the shadow chancellor rachel reeves has blamed the prime minister personally for the uk economy falling into recession, saying it was "rishi s recession". speaking earlier, she said this. at the moment the uk has the highest inflation in the g7 and only the uk and japan, i think, are likely to have gone into recession at the end of last year. so i don't buy this argument that you need to have a recession to get inflation down. other countries are doing an awful lot better at controlling inflation whilst also managing to grow their economy. i spoke to economist vicky pryce and she gave us her assessment on rachel reeves�* speech. vicky pryce and she gave us her

well, it's true that the uk has suffered a little bit more by comparison to some other countries in terms of higher inflation and also concerns about interest rates needing to stay higherfor longer in the uk than perhaps will be the case elsewhere because we have a little bit of a sticky inflation problem, with wages having increased a bit faster than perhaps in some other countries. and it's very, very difficult to control that once that starts happening. so there have been perhaps some policy measures which have not helped hugely, particularly not adjusting inflationary expectations early on in the uk, not enough subsidies for energy when they started going up, prices started going up so much, and being a little bit late when we intervened. so there's that. plus, of course, in terms of consumer spending and the fall in real incomes of people, we've had the increase in taxes, which has happened because personal allowances have been frozen. so a lot more money has been taken in by the government and also, of course, in vat. the higher inflation is, the more you collect.

so there's been a bit of a sort of drain out of the economy that way, which has affected businesses and individuals and their ability to spend. and of course, what we've seen is that there has been a contraction in retail spending in various months that we look at through 2023. now, that could be reversed because what we've got now is a fall in inflation. we have food prices coming down, you have real wages beginning to go up. you still have high employment and low unemployment right now. and there have been some tax giveaways and there may well be more. so there are some positive hints about where the economy might go in the future, or certainly in 202a. but a lot of what rachel reeves has been talking about was quite right about how to get growth going. there are longer term issues, so the question is what happens over the next 12 months? or actually politically, over the next few months. the nato secretary—general has warned that america's failure

to approve continued military assistance to ukraine is already having an impact on the battlefield. jens stoltenberg was speaking after kyiv described the situation on the front line as increasingly difficult. he said he expected congress would eventually approve an aid package. it's being held up by republicans in the lower house. i welcome that nato allies are providing more support, more air defence, more ammunition. i welcome the decision by the european union to allocate 50 billion euros to ukraine, and i expect the us congress to agree a package of continued support to ukraine because supporting ukraine is not charity, supporting ukraine is an investment in our own security. earlier today, we heard from the foreign secretary, lord david cameron. he repeated calls for the us congess to pass a bill that included support for ukraine. we applaud what the eu has already done for ukraine but because of their strength and the power in the world,

we really do want to see congress pass that money to support ukraine economically, but crucially, militarily in the months ahead. we saw yet again yesterday in the black sea the huge success that ukraine is having against putin's russia. they have now sunk 20%, over 20%, of russia's black sea fleet. as a result, ukraine is exporting green again, the ukraine economy is growing again, the black sea is open again. when people talk about stalemate, there is no stalemate on the black sea and we have to do everything we can to make sure ukraine can succeed this year and beyond. we must not let putin think he can out wait us or last us out. that is why this vote in congress is so crucial. david cameron. the london overground is to be rebranded to help make the capital's public transport network easier to navigate.

some commuters have welcomed the move — but the conservatives at the gla says the mayor should be spending his time improving the network. tom edwards reports. a rebrand for the overground and a big change to the iconic tube map. six new names, new colours. and in islington, a positive reaction. it's amazing. i think it's absolutely brilliant. ijust think it makes life easier. and it makes more sense. unveiled today and costing £6 million, the aim is to make it easier to navigate the overground and attract more passengers. here, reaction was a bit more mixed. the gospel oak to barking riverside line is going to be called the suffragette line. 0k. what do you think of that? i don't think it helps you find where you're going. ijust think it's a name for the sake of naming something different. so i'm glad they're naming it because it should be used.

but yeah, now more people will know about it, which is bad for me. right. i don't actually get the references. the mildmay mission began its work during the cholera epidemics in victorian london. the mildmay hospital in east london that treated those with hiv and was supported by princess diana is one of the local institutions, traditions and history lines are named after. others include the windrush, suffragette and lioness lines. it recognises the contribution of caribbean people and especially those who came over and helped to keep the london transport running. and it's a big acknowledgement, the history and the heritage. this is a really important moment to take this kind of iconic map and literally put women and our activism on that map. and i really hope that it means that as commuters are travelling, they have that moment to kind of reflect and remember the huge contribution of those women to shaping our democracy. i i think it's just a representation i

of the great work that's been done for women's football over the last 20 plus years _ the mayor, though, was accused by his opponents of virtue signalling. oh, for god's sake, the central line is falling apart! there are so many serious issues he needs to get to grips with, and he decides to change names of things. i'm surprised he isn't calling one... for god's sake, get your priorities right, man, because at the moment they're not. every single person isn't going to be happy. but it was impossible to make every single person happy. i think we've got the right balance, recognising the heritage of different parts of our great city, but also the cultural diversity. the new branding will be launched in the autumn. tom edwards, bbc london. the amount sheep farmers are paid for wool fleeces has been in steady decline since the 1950s — with most now recieving less than 26 pence per kilogram from british wool. farmers in lincolnshire have resorted to burning

