and in greece, an endangered pygmy hippo has been born at athens' zoo. thank you for being with us. european union leaders have called for an immediate humanitarian pause in gaza that would lead to a ceasefire. it comes as the us secretary of state anthony blinken is in egypt to discuss a post—war plan to govern and secure gaza. after meeting senior ministers from six arab states and the palestinian authority in cairo, mr blinken says there's consensus between them on the need for an immediate and sustained ceasefire. in a news conference with the egyptian foreign minister,

he set out their shared priorities. there's a clear consensus around a number of shared priorities. first, the need for an immediate and sustained cease—fire with the release of hostages. that would create space to surge more humanitarian assistance to relieve the suffering of many people and to build something more enduring. we've been working, as you know, with egypt and qatar and with israel to put a strong proposal on the table. hamas responded to that and negotiators continue to work, the gaps are narrowing, and we are continuing to push for an agreement in doha. it is still difficult work to get there, but i continue to believe it's possible. our correspondent in jerusalem mark lowen gave us his analysis. well, the wheels of diplomacy still

very much in motion with the us secretary of state, antony blinken, talking about how he believes an agreement is possible to end this war, even if it will be difficult, in his words. and also talking about how there's progress, also in talking with regional actors about who and what could run gaza and reconstructing gaza after the guns fall silent. now, israel is sending a delegation back to doha tomorrow, on friday, led by the head of the israeli intelligence agency mossad, who will be holding talks with the head of the cia and mediators from qatar and egypt, suggesting that there is possibly some progress on the cease fire proposals, even if we don't necessarily expect an imminent breakthrough. mr blinken was also saying that the us has circulated a draught un security council resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian cease fire linked to the release of the hostages by hamas. and now the fact that that the us has blocked and vetoed three previous resolutions calling for a cessation of hostilities suggests that the us is hardening its

language and getting increasingly exasperated by israel and by the conduct of the war in gaza. even if the resolution that the us has circulated is still very much linked to the release of the hostages and demanding that the hostages be released as part of that cease fire deal. now, the exasperation with israel, i think, would grow if the israeli military does indeed invade rafah, as prime minister netanyahu has said he is determined to do so. he said that israel needs to enter rafah in order to completely destroy hamas, but that it would be in defiance of huge of dire international warnings over the fate of the one and a half million civilians sheltering there. and antony blinken has said once again that the us believes that an israeli incursion into rafah would be a grave mistake. ambassador gina abercrombie winstanley is president of the middle east policy council and she gave us her main takeaways from blinken�*s speech. i think the secretary

of state is sending yet another clear signal that the united states is drawing closer to enough is enough. again, the objections are the way that the government of israel is prosecuting this conflict, not their right to self defense or the need to ensure that hamas does not lead a new government in the gaza strip. but the demand to take care of the civilians in the gaza strip, i million, millions of gazans, as well as the hostages, the return of the hostages, but recognising that the hostages are in just as much danger as every other person in the gaza strip. we do have to keep in mind, i do want to add, with regard to a un security council resolution, that there have been over 200 resolutions with regard to israel over the years. and the last one that passed in december called for the opening of every border crossing into the gaza strip to get

humanitarian assistance in. and that has not happened. indeed, i do want to ask you about the un resolution, but we've been talking about this possible ceasefire. the negotiations have been ongoing. how close are we to an actual ceasefire? i believe we're very close. when you have the secretary saying that he thinks movement is possible, reaching a deal as possible, recognising that he has made very clear that the united states understands the need is standing with our partners in the region, specifically egypt, jordan, qatar, the uae. all of these states are working with us to put pressure on hamas — do not misunderstand, pressure on hamas — for getting hostages released from the gaza strip. at the same time, getting the ceasefire put in place, i think there's a very good chance we're going to get there. as we see the pressure is up on hamas, the pressure is up

on israel and the pressure is up on the united states. indeed, but it's one thing for the united nations to agree on a ceasefire deal, but israelis, as you said, have ignored the un in the past. they have indeed. there are different ways forward on this because the the border crossings haven't been open, but the united states is making clear they have to make a change. when the delegation arrives next week, you can be assured that there is going to be an exchange of plans, of information between the united states and israel. the united states has made clear do not go into rafah in a way that will harm civilians. that means the israelis are going to be presenting their plans as how they want to do it and hope that the united states agrees that these are credible plans. what the united states has

