i asked our defence correspondentjonathan beale to explain the reasons behind what has been happening. i mean, the two things. first of all, making sure freedom of navigation because a lot of trade goes through it, 12% of the world's trade goes through the red sea. but also because they say, and i think grant shapps said, that that big attack, the biggest yet, and remember the houthis have done 26 or 27 now of these kinds of attacks using drones, missiles against shipping, that was the biggest two days ago. grant shapps, the uk defence secretary, thinks that a british warship was among the targets there. the americans have also felt the same. when you hear americans saying this is about de—escalation, well, military action never results in de—escalation. i think at best this could be deterrence. the question is, will it be enough

deterrence to stop the houthis doing what they're doing? i think the answer to that is probably not. right. i was talking to frank gardner earlier about whether it was really just a sort of show of strength rather than actually these targets that we were just talking through, all the targets that have been hit there, whether it was actually enough to make a substantial difference to the houthis capabilities or not. well, it will make a difference. i mean, they have hit 60 targets, 16 locations. they've focused on something specific that's linked to what's been going on in the red sea, production of drones, launch sites, missile sites. so, you know, they have focused on military capabilities. they won't have destroyed all the houthis�* military capability. remember, the saudis have been bombing the houthis for years and they were still defiant and they still had military capability. once the west had said stop this or else, they had to do the or else,

and this is the or else. but to be honest, there aren't many other options other than this. there's no suggestion in an election year they're going to put boots on the ground, the west. they have bitter experience of both iraq and afghanistan, so this is pretty much what they can do. they can do it on a bigger scale if they want to, but this is pretty much all they can do in terms of military action. they can seemingly do it without asking parliament first. we had the liberal democrats on earlier, you know, very cross that there wasn't a debate in parliament. they didn't get a chance to discuss this. but the uk is able to take these decisions militarily in terms of what it's done, isn't it? yeah. you must remember that the last time that david cameron went to parliament to ask for authorization of attacks against the syrian regime he lost the vote. and then barack obama, he said use of chemical weapons by assad in syria was a red line,

then didn't follow through on that. so i think there's a cost of going to parliament. there's a cost of not doing action. i mean, ultimately, ithink these countries will say, look, we had a un security council resolution vote two days ago and that gives you the cover to carry out this military action. i think it would be difficult to see many politicians when asked, you know, was this the right thing to do to say no because they've all said that what the houthis are doing in the red sea is wrong and has to stop. the labour party leader sir keir starmer was briefed about the military action in yemen against the houthis on thursday evening — he was asked about that by my colleague charlie stayt on bbc breakfast this morning. i did get a secure briefing last night from the cabinet office.

obviously, i can't tell you what the contents of that briefing was, but i think it is important that we had that briefing. when rishi sunak became prime minister, i had a phone call with him on the first day, the first night, and amongst other things, we agreed that we would robustly challenge each other on the politics of the day, but when it comes to national security, issues of defence of the country, that we would seek to cooperate and work together. so it's not a convention, but i think it is good that, as leader of the opposition, i was brought in for a secure briefing in relation to what was happening. and you have given this full military action your support, is that correct? yes, we are supporting this action. the houthi attacks have been carried now for some time in the red sea. it's on commercial shipping, that's civilians who are operating that commercial shipping, and not only is it disrupting trade and shipping, but of course, it's putting civilian lives at risk and, therefore,

we do support this action. i do want the prime minister, obviously, to make a statement to parliament as soon as possible, because the scope, nature and extent of the operation needs to be explained. obviously, it's not for me to disclose what's been briefed to me, but i do think the public and parliament need to know, so that should happen. i'd also want a summary of the government's legal position to be published. the inquiry into the horizon it scandal has today turned its attention to the failure by the post office to hand over documents to the inquiry team on time. hundreds of sub—postmasters were convicted after the faulty software made it look as if money had been missing. on thursday, the inquiry heard from a post office investigator accused of intimidating and mistreating sub—postmasters. ben king reports.

this inquiry has been going on for more than three years, but there has never been interest like this. the fancy new computer system that they've spent an arm and a leg on is faulty. no one else has ever reported any problems with horizon. the itv drama, mr bates versus the post office, brought the plight of the subpostmasters to the nation's attention like never before. i swear by almighty god. yesterday we heard from investigator stephen bradshaw, who said he had never been told horizon was faulty. you have shown in your evidence today that you are prepared to be aggressive. you tell people in interviews to get up earlier. other people have described you as very confrontational. this is the way you behaved, isn't it? that's not correct, no. do you accept you behaved unprofessionally? no. do you accept that it was part of the culture within the investigation team to intimidate and abuse subpostmasters? no, no. a phone call will be made to arrange an interview at a convenient time and date.

