cost money alongside the company that is afforded the contract to run and manage the site, as well as costs and other public bodies such as the health board and the local authority, who are having to respond to, again, as i repeat, the strategic decision made by the home office, which was out of our control. the costs are not the only issue. the dispute has impacted the local community in other ways. last year a bbc newsnight investigation found that groups described as far right got involved in the campaign, causing even more tensions in the area. there were far right groups that were attracted to the issues at play within stradey park hotel location in llanelli and as a result of that there have been investigations and our ongoing investigations, with over a0 people arrested, so no doubt that has contributed to the additional cost of the policing of

the wider incident. dyfed—powys police told this programme... the furnace action group says the policing bill could have been avoided if the home office had just consulted with the local community and listen to them. we said at the outset of the campaign lastjune that the plan to house asylum seekers at the stradey park hotel was deeply flawed, that no due diligence had been done on the subject, and we wanted to preserve the 100 jobs that are on site. but sadly, during the course of the campaign, there was quite a lot of friction, a lot of splits in the community, a lot of aggro, a lot of social media commentary, resulted in lots of pain

and heartache for lots of people. but for now, this community is trying to restore the hotel once seen as its jewel, while grappling with the tensions that have been left in its wake. the home office told newsnight, "the government is making significant progress with moving asylum seekers out of hotels, which cost uk taxpayers £8.2 million pounds a day. we have already exited the first 50 and we will exit more in the coming months. we are committed to ensuring the police have the tools they need and have confirmed a total police funding settlement of up to £18.4 billion in 2024-25, including up to £148 million for dyfed—powys police. decisions about how funding and resources are utilised is a matter for individual police and crime commissioners." look at the front pages and they all have the same picture. the daily telegraph, nicola sturgeon wiping a tearfrom her eye. it is also

telegraph, nicola sturgeon wiping a tear from her eye. it is also on the guardian. and finally, the times, the same picture. the former first minister of scotland, nicola sturgeon. that is it from us tonight. i am sturgeon. that is it from us tonight. iam back sturgeon. that is it from us tonight. i am back tomorrow. sturgeon. that is it from us tonight. iam back tomorrow. until then, sleep well. the first drone footage of the monkey on the run in the highlands has been released — strong winds today hampered the ongoing search but this is what was filmed yesterday by the therma imaging drone. it spotted the japanese macack which escaped from a highland wildlife park at the weekend. it was seen just south of aviemore —

but evaded capture. you're live with bbc news. let's bring you some breaking news from london. nine people — including a woman and her two young children — have been taken to hospital after what police called a "corrosive substance" was thrown in south london. a man was seen fleeing the incident in lambeth. three police officers, who responded to the incident, sustained what are believed to be minor injuries. more on that story as news comes to us. the white house says the islamic resistance in iraq group carried out the drone strike that killed three us soldiers injordan. the iran—backed iraqi militia says it has suspended operations against us forces to prevent the embarrassment of the iraqi government. the us defence department said: "actions speak louder than words." the us has hinted that an armed response that might come in several waves.

live now to alex vatanka in washington dc. he is a senior fellow and director of the iran programe at the middle east institute. welcome to bbc news, mr vatanka. why suddenly is this iran—backed militia committing to not attack us forces any more? have they done it themselves or on iranian orders? i think the reason is they fear major american retaliation and that is why they have come out and basically promised to suspend these attacks which have been going on since october the 18th. to date we are talking around 166 attack in iraq and syria. this time, as we havejust heard, we had iraq and syria. this time, as we have just heard, we had three american soldiers killed. so we entered a new chapter and that is why there is an element of panic, notjust among the iraqi militants behind the attack, but in the

islamic republic of iran which seems to be responsible and behind many of these groups. the iranians are very busy trying to create distance between themselves and the iraqi militant groups. ketaib hezbollah said it was "to prevent embarrassment of the iraqi government". help us udnerstand that? that could well be the case, but the reality is the iraqi central government is a relatively weak one. these militant groups and there are a number in iraq, there are many within the iraqi state, they have independence and some are the political process armed branches that promote their political agendas. so that could be the case. the iraqi government, however, is not in a position to overrate what the iranian regime wants to achieve in terms of using the groups in the region against principally israel