been doing will continue to do is offer alternative ways of carrying out what the israelis need to carry out with regard to protecting their civilians. no—one is saying that they should not go after hamas, but they must not continue to impose collective punishment. and that is the reality of what's happening in gaza. the us has filed a landmark lawsuit against apple, accusing the tech giant of monopolising the smartphone market and crushing competition. in the lawsuit, the justice department says the company used its power to limit competitors as well as the options available to consumers. apple denies the claims and has vowed to "vigorously" fight the lawsuit. the lawsuit was also brought by 17 us states. here's attorney general merrick garland explaining why the action was taken. as set out in our complaint, apple has maintained its power not because of its superiority, because of its unlawful,

exclusionary behaviour. monopolies like apple's threaten the free and fair markets upon which our economy is based. they stifle innovation, they hurt producers and workers, and they increase costs for consumers. we will have a lot more analysis on this on asia business report so stated that as well. —— stay turned for that. opposition figures in india have strongly condemned the arrest of delhi's chief minister. police surrounded the home of arvind kejriwal, a prominent opposition leader in connection with corruption allegations relating to the city's policies over alcohol sales. a probe into the matter has already seen two of his top allies jailed. he was detained after several hours of questioning by india's main financial crimes agency. mr kejriwal�*s arrest comes weeks before voting starts in a general election. here's our south asia editor anbarasan ethirajan. it is a hugely

significant moment, as you say, that elections are only a few weeks away from now on, starting on the 19th in seven phases. it'll go on for weeks. so this arrest has triggered widespread condemnation by opposition parties because arvind kejriwal is one of the top opposition leaders and he is ruling in delhi and also his party is in power in the state of punjab and they are part of this opposition alliance called india. so his arrest has triggered anger, condemnation, saying that it is a political conspiracy by the governing bjp to stifle opposition, to stifle dissent. and that is why the governing bjp is doing this. this is the accusation by supporters of mr kejriwal. however, the bjp and its leaders deny these charges and they say these are letting someone through how they were favouring private retailers

in alcohol sales in delhi. so the law is taking its own course, but this has caused a lot of anger and also worries among the opposition leaders. what could happen next? it is not simply about mr kejriwal. what the opposition is saying, that the bjp and the prime minister narendra modi are completely trying to silence the opposition because for elections you need star campaigners like mr kejriwal who can go around the country to campaign. so if he is going to be injail, which means his party won't be able to have one of the important speakers. and earlier in the day, the main opposition congress party alleged that its accounts had been frozen, which means they cannot take out any money from their account to pay for tv commercials or newspaper advertisement or even to pay for transport. sometimes they hire helicopters

to travel around the country. so there are many opposition parties. they are saying that the government is using investigative agencies like the enforcement directorate and the cbi to stifle dissent, to to reduce the opportunities of the opposition leader so that they cannot campaign. however, the bjp and prime minister narendra modi, they strongly deny these charges. let's bring some news from haiti now, because reports are emerging that gang leader ti greg has been killed in the capital's petion—ville neighbourhood. he had escaped prison in a jail break earlier this month. at the moment these are reports coming from the reuters news agency that the bbc has not been able to independently confirm so far. meanwhile, the head of the united nations children's agency, unicef, says it is unable to get enough aid into haiti and that "many, many people" are suffering serious hunger and malnutrition as the country endures

a major political crisis. our correspondent will grant is one of the only international journalists on the ground. to describe some of the living conditions in port—au—prince as precarious is an understatement — for this woman, particularly tough. the 20—year—old student and her family had to flee their home because of gang violence and now live in a temporary camp inside an abandoned theatre. and on some days, she says, they don't eat at all. "i go to school with no food, spend the day hungry, "and then go to bed with still nothing in my stomach", she says. now she sees no choice but to abandon her studies. but daily struggle to find enough food in haiti is nothing new. the difference now is the scale of the emergency and food insecurity. potentially millions of people are in danger of falling into malnutrition and already don't

know when or where their next meal is coming from. there are some success stories. joseph was dangerously malnourished a few weeks ago, but a local ngo, second mile, was able to hospitalise him and he's thankfully putting on weight. over the years, their residential malnutrition centre has pulled hundreds of children back from the brink. mothers typically spend four weeks at the centre receiving urgent care for their malnourished children and instruction on providing high nutrition on a limited budget. the ngo says it's had huge success with just i% of children being readmitted after they leave. with aid still barely making it into haiti, this work is crucial, but the ngo fears mistakes of the 2010 earthquake disaster response could be repeated in this crisis. a lot of these larger ngos fly in and fly out and they're handed all of these supplies

