hello, i'm samatha simmonds. the democratic unionist party says it's agreed a deal to restore the devolved government in northern ireland. the agreement signals the end of the dup's boycott of the stormont assembly — which has left northern ireland without a locally elected parliament for almost two years. the party's leader, sirjeffrey donaldson, said the proposals are subject to the westminster government passing laws to address concerns about post—brexit trading arrangements. our ireland correspondent chris page reports. as the democratic unionist party reached a pivot point, protesters tried to increase the pressure. more hard—line unionists have been urging the dup not to agree a new deal to restore the devolved government. 130 party members took part in a meeting, which lasted more than five hours. but, early this morning, the leader,

sirjeffrey donaldson, announced he had won support for a plan to bring back power—sharing. i believe that with the faithful delivery of this package of measures, hard work and dedication, we will be able to look back on this moment as the defining time when northern ireland's place within the union was safeguarded and our place within the united kingdom internal market was restored. unionists have been strongly opposed to trading arrangements, which were brought in after brexit. northern ireland follows different rules to great britain, meaning there are checks on goods arriving here from england, scotland and wales. the dup has said that separates this part of the uk from the rest. it's been negotiating with westminster for measures to remove what it sees as economic barriers. the dup says the question of how quickly the devolved government will be restored will depend on when the uk government fulfils its commitments,

particularly passing legislation. the northern ireland secretary, chris heaton—harris, says he'll finalise the deal as soon as possible. when a power—sharing coalition is formed, an irish nationalist will become first minister for the first time. the sinn fein vice president, michelle o'neill, is in line to take up the position. after two years of uncertainty, frustration and division, it looks like the stalemate at stormont is coming to an end. chris page, bbc news, belfast. and chris page sent us this update a while ago on the timeline of the devolved government returning to northern ireland. weeks, maybe even days, certainly not months. the reason why now the pathway has opened up for northern ireland to have its government back is that the largest unionist party, the democratic unionists, have announced that they have endorsed a deal that they've reached with the uk government to address their concerns over

brexit trading arrangements for northern ireland. it was the dup who in effect brought about the collapse of the regional government here almost two years ago because they believed that an arrangement whereby northern ireland in effect stayed in the uk single market... stayed in the eu, rather, single market for goods meant that northern ireland was being separated from the rest of the uk in an economic sense, so as unionists they said they simply could not accept that. so there have been lengthy negotiations. last night there was a long meeting of senior members of the democratic unionist party. that meeting lasted for about five hours. but at about one o'clock in the morning uk time, the dup leader, sirjeffrey donaldson, held a news conference, announced that he had, in his view, received sufficient support from members of his party to endorse this deal. so we're expecting now legislation to be brought forward by the uk

government in london. the dup say they won't move formally to allow the regional government here to be revived until that legislation is through parliament. but certainly people here in northern ireland waking up this morning to the news that it is very likely that the government will be returning in the coming days after an absence of 2a months. the us has named the three soldiers killed in sunday's attack near the jordan—syria border. 46—year—old william jerome rivers, 24—year—old kennedy ladon sanders and 23—year—old breonna alexsondria moffett were all from an army reserve unit in the state of georgia. they were killed — and dozens more were injured — in the attack at a remote outpost called tower 22. the us says it does not seek another war, but it will protect itself and respond appropriately.

here's secretary of state, antony blinken. so the attacks that have taken place since october on our forces, on our personnel, in both iraq and syria, have been conducted by groups that are aligned with iran, and indeed are supported by iran, funded by iran, equipped by iran. and i would note that the presence of ourforces in both iraq and syria has nothing to do with gaza, nothing to do with the conflict that's taken place since october 7th, since the horrific attacks by hamas, and everything to do with making sure that isis doesn't re—emerge. that's why they're there. president biden has promised a response. the white house issued this photo of him in the situation room, discussing what to do with senior figures from his administration. what happened injordan is not an isolated incident.

