the us secretary of state, antony blinken, has warned an all out assault on rafah will provoke anarchy without actually eliminating hamas. in gaza, the fighting has returned to the north, where israel says it has seen signs of hamas regrouping. good evening. when michael cohen informed donald trump in 2016 that a former adult film star, stormy daniels, was selling a story about an alleged sexual encounter, trump hit the roof. the access hollywood story was already hurting his campaign with female voters. cohen said trump feared that if this got out, the women would hate him. cohen testified today that trump wanted him to buy the rights to that story so it would not come out ahead of the election. according to cohen, trump didn t care much if the story came out after the election. he wasn t concerned about his wife s reaction to it, and there is the nub of the prosecutions case. they need to prove that trump was directly involved in the payment to daniels and wanted her story
hello and welcome to the programme. world leaders are scrambling to prevent the crisis between israel and iran from spiralling into a wider conflict. these are the key points this hour. in the last hour, the united nations security council has been holding an emergency session in new york. the un secretary general, antonio guterres, has said its time to step back from the brink . the g7 group of wealthy countries says iran s first ever direct attack on israel has risked uncontrollable escalation in the middle east. in a statement issued after an online meeting, the group s leaders called for restraint on all sides. israel says the vast majority of more than 300 drones and missiles launched by iran have been intercepted. the attacks marked the first time iran has targeted israel directly from its own soil. the israeli war cabinet has been meeting to discuss its response to the attack. a senior minister, benny gantz, said israel would exact a price from iran in its own time an
whether to sign off on a deal to free some women and children held hostage by hamas. cnn correspondents are in the region and right here in washington covering this critical moment in the war, first i want to go to cnn s matthew chance in tel aviv, israel. what s the latest word on this deal and what it entails? reporter: well, that deal, pam, is still being debated by the israeli cabinet. they ve been meeting for hours, and it could be several hours still, we re told, before a decision is finally reached but the terms of that deal are pretty clear, it would involve the release of at least 50 israeli hostages from gaza by the palestinian group, hamas. over a period of between four and five days, so there would be about ten people every day being released. in the meantime, israel would pause its conflict, pause its hostilities there and allow for that hostage release to take place. the israelis have said they d be open to the possibility of a further pause as well as long as
an hour at the site, and reported evidence of shelling and gunfire, and say there is a mass grave at the entrance. the israeli military has surrounded and occupied the hospital for days; last week, they claimed they d found a hamas command and control centre beneath it. that s been denied by hamas, which is designated a terrorist organisation by many western governments. on saturday, hundreds of people including some patients left the hospital on foot, making their way through israeli armoured vehicles. 25 health workers and about 300 critically ill patients remain at al shifa. among them are 32 babies in critical condition. the who says it s now drawing up plans for their evacuation. meanwhile, the hamas run health authority, says at least 80 people have been killed in two israeli strikes on the jabaliya refugee camp. they say one hit a un run school that was being used as a shelter. the prime minister of qatar has said the challenges of reaching a deal on releasing so