but also the united states. so the decision is most likely to reflect the wishes of iran to de—escalate and not invite a major american retaliation. it is more likely to be the reason behind what the central government of back that had been asking the group to do. do government of back that had been asking the group to do.— government of back that had been asking the group to do. do you think the bite and — asking the group to do. do you think the bite and initiation _ asking the group to do. do you think the bite and initiation will _ asking the group to do. do you think the bite and initiation will believe i the bite and initiation will believe this, it is promised a response for the killing of three soldiers. president biden is in an election cycle here, he has plenty of critics saying, if he had acted earlier, this would not have happened in those three soldiers would have been alive today. there is a lot of pressure on the domestic front here this is something the iranian of her she needs to take into account as they have been escalating since october in terms of pushing gradually the united states in various theatres with the houthi is to what is happening with hezbollah. so this is important that

politically speaking president biden is an awkward position in its totality. the reality is he does not really want to go to war with iraq. so at the pentagon and state department make that claim, that is genuine. they did not want to go to war with iran but they have to recreate deterrence. he cannot have around 50,000 american troops across the middle east sitting there being targets for militants, the american public opinion will not stand for. that will force any american president to take forceful action otherwise they will be in trouble in the white house regardless of who the white house regardless of who the president is.— the president is. thank you for your insi . ht the president is. thank you for your insight today- _ alex vatanka from the middle east insitute. thousands of workers in south—east asia are being forced to work in conditions so hot that their lives are being put at risk, according to uk research. the study of brick kiln and garment workers in cambodia, the first of its kind in the world, highlights the risks climate change will pose to those already struggling in hot countries. the bbc also discovered that conditions in cambodia's brick kilns

were even more toxic. our correspondent laura bicker gained rare access to the industry for this report — the names of the workers she spoke to have been changed to protect them. workers in cambodia's brick factories are trapped in a never ending cycle of heat. production rarely stops. researchers secretly recorded workers body temperature. in some cases, it was life—threateningly high. heat in here is intense. it is impressive. the only way i can describe it is like being in an oven. the fire is just behind these bricks and they spend hours at a time. this isn't just about brick workers here in cambodia, that are hundreds of thousands of people who work in kilns right across central and southern asia, for whom a tiny

degree of temperature change can mean the difference between life and death. translation: it is like| working inside a burning prison and it is so hot it impacts our internal organs. i have asked the owner to provide us with more funds, but they don't do it because they are afraid of spending on electricity. last year was the hottest on record and researchers fear climate change is placing the most vulnerable in an everyday state of emergency. the people who are most vulnerable socially, economically will tend to be the people who are also most vulnerable to climate change. so what we need to do is to consider how climate change impacts people through the lens of labour and inequality, and recognise that labour exploitation is a major factor in the worst impacts of climate change. but in cambodia, heat is not the only problem.

this father of two scoops up a mix of fabric, plastic and rubber to keep the kiln fires burning. some factory owners use piles of waste from the garment industry instead of wood to save money. but the fumes are toxic. this is against protocols for major western brands. we found labels from the disney store clerks and h&m, among others. all promised the bbc that they would investigate. no matter how toxic or hot the kilns become, she can never leave. the owner has paid off her debts, now she and her children are trapped. translation: we have a debt with them if we leave. - we are afraid of being arrested and imprisoned. so we must struggle here.

if they ask us to enter the fire, we will do it. the majority of brick workers were farmers, forced to migrate to the city after droughts devastated their crops, driving them into debt. they earn so little that the debt will never be repaid. the kilns of cambodia have fed the capital's construction boom. but as phnom penh reaches towards the sky, its left behind those who've helped build it. laura bicker, bbc news, cambodia. youtube has terminated the official channel of disgraced nigerian televangelist tb joshua's megachurch for violating its hate speech policies. it comes weeks after an investigation by the bbc and opendemocracy focused on allegations of widespread sexual abuse and torture by the late preacher. emmanuel tv played a key role in his rise from local pastor to global star. it had more than half a million followers on youtube and hundreds of millions of views. the church has not commented on the removal, but has said previous allegations of wrongdoing have been "unfounded".

the sesame street character elmo has become the internet�*s therapist... after posing a casual question on x — formerly known as twitter — asking how is everybody doing? that was enough to prompt thousands of people to unload their woes on elmo, saying they weren't ok at all. our reporter, courtney bembridge, has more from the newsroom. it's a simple question, but it's hit a nerve online. almost 180 million people have seen this post on x from elmo, and thousands of users have unleashed their grief and despair on the small red muppet, as the new york times put it. elmo asked an innocuous question. elmo was not expecting to open a yawning chasm of despair, and someone else posted this image with the caption elmo after seeing the replies.

