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pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news" . i am louis jones. . you are watching the context on bbc news. ♪ pres. biden: the alliance between japan and the united states is a cornerstone of peace, security, prosperity in the into pacific and around the world. >> as a global partner, japan will join hands with our american friends, and together, we will be the way in tackling the challenges of the indo pacific and the world. >> from the biden

administration, today's japan is really a dream come true. it is a capable and willing partner that is prepared to step up and deal with global challenges including china. ♪ louis: welcome to the program. the japanese prime minister is at the white house right now with president biden. they are going to increase defense cooperation, they say. what does that mean for asia? and of course for china. the leader of hamas says israel has killed three of his sons in gaza. they confirmed they were behind the strikes. a major review finds children in england and wales have been let down by weak evidence about gender treatment. anprices at the edinburgh french are no joke, apparently. comedians say they are being priced out of the get festival. -- of the festival.

we are going to start in the u.s. in the show unity we have seen between japan and the u.s., military cooperation between the two countries, top of the agenda. of course, in the background, tensions with china, never far from the mind with a number of western governments. let's take a look at what has been happening. there we go. president biden is hosting japan's prime minister, fumio kishida, at the white house. that being military guards of honor and there will be a state dinner in the next couple of hours. the talks are part of the talks are part othe biden administration's diplomatic efforts in asia. there were recent wargames in seoul and take a look at these pictures. the u.s., japan, philippines, and australia held point military exercises in the south china sea. the chinese military conducted combat patrols in the same area. president biden said japan, the

u.s., and australia will together boost military capabilities, including through the creation of an air missile network. biden said the upgrades were defensive in nature. pres. biden: this is the most significant upgrade in our allianceince it was first established. i am pleased to announce that for the first time, japan and the united states and australia will create a network system of air missile and defense architecture. we are looking forward to standing up a trilateral milita exercis with the japan and the ash exercise with japan and the united kingdom. the united kingdom isn't a slowing how japan can join our work -- is joining japan to make autonomous systems. all told, that represents a new benchmark for a military cooperation across a range o capabilities. louis: let's speak to mary mccarthy, professor of political science at drake university,

specializing in japan's domestic and foreign policies. thank you so much for coming on the program. mary: thank you so much for having me. louis: there were lots of words that joe biden was just saying. trilateral capability, lots of other slightly jargony, technical -- can you please attempt to explain that for us? mary: i think to start off, we have to say that the meeting this week between biden and kishida coming on the heels of these military exercises that were just mentioned is extremely important. it is a signal to both domestic and international audiences. one of the target audiences is certainly china but is not only china. it is the international system in general as well as domestic audiences in the u.s. and in japan.

and so, i think that the second important thing to really highlight is that the announcements today are not coming out of nowhere come out of the blue. they are the culmination of months of hard work by the biden and kishida administrations as well as the governments in australia, the philippines, and elsewhere. so this is -- louis: let's focus on exactly that. the mention of australia, of the u.k. -- britain will hold regular joint military exercises from 2025 to boost security in the region. that is from the ministry of defense here in the u.k. that role with australia as well as japan, where does all this leave china? mary: so i think it has become

increasingly clear that so-called like-minded states in the asia-pacific are cooperating and coordinating more closely certainly on defense and security but also on what is now called economic security, resilience supply chains, closer economic relationships, and we see japan and australia both taking clear steps to be in lockstep with the u.s., with regard to its position in the asia-pacific and seeing china today as a strategic challenge or perhaps even a strategic threat, whereas previously, there was a lot more effort on the part of japan and australia to enhance the partnership elements of their relationships with china. louis: lots of political discourse.

we have not got time to go into that now. i want to talk about space. that was mentioned. u.s. and japan cooperation. is this something that we should look into question work --look into? mary: it represents two important elements of the u.s.-japan relationship. one is that the relationship is multifaceted. it is not only a security relationship. it is not only an economic relationship. there are so many issues on which the u.s. andapan are, showed, and could be cooperating and space ione, and the second important thing to keep in mind is that space is not something frivolous. it would be great. the japanese astronaut will be on the moon. yes, that is wonderful. it will be exciting for the japanese public to see. but it's really important to keep in mind that space is an element of international peace and security. and that u.s. and japan

cooperating in space is also an element of their defense and security relationship. louis: thank you very much for coming on the program. thank you. now, the japanese prime minister is not the only big political name in washington this week. david cameron has been doing a round on capitol hill as well in an attempt to free up more funding for ukraine. he has met with the house minority leader, hakeem jeffries , and the majority leader, steve scalise. not with house speaker mike johnson. republican lawmakers have been holding up a proposed $60 billion military aid package for ukraine for months now. cameron has called on leaders to do more when speaking to the u.s. broadcaster, msnbc. he said "we should be standing by our friends because the world will be watching if we don't." for more on this, the at axios.

