of fujitsu — apologised, for the first time, for the company's role in the post office scandal, where hundreds of sub—postmasters were wrongly prosecuted after money appeared to be missing on the computer system. news correspondent ellie price is at that inquiry for us — and joins me now. a very significant day yesterday where we had from fujitsu and we are expecting more from fujitsu today? yes, we are. i think you are right, i think there has been relative silence over the last couple of weeks from fujitsu. as this scandal has developed over the last few weeks since the airing of the itv drama, where millions of people watched and became aware of the scandal that has been going on for years and years. this is something that happened between 1999—2015 and yet it has taken until now for action to be taken to stop the main headlines yesterday were not from here at the inquiry back from a

committee of mps grilling the europe boss of fujitsu who made that apology for what he called an appalling miscarriage ofjustice. he also said for the first time that he felt there was a moral obligation of the company to pay towards the compensation of some of these people who were wrongly convicted, although there were no details of how much or how that would really work in practice. he also said that the post office had become aware early on, to use his phrase, about some of the errors and bugs in the software system. a few other developments worth mentioning from yesterday. we heard from one of the lawyers representing 77 of the wrongly convicted some postmasters who said that of that 77, only three had so far received fair and final compensation. we also heard from the post office minister who said he hopes that any compensation due to some of these wrongly convicted people would be paid by the end of

august but that the bill for that compensation could reach more than £1 billion. today here at the inquiry, we will hear more from employees for fujitsu, getting down to the nuts and bolts of that software glitch. glitch seems a bit of an understatement given what happens, but talking about exactly how that software worked or didn't work. big question is of course on how it was allowed to happen, how it was allowed to go unnoticed and crucially how it was allowed to be unreported for as long as it was. ok, we will leave it there. ellie price, thank you. for more on this i'm joined by nick wallis, former bbcjournalist and author of the 2021 book the great post office scandal. thank you forjoining us. ellie was referring to yesterday and what happened and we saw one of the sub—postmaster is actually sitting behind the fujitsu boss when he was giving evidence. what has their response been to that apology? weill.

response been to that apology? well, the send response been to that apology? well, they send to — response been to that apology? well, they send to be _ response been to that apology? well, they send to be rather _ response been to that apology? vii they send to be rather cynical nowadays, for obvious reasons. there was a point that was made by one of the mps on the select committee yesterday, i was sitting at the back watching it all happen, that fujitsu's acknowledgement that they needed to donate to the sub—masters compensation fund was not mentioned in their annual accounts. it seems that fujitsu have onlyjust found their moral obligations, after witnessing the public outrage on the back of the itv drama because if they had been intending all along to pay compensation to sub—postmasters for their role in this scandal, it would have been noted in at least one of the annual accounts which has been published subsequent to the high court case in 2019. so there are a lot of sub—postmasters who are very cynical about that. you mentioned compensation, that was a live issue in the select committee as well. alan bates, mr bates from

the drama mr bates vs the post office, saying he had not yet had a first offer of compensation and this was despite the post office minister kevin hollinrake stating on the record in parliament that every applicant to the group litigation scheme, their specific compensation scheme, their specific compensation scheme that alan bates is part of, would receive their first offer of compensation within a0 working days of making their application to stop mr bates told the committee he put in his application at the beginning of october. it was now 66 working days since his obligation went in and he still had yet to receive an offer. on top of all of the problems with compensation, you would have thought that the one thing the government could get right was making an offer to the man who was sacked more than 20 years ago and has had to lead a two decades long campaign to get himself and so many other people exonerated and compensated. itjust smacks of other people exonerated and compensated. it just smacks of the sheer incompetence that i think has characterised the various

compensation schemes which has been set up ad hoc and piecemeal since the litigation came to a conclusion. you picked up a line that came to light yesterday about some postmasters and sub—postmistresses being prosecuted by the cps, what is “p being prosecuted by the cps, what is up with that? this being prosecuted by the cps, what is "p with that?— being prosecuted by the cps, what is up with that?— up with that? this came out of the inuui up with that? this came out of the inquiry and — up with that? this came out of the inquiry and it _ up with that? this came out of the inquiry and it was _ up with that? this came out of the inquiry and it was almost - up with that? this came out of the inquiry and it was almost an - up with that? this came out of the inquiry and it was almost an aside | inquiry and it was almost an aside at the end of the evidence of a very junior woman who still worked for fujitsu and used to work in their fraud and litigation support office. it was asked by a barrister for one of the sub—postmasters who pointed out that the crown prosecution service will still prosecute... had taken over the prosecution of sub—postmasters and post office workers from the post office but that they were still doing it using horizon evidence. now they set alarm bells ringing amongst an awful lot of people because, as we know, the horizon platform has been stated by a high courtjudge to be not remotely reliable before 2010 and not much more reliable between

