that's it from sports day, website, that's it from sports day, bye—bye for now. the number of anti—semitic hate crimes recorded by some of the uk's largest police forces rose sharply in the weeks following the hamas attack on israel. data released by 31 forces show incidents peaked in larger urban areas, including in west yorkshire, the west midlands, greater manchester and merseyside. however hate crime overall appears to have fallen significantly over the last decade. our home editor mark easton has this report. stop taking out innocent civilians! killing children every single day! in the weeks after the start of the israel hamas conflict, tensions spilled over into a spike in anti—semitic and islamophobic hate incidents in the uk. this is anti—semitism. data obtained from freedom

of information requests show that in england's more diverse urban areas, police saw a rise in anti—jewish incidents in the month following the hamas attacks on october the 7th. greater manchester police recorded 7a anti—semitic offences, up from 15 in the same period a year earlier. west midlands police recorded 22, up from just one. west yorkshire police recorded a9, up from 29. and the british transport police recorded 87 incidents, up from eight in the same month a year before. we have seenjewish people who are worried about sending their children to school, about going to synagogue, about wearing anything that might allow other people to identify them as jewish. the pro—palestinian marches in london saw arrests for suspected anti—semitic offences, with the met reporting last month that 19 people had later been charged with anti—jewish hate crimes. in some places, there has also been an increase in anti—muslim

hate incidents. hello, you do takeaways? yes. ok, so i come over and take away your life. bleep, bleep. israel for ever. this palestinian restaurant in london received abusive messages in the days after the hamas attack. the situation in the middle east has increased fear in bothjewish and muslim neighbourhoods in britain, every alleged hate crime adding to those anxieties. however, it appears community relations have since started to improve and overall, hate crime appears to have fallen significantly in the last two decades. mark easton, bbc news. in the uk — files released today show how tony blair's government considered radical policies to cut immigration in 2003, including setting up a holding centre on the isle of mull. sanchia berg reports. 20 years ago, asylum seekers climbing the eurostar fences desperate to get to the uk. images like these prompted the prime minister to consider radical measures.

files released today at the national archives include a document prepared for tony blair injanuary 2003. entitled asylum: the nuclear 0ption, it asked whether the government should break away from international norms, support safe havens in third countries, set up a detention centre on the isle of mull. these earlier files show what led up to the nuclear option for asylum — tony blair's frustration at the numbers of people seeking asylum in the uk. he wanted to bring them down and, in december 2002, he wrote, "we must search out even more radical measures." this is so similar to the debate that we're having now and the proposals — radical proposals — that are being pursued. and we were at that point, not publicly to the same degree, but similar proposals being discussed in earnest behind closed doors.

there are two big difference between these ideas and the rwanda scheme today. asylum seekers would still apply to britain, rather than a country like rwanda. and tony blair's most radical plans were never pursued. lou the number of asylum claims did fall, but the labour government underestimated how many illegal migrants would come once eight eastern european countries joined the eu in 200a. government underestimated how many legal migrants would come once eight eastern european countries joined the eu in 200a. sanchia berg, bbc news. covid and flu are still on the rise in england, with new data showing the number of infections growing — though with less of an impact on the health service than at this covid and flu are still on the rise 0ur health editor hugh pym has been looking at the figures and is here. yes, it's always a busy time of year, and with winter viruses spreading, the health system is under growing pressure. the latest figures from nhs england show there was a daily average

of 9a2 patients with flu in hospitals last week, nearly six times more than late last month. and patients in hospital with covid numbered 3,620 in england last week, up from about 2,200 the month before. there are also more cases of norovirus in hospitals. but it's worth remembering that things were a lot worse this time last year, with 3,746 flu patients and just over 9,000 with covid. lengthy ambulance queues were building up outside hospitals, and some a&e units were really struggling. hospital bosses say this time, ambulance handover delays are much lower, but they are really worried about next week and further into january if flu and covid cases continue rising. that's because of the planned six—day strike byjunior doctors in england, the longest such walkout in the history of the nhs. the action will begin at 7am on wednesday, january 3rd and continue till 7am

on tuesday, january 9th. in wales, junior doctors will be on strike for three days in mid—january. the early days of a new year are always the busiest time for the nhs, and health chiefs are warning of a storm of pressure to come. prices for homes bought with a mortgage in the uk have ended the year 1.8% lower compared to december last year, according to the nationwide building society. and it says prices could fall further in 202a. the lender says consumer confidence remains weak, despite suggestions that the bank of england may cut interest rates next year. 0ur chief economics correspondent dharshini david reports. with 14 interest rate rises over the last two years, mortgage rates have tripled since 2021. that's taken their toll on buyers. prices of properties sold with a mortgage fell by i.8%, according to the nationwide. they slipped in all parts of the uk except scotland

and northern ireland. but analysts were expecting an even bigger decline, but lenders have been offering extra help to struggling homeowners, for example extending the term of loans or delaying repayments, which meant that the level of forced sales or repossessions remains very low. so the number of transactions is actually 10% lower than it was prior to the pandemic. it would have been even lower, but more people, where they can, are using cash to buy. they're not covered by the survey. so what lies in store as 2024 looms? well, mortgage rates are starting to ease. however, the average first—time buyer is still spending 38% of their take—home pay on mortgage repayment. and mortgage lenders too are struggling. so with affordability so stretched, many analysts think it could be another subdued year for property values. dharshini david, bbc news.

