stop was he the these are the headlines. the us blocks a veto on a humanitarian ceasefire in gaza. prince william says he would like a stop to the fighting in gaza as soon as possible. labour changes their position on the war, saying the continued fighting is intolerable. the mother of alexei navalny makes a direct request to vladimir putin, asking for him to give his body to

her. and a body has been found in the river thames, thought to be the man who committed a chemical attack in south london. now we have the business report. we start with farming — because the uk prime minister has promised more help for british farmers as agricultural protests spread across europe against soaring costs, environmental rules and the buying power of supermarkets. rishi sunak has been addressing the national farmers union annual conference in birmingham — he's the first prime minister to do so in 15 years. here's our environment correspondentjonah fisher. cow moos in the fields and on the farms, all is not well. we're the end of the line in this farm. our kids don't want to take it on because there's no money in it. liz webster has 350 cows and says a combination of factors, including brexit, rising costs

and unpredictable weather, has left many farmers like herself at their wits�* end. are you still making a profit? is it still profitable to be a farmer? no, it's not! so why are you doing it? i don't know! because it's a way of life. sometime in the next 12 months, there's going to be a general election. and what farmers are hoping is that their concerns about, among other things, food security, prices and the environment will be key topics which politicians will have to address when they hit the campaign trail. and so it was that rishi sunak came to birmingham this morning to speak to the annual conference of the national farmers�* union. i know that the transition from the common agricultural policy has been frustrating. it's taken time and i appreciate the perception that we didn't always get the balance exactly right. but i still believe that the vision is the right one. the services we provide must be

shaped around your needs. and we've got to build a culture that's based on trust. there was no new money, but he announced support for innovation and technology and moves to make the contracts between farmers and supermarkets more transparent. food security will also now be monitored every year. i've got your back. thank you very much. applause the prime minister was met with polite applause. but many farmers all across europe are furious and have taken to the streets. this was wales last week. roads brought to a standstill over new rules designed to help nature recover. the farmers�* perhaps impossible challenge — to increase production while keeping prices down and the environment protected. jonah fisher, bbc news. i spoke to david exwood — vice president of the national farmers�* union — who�*s at their conference in birmingham.

he told me about the concerns that farmers have at the moment. i think farmers are under pressure at the moment. we are in a volatile world and energy costs have been up and down and markets all over the place and government policies are changing and that is leading to a crisis of confidence. farmers are feeling squeezed and uncertain about the future and that is why we are delighted the prime minister came here today and put himself in front of farmers and talked about food security, that really matters. the concept of food security is important. we often talk about energy security, given what is going on around the world but food security often takes a back step, so talk about the importance and the role that farmers play in securing food security within the uk and domestic environments because it is about domestic farmers who look after their populations? we all understand the concept of energy security and having secure supplies of energy and we need the same for food. we can�*t rely on other countries

to feed us and how much food we grow in this country is really important and we should be growing food where we can. we are pleased about the index and the annual target and annual reporting of what is going on with food in this country and then the next question is what we do with that index and how we react and whether food production in this country is falling or not but the recognition of it, alongside energy security and the legislated environment, it starts to put balance back into the policy discussion. the prime minister says "i�*ve got your back" and he talks about doubling the amount of money going into technology and innovation and things like robotics and agricultural research, and when we talk about things like robotics, does that excite farmers or worry them about what it could do to their labour force?

the reality is that robotics are the way forward for many farms, and you can reduce labour and costs and be more efficient and reduce your carbon emissions, so supporting robotics is the right thing to do but the challenge is that, yes, there is significant amounts of government support but you have got to match funded and the question is, how the farmers got the money to invest themselves and make the savings and make the changes in how they do business? let�*s turn now to the uk high street — because we�*ve learnt in the last hour or so that the body shop will be closing almost half of its 198 uk stores. seven shops — including high profile stores on oxford street and in canary wharf here in london — will be shutting their doors for good today. the cosmetics chain fell into administration last week — the administrators says the current portfolio of stores is "no longer sustainable." our business correspondent theo leggett is following the story.