2010-2017. the post not much more reliable between 2010—2017. the post office stopped prosecuting in 2013, so did the cps take on the prosecution of sub—postmasters using unreliable horizon evidence? also, what was the role of the post office investigators? over recent weeks in the inquiry, we have seen a parade of post office investigators whose investigations led to the false prosecutions of innocent people being basically reminded of how inept their investigations were. so has the crown prosecution service been using investigations from post office investigators are where the police involved question about this is an entirely new area and no one is an entirely new area and no one is suggesting at the moment that there is any wrongdoing, but giving there is any wrongdoing, but giving the scale of the miscarriage of justice when the post office was prosecuting it would be interesting to see on what basis and that how many people the cps has initiated charges against since 2013. i have written to the cps asking for some answers to those questions and hopefully we will get some clarity on that matter. it is just another

little facet to a multifaceted scandal and that is why the evidence that these fujitsu employees are now giving to the inquiry is so interesting, because fujitsu has been really, really quiet about its role in this scandal and only now with the scrutiny that the public and all the journalists who are now very, very much focused on this and are we seeing other elements bubble up. do you think that could change with hearing _ up. do you think that could change with hearing from _ up. do you think that could change with hearing from fujitsu - up. do you think that could change| with hearing from fujitsu yesterday and today, do you think there could be more scrutiny ahead for them? well, it's really interesting, the two which giving evidence, onejohn simpkins, gave evidence in 2022. that is what the inquiry doing, taking early evidence from people they think might be interesting. he was a very compliant, very technical, very helpful witness back in november 2022. he has officially been called back because the inquiry have brought more information to write and they want to grill him on a specific subject. but the other person giving evidence is more senior to him, gerald barnes. there

was a quote from him in a document that was shown to the inquiry yesterday in which he said, "the fact is that the e passcode, the horizon code which does the transactions on the counter at each post office branch, is not resilient to errors and that is endemic." this was written some time ago. so this is a man who knew that horizon had endemic faults in it and so it is going to be very interesting to see what he knew about the information that fujitsu was applying to the post office and how much of that was used in the prosecution of innocent people. indie used in the prosecution of innocent --eole. ~ ., used in the prosecution of innocent neale, . ., ., used in the prosecution of innocent --eole. ~ ., ., ., people. we will hear more from the inuui people. we will hear more from the inquiry iater- _ people. we will hear more from the inquiry later. nick _ people. we will hear more from the inquiry later. nick wallis, _ people. we will hear more from the inquiry later. nick wallis, for - people. we will hear more from the inquiry later. nick wallis, for now, | inquiry later. nick wallis, for now, thank you. a cross party committee of mps has strongly criticised government efforts to protect homes in england from flooding. the report says the government's goals are poorly defined, and that it had failed to achieve targets that do exist. our environment correspondent jonah fisher has the report. in some places, like here in stratford—upon—avon, the water just flowed. elsewhere — this was bewdley — flood defences held it back.

one man went as far as building flood walls all around his house and, incredibly, resisted the rising water. but with climate change set to bring wetter winters and more intense rain, the question of what to defend and who should pay for it is ever more pressing. four years ago, flood defences were one of the big spending announcements of rishi sunak�*s first budget as chancellor. to protect people and over 300,000 properties, i'm doubling our investment in flood defences over the next six years to £5.2 billion. so how has it gone? well, prime minister sunak was in oxford last week, looking at some of the city's flood defences. he was all smiles, but the verdict of the public accounts committee is not so rosy. instead of the 300,000 properties chancellor sunak promised to defend,