since israel launched its military action in gaza, after the hamas attacks on israel, us military bases in syria and iraq have been attacked more than 170 times. the group behind the deaths at the tower 22 base — called islamic resistance in iraq — are part of an iranian—sponsored network across the middle east. known as the axis of resistance, there's a number of pro—iranian militias based in iraq, syria, lebanon, the palestinian territories and as far south as yemen. all are opposed to israel and the united states. iran says it has had no direct involvement in any of the attacks. meanwhile the israeli military says it has killed three palestinians at a hospital injenin in the occupied west bank. it said they were members of an armed cell hiding inside the medical facility, and had been planning an attack. our middle east correspondent mark lowen told me more. cctv footage shows israeli armed forces going into the hospital,

many disguised as palestinians, some in women's clothes, some dressed as medics, and they shot dead three people who they call hamas terrorists inside that hospital. hamas has claimed one of them as their own and islamichhad, a spin off of hamas, has identified another two of the victims as members of that organisation. israel says one of them was planning an attack similar to the 7th of october attack on israel. and two others were... sorry, it is incredibly windy now. two others they say that were responsible for a previous attack. this is a sign of how the violence in the west bank has continued to spiral since the gaza conflict began. the violence in the west bank is now the worst it has been since the second palestinian intifada or uprising two decades ago, and it is a real concern that gaza's conflict has spilled over into the wider region and that in order to try to calm what has happened in gaza there is an urgent

need to calm what is happening in the west bank, where violence byjewish settlers there and violence by armed palestinian groups on the settlers has reached a level not seen in many years. i wanted to ask you about hostage negotiations. in the past few minutes mark regev, a spokesperson for the israeli prime minister, has told the bbc they are willing to see a pause in the fighting should hamas return those hostages, more than 120 being held who were taken on october seventh, of course. what is your understanding of how far along they are in these current negotiations? talks began in paris on sunday involving the israelis, the egyptians, the americans and the qataris, which are said by the qatari prime minister to have been good talks and they made good progress.

israel's prime minister's office said they were constructive but big differences remain. what we understand has been proposed is a halt to the fighting which could be around about a month and a half's pause where there would be a release of 30 to a0 hostages in exchange for palestinian prisoners, but the big sticking point is and has always been that hamas has demanded a permanent ceasefire as part of any hostage relief deal while the israelis, with their stated goal of total destruction of hamas, want to be able to return forces to gaza after that ceasefire. there are still sticking points and i have to say both the israelis and hamas are downplaying the idea of progress while the qataris and americans are talking it up, so i think these talks will continue this week and we will see if there is any progress, but there is huge pressure on benjamin netanyahu from the families of the hostages in israel who demand they be returned, and there is also pressure

on him and his far right members of his government who do not want him to cave into ceasefire talks. he has backed himself into a corner and he's being pulled in all directions. two pieces of breaking news, the first about those hostage negotiations. the reuters news agency reports that the hamas leader ismail haniyeh has said the group has received a ceasefire proposal put forward after those talks in paris at the weekend. they are looking at it, apparently. they added he is to visit cairo for discussions on the plan, eg it being a key part of these negotiations. ismail haniyeh said the priority was to end as well�*s military offensive and a full pull—out of israeli forces from gaza. previously hamas has refused a deal unless it sees a full end to hostilities, they say

they will not hand over any hostages unless that happens, so let's keep an eye on that for you and we will keep you up to date with any developments. another piece of breaking news from here in the uk, this is from the metropolitan police, they say a man has died after being shot by armed officers in southwark in south london. they say he was shot by armed officers responding for calls —— responding to calls for help at 4551 am. they say they were called to reports of a man attempting to force entry to a residential property in bywater place, se16. the man, believed to be in his 30s, was armed with weapons including a crossbow. local officers attempted to speak to the man but after being threatened, armed officers were called, quickly attended the scene. they said the man got into the property a police

firearms discharge. officers and paramedics provided first aid but they said sadly the man died at the scene. we will bring you more on that story as soon as we get it. a court in pakistan has sentenced the former prime minister imran khan and the former foreign minister shah mahmood qureshi to ten years in prison for leaking a diplomatic correspondence. our pakistan correspondent caroline davies has been monitoring events for us from islamabad. this is relating to an incident that happened in march of 2022, a month before imran khan was ousted from power in a vote of no—confidence. imran appeared on stage waving a piece of paper he said showed a foreign conspiracy against his government. he then went on to detail it, saying it said "all will be "forgiven if imran khan is removed from power." he did not specify which country this foreign conspiracy was coming from but then he proceeded to be very critical of america throughout the course of the speech so people drew the lines themselves. the prosecution said