it isa it is a reminder of the challenges facing bricks and mortar shops. the bod facing bricks and mortar shops. tue: body shop facing bricks and mortar shops. tte: body shop has fallen in the same way many traditional chains are, they have a large portfolio of high street stores which cost money to run and you pay high rents and you have to staff them, and provide electricity and so on, and that means it is something that weighs on the bottom line and when your competitors are much more active in the digital sphere selling online, thatis the digital sphere selling online, that is a disadvantage, and when you look at one of their main rivals, it has about half the number of stores lush. and so the new owners of the business have sold off parts of it, in europe and parts of asia, and in terms of the uk business, they want to slim it down and they will turn it into a business they reckon can stand on its own tuned feet and that means halving the number of stores

—— two feet. some of them will start immediately, the most expensive ones, some of them in london, but move more of it online and keep some stores and sell products on the wholesale market as well. much will be discussed — wholesale market as well. much will be discussed about _ wholesale market as well. much will be discussed about where _ wholesale market as well. much will be discussed about where the - wholesale market as well. much will be discussed about where the bodyl be discussed about where the body shop went wrong and they will be a debate about how much this is a change in how we buy things on the internet front and centre, but also the way that the body shop as a business changed. it had new owners and some said it drifted too far from its founding ethos. are any of the allegations fair?— the allegations fair? there is a mixture of— the allegations fair? there is a mixture of all— the allegations fair? there is a mixture of all of _ the allegations fair? there is a mixture of all of them - the allegations fair? there is a mixture of all of them and - the allegations fair? there is a mixture of all of them and you i the allegations fair? there is a - mixture of all of them and you have to remember that the body shop was founded in 1975 in the image of its founder anita roddick and it focused as much on sustainability and social activism as it did on selling cosmetics themselves. over the years some of that has been lost and that was the thought when the business was the thought when the business was sold in 2006, some of its fans thought that was a sell—out but its

natural competition, as well, people saw what the body shop was doing and started to imitate it so now they are rivals who are doing the same thing, so the body shop they still have vegan slogans but it is not the only business doing that and other cosmetic chains are as well, so it is a natural evolution and frankly the body shop may not have kept up with the times and certainly did not keep ahead of them.— keep ahead of them. thanks for “oininu keep ahead of them. thanks for joining us- _ keep ahead of them. thanks for joining us. thanks _ keep ahead of them. thanks for joining us. thanks for _ keep ahead of them. thanks for joining us. thanks for your - joining us. thanks for your analysis. the head of the the global airline lobby group iata has given his backing to boeing�*s management — despite the latest safety crisis to engulf the company. boeing has come under fire from regulators, lawmakers and some airline bosses after part ofa 737 max 9 blew out mid—flight last month. willie walsh — the former ba boss who now heads up the international air transport association — told the bbc he thinks boeing are handling the situation well.

boeing has responded in the right way. they�*ve taken ownership of the problem. they�*ve put their hands up. they acknowledge that there is serious issue that they need to address. and i think they�*re going about that in the right way. and that�*s what the industry will want to see. so i�*m confident that boeing will take the right measures and will regain their status as a world class global supplier of aircraft. they are the top business stories. bbc news bringing you different stories from across the uk. it could have been a minor disaster. this stretch of canal in swindon suddenly developed a big hole in its bank, right where it crosses the river, so all the canal water could have flooded out. the worry is that a small leak can grow into a bigger leak and then the water starts flowing and that erodes it more and more. and you get almost a chain reaction.

so in theory, you could reach a situation where the entire contents of the canal get dumped into the river below quite quickly. the council acted straightaway, getting teams out to put in a temporary dam and stop any waterflow. well, we created this cofferdam, which was to take the pressure off the particular problem. and also it allows us to drain out the water and work on this side of the bank to have a look at the bank. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. bbc news has uncovered important new details about the post office scandal here in the uk, in which hundreds of sub—postmasters were wrongly prosecuted. we�*ve analysed documents from seven years ago, which show the government knew

the post office had suddenly abandoned a secret investigation into the faulty horizon it system — andy verity has more. fake digital signatures, suppressed internal reviews and a secret investigation — evidence withheld from court but revealed, in confidential documents released through freedom of information and analysed by the bbc. they prove the post office learnt ten years ago from an internal review called project zebra that subpostmasters�* cash accounts could be fiddled with remotely without their knowledge, a fact that might have undone all their convictions, had the post office admitted it. a top qc, jonathan swift, said the findings contradicted years of denials and told post office chair tim parker, in february 2016, it must be investigated. we found out that parker hired auditors, deloitte, to trawl through every transaction on the horizon system going back to 1999 to find out how often remote fiddling had happened and why.