but there has been an overwhelmingly positive response to elmo asking about everyone's emotional well—being. the un posted... and nasa said... even the us president has weighed in, saying... elmo's co—stars on sesame street have also weighed in. cookie monster, saying, "me here to talk it out whenever you want, me will also supply cookies". and that will go quite nicely with the warm cup of tea that bert is offering. well, elmo has responded to all of this saying, "wow, elmo is glad he asked. "elmo learned that it is important to ask a friend how they're doing," but he also said he'll be taking a little break, but he will be back to check in on all of us again soon.

great to see cookie monster and bird weighing in as well. i will be back shortly. we set hello. a powerful storm passed to the north of the uk on wednesday. storm ingunn, named by the norwegian weather service. across the faro islands, it brought wind gusts in excess of 120 mph. then it slammed into the west coast of norway with gusts of more than 100 mph. there's our storm system moving away as we head into thursday. now, across shetland, we saw wind gusts of 78 mph, but even those winds have been easing a little. and through thursday, it's a quieter day ahead. some hazy sunshine, dry for many, still quite windy up towards the north, but not as windy as it has been. some wintry showers across the north west of scotland and a touch

of frost for some of us first thing. for the majority, we'll see spells of hazy sunshine with high cloud streaming across the sky, thicker cloud into northern england, northern ireland and scotland, with rain returning to the north west of scotland later. temperatures across the board, eight, nine or ten degrees. now during thursday evening and overnight, we'll see this band of rain pushing across the north of scotland. behind that, we see lots and lots of cloud filtering in from the west. it'll turn really misty and murky for coasts and hills, some spots of drizzle. but look at these temperatures by the end of the night, by the start of friday morning, some spots up in double digits. that's because we will be between these two weather fronts, between this warm front and this cold front in what we call a warm sector — a wedge of very warm or at least very mild air. but these south—westerly winds, not only mild, also laden with moisture. so, a lot of cloud on friday, some mist and murk for western coasts and hills, where there will also be some bits and pieces of rain. best chance of any sunshine

to the east of higher ground, although the winds here will be pretty gusty. but look at the afternoon temperatures, 13, 1a, we may see highs of 15 celsius. now during friday night, we see a weak cold front pushing its way southwards. that will bring a lot of cloud. it will bring some bits and pieces of showery rain. nothing much, really, on this weather front to look at for saturday. to the south of it, we're still in that very mild but rather cloudy and damp regime. to the north of the weather front, something a little bit brighter, but with some showers still not particularly cold. temperatures north to south, 7 to 1a celsius. into sunday, mild air, if anything, pushes northwards again. a lot of clouds and bits and pieces of rain. highs of 1a celsius. with a ruling handed down by this court, the country that took it to court can apply

to the un security council. and so there will be political ramifications too, undoubtedly, for, for example, israel's backers to apply more political pressure in order to, if not achieve a cease fire, then at least have some kind of humanitarian pause to allow food and water and vital medical supplies. during the hearings, there were hundreds of people waving palestinian flags just across from the icj, chanting that there's a genocide being committed, holding up banners of nelson mandela. because of course, one of the reasons why south africa brought this case is because the country sees parallels with apartheid south africa. and then just down here, separated by police barriers, there were israeli supporters waving israeli flags and playing videos of the attacks on the 7th of october.

presumably, this must put huge pressure on the united states, this is bbc news. we will have the headlines at the top of the hour as newsday continues straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk with me, zeinab badawi. the conflict in sudan that broke out last april has created one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. about 11 million people have been forced to flee their homes, and more than 13,000 have died. the fighting continues between the sudan armed forces, which is headed by general abdel fattah al—burhan, the de

facto president of sudan, and his erstwhile deputy general, mohamed dagalo — better known as hemedti — who heads the rapid support forces militia, the rsf. my guest is the former prime minister abdalla hamdok, who is playing a significant role in the negotiations. he has signed a deal with hemedti, so does this mean the rsf has effectively won the war? hi, zeinab. abdalla hamdok in abu dhabi, welcome to hardtalk. nearly half of sudan's 49 million strong population is in dire need