only 200,000 now seem likely to be protected by 2027. and the report says a lack of funds to maintain existing defences means thousands of homeowners now face a greater risk. the plan as originally designed didn't allow for the reality. when the rubber hits the road, there's always going to be problems in delivering projects, that wasn't built in, so we've got delays. surprise, surprise. so yeah, the government is, i think, responsible for that. but two, climate change. the world has moved on. and when this was all conceived, i don't think we had projected this level of rainfall, which, inevitably, is going to impact larger numbers of people. a spokesperson for the department of food, environment and rural affairs said they would consider the committee's report and that since 2010, £6 billion has been invested to protect 600,000 properties

from flooding and coastal erosion. nearly six million homes in england are at risk from flooding, and adapting to our wetter, wilder climate is bringing serious choices and costs. jonah fisher, bbc news. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. bbc news, bringing you different stories from across the uk. the little oaks notary in penrith, a place of friendship and fun but for many families, accessing child care is a problem. costs are up, nursery places in short supply, is recruiting staff becomes harder. gas, electricity, operational running costs are going up and continue to go up. we are not getting the staff. there seems to be less people coming into the sector

now. ~ ., ., , ., ., , now. what do mums and dads here think? shame _ now. what do mums and dads here think? shame it _ now. what do mums and dads here think? shame it hasn't _ now. what do mums and dads here think? shame it hasn't come - now. what do mums and dads here | think? shame it hasn't come sooner but it is great. _ think? shame it hasn't come sooner but it is great, especially _ think? shame it hasn't come sooner but it is great, especially for - but it is great, especially for parents _ but it is great, especially for parents who are working full time as well, _ parents who are working full time as well, it_ parents who are working full time as well, it massively helps with increasing bills.— well, it massively helps with increasing bills. the government sa s it is increasing bills. the government says it is delivering _ increasing bills. the government says it is delivering extra - says it is delivering extra investment and the largest ever expansion of childcare, while labour says it wants more nursery places in primary schools and have set up an independent review. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. you're live with bbc news. when poland elected a new government, prime minister donald tusk promised major reforms to repair democracy in the country, restoring the rule of law, the independence of the courts and ending what he called the "factory of lies" on public media. but his efforts so far have met fierce resistance from the former governing party now in opposition, which still has allies in key positions, including the presidency. our eastern europe correspondent, sarah rainsford has been behind

the scenes at polish public television ? to see how the battle for the airwaves is playing out. in the corridors of polish television, a radical transformation is taking place. there is a new face for the news bulletins, and a whole new mission. the team at tvp say they're ending eight years of propaganda now the government has changed. but the backlash is fierce. you're reading the news, but you have like an armed police guard outside. yes. i call this a changing, but because it's stressed, and, uh... so they protect you? yes. it's. . . it's crazy. there are police officers everywhere. that's because there is a fight over the airwaves. last month, the tv studios were besieged by opposition mps — angry the new government had sacked

the tv management and taken the main news channel off air. do you accept that your methods to take control of the public media were not as clean as they should have been? translation: we chose the right way. there was no cleaner solution. when i look at it today and i see how the opposition behaves, i see that the way we chose, what we are doing, is very clean and responsible. chanting. it's part of a much broader power battle. at this rally, the crowd chanted insults at donald tusk... chanting. ..and portrayed the prime minister as a traitor. it's the language they used to hear on public television and it's why donald tusk�*s government moved so fast to change things. do you think donald tusk is not democratic? no, no, because it's like they break the rules. they have own rules. it's all making for strange

scenes at tv centre. the evening news team try to ignore all the politics and get on with reporting the news. some topics more straightforward than others. but blanka hopes independent reporting can help heal the divisions in poland, not make them deeper. it's a big opportunity to make new polish television. but it's tough. "she's a swine." you're getting insults on social media? yes. a lot of hatred, a lot of hatred. so it's emotionally difficult because now we are trying to make objective coverage. each night's countdown to air is a nervous moment, for a bulletin renamed for the first time in history... ..and now with so much to prove. sarah rainsford, bbc news, warsaw.