imran khan's actions amounted to leaking state secrets, disclosing state documents and had damaged diplomatic relations. that is a second charge against him, damaging diplomatic relations, and that holds potentially long sentences, up to life imprisonment or even the death sentence. we heard earlier today that imran khan has been found guilty, as has his former foreign minister shah mahmood qureshi, they have both been sentenced to ten years in prison. the big question and the big backdrop to all this is pakistan is due to have general elections in less than two weeks. imran khan was already not qualified to stand, he'd already been disqualified as a result of a conviction back in the summer, in august. the big question now is what impact this will now have on his party. the people standing for his party, the pti, have had to stand as independents because of a decision made

by the electoral commission here. will this mean there is a break in their morale, knowing their leader, imran khan — and he has really embodied the entire party — is not able to come out of prison? he will be in prison for an extended period, ten years, according to this, or will it be a morale boost, will there will be find more people will want to vote for him because he is backed by the pti, by imran khan's party. so the big question now is how does this affect the general elections in pakistan? what about imran khan himself, as you indicated, serving a three—year sentence, now has another ten years added on. can he appeal? what now for his future? his party have made it very clear they are planning on trying to appeal this particular sentencing, as they have done with lots of these other cases, against imran khan. what we have tended to see over the course of the last few months we have seen sometimes

they will get some form of what appears to be relief, so imran khan in the first case you suggested, you mentioned when he was given bail on that initial case but he was kept in prison because he was detained for these other court cases he was meant to be appearing for too. he still has other cases against him, notjust this particular case. so, imran khan's time in court, bear in mind all these court cases are taking place inside the jail, he is not being released to appear in court, these are happening inside the jail premises. these are ongoing cases against imran khan. caroline davies. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. two women have died following a fire at a block of flats in aberdeen. emergency services were sent to back hilton road on monday a joint police and fire investigation is being carried out into the cause of the blaze

but police said there did not appear to be any suspicious circumstances. the nhs app has been updated for users in england. the new features include a prescription tool with a digital bar code that can be used in pharmacies without the need for a paper prescription. nhs digital says the app will also show average local hospital waiting times for patients who require non—urgent treatment. hsbc has been fined £57.4 million by the bank of england for "serious failings" over customer deposit protection — the second highest penalty ever imposed by the financial watchdog. it said hsbc failed "over many years" to properly put in place the requirements to protect saver deposits dating back to 2015. you're live with bbc news. the tech billionaire elon musk says his neuralink company has successfully implanted one of its wireless brain chips in a human for the first time.

he made the announcement on x — his social media platform — saying that the procedure happened on sunday and that the subject is recovering well. for more analysis i spoke to senior reporter at the independent, io dodd, who's in san francisco's silicon valley. the significance, we are not really sure. elon musk and neuralink have not said very much about the specifics of the test, only that there has been a successful implantation, which is good news, especially considering the chequered history of animal rights this company has in its previous nonhuman tests. brain computer interfaces, that is the general word for the category of devices it is in, things that read our brain, an implantable device in this case that is able to read electroconnectivity in the brain and translate it into some sort of higher order information. in the past it has been reading an image from the brain, what does a cat see? we have sometimes seen that in the past. or reading signals that would normally go towards your limbs, so in 2016 there was a fellow

who had no use of his arms, he was able to use the brain interface and a prosthetic robot arm controlled by that interface to give a fist bump to president barack obama. what neuralink is doing and where it is in the constellation of previous research efforts, neuroscientists generally say it is not doing anything new in neuroscience terms, and there are lots of big ideas, big science fiction visions elon mush has for the future of this technology that have lots of barriers between here and there. however, they have made a lot of engineering progress. they have managed to miniaturise the technology. and make it wireless, which has rarely been the case with previous brain computer interfaces. this is not the first company to develop this technology, but does the elon musk stamp make a difference for this kind of sector? hard to say. a lot of the reaction with academia and most of the previous progress