-- the director of programming at axios. we have david cameron urging the u.s. to do a bit more. do you think it will make any difference? >> he tried a bit of a bank shot. he went to mar-a-lago to meet former president trump because it is really the right flank of the republican party that is folding up. they say they are putting pressure on speaker mike johnson not to proceed with that $60 billion package you mentioned. he has a very slender majority in the house of representatives and he might lose his job if he proceeds with this bill without bringing his right flank into the fold so the idea was go to mar-a-lago, get president trump to sort of endorse at least, you know, a softer line on aid to ukraine and then go to capitol hill and see if you can move the needle there. he did not get a meeting with

the man who has his foot on the break right now, speaker johnson. he is the one who could move forward with this bill but who thus far has been unwilling to. i don't think it is a great sign that david cameron did not manage to get a meeting with mike johnson. it doesn't seem so far that he has managed to move the needle. weeks of pressurfrom the president and others also have not hit the needle. things still appear stuck. louis: we have lots of stationary needles. what whispers are you picking up if you had to be pushed on where you think this goes next? dave: obviously, mike johnson is trying a few different routes that he thinks could move this forward without losing some votes. we had the idea of structuring this as zero interesloans as opposed to just outright aid to ukraine and that will lose him some votes for people who want stronger support of ukraine.

he is experiment and with a few different items on the legislative menu, none of which seem to have captured both the existing supporters of ukraine and those who have thus far been unwilling to back any proposal like this. right now, for the short term, i am betting on inertia that basically he has known what the stakes were for quite a period of time now and not moved ahead with something, so 'm not betting that things are going to change dramatically in sort of the next 24 to 48 hours. then again, you know, perhaps the international and domestic pressure -- obviously, the overwhelming majorities in both the house and senate that are ready to pass this if the bill moves ahead, you know, there are people who think something has got to give and eventually, you will see a big package get through. i don't currently know how that happens. louis: you are betting on inertia.

dave, thank you very much for coming on the program and explaining that to us. thank you. i just want to bring you a piece of breaking news we are getting from france now, from bordeaux, specifically. we have not had many details through, but just in the last hour, a knife attack. this is coming from bsn tv. a man has killed at least one person and injured another during a knife attack and we derstand that police then saw the suspect fleeing and shot and fatally injured him, so this is in the center of bordeaux, near the keys. details, not very copperheads about the moment. a suspect killed by police after stabbing at least one person. killing one person and injuring another. this only happened in the last hour or so.

if we get any more details, we will bring them to you. around the world and across the u.k., this is bbc news. ♪ ♪ ♪

louis: this is bbc news. next, the political leader of hamas has confirmed three of his sons and at least two of his grandchildren have been killed in gaza. the idf has confirmed it carried out the airstrike. the vehicle they were driving in was hit west of gaza city. this is the moment that he was told about the deaths. he said the deaths of so many members of his family won't affect the demands that hamas is making in cease-fire negotiations. let's speak now to the middle east editor, sebastian, in jerusalem. sebastian, what do we know about what happened here? sebastian: this appears to have

been a drone strike on a vehicle in an area -- it is the beach camp near the beach in gaza, next to gaza city and in it were three of his sons and several of his grandchildren. the pictures, the video that we have seen of the aftermath show that the vehicle was all destroyed. as you were just saying, he himself was given the news actually as he was speaking, as he was touring a treatment center, medical treatment center in delhi, the capital of qatar, where he is based, and he was speaking to gazans who had been taken there after being wounded. and his immediate response was to say that he thanked god for bestowing the honor on him of what he called the martyrdom of his three sons and several of

his grandchildren and he went on to say that this is a delusional act by israel. these are his words. an effort to try to push hamas and its leadershito accept the conditions in the current cease-fire proposal. now, we have been hearing about this proposal for the last two or three days. it was quite optimistic what we were hearing from the media, the egyptian mediators, and then we were hearing from hamas officials and they were essentially saying their four main conditions were not being met. they had been a sense that maybe concessions are going to be made but at the moment, that isn't the case. from going to thinking that a cease-fire deal may be on the cards and then 50-50, we moved a bit away from that while on the israeli side, the security cabinet has been meeting and they looked at proposa from their side.

the two main sticking points have been for the israelis for a number of hostages who were going to be released. they are believed to be around 130 hostages still in gaza but not all of them are alive. the understanding is probably 99 or 100 are still alive. in this deal as far as we know, 40 hostages were going to be released and hamas at this stage want to release only women, children, and the sick. they don't want to release anyone that they regard of more value to them, people who served or were serving in the israeli military. now, there are reports that hamas cannot actually find that number who match that description of women, children, and the elderly, so that is an issue. and then another issue within the security cabinet, there are ministers saying that we don't want to do it this way. we do not want to have some hostages released now. we don't believe that will --

