explosions hit a residential building in the syrian capital. iranian media says two high—ranking military advisers from iran's revolutionary guards have been killed. a un human rights official accuses israel of beating and stripping palestinians detained in gaza. they describe being beaten, humiliated, subjected to ill treatment and to what may amount to torture. police urge the mother of a newborn baby found in a shopping bag in east london to come forward. hello.

i'm lewis vaughan jones. reports from syria say a suspected israeli air strike has hit a residential building in the capital, damascus. according to iranian media, at least two high—ranking military advisers from iran's revolutionary guards were among those killed. the building was reportedly used by iranian advisers to the syrian government, who have played a key role in keeping president assad in power during the civil war in syria. here's our middle east analyst sebastian usher with more details. pictures show a really large plume of smoke. the blast was heard across much of damascus. this is a very upmarket residential district, much to the west of damascus. there are embassies there, missions there. the un has an office there, lots of restaurants. so this is very much the residential heart of damascus as far as figures and who was killed, there are different reports coming. iranian media started to report that two senior revolutionary guards

members were killed, potentially the head of intelligence for the arm of the revolutionary guards, which essentially works outside iran, which has played a key role in syria, in yemen, in other conflicts. so if that were the case, i mean, obviously this would be a major strike. all the indications are, and this is the way it's being reported by the syrian state media, but it's most likely to be israel. but israel very rarely confirms such strikes. it's carried out hundreds of them over the years in syria, essentially targeting iranian linked groups, militias, military advisers, etc. i mean, iran, as you were saying, the introduction has played really a very, very important role in keeping president assad going, both in terms of financial aid, military aid, and very much the advisory role that iranian military figures have played. and the reports we're hearing is that this building, which we're told has essentially collapsed, i haven't seen pictures of that so far, was a place

where these iranian advisers were based and a meeting was being held at the time of the strike took place. and as you said there, we don't know who is behind these strikes. if they are air strikes, as is believed, we know the syrian state media accusing the israelis, but we don't have any independent confirmation of that. if that line from the state media turns out to be true, what's the kind of reasoning? why would these strikes be carried out in the first place? well, as i say, i mean, there have been many of these strikes in the past, but what we've seen since the war with hamas erupted is they've become more intense and in syria in particular. last month, in december, there were two strikes which hit against senior members of a revolutionary guard. so clearly, israel has increased, intensified those strikes as it has regionally. i mean, it's facing pressure on the northern border from hezbollah, daily skirmishes. and hezbollah, again, has played a big role in the syrian conflict and iran has been able to supply weapons to hezbollah

through syria often. so that's been a major reason why israel has struck before. there might be, and i've seen some speculation, that this might be a strike directly in response to the strike that iran carried out in iraq on what iran said was a mossad base there. now, israel hasn't confirmed that, obviously, in any way, but i have seen people suggesting that it may be in this instance, that that's the direct reason. but i think the wider reason is that israel is intensifying its actions really across the region to send the message essentially do not escalate this further. and of course, that message is directed towards iran. staying in the region... a un human rights official has accused israel of beating, blindfolding and stripping palestinians detained during its military operation in gaza. ajith sunghay — the head of the un human rights office in occupied palestinian territories — said some of the former detainees he met during a visit to the territory had been held

for nearly two months, in often cramped conditions. during my time here, i managed to meet a number of released detainees. these are men who were detained by the israeli security forces in unknown locations for between 30 to 55 days. they described being beaten, humiliated, subjected to ill treatment and to what may amount to torture. they reported being blindfolded for long periods, some of them for several consecutive days. one man said he had access to a shower only once during his 55 days in detention. there are reports of men who were subsequently released, but only in diapers without any adequate clothing in this cold weather. what they told me was consistent with reports our office has been gathering of the detention of palestinians on a broad scale, including many civilians held in secrecy, often subject to ill treatment with no access to their families, lawyers or effective judicial protection.

