this is bbc news, the headlines. these are the live scenes in beirut. it's been confirmed to the bbc that a senior hamas official has been killed in an explosion in lebanon. we will have more on that in becoming a half—hour. also in the news, japan's prime minister conference at the five coastguard crew had been killed in a collision between two planes in tokyo's airport. all 379 passengers and crew managed to escape the japan airlines aircraft before it was engulfed in flames. the uk government says it's promise to clear a large part of the backlog of asylum claims with more

than 112,000 claims processed last year. we will have more on the latest in lebanon in a short while. let'sjoin paul in let's join paul in sportscenter. hello from the bbc sport centre. good evening — a huge night awaits the 16 year old wonderkid luke littler, as he hopes to continue his darts dream. the youngest player to ever win a match at the pdc world championship is back in action for the semi finals tonight — where he'll take on fellow englishman, and 2018 champion, rob cross in the final four. littler has already won one hundred thousand pounds in prize money — if he goes all the way and wins the tournament, he would earn himself five hundred thousand and make history. unbelievable. i know that i got the ability to go all the way. i know i've got a good chance. and i know in myself i've got a good feeling that i can go all the way now.

wayne rooney says he does not believe 13 weeks was "sufficient" to — what he says — "oversee changes" at the club. he's been dismissed afterjust 15 games in charge, following a dismal run of form. birmingham were in the top six when rooney took over. but afterjust two wins since then, the club are down to 20th and just 6 points off the relegation zone. in a statement, rooney did admit that results had not been at the level he wanted them to be. the spanish footballer, jenni hermoso, has testified to a madrid court that a kiss from the country's football federation president luis rubiales was "not consensual". rubiales kissed hermoso on the lips after spain won the world cup last year. a judge will now decide whether mr rubiales should be tried for sexual assault and coercion. rubiales denies the allegations. the premier league's frantic festive programme finally comes to an end tonight with two teams that have

enjoyed it so far. sixth place is up for grabs for both teams — west ham will stay there with a win, and move five points clear of manchester united, while brighton would leapfrog both with a win. done d's game with saintjohnson was postponed with waterlogged pitch. rangers beat kilmarnock 3-1. _ waterlogged pitch. rangers beat kilmarnock 3-1. the _ waterlogged pitch. rangers beat kilmarnock 3-1. the last - waterlogged pitch. rangers beat kilmarnock 3-1. the last game i waterlogged pitch. rangers beat| kilmarnock 3-1. the last game of waterlogged pitch. rangers beat - kilmarnock 3-1. the last game of the kilmarnock 3—1. the last game of the day is under way. celtic are making light work again saint mirren 2—0 with 33 minutes on the clock. it's been a day of milestone comeback victories for two former tennis grand slam champions. after almost a year out, rafael nadal looked like he'd never been away as he eased past dominic thiem in the first round of the brisbane international, while emma raducanu also won herfirst match back on the court in auckland — after 259 days out with injury. our tennis correspondent russell fuller watched both matches.

two impressive comebacks from players who have been out nearly a year in brisbane in the pat rafter arena. nadal was very good as he beat dominic thiem 7—5, 6—1, reeling off many of his greatest hits in the first few games of the match alone, an exceptionally good performance, but nadal says it is about backing it up and improve week after week match after match after he recovers from a hip operation lastjune. as for emma raducanu, that was also very encouraging. she won a very tight match after twice serving for it at 5—2 in the third set, only to have her serve broken twice, she managed to win that deciding set 7—5. she was on court 2.5 hours and she served pretty well for much of the match and it was a very encouraging return for a woman who used to be the british number one but returns at 301 in the world rankings after nearly nine months out.

and that's all the sport for now. the uk government says its promise to clear the backlog of asylum claims for the more than 112,000 asylum cases were processed last year the labour party says the government spent manipulating the figures for the from the bbc verified team has been examining the claims. the verified team has been examining the claims. , . ., ., claims. the big claim from the government — claims. the big claim from the government today _ claims. the big claim from the government today is _ claims. the big claim from the government today is that - claims. the big claim from the government today is that it's l claims. the big claim from the i government today is that it's got rid of the legacy backlog for asylum application. this is what rishi sunak told parliament in december 2022 for the 20 talk through the backlog number ten said he was referring to all cases before the 20th ofjune 2022. the home secretary said this morning that all been processed. so the government had fulfilled its promise. but it's complicated. we think the government has gone too far in claiming that the backlog of older cases has gone

completely. have a look at this. this is the number of cases submitted before the 20th ofjune, 2022 for the rishi sunak made the pledge in december and you can see there were about 92,000 still to be processed. there is no doubt that the government has brought this down quite significantly. particularly towards the end of that year. have a look at this, december, there are still 4500 look at this, december, there are still a500 cases left. the government says these are to be looked up at more work needs to be done. what's clear from this from the home offices own figures that there are still some cases in older asylum backlog. it's not gone entirely. it's also worth having a look at how the government has got the backlog down so significantly. these figures are for the first nine months of the year. as you can see, the number of cases being approved has gone up significantly. that's

