of the organisation was important. it just wasn't working. and — painting protest — two activists throw soup at the mona lisa in the louvre museum in paris. hello and welcome. i'm catherine byaruhanga. the united nations secretary general has implored governments not to defund the un agency for palestinian refugees. antonio guterres also vowed to hold to account any un employee involved in acts of terror, after israeli allegations that several unrwa staff were involved in the deadly attacks by hamas last october. nine countries have paused their funding, including the us and the uk — although scotland has

not changed its policy. mr guterres says: israel has called for the head of unrwa, philippe lazzarini, to resign. the israel military is pressing ahead with its operation against hamas in the south of the gaza strip. palestinians continue to stream out of khan younis, where the israeli army says it's involved in intense fighting. multiple israeli air strikes have been reported there. the hamas—run health ministry says a hundred and sixty five palestinians have been killed in the past 2a hours, taking the total number killed since the start of the war to more than 26,400. let me take you live

to the kerem shalom crossing between israel and gaza, where right—wing israeli protesters, together with the families of some hostages, are holding a protest on the israeli side, to try to stop the passage of aid trucks into the gaza strip. they're demanding a halt to aid movements, until the release of more than 130 hostages still held by hamas in gaza since october 7th. limited amounts of aid have been delivered through the israeli—controlled kerem shalom crossing. more has been delivered through gaza's border crossing with egypt in rafah. i asked our middle east correspondent mark lowen how the cut in funding to unrwa would affect the humanitarian situation in gaza. unwra is the largest agency in aid

distribution now operating in gaza. it is an agency that has been in existence since 1949, providing aid, providing help, providing shelter, providing education to palestinian refugees. it has long had a difficult relationship with israel, which has, in a sense, seen unwra, the existence of that agency, helping palestinian refugees, as putting in doubt the very permanence and existence of israel. the fact that they, that unwra works with palestinian refugees and israel says that prevents the refugees from kind of taking roots and settling in the new — in what became the sort of geographical permanence of this region. but now, with western governments cutting orfreezing theirfunding to unrwa, that is obviously a major concern to the agency.

i mean, philip lazzarini, the head of unrwa, says that two million people rely on the lifeline and assistance to unrwa and that assistance is now about to end. he said that this is additional collective punishment for the palestinian people. just to give you an idea of the numbers, i mean, in 2022, the us contributed $340 million to unwra. germany was the second biggest funder with $162 million. so that funding has now been frozen temporarily while the un launches this investigation. mark, this must be serious allegations if you have nine key donor nations now suspending funding for unwra. what do we know about some of the staff involved or accused of helping hamas and how might they have aided hamas? well, the un secretary—general, antonio guterres, says that of the 12, nine have been immediately dismissed, one has died and two are currently being identified. now, little concrete is known about the actual allegations.

but as you heard in my report, israeli intelligence and the israeli military is said to have passed on information that they say shows the active participation of these people in the 7th of october attacks and the use of unwra facilities and vehicles. mark regev, a senior adviser to israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, told the bbc last week that a released israeli hostage had said that they had been held in the home of an unrwa staff member. now, the timing of these allegations will be debated. i mean, there will be those who will see israel as raising this at a time when israel, when its government is under pressure because of that ruling on friday by the international court ofjustice, the un's top court, that it needs to do all it can to prevent genocide in gaza, that there is growing international pressure on israel to move on mediation and a ceasefire. the israeli government says actually, it is the un which released the news of this at a time to try to kind of bury it when the icj ruling

was in the headlines. either way, it is obviously the serious, serious allegations that are being treated here. but, you know, voices in support of the un say, look, this is a mission that employs 30,000 people in total and a handful of very bad apples should not be seen to tarnish the entire reputation and the important work that the mission does. bbc�*s mark lowen there. meanwhile... diplomatic efforts to free more than 130 hostages still held by hamas are gathering pace. the head of the cia is expected to meet officials from israel, egypt and qatar at an undisclosed location in france in the coming days. they're expected to work towards securing the release of the hostages held in gaza. many western governments consider hamas to be a terrorist organisation. earlier, i spoke to gershon baskin, lead negotiator in the release of israeli soldier gilad shalit who was held hostage by hamas for five years.