our middle east correspondent mark lowen told me more about the allegations. the allegations have been flatly denied by the israeli defence forces who say they treat detainees in accordance with international law and that when detainees are forced to remove their clothes it is to check whether or not they have explosive devices. but the allegations made by the un are very much in line toissue with others�* and other accusations that have been made by human rights groups for example against how the israeli defence forces are treating local prisoners of war. israel maintains that it is continuing to target terror areas. for example, moving its tanks towards medical facilities around khan younis in southern gaza that they say have

been used as launch sites for attacks against israeli forces. thejordanian government has accused israel of directly firing against a jordanian field hospital in southern gaza overnight and say that benjamin netanyahu is, in the words of the jordanian government, bringing doom to this region. the fighting very much continues in southern gaza. that is the part of the strip to which israel encouraged people to flee when the fighting was in the north. but now the fighting is particularly intense in the south and that's why some of the idf feel some hamas leaders are holed up. israeli forces have continued their intense bombardment of the city of khan younis in southern gaza. hamas health officials say 165 palestinians have been killed in the past day, and the overall number killed so far is approaching 25,000. the israeli army says its troops found six rocket launchers when they raided what it described as a military compound. president biden has sought

to play down differences with israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, over the prospects of the creation of a palestinian state. the two men spoke on friday for the first time in nearly a month. mr biden told reporters in washington he believed it was possible to work something out. he denied that the israeli leader has ruled out the idea of a two—state solution once the fighting in gaza is over. on thursday, mr netanyahu said israel must have security control of all territory west of the jordan river for the foreseeable future, even though that conflicts with the idea of palestinian sovereignty. the us says israel has agreed to allow shipments of flour through a port north of the gaza strip — reducing the time it takes for aid to reach the territory. the un had accused israel's military of restricting aid deliveries to northern gaza. the un humanitarian agency says less than a quarter of its planned missions have been allowed so far in january. just last month, israel agreed the temporary delivery of aid into gaza via its southern border crossing, opening a new route for supplies after weeks of pressure.

here in the uk... the metropolitan police says it's concerned for the welfare of a mother whose newborn baby was found in a shopping bag by the side of a road in east london. officers say the girl, who has been given the temporary name elsa, is in good health, despite the freezing temperatures. nickjohnson reports. less than an hour after she was born, baby elsa, as she's been named, was found inside a shopping bag at the entrance to this open space on the side of a busy road. despite the subzero temperatures on thursday night, police say the little girl is unharmed and safe. the met�*s focus now rests upon finding the newborn�*s mother. we are extremely concerned for her welfare as she will have been through a traumatic ordeal and will be in need of immediate medical attention

following the birth. if you are the baby's mother, please know that your daughter is well. no matter what your circumstances please do seek help by dialling 999. the force has also asked anyone who thinks they might know baby elsa's mother to contact them. officers say the newborn�*s survival on thursday night was largely due to the actions of the dog walker who found her. thinking fast, that person kept the baby girl warm until london ambulance service paramedics arrived and checked her over before taking her to hospital. the police say others also stayed on the scene and the measures they took contributed to saving the baby's life. earlier i spoke to nick from the scene. well, lewis, police have said they made a point of saying their primary concern is the health and well—being of the baby's mother.

they say that specialist medics and police staff are on hand to provide support and have urged her to come and make contact. as you heard in that report we know that little baby elsa was less than an hour old when she was found inside that shopping bag right here on the pavement between this busy road and the entrance to this open space. the location of that shopping bag, the traffic, the busyness of the road, there is a dual carriageway just behind the camera, you really get a sense of how inconspicuous a tiny baby would have been in that shopping bag. police say they believe the dog walker that discovered her was alerted by the cries coming from that bag. it is cold here this morning but it's not as cold as thursday night when the little baby was found. it was below freezing and all she was covered in was a towel. but despite all that, police say she is doing well in hospital, she is safe, she is unharmed, but you get the sense that if someone had found her a few moments later it might have been a very different story. indeed. nick, we heard a little from the police there. what have they been saying

and what have they been urging people to do? as i said, their main concern now is tracing the mother. they have asked people who use this park for walking their dogs, we have seen lots of people walking their dogs, riding their bikes and running this morning, so anyone who may frequent this route on a daily basis, to get in touch with them, especially if they have any idea who the mum might be. when baby elsa was left here it would have been on thursday evening. there would have been a lot of traffic along this road. this is a busy road so perhaps a lot of opportunity for other people to have seen something that went on. but really, police now saying that now the child is safe and appears to be doing well in hospital, their main concern now is finding the baby's mother and getting her the medical attention she will clearly need. thanks to nick for that.