china's population has fallen for the second year in a row. official figures show, there was a drop of two million last year — more than double the decline in 2022. the drop is due to a steep increase in the total number of deaths, many linked to the covid pandemic, and another fall in the birth rate. the trend towards an increasingly ageing population is of concern to the chinese government which needs working—age people to drive the economy and pay taxes. a story now about one of our bbc sport colleagues — the football commentator chris wise, who had a special "hat trick" to report recently. not goals....but babies. all three arrived safely, and our reporter sophia seth has been to meet the family. meet emil, alba and ava. having triplets not only came as a shock to their parents, chris and hannah, but also the sonographer at

the nine—week scan. she looked really visibly nervous. both of our first thought was that something was really wrong. she said, "i can see a heartbeat, but i can actually see three heartbeats." finding out that there were three of them wasjust mind blowing, i would say. it was such a hard thing to process. being pregnant in itself is a challenge. but for hannah, carrying triplets was even tougher, notjust physically, but mentally, because it's higher risk with regular hospital scans needed. it was really hard. yeah. you kind of think when you when you get pregnant that it's going to be really exciting and that you've got all this to look forward to and ifelt like i was really anxious and worried for quite, quite a lot of it. triplets are born before full term, but this trio came a little earlier than planned at 32 weeks. hannah had an emergency c—section. all went well, and the medical staff

even facilitated a special gender revealfor them. so this is ava and that's alba and they are identical. sometimes at aam, when it's slightly dark and you're slightly bleary eyed because you're so tired, it's tricky to tell. so we've had to paint one of their nails so you can see eva's there has got a couple of her nails... matches dad! charities tell me only around 100 sets of triplets are born every year in the uk. when it comes to those which are naturally conceived like chris and hannah's, that's only 25 sets, which is well under 1% of births. welcome to brentford, the sun is shining. the added challenge for the couple is that chris is self—employed. you may recognise him from his football commentaries with the bbc. i had a tiny bit of time off when they were in hospital and then when they've come back because it's been tied in around christmas and that is a pretty busy period

in the footballing calendar, i've been here, there and everywhere doing games, but promising hannah that when we get into january, i'll be around a little bit more. well, seeing as i was there, i thought i could lend a helping hand. they love a cuddle. they really do. she's really cosy with you, isn't she? well, if you ever need a baby—sitter! i must say, having three, all at the same time, you're going to benefit because people are unlikely to ask you, will you have any more? i can categorically tell you the answer to that question. if they ever did, the answer would be no. we always knew we'd be lucky to have one, and we might have had two, we never planned to have three. so we'll be stopping here, won't we? yeah, we're stopping! very cute babies. a green party politician in new zeland who resigned from parliament on tuesday has been

charged with shoplifting. golriz ghahraman said she was unable to explain her behaviour, but suggested it was related to work—related stress and trauma. the theft accusations centred on a luxury clothing store in auckland and another retailer in the capital, wellington. you are watching bbc news. last march, 22—year—old eleanor williams was jailed for eight and a half years, after falsely claiming she had been raped by multiple men and trafficked by an asian grooming gang. her lies caused an outpouring of anger and several protests in the town of barrow in cumbria — and now, a bbc documentary reveals the extent of her deceit. our investigative reporter anna collinson has the story — a warningm some may find the details in this report upsetting. i guess you kind of — you can probably guess what's going to happen. this is the moment eleanor williams was arrested in 2020. so being in breach of court bail, in relation to charges of perverting the course ofjustice. a court would later find that she had repeatedly lied about being raped, which legal experts

stress rarely happens. right, so they're on now and we're recording. exclusive police footage shows williams�* deception began three years earlier when she said she'd been raped at a party. she withdrew her involvement, but a year and a half later, she makes a fresh allegation. so i was trying to push him out the door, couldn't. he had a knife, he was waving it around. notice her bruised cheek, which a judge later decides is self—inflicted. just weeks after this, she claims she's being trafficked and raped by a gang of asian men. whichever man was willing to pay the most money you'd go with. it was, we need to do something to help this girl. what is going on? she describes the properties she was forced to go to in great detail.

the police treated williams like a victim, but suspicions began to arise after they spent two days driving her around a town she said she'd been recently trafficked to and was unable to provide any leads. what it ended up being was me driving around fairly aimlessly, just in the hope that something might look familiar to ellie. that's when i first started wondering myself personally, is there any truth in this? the following week, her lies unravel further when police are called to her home. you all right? injured and seemingly intoxicated, she makes more claims of being trafficked. an investigation takes place and this is the innocent young man she accuses. cctv from that night shows the pair met by chance in preston when he asks herfor a lighter. it's williams who pursues a conversation.

