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BBC News with Sue Montgomery.
Thousands of people have broken into a warehouse in central Gaza's Deir el-Balah. The U.N. World Food Programme, which operates the center, said at least four people were reported dead. Barbara Plett Tasha reports from Jerusalem. Video filmed by the French news agency showed crowds breaking into the warehouse and taking bags of flour and cartons of food as shots rang out. It was not immediately clear who was firing. The U.N. agency said humanitarian needs had spiraled out of control after Israel's 80-day blockade. The Israeli army began to allow a limited amount of aid back into Gaza last week. It's also set up a private system of distribution that the U.N. says is inadequate to meet Gaza's vast needs. WFP called for an immediate scale-up of food assistance to assure people they would not starve. President Trump has indicated he'll impose a deadline for Vladimir Putin on agreeing to a cease-fire in Ukraine. Speaking to reporters, he said that if the Russian leader was still stringing him along in two weeks, his stance could change. "We're gonna find out soon. We're gonna find out whether or not he's tapping us along or not, and if he is, we'll respond a little bit differently. But it'll take about a week and a half to two weeks. Mr. Witkoff is here is doing a phenomenal job dealing with them very strongly right now. They seem to wanna do something, but until the document is signed, I can't tell you. Nobody can." Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said he'd spoken to his American counterpart about concrete proposals to be presented at a new round of direct talks with Ukraine next week. The U.S. secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Washington will impose visa restrictions on foreign nationals it deems to be censoring Americans, suggesting this could apply to officials who regulate U.S. technology firms. The restrictions have been encouraged by several Trump allies. Here's Sarah Smith. They are targeting people who the administration thinks are basically interfering with Americans' right to free speech, and they don't just mean oppressive, dictatorial regimes. They've been highly critical of the European Union and the U.K. on what they say is effective censorship. So these visa restrictions, which I mean could be punishing, it could mean you cannot come into America, will apply to officials who've issued arrest warrants against U.S. citizens for things they've posted online or for any social media content that has been posted on U.S. soil. A U.S. judge said the Trump administration's efforts to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist, are likely to be unconstitutional. The district judge said he would issue a further order later on Wednesday. Mr. Khalil has been held since March in an immigration detention center in Louisiana. World News from the BBC. The authorities in Canada's Manitoba province have ordered the evacuation of 17,000 residents as wildfires rapidly spread across multiple communities. It includes all 5,000 residents from the mining city of Flin Flon. The blaze started in a landfill earlier this week. The U.S. vice president, JD Vance, has told an audience of cryptocurrency investors that the Trump administration is committed to the industry. In January, Mr. Trump launched his own novelty coin, which critics have described as an "avenue for corruption." Here's our technology correspondent, Lily Jamali. JD Vance's message really hinged on picking up the baton from President Trump, who actually headlined at this very same conference last year, and he ran with it. JD Vance today, saying that in Trump, crypto investors and entrepreneurs have an ally, even a champion, in the White House. In some ways, a lot of what we heard from the vice president was a recitation of things that they plan to do, but also some things that they already have done as an administration, including getting rid of Biden-era regulators who were hardly welcomed or applauded by the crypto industry. Supporters of Bolivia's former president, Evo Morales, have clashed with police in La Paz during a protest against the electoral court's decision to exclude him from August elections. Police fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at protesters who responded by throwing rocks and objects. Mr. Morales was Bolivia's first indigenous leader and remained in power for nearly 14 years. The renowned Kenyan author, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, has died. He was 87. Part of a literary scene that flourished in the 1950s and 60s, in the last years of colonialism, he spent his career calling for Africans to reclaim their language and their culture. His best known works include the novel, Devil on the Cross. BBC News. |