their fleeces in protest — and say the �*measly�* payments simply aren't worth their time and transport costs. our reporter lindsey smith explains. this is british wool — burning onjade betts' lincolnshire farm. a protest at the price she and other farmers are paid for the fleeces from their sheep. sadly, this is where we burn our wool from our beloved sheep and that's the sad situation that we're in. we burn the wool because it is not viable for us to try and send it to the wool board, which is quite a distance from us. the rigmarole that you have to go through to get it to them and then, for the small, measly cheque that you would get from them afterwards, it's not worth it. with 260 sheep, this would be classed as a small farm. it would cost around £3 per sheep to be sheared, around 30p per fleece to transport it to market, and jade said after that they could

expect a cheque for about £30 for their wool. at rand farm park, lambs are the main attraction. all last year's wool is piled up. it costs us around £3 per head to shear a sheep. we get roughly for each fleece £1.50, and we worked out transportation per fleece would cost about 30p each. financially, we're losing but we shear our sheep as an event for our visitors, so we get that side from it as well. thousands of uk farmers still send their fleeces to british wool depots, but others across the country, like jade, are burning or burying it. karen hames couldn't bear such waste. here it is. yes, yes, yes. all in its glory. she's had tweed woven from her flock and believes persuading fashion designers to visit farms could be the answer.

could rival scottish tweed, you know, who knows? fashion designers need to come and look at what farmers — what fleece they've got, what they can do with it. and that for me would be... that would be the icing on the cake. british wool says there will always be a gulf between the pennies farmers are paid and retail prices. take the raw fleece from the sheep. to get it into an end product has to go through a number of different stages and all of those stages cost money. it ends up in the retail market and the retailer needs to make the money they need to make. it's not like synthetics — synthetics are very, very straightforward to make, and that's why they're so cheap. despite expected price rises, some tell us they simply won't give their products for others to profit. so expect more fleece fires soon. lindsey smith, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with darren bett. hello there. we've got some unseasonably mild air

across much of the uk today. temperatures are a lot higher than they would normally be at this time of the year and higher than yesterday perhaps as well. we've widely got 15 degrees across england and wales and some eastern areas, 17 or even 18 degrees is possible. that's helped by a bit of sunshine coming through. as you can see here earlier on in essex. and continuing the nautical theme, you can see just how different the weather here is in aberdeenshire — fog, low cloud and some rain that's been affecting scotland. that's going to move northwards and out of the way, should dry off in northern ireland. but we're seeing rain developing in england and wales that could be quite heavy for a while. it'll push its way south eastwards. clearer skies will follow and a few showers overnight across some northern and western parts of the country. temperatures aren't going to be quite as high as they were last night, but still 7 to 9 degrees — pretty mild start to friday. and then we're going to see some sunshine on friday. a few showers initially across northern scotland. those will tend to fade away. the odd shower further south, into northern ireland, pushing into england and wales.

but i think southern areas are likely to have a dry day and there won't be many showers around at all. temperatures are still 12 in the central belt, 14 in the south east of england, not quite as high as today, but still above average for the time of year. there are some weather fronts to head our way over the weekend. that one's going to fade away. this is the main driver coming in during saturday and then heading eastwards during sunday as well. ahead of that, we've got a slight ridge of high pressure, so dry weather, could be quite a bit of cloud, mind you. best of the sunshine in the east. a few spots of rain coming in ahead of the main rain band. so it will get wetter in northern ireland. that rain will push before nightfall into western parts of scotland. ahead of it, again, those temperatures probably peaking at 13 or 14 degrees. now, that band of rain on that weather front will push eastwards across all areas overnight. so it's going to be wet for a while. whilst northern areas should see the rain clearing away, it's going to be a bit of a struggle further south across england and wales. main rain band, followed

by a cluster of rain here, pushing towards the south east. the best of the drier weather probably across northern england, northern ireland and scotland, with just a few showers in the far northwest. and temperatures over the weekend are not changing very much. 12 to 14 degrees — it is mild, just not quite as high as today.

live from london. this is bbc news dramatic pictures from gaza's nasser hospital — the israeli military says it's conducting an operation inside the facilty. police in bristol launch an investigation after a teenage boy dies after being stabbed. the third stabbing in as many weeks.

a setback for two of the world's biggest economies — the uk and japan fall into recession. a landmark vote in greece — it could become the first orthodox majority country to legalise same sex marriage. hello, welcome to bbc news now, three hours of fast—moving news, interviews and reaction. israeli forces have confirmed they've conducted a military operation inside the largest functioning hospital the israel defense forces says it has credible information that the bodies of hostages taken during hamas s 7th october attack on israel may be in the facility. a be in the facility. trauma surgeon has contacted thi bbc a trauma surgeon has contacted the bbc to see tanks and snipers were surrounding the hospital from all sides. israel describes it as a "precise and limited" operation at the nasser hospital in khan younis. hamas — which is designated a terrorist organisation by the uk government — has called israel's claim "lies". jenny hill sent this

report from jerusalem.