that's as us presidentjoe biden says the us has delivered a private message to iran about the houthis. the houthis say the strikes have had no significant impact on their ability to attack vessels in the red sea. israel's military says it will consider allowing palestinian civilians to return to northern gaza once it's safe — an area the un has described as a scene of utter devastation. hello, i'm azadeh moshiri. welcome to the programme. we begin in taiwan, where voters have ignored china's repeated warnings not to vote for william lai from the ruling party, the dpp. he will replace tsai ing—wen as president after securing

40% of the vote — though the dpp lost its majority in parliament, making it hard for him to pass legislation. mr lai says he will maintain the status quo in relations with china — which has labelled him a troublemaker and a "dangerous separatist". in his victory speech, he pledged to use dialogue instead of confrontation in exchanges with china and said he hoped beijing understood that peace will benefit both sides. china says reunification with taiwan is still inevitable despite the vote, and it opposes separatist activities. the bbc�*s rupert wingfield—hayes reports from taipei. onto stage, the man who will now be taiwan's next president. in the end, william lai won the election by a larger margin than expected. china's campaign to intimidate voters here not to choose him failed. his supporters say, if anything, it had the opposite effect.

china warned the people of taiwan not to vote for this man. they said he is a troublemaker who will take the island closer to war. well, tonight they have given their answer — by electing him their new president. speaking to the international media following his victory, president—elect lai was quick to offer beijing an olive branch. translation: over the last eight years we have tried - continuously to extend goodwill. unfortunately, china has not responded to these gestures. we hope in the future china will realise peace serves the interests of both sides. for taiwan's main opposition party,

the kmt, it was another humiliation. it had run on a platform of getting closer to china. the kmt is the party xi jinping would prefer to see running this island. instead voters gave the party he loathes an historic third presidential win. now everybody is waiting to see how china's leader will respond. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in taipei. mr lai's presidency will likely be judged by how well he manages an increasingly aggressive beijing and whether he can avert a major crisis in the region. the chinese communist party has never ruled taiwan, but claims the self—governing island is part of its territory. earlier, our china correspondent laura bicker updated us on china's reaction to the election results. we've just had a statement from the taiwan affairs office which says that the results of these elections in the taiwan region show that the democratic progressive party cannot represent the mainstream public opinion on the island. that's obviously a nod to the result that william lai, the new president of taiwan, new president—elect

of taiwan, got 40% of the vote. so they're saying he cannot represent the mainstream public opinion on the island. "taiwan is part of china," obviously reiterating china's belief in that. on that. "these elections cannot change the basic framework "and direction of cross—strait relations." now, the statement is very much what we would expect from beijing at this time. they reiterate the point that taiwan is part of china, that these results are local elections and that unification will happen. but there is no mention of force in this statement. it says that the taiwan issue and achieving national reunification remains consistent and unwavering, their position on that, and they firmly opposed separatist activities. remember, they see the winner of taiwan's presidential election as a separatist. they see him pushing for independence and that's something that they

will not tolerate. now, i've actually been to the province that's closest to taiwan here in mainland china. we spoke to a number of people there, and they say that they feel that taiwan is part of their family. they feel part of one family. and that's certainly a message that china propagates, that beijing is continually pushing this message of familial ties, that they are one family and that one day they will be unified. but i think the message that the world has heard increasingly over the last few years is certainly beijing's intent that if peaceful unification cannot be achieved, it will do so by force. and i think having seen china's... certainly, they've been building up its military. they've seen militaryjets, warships heading to the taiwan strait, increasing their presence

around taiwan. and that has involved the us coming to the aid of taiwan and saying it will defend it if necessary. and i think when it comes to china's actions towards taiwan, what the world has seen is an increase in aggression. i think what we're seeing in recent weeks is an increase in outreach. and certainly, chinese diplomats have been to the united states in the last week. and their tone there has been very much about peaceful unification. and as long as the one—china policy is adhered to, china will continue to push for peaceful reunification with taiwan. that was laura bicker on beijing the's reaction. reacting to the election of william lai, presidentjoe biden said the united states does not support the independence of taiwan. as we've been hearing,

taiwan is a key flashpoint in the tussle between china and the us for supremacy in asia. but what is the historical background to their current, complex relationship? our reporter tom brada has more. the elections in taiwan are being closely watched around the world. that is because taiwan finds itself at the centre of a geopolitical flashpoint between the us and china. for all practical purposes, the island has been independent since 1949. but china sees it as part of its own territory which will one day unite with the mainland — if necessary, by force. on that, here's the chinese president speaking in 2022. translation: we will never promise to renounce the use| of force as an option. to understand why the issue of taiwan is so contentious, it is important to understand some of the island's history. in the first half of the 20th century, there was a civil war on mainland china which pitted the chinese national party

the chinese nationalist party against the chinese communist party. and in 1949, mao zedong's communist forces emerged victorious, which meant the nationalist leader, chiang kai—shek, and his supporters fled to the island. here's one of chiang kai—shek�*s former advisors. translation: you could say leaving mainland china - was the lowest moment in his life, but he never accepted defeat. chiang kai—shek�*s party ruled for several decades but after his death, the island began to transition to democracy and in 1996, it held its first free presidential elections. it is now a prosperous, self—governing island, and many of its citizens see it as entirely distinct from mainland china. but that does not sit well with beijing, which insists that countries cannot have official relations with both itself and taiwan. and the us is a major sticking point.