in this area has been in academia, although there has been corporate stuff going on, people are divided as to what elon musk brings to the table. you the hype and controversy he often brings is a detriment to some attention, spotlight and money to the field. he is perhaps saying it will one day help us merge with al or keep up with al as it becomes smarter and smarter than humans, and we won't be able to keep up with cognitive enhancement ourselves. or maybe it will be able to cure depression. we don't know whether any of that is possible or will happen through this specific company, but the application of this trial was for, giving more autonomy to people with quadriplegia, that is pretty useful and any amount of money and publicity in that area, i can only imagine is a good thing. dozens of major roads around paris

and several other cities in france remain blocked this morning by farmers who are protesting about several issues. among their grievances, falling incomes, increasing environmental regulations, and growing competition from imports. the farmers say their protests are open—ended — so far, they've rejected concessions put forward by the french government as "not going far enough." our correspondent bethany bell told me more about the impact of the strikes. a number of major roads into paris remain blocked. we were out with protesters last night and many of them said they would stay there for as long as it takes. they were camping out on the motorway which they blocked with large bales of straw and a huge line of tractors parked all the way along the motorways. this is something so far they have rejected the first offers of concessions put forward by the government a couple of days ago. what we have been told

by a government spokesperson is another offer, more measures, may be announced later today. we wait to see what they are and what the reaction will be from the protesters. farmers say they want to stop food deliveries to supermarkets, make the point they can't do cheap farming. is this having an impact so far on people's ability to stock up and shop? the government has said it wants to make deliveries to supermarkets, it's something they don't want to see stopped. they also said they want to keep the roads open between charles de gaulle airport and central paris. so this is something they really insist upon trying to have, but it depends on how long these blockades continue on the motorways, how long the protesters decide to stay out there for. it very much depends on what measures may be announced later today and what the reaction of the protesters is.

bethany bell in paris. lily gladstone could make oscars history if she wins best actress at the academy awards — she would be the the first native american woman to do so. she starred in martin scorsese s epic western saga killers of the flower moon, which has picked up ten nominations in all. our culture editor katie razzall has been talking with her. killers of the flower moon tells the true story of the systematic murder over years of dozens of members of the osage tribe. speaks osage. that's how you are. its lead, lily gladstone, has already won a golden globe and is the first native american ever nominated for a best actress oscar. 96 years of oscars. i'm grateful. it's about time. when i accepted the golden globe that's the other thing that came to mind immediately, is it's circumstantial that i was the first one to win that in the category, but it doesn't belong to me. i'm standing on so many shoulders.

more than a century ago, the osage got rich after oil was struck on their land. lily's father recounted that history of vast wealth as she was growing up on the blackfeet reservation. i do remember him telling me about osages running out of gas and going and buying another rolls royce and, you know, just buying a new car. we're still warriors. but those riches brought a reign of terror. lily plays mollie burkhart, a real osage whose mother and three sisters were murdered. she won't last. her husband, ernest, played by leonardo dicaprio, colluded with his powerful uncle — here robert de niro — to funnel the family's oil riches their way. the odd person was convicted but so many people got away with it. oh, yeah. yeah, and even the ones who were convicted weren't in for that long. it's supposed to be - a suicide, you dumbbell! martin scorsese originally had an fbi investigator as the main character, but they realised his epic must come from the osage perspective. every aspect of the whole script changed because of osage

contribution to it and was made the better for it. you know, i've never seen a film like this before, and marty said recently several times he feels like this is the most important film he's ever made. and a film that could make history, if lily gladstone, who was voted most likely to win an oscar while at high school, triumphs in march. katie razzall, bbc news. let's remind you of the breaking news this hour. a man reportedly armed with a crossbow has been shot dead by armed police in south—east london. the metropolitan police said the man was trying to force his way into a building in the surrey quays area just before 5am on tuesday — and was threatening to hurt the people inside. unarmed officers tried to speak to him but were threatened, and when police marksmen arrived he had got into the building and was shot. we will bring you more on that as

