welcome to newsday. reporting live from singapore, i'm mariko oi. the headlines. college protests over gaza intensify, police and student protesters clash. the us secretary of state antony blinken arrives in china as washington steps up aid for its allies in the region. and runaway horses tear through london — smashing into vehicles and leaving four people injured.

hello. we begin in the us, where police have clashed with pro—palestinian demonstrators as a wave of protests intensifies at university campuses across the country. skirmishes broke out between protestors and police at the university of southern california in los angeles. we'll hear from our reporter there in a moment. at the university of texas in austin, the governor sent in state troopers in riot gear to confront demonstrators who waved palestinian flags and chanted "free palestine". these demonstrations have spread since the arrest last week of more than 100 protesters at columbia univerity in new york —

sparking debates about free speech and the right to protest. the us speaker of the house mikejohnson visited columbia university on wednesday. he accused administrators of failing to protectjewish students from what he describes as "virulent antisemitism". much of his speech was drowned out with loud jeering from the students. to all those who gnash their teeth and demand to wipe the state of israel off the map, and attack our innocentjewish students, this simple truth — neither israel nor thejewish students on this campus will ever stand alone. today, hamas issued an endorsement statement of the protesters on this campus, they called them the future leaders of america. it is detestable. all of this has to be said because the cherished traditions of this university have been overtaken right now by radical extremist ideologies. they place a target on the backs ofjewish students in the united states

and here on this campus. emma vardy was at the university of los angeles in california. well, protesters here have been in place since about 8am this morning. they've actually just been asked now to disperse. and it seems like this protest went off pretty peacefully for the last couple of hours. but earlier on, there were clashes between protesters and the usc campus police. there were some protesters, it seemed, who had put up tents and things like that earlier on. they were asked to take those down. that led to some scuffles, clashes between protesters and police. but after that, the demonstration just continued on its way, and has continued pretty peacefully from then on. now, of course, just like on other campuses here, there has been tensions rising between pro—palestinian groups

and pro—israel activists. we've seen some pretty heated arguments between some students, some protesters here today, but they have now been asked to disperse. and there will be questions to answer really for usc and other universities about how they are dealing with this, whetherjewish students feel threatened on campus, whether it's right to cancel some speakers, as happened here at usc. and just about getting the balance right in how you handle this, as well as upholding, of course, free speech and student's entitlement to debate these very emotive issues. indeed, as you say, this is a highly polarising issue. what's been the response from president biden? well, the white house has condemned incidents of anti—semitism on college campuses. joe biden spoke out about that. but for some people, that helps to inflame things because there are students here who will be protesting for pro—palestinian causes who say, look, actually what they feel, that

the backlash is that universities are shutting down free speech. one particular point of tension here in los angeles for usc was that the valedictorian, the top graduate of the year that was chosen by the university, she was asked to cancel her speech at graduation, essentially because there were accusations of anti—semitism. the university felt that by her speech going ahead, it could inflame the already existing tensions on campus, and therefore her speech was cancelled. but what happened was that had the effect of galvanising even more people to attend this protest today. and some of the placards you saw here today were about that speech being cancelled. so it's very difficult for people to get the balance right here.

israel is moving ahead and planning for what is expected to be a pretty full—scale military incursion into rafah, the city in southern gaza, where israel says the remnants, significant remnants of hamas fighters and leadership are still based. israel says it has destroyed about 19 hamas military battalions, meaning there are about 4—5 battalions, hundreds of heavily armed men, remaining in southern gaza, with the hamas leadership.