it maintains official relations with china but it also is the most significant supporter of taiwan, and maintains unofficial links with taipei. on the us position for taiwan's security, here is president biden. the idea that it can be taken by force, just taken by force, is just not appropriate. it will dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in ukraine. taiwan finds itself in the middle of a diplomatic tug—of—war. and the outcome of its domestic elections could well have a profound impact on some very delicate international affairs.

that was our reporter tom brada in the london newsroom. lets turn to the middle east now, and president biden says the us has delivered a private message to iran about the houthi movement in yemen, which iran backs. he said the us and its allies are well prepared for any further attacks in the red sea. the us and the uk launched dozens of strikes against houthi targets in yemen on thursday night, and there was a fresh air strike last night, on a radar site which it says was being used by the group. the action is in response to houthi rebels attacking vessels in the red sea, causing huge international shipping delays. our correspondent hugo bachega reports. before and after — these satellite images show the impact of the american and british attacks on houthi targets in yemen. the us says airfields and weapons storage depots were destroyed. overnight, the us carried out more strikes, targeting a radarfacility in the capital, sanaa. british forces were not involved.

american officials say the strikes are designed to reduce the ability of the houthis to attack ships in the red sea and called them "legitimate and proportionate". the houthis, who captured a ship in december, say they are acting to support palestinians in gaza and to hit israel's allies. iran gives them weapons and training and the houthis say the attacks will continue unless there is a ceasefire in gaza. the attacks have disrupted the key red sea trade route — commercial vessels are now travelling around africa. it means delays and extra costs. the houthis accuse the us and its allies of an escalation on israel's behalf. they say the attacks have had no significant impact on its forces and threaten with what they describe

as a very harsh and painful response. so far, their reaction has been muted. they fired a missile yesterday which didn't hit its target. also yesterday, a huge protest against the strikes was held in sanaa. the americans say they don't want a major confrontation but are warning the houthis they are ready to respond. hugo bachega, bbc news, beirut. new pictures have emerged of the houthis holding military exercises after another us strike in yemen. they show targets marked with israeli and us flags bombed from houthi drones. a large number of houthi officials were gathered at the yemeni—saudi border outpost of al buqa for the exercises. the houthis warned of a "strong and effective response" to earlier strikes by the us. the un special envoy for yemen has called for maximum restraint from all sides.

mikey kay is a former uk military strategic planning advisor and a former raf helicopter pilot. thank you so much forjoining us, we really appreciate your time. i want to read to you something that the director of the us military�*sjoint staff said, general simms. he said he expects retaliation but they are not to be messed with. what have these strikes actually accomplished militarily if not deterrence? i think you have to go back a couple of years and look at the way this has manifested itself and the houthis have been targeting notjust shipping but us warships and more recently, uk warship, hms diamond, with ballistic missiles and drones. this has been going on, the targeting of shipping both military and civilian ships in the straight,

well before the israel and gaza conflict, the recent one that occurred in october the 7th actually came about. it has been happening for a while and actually stepped up since israel's action on gaza. i think that is the most important contextual point. the second thing is that this is a graduated, the us and uk will argue this as a graduated and proportionate response because the attacks have been going on for some time now and there are some ministers in the uk and us parliament that have been arguing this action should have happened earlier. the us and uk are justifying his actions under the article 51 of the un charter which is the right to self defence was doesn't require the united nations security council pub in its five unanimous vote on resolution, it self defence. —— security council pub in its five. the us and uk have historically been aligned on

military action such as what happened last night. uk conducted the strike using four typhoons were position guided munitions from royal airforce in cyprus position guided munitions from royal air force in cyprus which involves refuelling, so it has been on the cards for a while and the targets will have been under a lot of intelligent scrutiny for a while because the stationary targets and the targets predominantly in the main radar sites which allows the houthis ballistic missiles more accurately onto targets... just to interrupt. — accurately onto targets... just to interrupt, because _ accurately onto targets... just to interrupt, because you _ accurately onto targets... just to interrupt, because you are - accurately onto targets... just to l interrupt, because you are talking about the targets and that they would have been, in the us and uk's you for some time now, i was speaking to an expert on yemen who are saying all of this has essentially been a recruitment drive for the houthis and has driven up their popularity at home. i would like to ask you, in your view, any other options for the united states and the uk other than the strikes? the houthis are a subset of this ied branch of islam that have been inside the territory that is known