let's get some of the day's other news now... the us military says it has carried out further strikes against houthi targets in yemen, destroying three anti—ship missiles. the houthis have staged dozens of attacks on shipping in the red sea region. a fire at a school dormitory in central china has killed 13 people. the managers of the school in a village in henan province have been detained while the cause of the fire is investigated. a huge blaze at a rubbish dump outside panama city has shrouded the capital in toxic smoke and forced the evacuation of nearby homes. firefighters said at least six hectares of the dump caught fire and everything pointed to the blaze being started deliberately. in the uk, a committee of mps has asked the treasury, the royal mint and other public bodies to reveal details of any contracts awarded to fujitsu in the past five years. the company has apologised for its role in the post office it scandal — in which hundreds of branch managers were wrongly convicted of fraud or theft because of its faulty horizon computer system. fujitsu has said it won't bid for more government contracts

while the inquiry is continuing. i've been speaking to our political correspondent helen catt about what mps in the select committee are looking at. they are looking at details of all the contracts awarded to fujitsu since 2019. and why 2019? that was the date when the high court ruled that the horizon post office system which was installed across post offices across the country was defective. the committee has written to a number of different departments to find out what contracts have been awarded since then. they want to know details of it, notjust the value of those but, for example, how they were awarded, with done through open competition? the chair of the committee harriett baldwin, a conservative mp, said this

is about surfacing information, it is not about punishing fujitsu. how widespread is the company's involvement in government departments? it is understood to be pretty widespread. one estimate has been there has been £4 billion worth of work awarded to fujitsu in the last five years and one of the obvious examples that springs to is police national computer, fujitsu has run that for 30 years and was awarded a new contract in 2022 £48 million and at the time parliamentarians were told there was no alternative to fujitsu. we know it is a big firm and it has lots of involvement right across government. what the committee here has written to all the departments concerned with finances, people like the taxman, hmrc, like the treasury, like the royal mint. so it will be interesting to see what comes back from those. but as you said, fujitsu has for now said it won't bid for any more government contracts until the public inquiry into what happened at the post office is over. helen, thanks for that. now it's time for a look at today's sport with mike bushell.

hello and thank you very much indeed. we'll start in melbourne big story in the last hour, there's been a huge upset in the women's draw, with the top seed iga swiantek dumped out of the competition by 19—year—old linda noskova. no—one saw this coming, as swiantek had looked in control, winning the first set, but the highly—rated teenager fought back, forcing errors from the pole, to win 3—6, 6—3, 6—4 on the rod laver arena. noskova will now play 19th seed elina svitolina or viktorija golubich in herfirst fourth—round match at a major. she can hardly believe it. over in the men's draw today, britain's cameron norrie has pulled off one of the other big results of day seven. in the biggest grand slam victory of his career, norrie has knocked out the number 11 seed and three—time grand slam finalist casper ruud. he did it in four sets and now faces german sixth seed alexander zverev or american teenager alex michelsen on monday.

