US House's prolonged leadership crisis, and the world's hottest chilli pepper
| | | | | | | Hello. US President Joe Biden has landed in Tel Aviv, where he faces the diplomatic aftermath of the deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital that sparked widespread outrage and the cancellation of his summit with Arab leaders in Jordan. My colleague Rushdi Abu Alouf surveys the scene of the blast in Gaza City. In the US, Anthony Zurcher looks at what's next for Jim Jordan and the Republican party after the lawmaker failed to win a majority in the first round of voting for the House Speaker role. Finally, the world of spicy sauces just got more fiery after a chilli pepper known as Pepper X was recognised as being the world's hottest. |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | Biden begins high-stakes Israel visit | | | | Mr Biden held a joint news conference with Mr Netanyahu shortly after landing. Credit: Reuters |
| | US President Joe Biden's visit to Israel was always going to be a high-stakes gamble, says our North America editor Sarah Smith. The situation has now grown even more volatile following a deadly explosion at the Al Ahli hospital, in Gaza, that killed hundreds of people. Palestinian officials have blamed an Israeli airstrike, but Israel says it was caused by a misfired rocket from the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. After landing in Tel Aviv, Mr Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the hospital blast appeared to have been caused "by the other team." Mr Biden had been due to also travel to Jordan to hold talks with the leaders of Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority, which rules the occupied West Bank. That second leg of the trip has now been cancelled. | | | |
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| AT THE SCENE | Gaza City, Gaza | | Surgery in the street | | While Israeli and Palestinian officials offer differing accounts as to what caused the blast at the Al Ahli Arab hospital, doctors and civilians are dealing with the consequences. | | | | Rushdi Abu Alouf, BBC News |
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| | Doctors are treating people on the corridor of the hospital. They are doing surgery for people who are seriously injured. Volunteers, nurses, medical students are rushing to the hospital to help and support the doctors at the hospital, who are really struggling to save people's lives. People are still trying to remove rubble with bare hands and find any survivors, transporting the bodies to the hospital - there's no place to put the bodies. They are in a courtyard of the hospital. They have been making surgeries in the street. |
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| | | | | | | | | | | | Beyond the headlines | | How the US Speaker saga could unfold | | | | Twenty of Jim Jordan's fellow Republican lawmakers opted to support someone else. Credit: Getty Images |
| | Republican nominee Jim Jordan has failed to win a majority in a first round of voting for the role of Speaker of the House of Representatives, prolonging the crisis of leadership in the US's lower chamber of Congress. North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher explains the next steps. | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | Mysterious monoliths | | The standing stones of the Indian state of Meghalaya are shrouded in folklore. | | |
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| | | | And finally... | | A South Carolina-based breeder and grower spent a decade working on creating the world's hottest chili pepper. Ed Currie's efforts were recognized by the Guinness World Records, which certified Pepper X as bringing more heat than the previous record holder, the Carolina Reaper. Mr Currie described what happened after he ate one of his creations. |
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