surf is up. hello and welcome to today s verified live. downing street has described as unacceptable remarks alleged to have been made by one of the conservative party s biggest donors about the mp diane abbott. the guardian reports that during a business meeting in 2019, frank hester said diane abbott made him want to hate all black women and that she should be shot . mr hester has admitted making comments about her which he described as rude . mr hester has issued a statement saying that at the meeting in question, he said he abhorred racism. diane abbott has also released a statement responding to his alleged comments. she said. government ministers have faced questions from the media and they called his comments unacceptable but stopped short of calling them racist. well, it s clear that what he said was inappropriate. he has, as i understand it, apologised for those remarks. i think the critical point here is i don t think what he was saying was a gender based
we start with a special report from gaza where medical staff have told the bbc they were detained, beaten and prevented from carrying out vital duties after a raid at their hospital last month. they ve said, that some detainees were stripped, kept in stress positions for several hours, or had muzzled dogs set upon them. israel said, it occupied the nasser hospital site believing it was used by hamas and that severalfreed israeli hostages have said, they were held there. you might find some parts of this report by wyre davies distressing. not for the first time in this war, israeli soldiers have been filmed standing over stripped and kneeling detainees in gaza. but these are medical staff, detained after the israeli army overran the nasser hospital in khan yunis. most of them are still held captive. for weeks, the medics had witnessed israel s military advance closing in around their hospital. the fighting in khan younis was fierce. thousands of people who d sought refuge in t
that s slightly higher than expected and driven mainly by higher costs for gasoline and rents. in the 12 months up to february, the cpi rate increased by 3.2%, compared to 3.1% injanuary. the core rate, stripping out those volatile elements such as fuel and rents, fell to 3.8% from 3.9% injanuary, but that was still higher than the 3.7% expected. this latest data suggests there is still some stickiness with inflation that will be scrutinised by the federal reserve as it weighs up a highly anticipated interest rate cut injune. let s head over to new york and speak to our north america business correspondent michelle fleury. as far as the fed is concerned, it is about how they respond to this number. it is not going in the direction they wanted it to. the tricky word direction they wanted it to. the tricky word that direction they wanted it to. tue: tricky word that you direction they wanted it to. tte: tricky word that you were stumbling over, sticky, and a lot of this is
a ramadan ceasefire unless a ramadan ceasefire unless the rival rsf paramilitary group leaves civilian and public sites. us officials are pushing to open more land routes for aid from chad. the army had closed access points, saying the rsf was using it to transport weapons, and has only re opened one. the fighting must end for the sake of the sudanese people, who face hunger, horrors and untold hardships. in gaza, in sudan and beyond, it s time for peace. i call on political, religious and community leaders everywhere to do everything in their power to make this holy period a time for empathy, action and peace. the world food programme s regional director for eastern africa. explained more about the severity of the situation in sudan. we have in extraordinary problem on our hands in sudan at the moment. notably inside the country but across the region. 8.4 million people displaced inside, another 1.9 million refugees escaping into places like chad in south sudan, countri