led critics of the government like nigel garage to say they have rushed claims. —— nigel garage. yellow, the number of withdrawing cases, that is at a record high. it includes people to not pursue their case but also includes the home office deciding to take out all of the system for things like missing applications or not keeping in touch with the home office. finally, have a look at this 0ffice. finally, have a look at this quote from the home offices released today. it says... that often means that they've been withdrawn from the figures as you can see, it's a lot more complicated than some of the government headline claims suggest. i want to show you theirs. although the legacy backlog has gone down considerably this is cases after the

20th ofjune, 2022. they have gone up 20th ofjune, 2022. they have gone up considerably over time. they now stand at 8a,000. more than the legacy backlog was when rishi sunak claims to have gotten rid of it. there is no timescale for dealing with this at the moment. last month, an inquest found that an 0fsted school inspection had contributed to the death of headteacher ruth perry, who took her own life. her family have called for root and branch reform. well, now the new chief inspector says the inspection process needs to be "far more empathetic". in his first interview since taking charge of 0fsted, sir martyn 0liver said lessons must be learned. 0ur education editor branwen jeffreys reports. hisjob matters for children and parents. the new boss of 0fsted will oversee inspections, including schools. schools facing the challenges left by the covid lockdowns.

it's a difficultjob 0fsted has to do, because ultimately we also have to be about high standards. but i think we can do that in a way which is far more empathetic. an 0fsted inspection at this primary contributed to the suicide of head teacher ruth perry. the coroner has warned more lives are at risk without changes. i'm determined that we shall learn those lessons. do you think the tone of 0fsted's response to ruth perry's death was correct? well, i don't think it went far enough, and i'm quite clear on that. there's clearly been been a lot of criticism, and we must accept that criticism in order to have a fresh start and move on. so, what do you want to do, now that you're taking over 0fsted? so, he told me mental—health training for inspectors is a top priority — before any routine inspections restart later in january. but he also wants to listen to parents. at a soft—play centre

in huddersfield, a group of mums meet regularly. most use 0fsted as part of choosing schools. 0fsted is a good thing in that it helps people give a measure of a school, it helps find out problems with a school. my opinion's probably changed... yeah. ..because i think, at the end of the day, the school experience is based on the teachers and the other pupils, rather than any reports or any outcomes. today, head teachers�* unions welcomed the more open tone from 0fsted, but said ministers should scrap one— or two—word judgements of schools. a single—word judgement can be applied to two schools in very, very different positions — so they don't really work, so we're going to have to modify that. but the government uses those single—word judgements right now to determine whether it should intervene in schools or not. so we would have to find another way, but i'm sure we can do that. 0fsted needs to rebuild trust with schools and headteachers,

and some of its credibility. and that's important, because parents rely on 0fsted. he's got a tough reputation, but some change can only be made by government. branwen jeffreys, bbc news. for more on this i spoke with the president of the national association of head teachers, simon kidwell, and started by asking him for his reaction to the comments made by sir martyn 0liver. the comments he has made today is encouraging, that he wants to learn lessons from the tragedy that happened and also the reports we are getting from our members about the impact that inspections have on their mental health. what kind of things to your members say they face when inspections happen? they report mixed things but they say the inspections are brutal, that is a word they use, they say this is the hardest

experience of their professional life, and these are schools getting good overall grades so there is something to do with the inconsistency and the tone in some inspections which is affecting many of our members. sir martin 0liver called for more empathy when it comes to inspections and if you were working with him to improve the inspection process, what would you say to him on top of that? yes, we need to make sure that the complaints procedure is robust so that if you do get an inspector who is not acting with the appropriate empathy and professionalism, the complaints procedure can be enacted upon because at the moment you feel that if you put in a complaint it could affect the overalljudgment for the school and that is not a good place to be. we need to look at the inspection activity itself and one of the reasons why inspections are not going as well as they could is because of the amount of work inspectors have to get through,

they have to do an enormous amount of work over those two days and that is leading to tensions as to why theyjudge everything as to while theyjudge everything from safeguarding to things like the music room. i see that actually do get a one or two word conclusion as a report, and the government says it has no plans to change those judgements but the labour party says it would move to a report card system which would be more expensive, listing strengths and ——expansive areas for improvement. what would you favour is a process in terms of a final report? distilling a school into one single word or a phrase is impossible and we need to look into that and a single word judgment has had its day. i don't think they tell parents anything significant. we have got schools in my area in cheshire that have not had inspections for 12 years since the london olympics

and they are still classed as outstanding but those judgements are out of date so we need to look at the system and give parents the credibility to be able to read a report about the strengths and there is developments at a school. life as an unpaid carer can have a huge impact on a person's mental and physical health. a survey from the charity carers uk found that more than three—quarters of people who responded felt stressed or anxious about their caring role. half of them were dealing with feelings of depression. dorothy cook has been caring for her husband, mike, for more than a decade, after he was diagnosed with a rare neurological condition. abi smitton spent the day with them. some people can spend a lifetime looking for that one person who is their soulmate. and ifound him when i was 17. he's just the most amazing person. we're just really, really connected, and still are. hi, darling!