and all of these aid, and suddenly all of these funds to now hire all these people. you're actually hiring from all of these local ngos when you could just help pay their staff members and give them the aid to distribute. tilling the land in haiti is dry, thankless work. climate change has meant crops of maize and beans often yield poor harvests or fail altogether. as haiti unravels, it's clear malnutrition is no longer a temporary or passing crisis here, and aid alone won't solve it. rather, it's becoming the norm — another part of the country's dire new reality. will grant, bbc news, haiti. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

you're live with bbc news. the un is warning that water scarcity could fuel conflicts around the world, unless countries co—operate better. today marks world water day, when the united nations highlights the issues facing people around the world who lack access to safe drinking water — which is around 2.2 billion people. in asia, some of the most bitter disputes are taking place over dams and other projects. for more i'm joined by pichamon yeophantong, who's head of research at the centre for future defence and national security, at deakin university. how serious is the risk of armed conflict over water and what are the most worrying potential flashpoints? the risk of conflict over water

is a very serious one. historically, war over water has not occurred, when i say was, in full—scale wars. however, we have been seeing with greater frequency of the occurrence of low intensity as well as internal or local conflicts over scarce water resources. the more water becomes scarce in this region, the more we will see people not only dying from for example contaminated water, but also from conflicts related to access over water. in asia and also globally, we are seeing this issue becoming ever more concerning but also an issue that requires immediate policy attention. i want to ask about some of china's projects,. the big dams like three gorges and the belt and road projects they're funding — what is the impact downstream? that is a very good question.

this has been an issue that has caused a lot of frustration but also generated a lot of studies about the impact these dams have had upstream on major rivers that are shared by many countries in southeast asia but also in south asia. what we are seeing at the moment and let me use the example of the local river basin, an extremely important basin, an important river, the lifeblood for southeast asia as many would say. we are seeing hydropower dams not onlyjust financed from china having a real impact on the ecosystems and also on the river flows itself. currently there are around 160 dams on the basin and 13 dams on the river mainstream. hundreds more are currently being planned or under construction. a good number of these located upstream, which

is being driven forward by china. it is the case we are seeing droughts becoming much more severe, also seen floods becoming much more severe and this is causing very real impact for communities living alongside the river downstream in south east asia.— in south east asia. thank you so much _ in south east asia. thank you so much for— in south east asia. thank you so much forjoining _ in south east asia. thank you so much forjoining us - in south east asia. thank you so much forjoining us on - in south east asia. thank you so much forjoining us on the| so much forjoining us on the programme today. now more on shohei ohtani, the japanese major league baseball sensation caught up in a scandal, with his representatives alleging he'd been the victim of a massive theft at the hands of his english interpreter. shohei ohtani's team said the interpreter, ippei mizuhara, had been fired by the los angeles dodgers after a theft reportedly involving millions of dollars. it's alleged mr mizuhara stole money from the player to place bets with an illegal bookmaker. adam yamaguchi from our partner station cbs has this report.

commentator: here it comes. that was shohei ohtani's at the season opener in seoul. ippei mizuhara, his long—time friend and interpreter by his side in the dugout, but now no longer. he was fired after that game after the la times reported his attorneys accused him of massive theft. at least $4.5 million had been wired to an illegal bookmaking operation. in an interview on tuesday... on wednesday, however, espn reported of spokesmen who made mizuhara available had not transferred money to the associate. this is one of the la times reporters who broke the story. ohtani had no knowledge about this. gestapo is one of the los angeles times reporters who broke the story. ohtani had no knowledge about this.

according to his own sources, even they had no idea about this until the la times contacted him. i didn't think it was going to be this good. mizuhara has known ohtani for more than a decade... the number one thing is velocity. and has been his personal translator since ohtani first came to the mlb in 2017 to play for the los angeles angeles. first of all, i would like to thank the los angeles dodgers... they were almost inseparable from the moment that ohtani entered major league baseball. they were almost inseparable from the moment that ohtani entered major league baseball. he was more than just interpreter. he would go out and buy groceries for ohtani when he was on the injured list. they would drive together to the ballpark. the idea that such a close confidant of the biggest player in baseball could allegedly betray him in that manner

involving his money, this is what's shocking. turning to botswana now, the country's president has criticised a proposed bill in the uk to ban the imports from the trophy hunting of endangered species. the british government says the ban will play an important role in protecting threatened wildlife. but the government of botswana says hunting is necessary as it has too many elephants. they also say the industry is an important source of income, and createsjobs for local communities. the president of botswana, mokgweetsi masisi, gave us his view on the proposed ban. i think it is a really sad tragedy that the british leadership would bring this upon us without even so much as a courteous call to us, nor even an attempt to understand what our circumstances are.