he's also middle east director at the international communities 0rganization. i asked him how this round of talks to help reach an agreement. i think the fact the talks are taking place at the highest level possible with the highest level people in the intelligence community is a very good sign. i think that we need to move away all the background noise that we hear, all the reports of this kind of agreement or another kind of agreement and understand that that's all part of the negotiation process, part of the psychological warfare. there is a reality where there are 136 israeli hostages in gaza. it is believed that less than 100 of them are alive and every day they're in gaza is a risk to their lives. the israeli mounting a military campaign moving further and further south in the gaza strip will eventually reach the rafah border crossing and the city of rafah, the last place that has not been attacked yet by israel.

and hamas is under pressure, as well, they want a ceasefire, but hamas also wants a significant number of palestinian prisoners to be released by israel. it's a very difficult negotiation and the gaps are quite large. it's a very difficult negotiation but as somebody who has taken part in similar negotiations with hamas before, just take us into the room, what will they be talking about, what would the strategies involved be as they try to bring about more hostage releases? firstly, you have to recognise that israel and hamas are not talking directly with each other and this is a very strange negotiation because both sides, israel and hamas, are dedicated to destroying the other. so the negotiations are taking place through the third party mediators, the egyptian intelligence and the qatari government, and each side is still bringing messages of what its red lines are,

what it's not willing to accept, what it will be willing to accept. hamas wants an end to the war and the israeli withdrawal from gaza. israel is not prepared to do that. hamas wants all the palestinian prisoners released from israel and israel does not want to do that, israel wants to get back all the hostages and is not willing to release all the palestinians prisoners in israel. so somehow, the mediators, the head of the cia, and the egyptians and the qataris are going to have to find some middle ground that can make it work for both sides for the time being. we have to understand that from israel's point of view, even if hostages are released, there is virtually nothing that prevents it from renewing the war whenever it wants or re—arresting palestinian prisoners. at this time, we've heard, just today, hamas once again threatening to execute hostages, which is taking up the level, the threat level, taking it up a step higher. and, mr baskin, i know this might be an unfair question, but you paint the differing strategies of israel and hamas there. what could a compromise look like, what could a deal look like at the end of these talks?

right, i think that if we're looking at an interim deal and not a final deal which would release all the hostages, then we're probably talking about a release of those hostages that hamas defines as civilians — the elderly, the women, the children who might still be there and might still be alive. they could also release all the dead bodies of the hostages. and israel would have to release thousands of palestinian prisoners and have an extended ceasefire or a pause for a month, two months, three months, maybe more, but that's the kind of deal that's possible to reach at this point. that was gershon baskin of the international communities 0rganization. we have some breaking news now. england's cricketers have pulled off a quite sensational victory in the first test match against india in hyderabad. they staged a remarkable comeback to win the match by 28 runs. england

spinner tom hartley was the hero, taking seven wickets in the second innings. india had been heavily favoured to win the match, as well as the series. we will have more news on that in our sports bulletin but that is just some breaking news, that england have won the first test match against india in hyderabad. here in the uk, the business and trade secretary kemi badenoch has said she removed the post office chairman henry staunton because the governance of the post office "just wasn t working". an interim chair is expected to be appointed shortly. it comes as the post office is reeling from the fallout from the horizon scandal, which has been called the biggest miscarriage ofjustice in uk history. 0ur political correspondent harry farley explains. more than 700 sub—postmasters and mistresses prosecuted because of the faulty horizon software system that made it look as though money was disappearing from post office