watching at home was pauline, who ran a post office near sunderland, and was given a criminal conviction for false accounting. it feels quite just that they get a bit of their own medicine, that they should answer for their... ..for their attitude and their behaviour. is it appropriate...? sir wyn williams, the chair of the inquiry, has called it "grossly unsatisfactory". we will accept your plea, but only if you don't blame horizon. the post office said, "we have absolutely no interest in delay", and called the disclosure process "extremely challenging", involving around 70 million documents. and the inquiry continues next week, when employees of fujitsu, the company which built the horizon system which started all this trouble, are due to appear. ben king, bbc news. with so much of our time now spent online, it can feel

like we are filling in endless passwords, inevitably forgetting them and having to think up new ones as a result — but could that soon be a thing of the past? major tech and internet firms have started turning to passkeys — a no—password solution which uses biometrics or device pins to protect our accounts online. our cyber correspondent joe tidy can tell us more. pass key. you may not yet have heard of them, but passkeys are the future of how we stay safe online. dozens of internet businesses, large and small, are hoping this new bit of tech will finally kill off the password. so what are passkeys and why are they a step up from what we've been doing all these years? well, if you think about an online service as a door, you get in by putting in your password or a passcode. but this is obviously insecure as all a fraudster needs is the code or password and they're in. a passkey acts a little bit like a key card. it checks who i am as well as if i have the right code.

but with passkeys, it's all done on a device and with clever encryption. setting up a passkey takes a few minutes. the online service asks you to verify your identity using your device. it's not hard, but it is more of a hassle than setting up a username and password like we've always done. so why is this huge shift taking place and is it worth it? well, it's because passwords are, and always have been, a terrible way to keep us safe. corrie macy is a hacker for the good guys. she's been breaking into computer networks for companies for years to help them improve defences. people are really bad when they create passwords. nine out of ten times when i go into an environment and i try the password "summer2023" or "winter2023" — you're going to get a few accounts. we find that people frequently use seated passwords — that's the first password that they made and, then, across every platform, they'lljust change it a very minuscule amount. passwords can, of course, be made more secure.

my password manager needs an authentication code. it's no surprise that the cybersecurity world has largely failed to get the general public to jump through the hoops needed to make passwords safe. so, now, whether we like it or not, the future of logging in online is through our phones with thumbprints, pin codes and, increasingly, facial id. no system will ever fully be hacker—proof, but passkeys do mean that the future's brighter for our lives online. joe tidy, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with sarah. hello. we've got a window of slightly less—cold weather for the next couple of days. we didn't see such widespread ice and frost around this morning — certainly compared to earlier in the week. so still quite chilly and cloudy for many of us, but temperatures not as low as they have been. so high pressure holding onto our weather. the winds rotating, coming in off the atlantic and the north sea, so bringing quite a lot of moisture and that's bringing that blanket of cloud for most of us.

clearer skies today will be across scotland. there could be the odd lingering misty patch around there. so temperatures only about 2—4 degrees across scotland, but for most of us, typically around about 6—8. into the evening hours, and we'll see this weather front in the north slipping further south, so that'll bring a bit of overnight rain to scotland, perhaps some snowjust on the very highest mountains. that'll slip further south across parts of northern ireland and northern england first thing saturday morning, but either side of that, some clear spells. so expect a bit of frost, i think, first thing tomorrow — it'll be a colder morning than it was first thing this morning. through the day on saturday, then, a fair amount of dry and bright weather, a few splashes of light rain, perhaps, northern ireland, north wales, towards the midlands. sunny spells breaking through the cloud either side of that, and reasonably mild — 5—8 degrees on saturday. still lower than average, but not as cold as it has been. into sunday, and the winds turn to more of a northerly direction, so you can see the white colours — the snow showers — starting to move in across parts of northern and north—eastern scotland in particular. most of us, though, still relatively dry and quiet on sunday. but that change in wind direction

through sunday into monday does bring that chance of some snow showers — particularly for parts of scotland, but also some of these exposed coasts around these irish sea coasts and the north sea coasts, as well. heading on through into tuesday, we could well see this area of low pressure starting to move in, so the potentialfor a little bit more sleet and snow for parts of northern ireland, scotland, perhaps into northern england for tuesday and wednesday. midweek onwards, then, as we head through wednesday and into thursday, well, we've still got the cold northerly winds in the north. this area of low pressure may well stay across france, but it does have the potential to be a little bit further north. so just a small chance, wednesday, thursday, we could see some wintriness in the far south of england, but again it is mostly going to be parts of scotland and northern ireland that see that chance of something a bit more wintry. either way, next week looks colder with those northerly winds setting in, so some snow showers, could be some disruption. do keep tuned to your latest forecast.

live from london, this is bbc news. explosions across yemen as us and uk forces launch air strikes against houthi targets in retaliation for attacks on ships in the red sea. rishi sunak says that the strikes are a "limited, necessary and proportionate action in self—defence". but a senior houthi leader warns that the us and uk would "pay a heavy price" and says the attacks on ships are set to continue. the international court ofjustice

has been hearing israel's defence against accusations of genocide brought by south africa. and coming up in the programme — could it be the end of the password? we'll hear why the passkey could be the next stage of tech evolution. hello, i'm maryam moshiri. welcome to bbc news now — three hours of fast—moving news, interviews and reaction. attacks on houthis in yemen by aircraft from the united states and the united kingdom "would not go without punishment or retaliation". a houthi military spokesman has vowed to continue its support for palestinians in gaza and its attacks on ships in the red sea. iran — which has long backed the houthis — said the strikes were a clear violation of yemen's territorial integrity. according to the us, more than 12 sites were hit across yemen,

including what america says were houthi command and control