it's also hypocritical in our view, deeply so, that you allow your species to be hunted and trophies to be exported from the united kingdom and not the same for us to do. the former leader separatist of catalonia, carles puigdemont, has said he will end his self—imposed exile if he's chosen as the region's leader in snap elections in may. mr puigdemont has been in belgium since 2017, when his party held an independence referendum that was considered illegal by the spanish government. after the catalan parliament briefly declared independence he fled abroad to avoid prosecution, but the possibility of a return materialised last week when the socialist—led government in madrid passed an amnesty law.

let's turn to some happy news out of greece now, where an endangered pygmy hippo has been born at athens' zoo. here's the newborn, enjoying bath time with its carers. pygmy hippos are native to swamps and rainforests in western africa, but are listed as an endangered species and it is estimated that fewer than 2,500 are living in the wild. here's the vet at athen�*s zoo, on how important this birth is for the conservation of the species. we're absolutely thrilled, not only because it's very endangered species but also because it's a boy. every captive birth of pygmy hippos is important. and we're very happy to see this baby grow into a healthy adult hippo, and hopefully one day reproduce and produce more pygmy hippos.

always nice to end this addition of new state with happy news. thank you for watching. backed with business news shortly. hello there. it's going to be turning colder right across the uk as we head through the rest of the week. sunny spells and showers through the day on thursday. lots of rainbow spotted by our weather watchers towards the north. that theme at least is set to continue, so more blustery showers, a brisk northwesterly wind and just some chillierfeeling air with a possibility of some nighttime frosts in the more rural sheltered spots. why? well, because this cold front will be sinking southwards and eastwards as we head through the day on friday, introducing that colder feeling air. already a chilly start to the day

from north wales, across northern england, scotland and northern ireland — some showers blowing in here. a cold front pushes more clouds towards the far southeast of england and some outbreaks of rain. and the hang—back of that rain is still across parts of kent, sussex into perhaps eastern areas of hampshire. as we head through the afternoon on friday, it will eventually clear. temperatures now round about the seasonal average, a few showers, particularly out towards the west, most frequent across northern and western scotland, a brisk westerly wind blowing, and some of those showers are likely to be wintry over the high ground. gales across the northern isles and the far northwest of scotland. now, low pressure continues to push eastwards just to the north of scotland as we head through friday and into saturday. saturday, a particularly cold start to the day. temperatures for many will drop back to low single figures, and in the shelter of that brisk westerly—to—north—westerly wind, we're likely to see a touch of frost, though gardeners beware. also some icy stretches out there as well. saturday, a day of sunshine and showers again,

the showers most frequent in the north and the west. some of the showers could be wintry over the tops of the hills just about anywhere across the uk. there will be some sunny spells in between, but a lot of added wind chill. these temperatures are below the seasonal average. it will actually feel colder than that because of the strength of the wind, too. but there will be some sunshine here and there as well, and it does look like it's going to turn a bit sunny up through the day on sunday. brief ridge of high pressure should keep us largely dry, but clouding over towards the west by the end of the day. low pressure always close by as we head through into the start of next week, so it's going to be feeling colder. we'll see the drop in temperature and it will be quite showery. some longer spells of rain at times too as we head through next week, so unsettled and feeling cooler. bye— bye.

a landmark lawsuit against apple as the us government accuses the company of monopolising america's smartphone market. and what lies ahead for asia's second largest economy as inflation heats up. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm mariko oi. let's begin in america. shares in apple have closed 4%

lower, after the us department ofjustice filed a landmark lawsuit against the company. it is accusing the tech giant of monopolising the smartphone market. apple denies the claims and has vowed to fight the lawsuit. it is the third time the company has been sued by thejustice department since 2009. the bbc�*s michelle fleury has more from new york. more than a billion of us around the world own an iphone. for many people, it's almost unthinkable that they would use any other sort. for me, apple works a little bit better than android. i have had an android before. it didn't do too well with me. it's just what my parents always got me and it'sjust easy to stick with it. the rest of my family also has an iphone so they're just very compatible. i think having an iphone is practical— i think having an iphone is practical because of- i think having an iphone is practical because of rest l i think having an iphone is| practical because of rest of i think having an iphone is - practical because of rest of my family— practical because of rest of my family have _ practical because of rest of my family have an— practical because of rest of my family have an iphone - family have an iphone and they're just _ family have an iphone and they're just very— family have an iphone and . they're just very compatible. all of which makes it one of the most successful companies. last year sales ofjust iphone

made it more than £150 billion in revenues.