as yemen now for thousands of years. —— the zaydi branch of islam. the context needs way more than a few minutes because you need to go back to the national dialogue conference in 2014 and you need to understand why the previous president was deposed and a new essentially a puppet of the saudis president came in, and that is a conversation we can have another time, but in answer to your question, diplomacy has to be the first port of call when it comes to a graduated response. one of the channels the us and the uk will have gone through, probably the un, but have to houthis listened? probably not because they have carried on, and the fact that the us and uk are not putting enough pressure on to israel to stop what they are doing in terms of the bombing of gaza so it is a very complex, interconnected, multifaceted sort of strategic level approach that has led to tactical activity which the us and the uk and other partners adult has failed and

therefore, when foreign policy fails, the blunt tool of foreign policy is military activity. right, and the houthis _ policy is military activity. right, and the houthis have _ policy is military activity. right, and the houthis have withstood| policy is military activity. right, - and the houthis have withstood years of bombardment by saudi arabia, so what do you think their vulnerabilities are? what is the west essentially banking on? i think this is a really _ west essentially banking on? i think this is a really good _ west essentially banking on? i think this is a really good question - west essentially banking on? i think this is a really good question in - this is a really good question in terms of what is happening by the houthis, because they are obviously provoking a bilateral us, uk response which is degrading their capability as you rightly pointed out, the houthis up in countering saudi aggression for over six years, which has depreciated a lot over the last year, so the saudis have taken a step back but if the houthis take too much of an obligation in provoking the west to conduct more strikes on their radar sites, on their military capability, and we know that iran is a back—up of the houthis in certain contexts, so they

will be providing certain backing. —— iran is a backer. but in order to generate response from the us and uk and their partners it will take some time, and if the houthis continue what they are doing, there may be a point where the saudis decide to relaunch campaign because it sees the who backs as vulnerable, so that is one of the potential context that may play out in the future. that is one of the potential context that may play out in the future.- may play out in the future. that is a very important _ may play out in the future. that is a very important point. _ may play out in the future. that is a very important point. as - may play out in the future. that is a very important point. as you - may play out in the future. that is| a very important point. as you say, there is so much more to discuss that we do not have time for, so we will have to leave it there. thank you so much for your expertise there. israel's military says it will consider allowing palestinian civilians displaced from northern gaza to return there once there is no danger to them from fighting with hamas. these are the latest images from beit hannoun in northern gaza. as you can see, it's reduced to ruin. here's how un under—secretary—general for humanitarian affairs, martin griffiths, described the situation in northern gaza to the security council on friday.

my own colleagues from my office who have managed to make it to the north in recent days describe scenes of utter horror, corpses, dead people left lying in the road, people with evident signs of starvation stopping trucks in search of anything they can get to survive. and even if people were able to return home to the north, we know from the statistics of buildings destroyed, many no longer have homes to go to. a short while ago, prime minister benjamin netanyahu declared in a televised address that nothing will deter israel's detemination to pursue the war in gaza, including the international court ofjustice in the hague.

for two days this week, the un's highest court heard a case lodged by south africa alleging that israel was committing genocide against the palestinians. israel is keeping up its bombardment of gaza, with the crowded southern cities of rafah and khan younis bearing the brunt of the attack. gaza's health ministry says 23,843 palestinians have now been killed in israeli strikes on gaza since october seventh — most of them women and children. more than 60,000 have been wounded. and the israeli military says overnight, its forces killed three palestinians armed with knives, a rifle and axes, who were trying to break into a settlement in the occupied west bank. official palestinian media says two were aged 16, and one — 19. israelis in tel aviv have been

protesting against net and yahoo. let's show you those pictures now. thousands have been demanding his immediate resignation. of course, benjamin netanyahu faced a certain level of unpopularity before the war in the first place. —— protesting against benjamin netanyahu. we had legal troubles and judicial reforms he was trying to push through that were deeply unpopular in israel and had led to historic protests, but now there is also this discontent about the way the hostage crisis has been handled. at the same time, talking of all these, let's bring you live images from the united states. there is a sign there saying bring them home now, that call to bring hostages home now. people gather in freedom plaza in washington dc to participate in a national march

on washington for gaza. let's turn to the war in ukraine, and regions across the country were targeted in yet another overnight barrage of russian missiles and drones. ukraine's air force counted 40 attacks and said it had shot down eight missiles. the full impact of the attack is not clear, but buildings were damaged in both the sumy and chernihiv regions in the north. russia's defence ministry said the assault focused on ukraine's military—industrial complex, adding, without providing evidence, that all targets had been hit. let's move on to news here in the uk, and there has been so much attention on that post office scandal. and there's fresh anger over the post office scandal after it was revealed executives may have been overpaid thousands of pounds in bonuses. it comes as the tax office