israel has of course had to respond to these criticisms and appeals from allies, including the us in recent weeks, not to undertake this full—scale military invasions. principally because of the humanitarian consequences. there are thought to be about i consequences. there are thought to be abouti million people in and around rafah in southern gaza, people in dire circumstances, and the americans and british and others including aid agencies are really worried about the growing humanitarian crisis. some evidence that tents and other shelters are being built in preparation for the invasion to move some people away from rafah, buti million people is a lot to move in the event of a military operation. egypt and israel are thought to have been holding talks about the consequences of a big military operation on the border with egypt. it's also worrying for israeli families. remember, about 130 hostages are thought to still be held in southern

gaza, 100 still remain, and the israeli families of the hostages are increasingly worried that the military operation in this area might jeopardise the lives of the remaining hostages. mass graves are reported to have been found at the site of hospitals. 300 bodies have been found. the israel defence forces have described reports that they buried bodies as baseless and unfounded. a warning, some viewers might find images in this report distressing. bombed into brokenness, khan younis today from above. and down among the ruins, a mother and sister search for a missing son. nabil, aged 23,

was killed injanuary. his mother and sister have been searching for nabil�*s body ever since. for two weeks since israeli forces left here, they've come to the nasser hospital. translation: even if he's. a dead body, i want my son. just bring me my son. my heart has been broken for the past three months since i lost him. this is a place where nobody comes in hope of finding the living. only if they're lucky — the dead, and an end to searching whose trauma is difficult to comprehend. translation: i saw bodies that had signs of torture. _

they were executed. some had their hands and legs tied together and were executed. how long will this continue? the graves are now at the centre of conflicting claims between hamas and local aid workers on one side and the israel defense forces on the other. hamas claims some of the dead were executed, had their hands the israelis describe these allegations as baseless, saying they'd opened existing graves to check for dead israeli hostages. the examination was carried out respectfully while maintaining the dignity of the deceased. bodies were examined and which did not belong to israeli hostages, and they were returned to their place. colleagues at bbc verify have confirmed the existence of graves at the hospitals before israel began its

operations in both complexes. buried like this because staff couldn't reach cemeteries due to fighting in the area. today, a senior un 0fficial told me there had to be an independent investigation to establish the facts. what we cannot allow in this current situation, where we have seen in gaza numerous grave human rights violations, many of them potentially war crimes, and where we have raised alarm of potential atrocity crimes, that this becomes another blip. the intensity of violations have been massive. it is early afternoon at al nasser hospital, and nabil�*s mother has been directed to this section of the graveyard. nabil might be here. "i swear it's him, it's his jacket. "my son, my son.

i found him," she says. "my life, my heart, my son". to rejoice that your dead child has been lifted from an anonymous grave... that is a measure of the agony engulfing gaza. fergal keane, bbc news, jerusalem. this is bbc news.

the us secretary of state antony blinken is in china aiming to put relations between the countries on a steadierfooting. mr blinken arrived in shanghai late on wednesday, for meetings with business leaders before heading to beijing for talks with foreign minister wang yi. though tensions have eased since last year,

disagreements on issues such as trade and security remain. there was a sharp illustration of that on thursday when president biden signed a foreign aid package which includes $8 billion for allies in the asia—pacific, including taiwan. here's china's reaction. translation: the insertion of taiwan-related content i into the us congressional bill seriously violates the one china principle and the three joint communiques of china and the us, and sends the wrong signal to separatist forces in taiwan. we urge the us to honour its commitment of not supporting taiwan's independence with concrete actions and to stop arming taiwan in any way. stephen mcdonell, aid to taiwan

is one of many issues, as president biden signed into law a bill that could ban tiktok. what is the main objective in your view? what is the main ob'ective in your viewvh your view? plenty of possibilities - your view? plenty of possibilities for - your view? plenty of| possibilities for them your view? plenty of. possibilities for them to disagree on this trip. so many points of tension. tension in the taiwan strait to ukraine. normally you might expect such trips to be attempts to find common ground. that is how they have been in recent times. but in the run—up to this trip, the us has accused china of being the main supporter of russia's war effort in ukraine. and we've got china saying that the us is hypocritical, because it is supplying its own weapons to ukraine. and also inflaming