norrie is the only briton remaining in either singles draw, and is the first british player to reach the fourth round at melbourne park in six years. elsewhere in the mens draw, it was pretty straightforward for the number two seed carlos alcaraz, he comfortably reached the fourth round for the first time after his 18 —year—old, opponent shang juncheng of china, retired with injury. the spainiard was two sets up when that happened. it was the first time that the 20—year—old has played an opponent younger than him at tour level. every match that i'm playing, you know, i'm feeling better and better, moving, hitting the ball. and of course, i'm getting used to this court as well. i didn't play so much in this court. so everything, everything is good. i taking good, good things from the court, from, you know, the level that i'm playing. and hopefully it's going to be better and better. onto football, and in

the english premier league all eyes will be on brentford striker ivan toney later, who will play his first game since may. he returns from his eight—month ban for breaching betting rules, and will captain brentford against nottingham forest, as they look to halt their recent slump. of course, he is a human being like you and i and he will be a little bit nervous like that eight—year—old boy that's playing his first game or is coming back, of course. but as soon as the kick—off, the first whistle goes, he will be, boom, zoomed in, ready, and ready to perform. the only other match toay sees arsenal face crystal palace hoping to close the gap on league leaders liverpool. that game kicks off injust over an hour. mikel arteta's side have lost their last three games in all competitions, but the spaniard says they're feeling re—juvanated after a warm weather training break in dubai. we are recharged, we are full of energy and super motivated. the team is super motivated and we want to attack the second

half of the season with a lot of ambitions and with the understanding that the team is capable of big things. and they are convinced of that. we as a team, i think, believe that we're capable of going there and making life difficult for them, playing a good game. and if we're lucky and we do play that good game and maybe, as you rightly point out, their form isn't quite what it was a few weeks ago, who knows? you know, the result's there for us to get and we'll do our best to get it. that's all we can do. natasha jonas, has said home advantage, makes a big difference as she came in under weight, ahead of herfight against american mikaela mayer. the fighter from liverpool will defend her ibf welterweight title in her home city later. at 39 years old, jonas easily made the weight at 10 stone 6, while mayer, who's taller, was five ounces heavier. and that's all the sport for now.

back to you. good stuff, thank you, mike. the president of the democratic republic of congo — felix tshisekedi — is being sworn in for his second term. these are live pictures from the ceremony in the capital kinshasa. mr tshisekedi won last month's election — but the result was disputed. the result was pretty chaotic, the campaign was chaotic and the result was disputed. but he is being sworn in. during his campaign, he vowed to tackle the violence in the country's east... fights and disputes over natural resources, gang violence, a lot on the president's in tray but there he

is in that ceremonial wife being sworn in for his second term. a bbc verify investigation has uncovered a network of nearly 200 fake social media accounts operating in uganda. using false identities, those behind them have been pushing messages praising the government and targeting its critics — at times with threats. i've been speaking to the bbc�*s marco silva. i came across this network of fake social media accounts. there were a few giveaways that made these accounts suspicious. one of them is the fact that they use as profile pictures photos from social media stolen from the accounts of models, actresses, influencers. these accounts also appear to be laser focused, focused on one thing and one thing alone. that was ugandan politics.

and as well, they often post it in tandem. at the same time, the same content, using the same language. another giveaway, perhaps, is the fact that many of these accounts were all created in the same day. now, this makes it look like while they may look like they were separate accounts independent from each other, all these different giveaways show us that they're very, very likely to have been working together to achieve two different things. on the one hand, to push a pro—government agenda, and on the other hand to attack critics and opposition figures both at home, including ugandan climate activist, called hillary taylor that i interviewed as part of my investigation, but also critics abroad, including a member of the european parliament. and marco, do we have any idea then who's behind this network?

it's important to say that this, when you investigate this sort of network, it's incredibly difficult to find out who really is behind them. and that is because often the evidence that you would need to prove beyond reasonable doubt that a particular individual is behind it is evidence that is often held by the social media companies themselves. now, in this case, i did approach x one of the social networks where these accounts were found. i approached them. i told them about the accounts that i had that i had identified. they didn't respond to any of my requests for comment, and they didn't take any action against the accounts that i identified. meta, facebook�*s parent company on the other hand, did remove most of the accounts that i identified, and they also believe that several of the accounts we identified were were run were linked