accounts when of course it wasn't, and many more were having to pay out of their own pockets to make up the shortfalls that the horizon error made it look as though was happening. as you say, there is a keenness in government to be seen to be proactive, to be seen to be doing something on this and kemi badenoch the business secretary was out this morning explaining why she had sacked the post office chairman yesterday, henry staunton. he's been in post forjust over a year, so he wasn't in post over the key period when the horizon scandal was ongoing but yesterday afternoon, it emerged that kemi badenoch had removed him from his post. she explained this morning that it just wasn't working. there were various disagreements within the board, and when i looked at it, i thought that a change of personnel was what was required. i don't want to do hr on live tv, these are human beings that we are talking about. it is very difficult to be asked to stand down from a position. but i decided that given all of the difficulties the post office is having,

it's notjust about horizon, it's about the entire business model, how we make it work, that we needed someone who could chair a board that had, that was able to deal with these things effectively. well, as you can see, lots more questions about exactly why the post office chair was removed, what particular incident or disagreement led to that decision. labour's shadow business secretary jonathan reynolds was also asked about it this morning and he was asked whether he thought politics was behind it. the scale of the scandal in the post office is so vast, it's absolutely essential the right leadership is in place. the government are going to have to tell us why they made this decision seemingly yesterday, given that the person who is going wasn't actually there for the scandal so there must be specific reasons why they don't have confidence in that person going on. but i think the public will want to know, this is not just about one person, one chair being changed, the overall approach in the entire organisation is going to come to terms with the scale of this, put it right.

in the last few minutes, i have spoken to another labour mp, kevin jones. he's one of the key mps whose been campaigning on this for a number of years. he told me that he wants to see the sacking of the post office chair as part of wider change in the post office leadership, he wants this just to be the start of more of a wholesale change in leadership. i think we can expect to hear more about this decision and the reasons behind it in the house of commons this week. now let's turn to news coming out of paris now. protesters have hurled soup at the mona lisa. the 16th century work — by leonardo da vinci — is protected by bulletproof glass, so is unlikely to have been damaged. the two eco—protesters are reported to have been demanding the right to "healthy and sustainable food", saying "our agricultural system is at risk". it is the latest attack on the masterpiece in the louvre museum, after an activist threw a cream pie at the painting in 2022.

germany's chancellor olaf scholz says he's concerned about the rise of right wing extremists and has called on people to fight racism and anti—semitism, as the country marks holocaust memorial day. thousands marched in dusseldorf on saturday — the latest in a series of protests against the far right alternative for germany party. there are reports that two senior members of the party took part in discussions about deporting citizens of foreign origin. jessica parker reports. in her 80s, but undaunted by a crowd, renate speaks at one of the many protests sweeping germany. she survived the holocaust. many of herjewish family did not. translation: it's very important that we jews raise our voice. - the situation in germany has become threatening because of alternative

for deutschland and other far right groups, not just for us jews. these demos were sparked by revelations that senior figures from the alternative for deutschland party met with right—wing extremists where the mass deportation of asylum seekers and so—called non—germans was allegedly discussed. there's a debate about whether to ban the afd or deprive them of state funding — the where do you stand on that? i'm against the ban of afd. i think we have to tackle them in a political way, because if we ban them, i fear that they attract more attention and that more people try to support them. for all these shows of staunch mass resistance against the afd, there is great uncertainty, even a nervousness about how to tackle the rise of the far right, particularly here in germany's east. a sense of disaffection lingers in the once—communist part of this

country where the afd�*s leading the polls ahead of key elections. translation: they never had a chance to be in power because no-one - wants to work with them. maybe if they got into power, it would be good for us. the afd, designated by domestic intelligence as extremist in saxony, says it's being smeared by its opponents. what do you think about the fact there are hundreds of thousands of people protesting against your party, and some people at those demonstrations saying they're scared by what they've heard? translation: we are aware of it, | but we believe that many of these | demonstrators don't know our programme. we are in the absurd situation where people demonstrate with the government against the opposition. that's unheard of. this city of chemnitz was once named after karl marx. that was reversed but the monument remains. the father of communism now watching