ministers in david cameron�*s government knew about the investigation, including then business secretary sajid javid and baroness lucy neville rolfe. but then, injune, after subpostmasters started legal action, the investigation suddenly stopped. it was like the world crashed on my head. the government took my house. it made me bankrupt. this subpostmaster was given a three—year sentence based on evidence from the horizon system and his conviction still has not been quashed. if deloitte�*s investigation into horizon had been completed, it might have helped falsely accused subpostmasters like him to prove something crucial — that the evidence used to convict, horizon�*s data on the cash in their branch accounts, couldn�*t be relied on. nice to see you, thank you. i showed him jonathan swift�*s recommendation that the post office must investigate how often remote fiddling happened,

going back to 1999. do you think they followed the qc�*s recommendations, what would be your guess? if they followed them i wouldn�*t have been inside prison. here�*s the thing, they did follow the recommendations. they did? they did. deloitte spent three months, we discovered, going back through transactions. in march, they were appointed. in april, you lodged a litigation. injune, they stopped deloitte completing the work. by knowing all this, why do we waste our time in prison and separated from family? i don�*t know. anyway... i�*m sorry. it�*s very hard. nevermind. on the face of it, it discloses a conspiracy by the post office to pervert the course ofjustice. the important feature of all of this is that in 2014, it appears

that the post office board was alive to the true position and yet the post office board was responsible for maintaining and advancing the post office's defence to the claim in 2019. that was false. a spokesperson for the post office said it was the public inquiry�*s role to reach a conclusion as to what happened. sajid javid was told the investigation was told to look into the suggestion that branch accounts might have been remotely altered, not that, in lawyers�* opinion, they could be, as was baroness neville—rolfe, who was also told about the investigation being stopped. she said she looked forward to explaining her involvement at the inquiry. tim parker�*s lawyer said he sought and acted upon legal advice that he was given, and the documents don�*t show evidence that david cameron was told about the investigation. there�*s hope for narin now that he may eventually get compensation. but, alone and still officially branded a criminal, no amount of money could make up for the undeserved shame he and his family have

wrongly been made to feel. andy verity, bbc news, ramgsgate. more on that investigation on the bbc news website. it was a central pillar of russian foreign policy — a mercenary company operating at arms length — but directed by the kremlin. the wagner group — and its notorious leader yevgeniy prigozhin had operations all over the world — but especially in africa. as russia s invasion of ukraine stalled — they were brought in to shore up the regular military, and it was here that things between prigozhin and the man for whom he had once cooked started to go wrong. he launched a short lived and ill fated coup before being forgiven, then dying in a mysterious plane crash. the key question — what would happen to wagner after the death of yevgeniy prigozhin? this was yevgeny prigozhin on his final tour of africa. a few weeks later, he would be dead. at the time, few doubted why

the mutinous mercenary boss had been killed. there was less certainty about what would happen to his wagner empire. now, we know. so, there was a meeting in the kremlin fairly shortly after the mutiny. in which it was decided that wagner�*s africa operations would fall directly under the control of russian military intelligence, the giu. it was broken into two components, the volunteer corps fighting in ukraine. and the expeditionary corps, under the control of this man, general andrey averyanov. he was commander of unit 29155, said to be behind the poisonings on the streets of salisbury. this is the man now running operations in africa. the question is, what are they up to? so, these are just some of the internal russian

documents that we have been given access to. our colleague from the bbc russian service has been taking me through them. these detail what the russian state can offer governments in west africa, taking up the role that was previously done by wagner. and offering them what they call a regime survival package. the regime survival package is how the russians are internally describing a group of capabilities that ranges from personal protection for partner leaders, information operations to boost their popularity domestically, a range of economic protections against western sanctions for how they might be behaving. and this provision of quite capable military forces to allow them to go after their internal opponents. in many ways this new offer is a continuation of what wagner was doing before. exchanging those services for access to valuable minerals. there is also a renewed focus on trying to displace western interests. so, asymmetric warfare is very

important to the russians who don't have really the conventional forces that can ever defeat the west. and so they are looking at ways in which they can use social media, politics, internal political divisions in western societies as a means of creating unrest and weakness on the part of the west. diverting the west away from what the russians are doing on the battlefields of ukraine and elsewhere. this was the way the death of yevgeny prigozhin was marked in the central african republic. military honours and a monument to russian soldiers. we now know his death, however it was received, was not to signal the end of his operations in africa. a man in washington who thought he had won a jackpot worth the hundred and 30 milan dollars has sued the lottery company, claim they published his numbers by mistake ——