dorothy and melvin, a love story spanning nearly half a century. he carved a heart and our names in a tree... ..here. and every year that we used to go down, or every other couple of years, he'd take his penknife and re—carve it, because the moss had grown over on the tree. 15 years ago, melvin was diagnosed with a rare and degenerative brain condition called ataxia. he now needs help with everything. food, drinking, walking, mobility, washing — every single aspect of his existence every day derives from the care that i give him. dorothy had to give up work and become melvin�*s full—time carer. are you a little bit cold? do you want me to put the heating on? we're a team.

we do it together. we always have. we do everything together. and we're such a close team. we're so connected. like, we know what each other�*s thinking, what each other�*s doing. dorothy receives a weekly carer�*s allowance. she had also been given some support from nhs continuing health care funding, but in december they were told that money was being withdrawn. "in the last two years, mr cook's condition has remained the same, and he has had no further deterioration in either his health or his ability. we feel his needs are not complex to manage, and do not require a high intensity of input." we asked for help and they cut it off. i'm scared. scared, yeah. i know you're scared. are you all right? am i all right?

yes, darling. i'm all right, yeah. he's progressed to this point in decline. so therefore, surely he's still eligible. he's not got better, he's not improved. and the sad fact is, he's not going to. i want to be able to look after my husband. i want to be his carer. it's an honour and a privilege to do that. we love each other. but we shouldn't be doing it alone without any support. the bristol, north somerset and south gloucestershire integrated care board told us... cheese sandwich.

he'd like a cheese sandwich. dorothy's caring role has taken a huge toll on her physical and mental health. she needs a shoulder replacement, but can't afford to take any time away from melvin. i don't know what ever made me think that i could take this on. i thought i was strong enough as his wife of a8 years that i could do this, and that i could provide all his needs and his cares 2a/7 and become his carer. but this has been the hardest thing that i have ever, ever done. and there are days that i get up and i wake up and i think, i don't know if i'm going to have the time or the energy to be able to do this one more day. it is just incredibly hard, and it has got harder and harder. and i look at him and i think, no matter, i am going to fight for him.

i'm going to do it for him. he deserves that. i'm not going to abandon him. that report was from abi smitton. if you have been affected by any of the issues raised. help is available from bbc action line — just visit bbc.co.uk/actionline from today, working parents in england can apply for more help with their childcare costs. at the moment government support is only available for children over three, but from april eligible two year olds will receive 15 hours of free childcare a week during term—time. but some daycare providers are worried they won't have the resources to cope with the increased demand. here's our education reporter, vanessa clarke. sisters jill and lyndsey know all too well how expensive childcare can be. but in just a few months, their bills will go down for their youngest children.

it'll really help, really help, make such a difference. and i'm really glad that they've actually done something and, you know, we are eligible for something. i stopped working five years ago after my second child was born, just to avoid the child costs. so i go back to work injanuary, so i will pay between january and april, and then in april, obviously, with the 15 hours' free, that'll make a big difference for us. working parents here in marple and across england can now apply to the government for the first phase of what will be a major expansion in funded hours. from april, 15 hours will be available for two—year—olds during term time. but with demand for places rising, are nurseries and childminders ready? people want to expand. people want to, you know, provide more childcare places, but unfortunately they haven't got the staff.

and without qualified — new qualified staff, ready to actually come into the sector, that is not going to be possible for them to deliver this policy. at kids zone in greater manchester, calls from eager parents have been coming in for months. but here, there are concerns about the amount that will be paid for the funded hours. inflation's, like, up here, and the rate's down here. so we've got a big gap on the rates for what we're actually going to be receiving. so, no, i would say it's not enough for us to be able to maintain the quality that we need to maintain. the government is confident this roll—out will be a success. what we're doing is working closely on a monthly basis with local authorities to make sure that each local authority has the number of places it needs to be able to deliver this new offer. parents, from today, can apply for the first 15 hours for their two—year—olds, and we're supporting local

authorities to make sure they've got the money and the people needed to be able to give this to parents. don't you throw them at me! there are three months to go before the roll—out begins. a help for many working parents, but a real challenge for an already stretched sector. vanessa clarke, bbc news. she's been nicknamed polar preet — preet chandi, a british army officer already holds two world records for antarctic trekking — now she's set for a third. captain preet believes she's become the world's fastest woman to complete a solo south pole ski expedition — covering more than eleven—hundred kilometres of antarctic ice in just 31 days, 13 hours and 19 minutes. she's waiting for the guinness world records to verify her feat. earlier i spoke with captain preet chandi joined the programme from antarctica, speaking to us via satellite phone in temperatures 20 degrees below freezing.