sniffer dogs, often used to find illegal drugs or explosives in public places, are now being trained to sniff out illegal e—cigarettes. a trading standards team in staffordshire has been using the dogs to tackle the sale of oversized vapes, which contain dangerous levels of chemicals. tim muffettjoined the team on a raid. trading standards. hello? looking for and sniffing out illegal vapes and tobacco. you that's 4,000 packs of illegal vapes. we are in tamworth, on raids with police, staffordshire county council trading standards and griff the sniffer dog. these here are empty master cases for cigarettes, so these would hold 10,000 cigarettes. there's illegal tobacco in there, but they have obviously just dumped these out here.

i work all over the country for over 100 trading standards teams so, i yeah, it's a phenomenal problem. there's a big trend in terms of vapes that has happened recently where there's a lot of illegal product that are out in the marketplace. part of our role is to remove those products. legal vapes and e—cigarettes should carry no more than two millilitres of liquid. it is that liquid which contains nicotine and flavouring. but some illegal items, like this one, carry far more — 18 millilitres in this case. that will deliver thousands of puffs, the equivalent of smoking more than 100 cigarettes. illegal items are sometimes easy to spot, but increasingly they have been carefully hidden, which is why griff is a busy dog. he has been trained to use his incredible sense of smell to sniff out tobacco and nicotine. what difference does a dog make to this job? 0h, a huge difference.

the concealments are getting more sophisticated and a human search team just cannot find them. in derby, griff found quite possibly one of the most sophisticated illegal tobacco concealments that we have ever found. it was a whole kitchen unit with the fridge and the cupboards, everything. it had all been mounted on hydraulic rams and using a remote control, the concealment would basically raise up to actually create a hiding place for the cigarettes and the vapes. without a dog, there is absolutely no way you would have found that concealment. it could mean more work for griff, but not to worry — he seems to love it! tim muffett, bbc news, tamworth. judging by the amount he's wagging his tail, he loves thatjob, doesn't he?

now it's time for a look at the weather with louise lear. hello there. love it or hate it — new year's eve is just around the corner. and once again, it looks likely that the weather is going to play a leading role when pulling down the final curtain of this year, because this weekend we are likely to see further heavy rain. snow is likely even at lower levels in the north for a time. and once again, the winds are a feature. it's this area of low pressure that's drifting towards our shores and it will gradually move its way steadily east. ahead of it — brief ridge of high pressure that's going to allow for those temperatures in scotland to fall well below freezing. a cold, icy, but hopefully sunny start to your new year's eve. that's where the best of the drier weather will be. cloud and rain gathers out to the west, some of it really heavy across north—west england, wales, south—west england, accompanied by gales, particularly on exposed coast. but central and south—eastern england will stay dry and bright and still relatively warm with 11—12 degrees celsuis. a colder story in scotland. and where that frontal system then bumps into that cold air, that's when we're likely to see the risk of significant snow for a time, and it may well cause some disruption even

at lower levels. now, it will gradually turn back to rain as we start to see some milder air pushing in. but as i say, there could be some issues. keep abreast of the weather forecast and tune into your bbc local radio station. on sunday, the low pressure still centred up into the north west, slightly milder start for most of us, 2—9 degrees first thing on sunday morning. but that low sitting to the north—west will continue to push in a frequent rush of showers for our new year's eve. so the showers out to the west and some of these will gradually feed their way steadily eastwards as we go through the afternoon. sheltered eastern areas, staying relatively dry and bright. most of the frequent showers out to the west, windy along channel coasts — temperatures between 8—10 degrees. some of these showers will push east as we go through the evening. frequent rash of showers into northern ireland and western scotland, but north—east scotland faring a little better than of late. dry — we should keep some sunshine and it should stay largely dry into the evening.

now, as we move into new year's day — on the whole, a quieter story. need keep an eye on this frontal system down to the south, but for many it will be slightly cooler and slightly quieter, but there's still going to be some rain around at times. take care.

live from london. this is bbc news. russia launches one of its biggest attacks on ukraine since the war began — authorities say at least 30 people have been killed. as more detail emerges about the attacks — president biden urges congress to �*step up�* military aid to ukraine. israel expands its ground offensive into palestinian refugee camps in central gaza, forcing thousands to flee. the family of a �*good samaritan�* who died while helping a stranger in sheffield has paid tribute. chris marriott's family said he "devoted his life to helping others".

hello, i'm anjana gadgil. the uk defence secretary has announced that hundreds of british—made air defence missiles are being shipped to ukraine. it follows one of the biggest aerial attacks by russia since the war began. at least 30 people have been killed and more than 160 injured in a wave of deadly explosions across the country. ukraine's air force says it has "never seen so many locations targeted simultaneously". cities hit include kyiv, lviv in the west, 0desa in the south, and dnipro, kharkiv and zaporizhzhia in eastern ukraine. a maternity hospital and shopping mall were among buildings damaged and destroyed. poland has said an object entered the nato country's airspace overnight. a polish general says the object, which is likely to have been a russian missile, spent less than three minutes over polish territory.