ferrari. straight to the pentagon with lloyd austin the defence secretaryjust about to start a news conference. lloyd about to start a news conference. llode austin the third in the pentagon briefing rooms. we ll deliver opening remarks and then take questions. i will moderate this question so i would ask that you raise your hand if you have a question and wish to be recognised and i will call upon you. good morning- and i will call upon you. good morning- it and i will call upon you. good morning. it has and i will call upon you. good morning. it has been - and i will call upon you. good morning. it has been a - and i will call upon you. good l morning. it has been a difficult and i will call upon you. good - morning. it has been a difficult few da 5 for morning. it has been a difficult few days for the morning. it has been a difficult few days for the department morning. it has been a difficult few days for the department of - morning. it has been a difficult few.
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
which would be a breach of the uk data privacy code designed to protect young people. good morning and welcome to the bbc news channel. the former health secretary, matt hancock, has denied claims he failed to follow covid testing advice during the early days of the pandemic. thousands of whatsapp messages leaked to the telegraph show mr hancock was advised in april 2020 to test everyone going into care homes. but a message reportedly from mr hancock to an aide said he would rather commit to just testing those going into care homes from hospitals. lord bethall was a junior minister in department of health and social care back in 2020. this morning, he was asked whether matt hancock should have taken the advice of the chief medical officer to test everyone going into care homes. no, ithink no, i think the key phrase here is this is obviously a positive step. it was absolutely crystal clear that we wanted to test everyone who went into social care. that was the ambition. gettin
almost a0 people are dead after a passenger train and a freight train collide head on. and the singer ed sheeran opens up about using music to cope with depression last year after his pregnant wife was diagnosed with a tumour. and coming up on the bbc news channel: the long awaited disciplinary hearing following azeem rafiq s allegations of racism in yorkshire cricket club has begun in london. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. fresh questions have been raised about the judgement of the former health secretary matt hancock during the covid pandemic after a collection of his whatsapp messages were released. the messages, dating back to april 2020, published by the daily telegraph, cover issues such as care homes, schools and testing. in one of the most serious allegations the paper claims the messages show mr hancock ignored advice from senior medical officers to test everyone going into care homes in england, something he strongly denies. here s our political ed