and yet we still see those critical situations. he replied with perhaps the strongest comments yet about the scale of the humanitarian crisis in gaza. he said that 100% of the population were now at the severe levels... inaudible we will return to tom as soon as we can. sharing his discussion with antony blinken. responding with some strong comments regarding the famine in gaza. this is coming amid strong international pressure on prime minister benjamin netanyahu to avoid the planned assault on rafah. we will come back as soon as we can re—establish communication but lets look at another situation in the united states. well staying in the us, the former president, donald trump, has reacted to his failure to secure a close to half—a—billion dollar bond. he needs it to appeal against a judgement in his civil fraud case in new york. mr trump said that securing a bond of that size was "practically impossible". he now has to find the money through other means, or new york state authorities could begin seizing his properties. here's our north america correspondent peter bowes. this is a case in which donald trump was accused of inflating what he was worth, the value of his properties, to get preferential interest rates for loans. well, he lost the case. now he's in a position where his lawyers are saying he doesn't have the cash, the available cash, to pay the $1164 million judgment against him. now, clearly, he is still wealthy, he has property around the worth to the tune of billions, but he requires cash to pay this judgment. he has now less than a week to do that. and if he can't, well, that's why he needs a financial company, a bonding company, to come up with a bond of that amount. actually, a little bit more than that, about half a billion dollars to, in effect, cover the former president while he pursues his appeal in the case, which could go on for many months, perhaps beyond the next election. and should he eventually lose the appeal and be unable to pay the... or at least have the cash to pay the judgment, then that's what the bond is for. but his lawyers are saying they've spoken to some 30 different companies, none of which are prepared to provide a bond of this colossal amount. it is an unusually high amount of money for one of these financial institutions to provide a bond. so it leaves the former president in the position where some of his properties in new york may well be sold off, and potentially sold off pretty quickly, to come up with the cash to pay this judgment. that is likely to happen within the next week or two. and clearly, this isn't something that is going to sit well with a man who has really built his image on his wealth and his ownership of property. to the olympics next — the paris games are drawing near, and the international olympic committee executive board is meeting today to discuss the participation of russian and belarusian athletes in the opening ceremony in paris. under current restrictions, russian and belarusian athletes are only allowed to take part in the games under a neutral flag with no anthems being played. russia and belarus were sanctioned after russia invaded ukraine in february 2022. so could they return to international competitions? earlier i spoke to imogen foulkes who is covering the meeting for us. we know that paris has a grand plan, of athletes sailing down the river seine, it could be a very beautiful opening ceremony, but for the international olympic committee, the key thing, and for other countries participating in the olympics, is that russia should not be allowed to demonstrate itself as a powerful country, as a military power, particularly now as it has annexed these parts of ukraine. called, in moscow, the new territories, theoretically you could have athletes from those parts of ukraine under russian—occupied territory, going to the olympics, representing russia. what the ioc is looking at is, can we allow the few individual russian athletes who will come, can they be in the opening ceremony? can they sail down the river seine under the russian flag? i think the answer to that is almost certainly going to be "no". they will have to, as has happened in previous years, if they take part, go in under the olympic flag. one thing we should say, because russia's participation is already limited, as you said — no team sports, nobody who has come from one of these russian military teams which russia is famous for. it will be individual sports, we're talking as few as a0 athletes, it will be a rump of a russian team compared to what we have seen in the past. the organisers of a football match in hong kong have begun the process of reimbursing fans disappointed by the non—appearance of the argentine striker lionel messi six weeks ago. almost forty—thousand fans attended the friendly between messi's inter miami and a local hong kong team, only for messi to sit out the match because of injury. the no—show sparked boos from the crowd and accusations from some that his absence was a political snub to china. ticket holders will be entitled to a fifty—percent refund, on the condition that they don't launch legal action. if your week hasn't got off to the best start, welljust remember you're not the only one. this cctv footage shows the moment a ferrari driver lost control of his car and crashed into some bike racks in norwich. as a result of the collision, police had to close the road whilst they investigated but they said no—one was injured and no further action would be taken. that is messy driving! stay with us here on bbc news. hello again. many of us started the day on a cloudy note with a fair few showers. a lot of the showers will ease through the course of the day. but as we go through the next few days, well, we are still looking at spells of wind and rain. it's going to be mild by day and by night, but it will turn colder at the end of the week. we'll be talking about significant wind chill, for example, by the time we get to the weekend. this is the kind of rainfall you can expect. we're looking at accumulations, especially in the west where you see the dark blues and greens. this is the key. so up to 50 millimetres, possibly a bit more in places, falling on already saturated ground. now, today, a lot of the cloud will tend to break up. sunny spells will develop. there'll still be a few showers here and there. the cloud thickening in the south—west, heralding the arrival of some rain, and the wind will continue to ease. temperatures nine to 16 degrees north to south. this evening and overnight the rain gathers pace as it pushes northwards and eastwards. it will miss a lot of the south—east. it won't get into the north—west of scotland, where we'll have clear skies. here, temperatures could dip down towards freezing so we could well start the day with a touch of frost, but mild for the time of year as we push down towards the south. now, tomorrow, we start off with all this rain across parts of wales, northern england, southern and eastern scotland. it could travel a bit further north than this, but sunny skies will follow on behind, pushing eastwards. the sunnier skies, though, for much of the day will be in the south—east, where we could have highs of 18 degrees. but a lot of cloud will linger across northern england and wales with some patchy light rain. now, as we move from wednesday into thursday, the south hangs onto this ridge of high pressure, weather fronts across the north of the country. and you can see from the isobars, it's going to be windy. in fact, we're looking at the risk of gales across the northern and western isles, the rain pushing from the west towards the east, drier conditions as you come further south. but it will be fairly cloudy, but it still is mild here — 16 degrees, 12 in stornoway. beyond that, well, you can see how a cold front comes in and pushes south, chasing away that mild air — the blues representing the colder conditions — and the wind changes to more of a northerly direction. so this weekend we will be talking about a significant wind chill. it will be wet and windy at times and the temperatures will be lower anyway. so don't put away your big coatjust yet. this is bbc news, the headlines... the us warns israel a planned assault on rafah in southern gaza would be a mistake, as america's top diplomat says gazans are in desperate need. 100% of the population of gaza is that food insecurity, the first time an entire population has been classified as that. a new picture of the princess of wales — the sun newspaper publishes photos of catherine out shopping with prince william. and gillian anderson plays emily maitlis — the famous bbc newsnight interview with prince andrew hits netflix. tv presenter chris packham is best known for his work on nature and environmental programmes like bbc springwatch. but in recent years he has also been campaigning to change perceptions of neurodivergent people — those who are autistic, dyslexic or living with adhd. last year, packham — who is himself autistic — made inside our autistic minds, following four people as they made films about their autistic experiences. here he is talking to our reporter nick ransom about how the programme has touched a nerve. the programme has been, you know, thankfully, enormously successful.