over the rise of the far right. jessica parker, bbc news, in chemnitz. let's get some of the day's other news now. the pope has condemned a gun attack on an italian church in istanbul in turkey that has left one person dead and several others injured. two masked gunmen entered the santa maria church during sunday mass, opened fire and then fled. it's unclear who carried out the attack. the church has been damaged by small scale attacks several times. for the second time in a matter of days, north korea has fired cruise missiles into the waters off its eastern coast. south korea's military said the latest launch took place near the port of sinpo. it follows a similar test on wednesday, which pyongyang said used a new type of cruise missile that could be capable of carrying nuclear warheads. finland is holding its first presidential election since it

joined nato last year. the decision to apply for membership was prompted by the russian invasion of ukraine, and all nine candidates in today's vote are promising a tough stance on the kremlin. king charles has spent a second night in hospital in london, after undergoing a procedure for an enlarged prostate. he was visited on saturday by queen camilla — charles is staying in the same hospital where the princess of wales is being cared for, following her abdominal surgery. our correspondent charlie rose is outside the hospital. the very latest is that the feeling is that his majesty the king is expected to spend at least the rest of the weekend here at the london clinic hospital. we can't give any certainty on that, of course, because buckingham palace tends not to give a running commentary on these matters, but what the palace has commented on is the king's health problem.

why? because the king wants to raise awareness and publicise the fact that he's been having an enlarged prostate, to encourage more men to come forward and seek help, information and advice. and that's exactly what's happened, according to the nhs, who say it's seen a surge in the number of men going on to its website, seeking help and advice on enlarged prostates and that's been welcomed by doctors and charities. 1—in—3 men over the age of 50 apparently has the condition of an enlarged prostate. as well as the king, his daughter—in—law, catherine, princess of wales, is also being cared for at this hospital, having undergone abdominal surgery. she's now on her 13th day here, although she was always expected to be here for around about a fortnight. both she and her father—in—law, his majesty the king, are said to be doing well. both are being cared for, being waited on by medical teams,

doctors, nurses, they're being monitored and assessed. and while that goes on today, perhaps we could see another visit from queen camilla. the bbc�*s charlie rose there. the world's largest cruise ship, the icon of the seas, has set sailfrom miami in florida on its maiden voyage. here it is. it is 365 metres long, has 20 decks, and there is enough room for almost 8,000 passengers on board. the chief engineer of the icon of the seas says the ship is, well, iconic. so obviously the technology on a new cruise ship keeps evolving and we as a company are on a continuous journey with all kinds of technology. everything from what you see up in the accommodation, what the guests will see from things like ventilation and the light system that we have on board, all the way down to the

technical area and the machine area where we are the first the cruise ship in the royal international brand where we have lng as our main fuel source, which is quite exciting for us on board to take part in thatjourney. earlier, i spoke to dave monk — an award—winning cruise writer who was recently on board the icon of the seas. it is incredible. as you can imagine, it's more like a floating island than a cruise ship. there are so many... there are eight separate neighbourhoods, as they call them. so there's a park with 30,000 plants and trees. there's a whole family section, a huge water park, a dome with its own waterfall. so it's an incredible engineering achievement. and you mention a ship with "neighbourhoods".

it seems unimaginable for a lot of people viewing. i've never been on a cruise ship, so tell me, what it is the idea around it, are people are meant to get on board and just stay there for weeks, perhaps? well, you could, but of course, it's a cruise ship, so it does visit various places within the caribbean, but there is so much to see and do and experience on board, lots of restaurants. and there's a wizard of oz show, stage show, and just continual activity onboard. so these neighbourhoods, for example, you can walk through this park, it's very serene. there are much busier... the water park has six amazing slides. there's a drop slide that i went on. you can walk over the edge of the ship on a harness, which i did, 150ft above the waves.

