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announcer: and now, "bbc news" >> i'm caitríona perry in washington and this is bbc world news america. israel's prime minister doubles down on plans for a grand offensive in rafah regardless of any plans for a cease-fire and hostage deal. columbia university threatens to expel students who occupy the campus building as antiwar protests at universities continue. a new york judge fines donald trump for violating his gag order and warns of jail time if he attacks witnesses or jurors once again. ♪ hello and welcome to world news america. let's begin with tensions on

college campuses here in the u.s.. columbia university has threatened to expel student protesters who occupied an dozens of antiwar protesters seized the hall defying a deadline to disperse. video footage shows demonstrators locking arms in front of the building with a group barricading themselves inside. they say they plan to remain there until the university cuts ties with israel. the white house said protests must be peaceful and lawful. the statement continues, forcibly taking over buildings is not peaceful, it is wrong. that is the latest escalation in a series of protests rocking u.s. campuses at the university of texas in atin, where police clashed with demonstrators monday. elsewhere, some negotiations are making protests. -- progress.

brown university has made a deal with protesters, they have said they will hold a vote on divestment if the protesters pack up. we go to our correspondents on the ground. at columbia university and at the university of texas in austin. tom, what is the scene like at the moment? [chanting] >> we have been here for three or four hours. when we showed up, there was no one here at all. the central lawn yesterday had been cleared by texas state oopers who moved in, some armed with batons and bolt cutters, to move the tented encampment on the side. the university said that it was a breach of university rules that they say they have repeatedly warned the protesters it would be cleared if they did not leave voluntarily. we saw tensions escalated

yesterday as the police moved in. more than 100 people, the protesters removed, dragged away, the police filmed forcibly doing that. i spoke to one protester who said he s sprayed with pepper spray a little further on past the demonstration itself. it seemed calm when we got here. about 40 or 50 people have been sitting in a circle having a question and answer session, including with some faculty members. a smaller group of counter protesters. in the last few minutes, things more lively as you can hear. but it has remained peaceful today. >> let's go up to new york. is there a similar situation there? >> quite simply, columbia university is really cracking down on students, following the seizure of the building last night.

it is a redline for the university and they have said anyone involved in that faces expulsion. they set this 2:00 p.m. local deadline for protesters to clear out of the encampment. that did not happen. one of the students that has been suspended is actually the lead negotiator in the talks between the university administrators and the students. he is responsible for trying to get demands met. we spoke with him on world news america last night. i caught up with him earlier today. he is pretty much in limbo. >> so, as of now, i cannot access the university, any health care. i'm not sure about my housing, because i live at columbia housing. so i will just wait until the hearing that they are offering. >> when is that? >> we are not sure.

i don't think the university has the capacity to process plus 150 suspensions in a matter of days, so this may take weeks and in these weeks i wouldn't have access to either the university, the health care here, but also the exams, the exams are next week. >> now, if his suspension is permanent, it is likely he could be kicked out of the u.s. he said to me as a palestinian, he still felt like the lucky one. he said what he is going through right now doesn't compare to what palestinians are suffering in gaza. he also said to me that at some point he believes that the university will have to compromise with students because even though negotiations have completely fallen down, they said that the protests won't stop.

>> thank you both for that. for more on campus tensions, i have been speaking to a professor of government at columbia university's department of anthropology. professor, you have been at the protests, formed part of the human chain at one point. how would you characterize the demonstrations at this moment? >> well, at this moment there are really no demonstrations. there is a building occupation. we are all on the outside, because there is a lockdown, so we are unable to go in. it is very fluid situation. as i see it, from the time the encampment began, the university insisted on seeing it as a crime scene, not as a site of protest.

and that is when they called in the first contingent of police. that is when arrests were made. and even the police chief said he was the pride -- surprised that students were nonviolent, polite, and law-abiding, and he didn't see any clear and present danger which justified the police coming in. >> should students who are demonstrating and refusing to leave encampments or who are occupying buildings, should they be suspended as we have seen in at least one ce of the student negotiator, who says he has been suspended? >> students are not trespassing because th are students. they are not occupying or at least they were not occupying any classroom or anything of the sort. they were on the lawn. they were not shouting or interrupting any other activity.