there will be another cease-fire deal. we have to get all out now. those splits within the israeli cabinet are also significant and it has also lessons the optimism that there could be a deal cong soon. louis: thank you very much for that. we are going to take a look at the pressure of benjamin netanyahu and the strategy that he is currently employing and the pressure -- several governments increasing their rhetoric for change. first, there's joe biden in an interview with univision, which is america's largest spanish-language broadcasting. take a listen. >> i think what he is doing is a mistake. i don't agree with his -- i think it is outrageous. what i am calling for is the israelis to just call for a cee-fire, allow for the next six to eight weeks, total access to all food and medicine going into the country. louis: that is joe biden and

then there is the spanish prime minister, sanchez. he has called israel's war in gaza a disproportionate response which threatens to destabilize the middle east and the world. >> [speaking spanish] >> with -- we were the ones who demanded the european union propose a permanent cease-fire, establish permanent humanitarian corridors, and maintain suppor for palestinian refugees. we also proposed an international peace conference and continue to defend the two state solution as the only way for israelis and palestinians to coexist in peace and security. louis:ustralia's foreign minister has suggested her country could recognize palestinian statehood. the israeli government's refusal to even engage on the issue has caused widespread frustration. >> recognizing a palestinian state that can only exist with a

secure israel doesn't just offer the palestinian people an opportunity to realize their aspirations, it also strengthens the forces for peace, and it undermines extremism. it undermines hamas, iran, and iran's other destructive proxies in the region. so i will say to you, a two state solution is the only hope of breaking the endless cycle of violence. louis: we can speak now to the ambassador, former u.s. ambassador to malta, president of the middle east policy council on american nonprofit organizations. thank you very much for coming on the program. should we start by reflecting on those words by various international governments? what do you make of the criticism of netanyahu's strategy here? >> it has been pretty consistent for a while now. leaders are reflecting their populations and wet, frankly, we all see on tv and on social

media. that is that the response has been devastating not just for those who attacked israel but for the majority of civilians. women and children and men. and this is not something that the international community is comfortable with, is accepting odds, and the pressure has increased as the numbers have gone up. we are coming to the end of being able to give a pass to the way that this has been conducted because of the results. louis: what about the israeli governments position that october 7 was led by hamas and they have the right to go after hamas and eradicate the threat of hamas and does exactly what they are doing? gina: that is absolutely right. however, many who have been specialists word in the area certainly in the peace process

for many years and have called out from the beginning that ere are options. there were options from the seventh of october about how to pursue hamas. israel has a long history of dealing effectively with enemies and it did not require pursuing vengeance on the palestinian people in the gaza strip. that is clearly what has been carried out. it is impossible to say that very minimal lysing of civilian casualties has been carried out because we see the results and that is not the case. we have heard about using artificial intelligence, that uses algorithms as opposed to individual calculations of what is the cost of this particular strike, which is what the united states is trying to do. not always successfully but certainly protecting civilians being the priority even as you were trying to prosecute a war. louis: let's look out the role

of joe biden. we covered recently that conversation between that and yahoo! and biden and pretty quickly after that, we got the readout of the call which is a quick summary of the actual contents of that call. the language seemed pretty powerful. pretty quickly after that, we did see, for example, increases in the number of aid trucks gettingcross and into gaza. do you think there could be more phone calls, more direct consequences of the words of joe biden coming up or not? gina: if need be, absolutely. i think some lessons were learned as a result of that call. we have heard from the israeli government, almost from the beginning, that they have done their utmost to get assistants income a statement that it was not their fault, that unrwa

was at fault. we know the number of aid workers that have been killed. we saw the attacks on the world central kitchen. last week before the last call with president biden and the prime minister, we know in fact that the israeli government was not telling the truth when they said they were doing their utmost because we have seen more trucks come through after the phone call with the president. the president said not only getting in assistance, he wants it free so all civilians have access to food and supplies that they need but he wants it sustained so even though there are more trucks going in now and there is a discrepancy between the numbers, the government of israel says over 700 trucks have gone in. unrwa, who was on the ground, says over 300 trucks have gone in and that 500 is the minimum of what is needed on a daily basis. so we have some discrepancy ther we know we have not heard the truths from the government of

israel. in the past about what they are doinso we have to take a hard and careful look. certainly, they are doing more and that -- louis: israel does and has consistently said that it is facilitating the flow of aid and that has been is consistent position. i want to ask you, just finally, and i'm afraid we only have 30 seconds left, less than that now, but this state of play for the negotiations for any kind of cease-fire, can you get any kind of optimism? can you see any likely way through in any reasonably short time period or not? gina: it is such a dynamic situation. there is hope as long as they are talking, absolutely. louis: we really appreciate your time and you talking to us. thank you very much for coming on the program. gina: ok, my pleasure. louis: we are just out of time for this part of the program. i will be back in a couple of minutes time. do stay with us. plenty morcoming up on the context. for the moment, this is bbc

news. lewis vaughan jones, this is bbc news. bye-bye. announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... financial services firm, raymond james. bdo. accountants and advisors. cunard is a proud supporter of public television. announcer: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation, pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ announcer: funding for presentation of this program is provided by... woman: two retiring executives turn their focus to greyhounds, giving these former race dogs a real chance to win.