she's then seen on camera in barrow in furness, walking home with no visible injuries. but when police arrive at her flat 20 minutes later, this is what they find. i'll help you. i'll help you, shall we get you an ambulance? in court, a judge ruled these injuries were self inflicted and that she was playacting. he also found there was no evidence that she was mentally unwell. every single allegation she made, we still investigated because there might have been some truth in some of this. and it was really important that if there was, we found it. all of this footage, which has never been seen outside the legal system until today, tells the story of multiple desperate reports, the final one being where williams was found wounded in a field. tests would show her injuries were self—inflicted. you can clearly see

on this is an evolution. you've got an awful allegation in 2017, a much worse allegation in 2019, and then weeks later, boom, it properly snowballs into a massive multi—handed organised crime group. cumbria police say this is a totally unique case and want to reassure genuine victims that they will be supported. williams�* lies about an asian grooming gang led to a spike in hate crime in barrow and damaged the mental health of the men she wrongly accused. and yet we may never know — why did she lie? anna collinson, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with helen willetts. hello. there's now an amber warning in force for snow across the northern isles. here we have almost seen 20 centimetres of snow in places. there

is more to come. in some places, another 15—20 millimetres in the next 2a hours, blowing around in the strong winds. you can see the shower ploughs, real rash of them moving southwards, affecting scotland and northern ireland. this area is a storm system further south which is affecting france into germany, belgium as well but it might be, we certainly have the cloud for it in the south, we might see some wintry flurries in southern counties of england. and i see riskier but the main snow risk lies first the north. ice could be a problem just about anywhere but with the amber warning, quite widely another ten centimetres in the northern isles. blowing around in the strong winds. those drifts could well cut off for rural communities, cause power outages and find travellers stranded. some hazardous conditions and bitterly cold again. it has been a bitterly cold again. it has been a bitterly cold night to stop feeling quite raw in the south because of all the cloud cover, the a strong wind as well, that blows out overnight

tonight. the amber warning and force ijy tonight. the amber warning and force by that stage, more snow to come, more issues for travellers in northern areas and again, it will be very cold. we had —1a last night, we could i see that once again in the night to come. another day where we see perhaps early freezing fog, ice quite widely are more snow keeps coming into parts of scotland. there will be snow showers elsewhere, northern ireland, pats north west wales and england tomorrow, possibly even eastern counties of england but again it is cold. this isjust a subtle change as we head towards the end of the week. by friday, notice the wind direction, more of a south—westerly. we will still see snow but it looks like it will lift mostly onto the hills, which means that lower levels we will start to see snow melting taking place as it becomes slightly less cold. slightly less cold is the story for the weekend, as you can see. but with weather systems moving on, pushed on by really strong winds at times with gales or survey severe gale force

winds on sunday, that will cause problems in itself. but in the meantime, that snow and the amber warning all on the website.

01’ or idle live from london, this is bbc news. prime minister rishi sunak faces a crucial vote on his rwanda deportation bill after two deputy chairmen from his own party resign over the issue. qatar announces israel and hamas reach a deal to deliver medicine to hostages in exchange for aid to enter gaza for civilians. some children in the uk with a form of leukaemia are the first to receive a new type of treatment — that's less less toxic than chemotherapy. hello, i'm kylie pentelow. here in the uk, mps are due to vote later on the government's

latest rwanda bill — a day after rishi sunak faced his biggest rebellion since becoming prime minister. two deputy party chairmen from his own political party and a ministerial aide quit on tuesday, joining 60 colleagues rebelling against the legislation in its current form as our political correspondent hannah miller explains. a plan that aims to stop dangerous channel crossings like this. a key pledge that's become rishi sunak�*s biggest parliamentary challenge. the ayes to the right 68. the noes to the left 529. last night, 60 of his own mps tried and failed to make changes to the rwanda bill. among them, three who resigned their roles to vote against the government. the now former deputy chairmen of the conservative party, lee anderson and brendan clark—smith, and jane stephenson, who had been a pps, or ministerial assistant. i don't think i could carry on in my role as deputy chairman of the conservative party when i fundamentally disagree with the bill.

i think most of the bill is sound. i think it can work.