tensions in the taiwan strait, by supplying arms to taiwan. but antony blinken, i suppose as a means of trying to defuse the tensions are somewhat, started his trip with a basketball game. in shanghai, he attended a big local match, a very close one by all accounts by the way, with the golden bulls defeating the shanghai sharks byjust a point. would have been very exciting. basketball is a cultural link between china and the us, so you can see why he would do something like that. to try and portray a lighter side to this diplomacy, because they have lots of other talks to come. business leaders today in shanghai, and tomorrow, the big day in beijing, when antony blinken will sit down with his chinese counterpart wang yi, and possibly also with xi jinping himself, the ultimate leader in china, to try to work through some of these, as i

say, very tense issues between the world's two superpowers. fix, the world's two superpowers. a lot to discuss. stephen, thank you. a lot more coverage on secretary blinken�*s visit to china, stay tuned for that on bbc news. continue the dialog when the presidents met months ago where exchanges of dialog have occurred on the among our military and cabinet never ministers such as secretary yellen in talking about trade issues. they are clearly differences but a good foundation now to try to improve the relationship, because the world is depending

on close cooperation and collaboration between these countries for global issues like climate change, terrorism, halting the proliferation of nuclear weapons. as you say, they are at least talking but washington seems increasingly frustrated when it comes to chinese aid to russia, will that be one of the topics discussed? the hot spots around the world would be a matter of discussion, i'm sure antony blinken would reinforce the message that china must not provide direct military aid to russia, but also china needs to try to move for peace and reduction of hostilities in the middle east, in terms of the drone attacks against ships that are in the gulf region. making sure that china is not supporting iran, and the manufacturing of weapons and shipments of weapons to russia in the fight against ukraine.

so, these hot global issues will be discussed, and antony blinken will deliver a frank message that china needs to stay out of these conflicts. would you say on those topics that they disagree, beijing's messages and washington's messages have been rather consistent, so is this a matter of continuing to talk but agreeing to disagree? the united states and china have major differences between our two countries in terms of our economy, trade, intellectual property, but we also have many areas in which we must cooperate, in which our scientists and researchers are collaborating, in which we are engaged in world initiatives such as trying to halt the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

those discussions and collaborations must continue and intensify while recognizing that we have differences. you spoke a bit about the potential ban of tiktok — the chinese would object to that, but quite frankly this is a matter of national security and making sure that the data of americans is not transmitted to china. what's more, china bans many of our social media entities and apps from even operating and being present in china. facebook, instagram, are not allowed in china, so china should not be so surprised or upset by the united states trying to protect the privacy of its citizens by requiring a sale of tiktok from the chinese conglomerate. before we let you go, hat do you think beijing is hoping to get out of this visit? beijing will express

its concerns about things like taiwan and the assistance package that the recently passed, and the president will sign, providing some military assistance to taiwan, but it is long—standing, we have done it for many decades, even since the normalization of relations between the us and china. of course, we want the future of taiwan to be settled by the chinese people and the people of taiwan without force or military threat, but we want itto be done peacefully. so the united states is continuing with its supply of defensive weapons to taiwan to ensure that there is no military action taken by the mainland against taiwan, that the future ofwould be settled peacefully. the bill gives tiktok�*s chinese owner — bytedance — nine months to sell

its stake or the app will be blocked in the united states. tiktok says it'll challenge the move in court. it (sot it's chief executive had his say — on tiktok of course. make no mistake, this is a ban, a ban on tiktok and ban on you and your voice. politicians may say otherwise but don't get confused, many who sponsored the bill admit a tiktok ban is the ultimate goal. tiktok has huge reach. across the us, it has 170 million users. there are concerns among politicians that the chinese authorities could misuse their data. tiktok has consistently denied ever sharing information with the chinese government. it's chief executive has been grilled by lawmakers in the us twice in less than a year. the us is not the only country taking action. india is the largest country to place a blanket ban on the app. it also banned 58 other chinese apps.