yes, i covered just over 700 miles and did 12—13 hours of skiing per day and it was important to keep to my routine and part of the reason it went so well is because my last one did not go so well and i learnt so much from it. it was good to know that you are it had this challenge — it was good to know that it was hard at times because it kept me going. you were skiing up to 13 hours per day, that must be exhausting, what kind of training did you do? i did a huge amount of training. i trained with my coach in derby in the gym and i put on a load of weight and i would drag tires around, training six times a week, trying to get the weight on and trying to get strong. and then here, 12 hour days,

it is a long day, and ifound the last few hours of the day were always the hardest, and then you have to tell yourself to keep going, one step at a time. in terms of where you slept and we can show images and out of the tent, how do you stay warm and how do you stay fed and watered? i was skiing for 12—13 hours and every hour i'm having a quick stop and making sure i get snacks on board and water on board, trying to eat constantly, so i was having 5000 calories per day but i still lost ten kilograms and you are losing fat and muscle. i put weight on to do the trip. i put ten kilos on and then lost it, and i lost muscle as well. my muscle bulk has gone right down so i need to build that up and in terms of staying warm, when you are breathing you are ok with your kit on but when you're in the tent, the first and you are doing

is putting on the stove to warm up some water and changing your layers over so it is important to keep warm and look after yourself in those conditions. captain, we salute you. a reminder of our breaking stories. ahmad says it's political leader salah al—arouri has been killed in beirut. he is the most senior hamas leader to be killed says the 7th of october attacks on israel. the 0ctober attacks on israel. the israeli authorities have not taken responsibility for the strike. these are the live pictures of the aftermath in beirut for that lebanese media reports say five other people were killed in that attack that took place in a district in beirut. salah al—arouri was a founding command of the military wing of hamas. he serves several jail terms in israel. those of the

latest pictures they are for the plenty more so do stay with us here on bbc news. hello. storm henk certainly made its presence felt today with numerous flood warnings issued, particularly across england and wales. we also had this amber warning from the met office, this warning expiring through the early parts of the evening. some very strong winds, though, easing eastwards as the area of low pressure responsible storm henk continues to slide away. some outbreaks of rain pushing eastwards as well. most of the rain clearing out into the north sea, but some will remain across eastern parts of scotland, bending into the far north east where we'll see some snow falling across shetland. it does stay very windy across the north east of scotland, still quite windy through the night across english channel coasts as well. temperatures generally holding up between 3—10 degrees so the vast majority will avoid a frost. so as we head into tomorrow, low pressure still with us. although the main body of storm henk

will be moving towards southern scandinavia by this stage, where it will be bringing some quite significant snowfall. for us, many places seeing a day of sunny spells and heavy showers, still blustery down towards the south coast. those winds only slowly easing. also staying windy in the north east of scotland. still a bit of rain, sleet and snow across 0rkney and shetland and some showery rain more generally across the northern half of scotland. temperature wise, 8—11 degrees in many places. and then as we head into thursday, here comes another weather system. this one set to bring some heavy rain, particularly across the channel islands and into southern coastal counties of england. some of this rain could be on the heavy side. it mayjust be that this pulse of wet weather shifts a little bit further northwards as we go through the day. elsewhere, sunny spells and showers, some more persistent rain continuing to affect the north east of scotland, still cold in shetland. and elsewhere, those temperatures just starting to come down a little bit. that's a sign of things to come. as we move into the weekend,

low pressure will loosen its grip and high pressure will start to build, both from the west and from the east. so that is going to settle things down. as that happens, we'll see some colder air developing. nothing exceptional for this time of year, it is early january, after all, but those temperatures certainly lower than they have been by day and by night. any showers that do crop up could be wintry in nature. there'll be some frost and fog at night, but a lot of dry weather.

at six — an extraordinary escape for the passengers and crew on board this plane in japan. it burst into flames after a collision with a small plane as it came into land in tokyo — five on board that aircraft were killed. it comes just a day after a devastating earthquake injapan — that's killed dozens of people. storm henk sweeps in across the south of the uk, bringing wind gusts of more than 80 miles an hour, flooding and yet more travel problems. and britain's luke �*the nuke' littler — just 16 years old — hoping to make history tonight by bagging a place in the pdc world darts championship in london. 0n bbc london: as the met investigates the fatal and coming up on bbc news... it was one of the shortest managerial spells in football history — wayne rooney is sacked by birmingham after two wins from his 15 games in charge.