investigates whether the company underpaid as much as £100 million in corporation tax by deducting compensation payments to victims of the horizon it scandal from its profits. our business correspondent marc ashdown has more. more questions for the post office — this time over who benefited from the mistreatment of hundreds of sub—postmasters. it seems compensation payments made to victims of the horizon it scandal were deducted from the company's profits before it paid tax — but seem to have been ignored when setting bonuses for executives. tax experts are questioning whether the company could have underpaid its tax bill, while possibly overpaying top bosses. companies pay corporation tax on their profits. you're allowed a tax deduction for legitimate expenses. persecuting postmasters for 15 years and paying them compensation is not a legitimate expense. that means that their real tax bill is a lot higher. that means that bonuses paid to executives who are running a supposedly profitable business should be looked at again. it's stoked yet more anger — and there are calls now for some of that money to be paid back.

i think our big concern is that the public's basically been double—crossed. it looks on first blush as if the post office has been underpaying its taxes and overpaying its bosses, and, frankly, that's what we've got to get to the bottom of this week. the post office said its financial information was appropriate and accurate, but its latest accounts state that it is engaged in a discussion with the tax office regarding potential tax liabilities. an adverse outcome, it says, could be material. that could mean the post office is liable for up to £100 million in unpaid tax. now, if enforced, that could render the business technically insolvent — although the government is the ultimate owner and could step in. for those like janet skinner, who have had their lives ruined, it's yet another insult. do you know what? anything that they do doesn't surprise me in the slightest. undercutting their taxes but still able to pay themselves bonuses? i think it's absolutely disgraceful. they should never have been allowed

to pay themselves bonuses because of everything that's going on. as more and more details of the horizon it scandal are laid bare at the ongoing public inquiry, fresh questions and fresh anger over how the post office has been run. marc ashdown, bbc news. that is all for now but to stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. although the weekend has started off on a largely fine note with some sunshine around, things will turn colder towards sunday, and into the start of next week, it looks very cold as we open the floodgates to these arctic northerlies, bringing plenty of snow showers into the north and the coast. you can see in the latter part of sunday the dark blue parts

across the board. so there will be showers across coastal areas and showers in northern scotland turning increasingly wintry as we pick up that cold and strong northerly wind, and there will be a risk of frost and ice where we've had showers and where we hold on to cloud, it will not be as cold. sunday is a chilly start and with some sunshine around and variable amounts of cloud too, a few showers draped around eastern coastal areas, but showers turning increasingly to snow across scotland and as we move through the day as temperatures start to come down, still 5 to 7 degrees for england and wales. into monday, we're all into that run of very cold, strong northerly winds, winds strongest around the coast, they'll see some of the heavy snow showers, even affecting eastern coastal areas and some down through the irish sea into pembrokeshire and maybe into the high ground of south—west england and also coastal parts of northern ireland. but inland areas will stay dry with plenty of sunshine. look at these temperatures, between one and four celsius, and you factor in the strong arctic northerly wind it will feel more like these

temperatures suggest, —6 and —8 celsius. that is very cold. tuesday is a very cold day with plenty of sunshine in eastern areas and snow showers across scotland, and we could see this feature running into northern ireland, northern england and northern wales where there will be sleet and snow and there could be some disruption with this. but for the south it stays dry, but it is another cold day, particularly if you factor in the wind. there was some thinking earlier that this area of low pressure could bring some disruptive snow to southern britain, and it doesn't look like that'll happen, it looks like it'll stay across france but it will stay cold for much of this upcoming week, particularly the first half of the week is staying very cold with a risk of snow across northern areas which could be disruptive, and nights will be cold with severe frost and ice to look out for.

this is bbc news, the headlines... william lai from taiwan's ruling party wins the presidential election and vows to defend the island from china's intimidation and maintain its democratic way of life. but china said "reunification" with taiwan was still "inevitable" after the election on the self—ruled island that beijing claims as its own the us military says they have carried out a fresh new strike on a houthi target in yemen, a day after dozens of similar us—british airstrikes across the country. in what the us calls a "follow—up action" to thursday night's attacks, a us ship fired missiles

at a radar site. and israel's military says it will consider allowing palestinian civilians to return to northern gaza once it's safe — an area the un has described as a scene of utter devastation. now on bbc news, sportsdy with gavin. hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm gavin ramjaun. we've had a five—goal thriller at stjames park — we'll being you the latest as we approach full—time. and chelsea put their league cup defeat to middlesbrough behind them with victory over rivals fulham. another chance to make history for ronnie o'sullivan, who sails into the masters final by beating shaun murphy.