other countries have banned tiktok on government owned devices, like australia and canada. in the uk, the british government banned ministers from using it. staff from the european commission, and the nato alliance, are not allowed to have tiktok on their work phones. there were some extraordinary scenes in london this morning, a number of horses from the household cavalry loose on the street. our correspondent ellie price has the story. if it wasn't so dangerous, it would be strangely beautiful. two military horses on the run in central london during the morning rush hour. one hits a taxi... ..and they carry on down fleet street. in total, five household cavalry horses ran loose after unseating four riders. one had been in charge

of two horses. the damage unmistakable as they crashed into several vehicles, including this bus. three soldiers were hospitalised, their injuries not deemed to be life—threatening. the bbc understands a fourth person injured was a cyclist. at such a busy time in the day, there were, of course, plenty of witnesses. when i saw these horses galloping along, its a very surreal thing to see, as you can imagine. then they came running down here. some went off that way, some went straight on, and one of the horses decided to go through a van and made a mess of the van. they were going really, really fast, really galloping down the road. other people around me were really shocked, lots of people were upset. i thought i was watching a film at first. pictures on social media showed members of the public catching and calming one of the horses. eventually all five were caught and were checked over by a vet. the chaos started to unfold near buckingham palace this morning.

the black and the grey made it here to the strand before ending up five miles away at limehouse in east london. we understand it was noise from a nearby building site that causes the horses to spook and then bolt. they unseated their riders, coming down here, and one of the loose horses crashed into a taxi just about here. household cavalry horses are used to loud noises and loud events. every morning, around 150 are exercised on the roads and parks of the capital, to get them used to city sounds. the commanding officer insisted this sort of event was rare, but asked the public to avoid making loud noises around the animals. tonight, all five horses are back at their barracks. ellie price, bbc news. thatisit that is it for this edition of newsday. a lot more on the website. back with the business news shortly. thank you so much

for watching newsday. hello. some really chilly—feeling air for the time of year, and it's going nowhere for the next couple of days. but of course, the sunshine's helping to lift the temperature somewhat. lots of blue sky across many parts of scotland, 13 celsius in edinburgh, butjust seven degrees for these north sea facing coasts such as scarborough. lots of clouds, and a brisk, a bitter northerly wind blowing, too. and as we head through the rest of tonight, there's a little feature running southwards bringing the threat of some further showers, possibly wintry over the hills of scotland. temperatures dipping very close to freezing into thursday morning. watch out for some icy stretches perhaps. and it's still blustery for those north sea facing coasts, and across the northern isles as well. a mixture of sunny spells, but also some showers across many northern areas of england, scotland and northern ireland. more cloud and some showers pushing southwards across england and wales.

temperatures again towards the east just 8—10 degrees celsius, but a little milder again further south and west. now, as we head through thursday night, there'll be a lot of clear spells around. again, it's another cold feeling night for the time of year, the snow levels again dropping across parts of scotland. another frost for many of us as we head into friday morning. again, watch out for some icy stretches here and there. friday, we'll start to see a few changes. this area of low pressure starts to push in to south west england, affecting parts of the channel islands as well, bringing some more showery outbreaks of rain here. and the winds will fall lighter as well, so it won't feel quite so bitterly cold towards those north sea facing coast. north sea facing coasts. but still, the bulk of the showers will be here. a scattering of showers, also some sunny spells, probably sunniest out towards the north and the west again. but temperatures still very low for the time of year, below the average, 8—12 degrees celsius for most of us. things are set to turn a little less cold, though, as we head through the weekend. some milderfeeling air.

and it's going to be quite unsettled, tending to be drier in the north and the west. so, if we just look at this low pressure system, it's spinning in from the south. it's going to give plenty of wet weather, particularly towards the south and the east, but also some milder feeling conditions. temperatures will rise to more or less the seasonal average. so certainly no heat wave. here's the temperature outlook for our capital cities as we head through the weekend and into the start of next week. so not as cold, but really quite showery. bye— bye.

facebook parent company meta forecasts wea ker—than—expected second quarter sales, sending its stock into free—fall. tiktok vows legal action, as president biden signs into law a bill that could ban the social media platform in the us. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm mariko oi. us tech giant meta — the parent company for social media platforms facebook and instagram — reported first—quarter earnings. revenue and earnings both beat expectations but the share price is down over 15% in after hours trading. erin delmore explains why.

meta ceo mark zuckerberg piqued