soon as it comes into us. our other breaking story in the last 50 minutes or so, the reuters news agency is reporting that the hamas leader ismail haniyeh has said the group has received a ceasefire proposal put forward after talks in paris and would study it. he would visit cairo for discussions on the plan, a planfor visit cairo for discussions on the plan, a plan for some kind of ceasefire in return for hamas releasing some of the hostages seized in october. stay with us here on bbc news. hello again. after yesterday's heavy rain, especially across northern england, things are a bit quieter today. we started off with a lot of cloud, patchy light rain and drizzle left over from this area of low pressure which brought us the rain yesterday. it's now pulling away, allowing this area of high pressure to build in. what's going to happen through the afternoon is the cloud continuing to push down towards the south—east where it will linger. but for the rest of the uk, it's mostly a dry day with some sunny spells. could catch the odd isolated shower across the north of scotland,

but that will be about it. these are our temperatures, 6—11, with the temperatures in the south—east going down as we go through the course of the afternoon, to about eight or nine. tonight, across england and wales, we'll have clear skies, light winds, patchy cloud and some frost. but the cloud building in over northern ireland, also northern england and scotland, with some gales likely, especially in the western isles, as the rain also comes in. milder in the north, colder in the south. so this is what's bringing the wet and windy weather across the north of the country, this area of low pressure, this front sinking south through the course of the day, taking its rain with it. but the wind will be the story, especially across scotland, where we are looking at widespread gales, gusts of wind, especially with exposure, of 80 miles an hour in the north and west. but very windy also across northern ireland and northern england. some heavy rain pushing southwards. to the south of that, the cloud will build. the far south—east hanging on to the brightness for the longest with highs here of up to about 11 degrees, and some wintry showers

in the hills of scotland following on behind the rain. that weather front sinks south as a weak feature overnight wednesday and clears. and then we've got this next ridge of high pressure building in before the next weather front comes our way. so a cold and frosty start for england and wales on thursday but a lot of sunshine. a dry start for northern ireland and scotland, with the cloud building from the west bringing in some rain. later we could see a bit of cloud and drizzle coming into the south—west. temperatures, 6—11. then on into friday, a fairly cloudy affair, the cloud thick enough for some spots of light rain or drizzle. it's going to be breezy as well with the strongest winds being across the far northwest and temperatures, 9—14, but possibly in the south, 15.

this is bbc news, the headlines... devolved government returns to northern ireland as the political parties there agree a new power—sharing deal. mps are warning that misogyny and discrimination is "endemic" within the music industry. and, the king of comebacks — the star of les mis who returned to the stage after suffering a stroke.

let's get more on our top story. a deal�*s finally reached that will see a devolved power—sharing government return to northern ireland. let's take a moment to explain how the northern ireland assembly works, and why it hasn't been sitting. it's made up by elected members of the legislative assembly, or mlas. it can make laws for northern ireland only. but it hasn't functioned since the main unionist party — the dup — withdrew in early 2022. in may of that year, the main nationalist party, sinn fein, won the most seats — taking 27 to the dup�*s 25. that would have meant sinn fein appointing the first minister, with the dup appointing a deputy first minister. but when the dup walked out the power—sharing rules meant that the devolved power—sharing government could not be formed. one of the key issues for the dup is the way in which post—brexit trade checks are made along the border between northern ireland

and the republic of ireland — the only land border between the uk and the european union. the deal brought in checks at northern ireland's ports for goods coming from great britain. unionists saw this as a weakening of northern ireland's place in the uk. a new agreement, known as the windsor framework, was brokered in february 2023 but the dup said it did not go far enough in addressing their concerns. the dup leader sirjeffrey donaldson told bbc radio ulster this morning that power—sharing government could be restored at stormont "within days". let's have a listen. the full details i expect will be published as early as tomorrow, so that everyone will be able to see clearly, once the government has finalised their arrangements today, i expect we will all be able to see clearly what is in this agreement. we also, there are other matters that i will discuss today with the secretary of state that

need to be implemented, and as soon as that is done we will then be able to progress