and the best thing for the university to do, the tradition at columbia has been that if you are a student protest, everybody expects negotiations to follow. negotiations didn't follow. the university treated it as a crime scene. they called in the police. >> professor, there are other students who are saying they feel unsafe passing by the encampment and the demonstrators and that there have been reports of antisemitic champs. -- chants. >> the university has been claiming this from the outset. >> has have some students as well. >> the university has been claiming that some students have said to the university what you just said. the point is this, the university set up a commission, a task force on anti-semitism, the task force issued a report. the report had only two lines on

anti-semitism. the report said some jewish students who support the state of israel are afraid. in the second sentence was other jewish students who are critical of the state of israel are also afraid. the real situation on campus is that there has been a split in the jewish student body, as there has been a split in the entire campus body. there is the pro-war camp and there is the antiwar camp. that is the split. it is not a split between semites and anti-semites. >> professor, how do you see this resolving then? there have been calls for the university to divest from companies that have a relationship with israel. it has so far refused to do that. you have said the negotiations are going nowhere. what happens next? how will the debt -- along with the demonstrations continued for?

>> the university has stopped negotiating. ok? it has stopped negotiating. the students have won more through negotiations. what is the way forward? the way forward is more negotiations. there is absolutely no reason for e university to halt the negotiations, so long as the students are willing to negotiate, the university should negotiate. >> alright, we will wait to see what happens next. we have to leave it there for the moment. professor of government in anthropology at columbia university, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> antiwar protests are also spreading to campuses and other parts of the world.

in canada, demonstrators set up encampments at mcgill university. other canadian universities have warned that camps will not be tolerated on their properties. in france, part of a university was closed after a protest. in lebanon, hundreds of students protested. the country's first coordinated university protests over the war. despite protests and pressure, prime minister netanyahu has once again vowed to launc an offensive into an overcrowded city of rafah. he said he would invade rafah with or without a cease-fire deal. >> we will enter rafah because we have no other choice. we will destroy the hamas battalions there and repatriate all of our abductees. >> rafah is facing a dire humanitarian crisis is more than

half of gaza's entire population is squeezed into the city. many fled there to escape fighting. united nations chief warned that an israeli offensive would be what he called an unbearable escalation. u.s. president biden has repeatedly urged mr. netanyahu not to go ahead with the plan unless civilians are properly protected. u.s. state department says it hasn't seen a credible israeli plan for a rafah operation that would address those concerns. that all comes as negotiations to release hostages in exchange for a pause in fighting have been stalled. israel estimates roughly 130 hostages are still being held captive by hamas. the white house is a deal would result in a six week pause in all fighting. the u.s. secretary of state is in israel to push for the deal. he is set to meet with prime minister netanyahu wednesday. our security correspondent is in jerusalem with more. >> ok, so a lot of things are

happening or about to happen in this part of the world. over the coming hours and days. antony blinken has arrived here. he is spending less than a day in israel. he will be pushing for the cease-fire deal. i don't think he will be too impressed by the statements from prime minister netanyahu talking about going into rafah whether or not there is a cease-fire deal or truce deal because the u.s. is supposed to israel going into rafah. you also have got the icc, this is a real threat being taken very seriously by prime minister netanyahu and his cabinet. this is the threat by the international criminal court that israel believes is about to issue arrest warrants for a number of senior israeli

military and political figures includinprime minister netanyahu for or at least in relation to israel's treatment of palestinians both in gaza and the west bank. prime minister netanyahu is absolutely livid about this. he has issued a furious rebuttal, saying this would be a historic mistake, but he is clearly very worried. even though israel is not a signatory to the icc, if these warrants were issued, that is 124 countries secant visit. it would make israel something of a pariah state. hamas could be announcing their acceptance or rejection of it. if the deal was signed, in

return for large numbers of palestinians, then it is likely they would not go ahead. that would give everyone briefing space. >> i'm joined by ambassador james jeffrey. thanks indeed for joining us. the comments from the israeli prime minister. does that render the whole thing pointless. >> not necessarily. it could. what he is signaling is you have a choice. accept a cease-fire and then we will have a discussion about a long-term comment.

on the other hand, we will be going in and washington is working with the israelis on how to do that. it could push hamas off the negotiating platform or put pressure on hamas to do a deal to forestall, the one thing they don't want to go into rafah. >> if they do go in, joe biden has described it. >> the u.s. has seen the plan. the u.s. is nervous about green lighting and israeli offensive if it turns out to lead to the orinda civilian casualties we have seen before. the israelis have had a plan for some time. i have talked to the israelis