so, whatever you want to do, whether you want a peaceful holiday or activity—filled, it's all on one ship. and, dave, our viewers can now actually see you, i think, ziplining over the edge of the ship. just tell us, what was that like? i'm kind of suspended on this harness. it's like an overhead rope that's keeping me safe as i walk over the side of the ship and then i stand on a platform which gives way, and then you're kind of ziplining back to the safety of the deck. briefly, before we end the programme, there are obviously these concerns around the environment and methane emissions. how much is this a concern for the icon of the seas, but also the industry? oh, it's a huge concern for the industry. there's so much money and effort going in now to try and reduce the environmental impact. lng was thought to be the way forward because it cuts carbon

dioxide emissions hugely and reduces particulates. but as we hear, there's a whole new debate about this. but this is a continuing, evolving technology towards eventually net—zero cruise ships. dave monk there. stay with us here on bbc news. hello again. it started off largely fine and dry for many of us this morning. we've had some lovely sunrise pictures sent in from our weather watcher. look at this one here from suffolk this morning, where it was a little bit chilly, but temperatures will rise into the afternoon and it's going to be a very mild day for many of us. look at the temperatures this afternoon, 13 to 15 degrees in the moray firth. compare that to the average for the end ofjanuary, we're about four to nine degrees

celsius above where we should be for the time of year. but we'll keep some blue skies and some sunshine across many parts of england and wales. a bit more cloud across the far south west of england, and you'll notice this rain spreads into northern ireland and scotland and with it there'll be some strong winds, especially to the east of northern ireland and along the central belt of scotland, gusts of 50, 60mph. so that could cause some travel disruption, there'll be some strong cross winds here. stronger winds in the outer hebrides, gusts up to 70, maybe 75mph this afternoon, with that rain spreading its way through. some sunshine, though, to the east of scotland and that's where we'll see the highest temperatures, as i said, 15 degrees here, but widely, temperatures about 10 to 13 degrees celsius. now, through tonight, the rain will continue to move south and eastwards out of scotland, into northern england, parts of wales. behind this area of rain, though, we've got some colder air moving in, so temperatures close to freezing into tomorrow morning. but further south and east ahead of the area, rain, well, it's still going to be very mild

overnight, temperatures no lower than about six to nine celsius. and you can see that divide to the cold, to the milder air to the south in between this weather front, which is going to bring us some outbreaks of rain throughout monday. and with that colder air digging in, there could be just a little bit of snow over the hills of the southern uplands and the north pennines. but a pretty wet day for northern england through much of wales. sunshine, though, for scotland and northern ireland. a chillier day here, temperatures about seven or eight degrees celsius. but to the south east with some sunshine, it's going to feel really quite pleasant with that sunshine, highs up to 1a, maybe even 15 degrees celsius. on into tuesday, that weather front will slowly fizzle away, there'll be some cloud in central and eastern areas for a time, but plenty of sunshine developing with this ridge of high pressure building in, and for many of us, temperatures down a little bit on monday's values, about seven to 12 degrees celsius. that's it from me. bye— bye.

this is bbc news, the headlines. he head of the united nations has begged governments which have suspended funding to the un agency for palestinian refugees to guarantee the continuity of its operations. antonio guterres said he was horrified by israeli allegations that some unrwa staff were involved in last october's attacks by hamas. the uk's business secretary kemi

badenoch has said she removed the post office chairman because the governance of the post office "just wasn't working". the post office has been struggling with the fallout from the horizon it scandal and a failure to hit commercial targets. in france, two activists have thrown what's reported to be soup at the mona lisa in paris. it splattered the bullet—proof glass covering leonardo da vinci's masterpiece. the painting itself hasn't been damaged. a series of opinion polls have suggested that the main opposition labour party is set to win the next general election, which is likely to happen later this year. that would mean sir keir starmer becoming the first labour prime minister since gordon brown left office in 2010. with that in mind, we've been testing public opinion, hearing from a group of nearly 50 voters,

with a range of political views, all of whom live in constituencies