to individuals linked to ugandan government agency, called the government citizens interaction centre. now, what facebook is saying here is that they believe that several of the accounts we identified were run by these individuals. “ we -- we have not seen the evidence that meta — -- we have not seen the evidence that meta says — -- we have not seen the evidence that meta says it _ -- we have not seen the evidence that meta says it has _ -- we have not seen the evidence that meta says it has on _ -- we have not seen the evidence that meta says it has on this. - so we can't independently verify it. the cic, the ugandan agency in question, denies this allegation flatly, and yet it wouldn't be the first time that they face accusations of running influence operations back in 2021, right before the ugandan presidential election. meta at the time also took down hundreds of facebook and instagram accounts, which it said at the time were linked to this ugandan agency. the ugandan government at the time was a dumbfounded, was angry at this accusation. and as a result, authorities

ended up banning facebook from the country, a ban that is still in place as we speak. for more on this story, listen to bbc trending: crude fakes in uganda, on bbc sounds. before i go, let's just show you this — a murmuration of starlings caught on camera in northwest england. it took place at a reserve at leighton moss, near morecambe in lancashire. the phenomenon happens at dusk, just before the birds roost for the night — drawing large crowds of birdwatchers. beautiful pictures. that just about it from me. thatjust about it from me. plenty more is always online, do download the bbc news app and i will be back at the top of the hour. stay with us here on bbc news.

i'm lewis vaughan jones, i'm lewis vaughanjones, goodbye. hello. we've got some pretty stormy weather on the way later tomorrow. latest named storm, storm isha, named by the uk met office, will roll its way in and barrel across the country, particularly sunday night and into monday morning, with severe gales expected quite widely. there will be disruption into monday morning rush hour. more on that in just a second, because even before that arrives, the winds already up today, it's much milder. we've got rid of the cold air and it's rain rather than snow. this is storm isha on the charts. it's out towards the west atlantic at the moment, that massive cloud. but even before then, we've still got this cloud across the uk and that is producing some rain. the rain's been pretty relentless so far through northwest england and parts of western wales, at least off a little bit through the rest of today. for a while at least, that's the brightness far northeast of scotland and some hazy sunshine,

the channel islands and the far south east of england, six or seven degrees across some eastern areas and the west, ten, 11 celsius where the wind picks up even further later and the rain becomes heavier and more persistent. so quite a wet evening and first part of the night across the western half of the uk. that rain pushes its way erratically eastwards, clearing for most into dawn. so a few showers in the west, but in the clear skies, temperatures will take a bit of a dip tonight. so another cool night, nowhere near as cold as it has been. any frost limited to some sheltered glens in scotland. so a frost free start to sunday and the morning will be the quietest part of the day. parts of east wales, central southern england, bit of sunshine — same too across northern scotland. showers replaced by longer spells of rain, northern england, central southern scotland, northern ireland and western parts of wales. that rain and the totals totting up combined with snowmelt could lead to some flooding. but temperatures will be on the rise as the winds pick up. those winds really become a feature sunday night, and that's the storm passes to the north or broad area of strong winds. many parts will be affected. the met office have issued amber weather warnings quite widely

through sunday night and into monday morning. could see winds gusting 70, 80 miles an hour, maybe even a little bit more. there will be some large waves, some damage, some disruption to power and also travel, which could linger into the morning, monday morning rush hour. so be prepared for some problems on monday morning weather—wise. still windy but not as windy as that have been through the night. frequent showers, particularly across the north and the west. best of the sunshine to the south and the east, that's how it's looking. all the warnings are online. take care.

this is bbc news. the headlines... two high—ranking iranian military advisers are reported to have been killed in an apparent israeli air strike on a residential building in the syrian capital. the state—run press tv in iran says they were members of iran's powerful revolutionary guard. the blast hit the mazzeh district of damascus. a un human rights official accuses israel of beating and stripping palestinians detained in gaza. a claim israel denies. meanwhile, hamas health officials in gaza say the number of palestinians killed has reached nearly 25,000 — as the israeli military continues its bombardment of khan younis in the south. police urge the mother of a newborn baby found in a shopping bag in east london to come forward. the baby — named elsa by hospital staff — was just an hour old when she was found.