and been briefed on the plan and i know the u.s. government has. >> why is the u.s. government saying they haven't seen a plan? >> i would read that as they don't like what they have heard, it isn't a sufficient plan for them. the other thing is the white house is trying to pressure the israelis to accept the cease-fire. that is so important to get the hostages back and to buy time for humanitarian deliveries to increase and to perhaps find a way to end this not by israel going away, but by some nonlethal end of hamas' military control of gaza. there are other ways to do this. >> they have not indicated they are going to do anything near that at this point in time. you mentioned the hostages. we have heard from hamas in recent time that they don't know

where all of the hostages are and that some of them may no longer be alive. how does the deal work out when the whereabouts of some of the individuals that people so desperately want to get back is unknown? >> tragically, the israelis have had to deal with this. having dealt with american hostages when i was in government, this is terrible -- to the families, the individuals themselves. the israelis have dropped their demands down to 33 hostages in return for 900 palestinians in prison to be released. and about a 5-6 week cease-fire. that is the plan on the table right now and hamas will either take it or leave it. >> secretary blinken is in the middle east having conversations in terms of the normalization betweesaudi arabia and israel

in return for the recognition of the palestinian state on the day after. what is the likelihood of that happening? >> the u.s. would like to see the eventual recognition of a palestinian state as part of the two state solution. i don't think that is the u.s. expectation or the saudi demand. the saudi demand's progress toward a two state solution. the surprising thing is that despite the horrendous scenes out of gaza in the six plus months of fighting, the saudi's and other arab states are staying with this idea of an alliance with the u.s. and israel and they proved that under combat conditions in the face of the iranian onslaught a few weeks ago. we still have a real chance for not only peace and stability in gaza, but also in the region as a whole if we can get a cease-fire or get some kind of disarmament of hamas that opens

up first gaza and then the region to a stable situation. >> just finally and i wanted to ask in terms of the intervention of the international criminal court, the u.s. and israel is party to it, but if it does issue arrest warrants for the prime minister and some of his team, what is that going to mean for the situation? >> it is going to be terrible because while the u.s. will ignore it, many european partners of hours that are very important for a stable, peaceful world are going to take it seriously unfortunately and this is going to make it very difficult to get anybody in israel, not just bibi netanyahu, but the entire israeli public will turn on not just the europeans who will start putting out arrest warrants, but they will turn on washington and president biden. >> ok, we leave it the for the moment. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. >> an update on the former

president donald trump's criminal trial in new york the former president was signed nine -- find $9,000 for repeatedly violating the court gag order. the judge warned donald trump that if he continues to ignore the court's ban on attacking witnesses, jurors, and court staff, he could face jail time. the former president is accused of trying to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to the adult film actress stormy daniels over an alleged affair ahead of the 2016 election. he has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsify business records and denies the affair. now to kenya where at lst 169 people have died after a week of severe flooding in the country. the president has announced people will be asked to evacuate

from wednesday. the army has been mobilized to help with evacuations. a reservoir washed away a village. our correspondent has been to some of the affected areas and spoken to some of the people about their experiences. >> we saw a woman in front of us double over crying because she heard that her child's body had been found. she wouldn't speak to us understandably and it was a terrible moment for her. we talked to another man who had just returned from the morgue. where he had seen the body of his nine-year-old son. he and his daughter told us the story of how the water had rushed into their house. the daughter who was 17 had been carried away with it, but hung onto a tree branch. the nine-year-old boy drowned. there are so many stories like that here.

searching for the bodies is a bit of closure. it tells you what the numbers are. >> let's have a look at some other important news from around the world. hades counsel has important -- appointed as interim president. he will lead the body which was sworn in last week to restore order. the former leader was forced to step down amid spiraling violence. police in georgia fired tear gas and water cannons at demonstrators outside parliament in the country's capital. protests have been growing over a controversial law that would force organization receiving more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as foreign agents. it carries connotations of spying. the opposition and western nations comparative to laws

pressure uses to crush dissent. a 14-year-old boy has died and four others were injured in a sword attack in northeast london. a 36-year-old man is in custody and the attacks are not thought to be terror-related. police have been called to reports of a car crashing into a house and people have been stabbed. king charles spoke to patients about the shock of a cancer diagnosis as he returned to public engagements since his own diagnosis. he met with fellow patients at a specialist treatment center in london. there has been cautious optimism about the king's condition as he continues his treatment. remember, you can keep up-to-date with all of the day's news at our website, bbc.com/news. you can see what we are working on anytime on your favorite social media platform. that is it for today. i'm caitríona perry. for all the team here, thanks for watching

announcer: funding for presentation of this p provid. financial services firm, raymond james. 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: get the free pbs app now and stream the best of pbs.

geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. students occupy a columbia building as