worth $330 million. he said he felt numb when he saw the numbers but when he presented his ticket his claim was denied and according to documents the companies involved claimed the confusion arose from a technical mistake. a costly technical mistake. a costly technical mistake. a costly technical mistake nevertheless! we can take you back to the live pictures in athens where we see hundreds of farmers protesting, demanding financial aid. they want to get more money to help them as well. they are waving flags. they arrived from across the country in their tractors. they say they are there to express solidarity with colleagues in europe and we reported earlier about farmers in poland who have been protesting in recent weeks and also protests in germany, spain,

and also protests in germany, spain, and italy. there you have the pictures from athens. you are watching bbc news. we can bring you more news. the former strictly come dancing star, robin windsor, has died at the age of 1m. the professional dancer appeared on the show between 2010 and 2013, and was paired with celebrities including the actress anita dobson and model patsy kensit. lizo mzimba has the story. the former dance champion joined the strictly family in 2010. robin windsor! and together with his first dance partner, patsy kensit, he salsa�*d and samba�*d his way into the hearts of millions of viewers. # her name was lola...

taking part in strictly to me is the bestjob in the world. there are two things that i love to do and they are perform and to teach. and i think this is the onlyjob in the world where i actually get to do both of the things i love at the same time. over the next three years, he was partnered with former eastenders star anita dobson... # bring me sunshine...# ..emmerdale actress lisa riley, who he reached the semifinal with... # make me happy # all the while #. # money, money, money #. ..and dragons�* den star deborah meaden. good morning britain presenter susanna reid, who danced with him on a children in need strictly special, paid tribute on this morning�*s show. he was an extraordinary person, and i�*m sorry if you�*re waking up to that this morning and are as devastated about that as we are.

and we send all of our love to robin�*s family. just one of the many paying tribute to a remarkable performer. robin windsor who has died at the age of 1m. astronomers have discovered what could be the brightest object in the universe.

the quasar shines about 500—trillion times brighter than our sun and has the fastest—growing black hole ever recorded at its centre. the australian—led team said the discovery had been "staring them in the face". it was a telescope in australia which saw the southern sky in multiple colours, and then we sifted through those to look for the rare objects called quasars which have supermassive black holes and then using data from a lot of other satellites, infrared satellites and optical satellites, we were able to isolate this particular object is being very unusual. it is not the most massive black hole we have ever seen but it is right up there. what is unusual is the rate at which it is unusual is the rate at which it is digesting other material. swallowing mass. that is at the rate of about one solar mass per day. that is an enormous rate. that makes it very luminous because quite a lot of that material has turned into

light. e eagles mc square, the famous equation by einstein, mass turning into energy, which takes us three quarters of the way over to the other side of the universe so we will not impact on us. we got a rough spectrum of this which is how we decide how far away it is and we got that on a small telescope in australia and then we went to the very large telescope which is part of the european southern observatory in chile and got a much more detailed spectrum of the object and we were able to analyse it quite carefully to get the facts and figures that we have been able to put together. figures that we have been able to put together-— figures that we have been able to ut touether. ., , ., ., put together. now it is time to have a look at the — put together. now it is time to have a look at the weather _ put together. now it is time to have a look at the weather forecast. - hello there. the next couple of days

look pretty unsettled. we�*ll see two areas of low pressure moving in. bringing wet and windy weather to our shores. could see some issues with localised flooding in places as the ground is already so saturated. but one thing noticeable for the next few days, despite the wind and the rain, it will stay very mild before things turn colder from thursday onwards. now through tonight, that wet, windy, milderweather spreads its way northwards. but initially ahead of that rain, it will turn quite cold across some northern and eastern areas. a touch frost perhaps for northeast scotland, but temperatures recovering — nine or ten degrees across southern and western areas by the end of the night. and here it is, this area of low pressure, a fairly deep feature with quite a few isobars on the chart indicating windy weather with gales certainly around coasts of irish sea coasts, northern and eastern parts of scotland could see the strongest gusts. the rain splashing its way eastward through the morning. into the afternoon, starts to push out into the north sea. skies brighten up behind it, but it does remain blustery for all areas. some showers running into northern and western scotland. but it might hang back, i think across eastern england with regards to the cloud and the rain. but these temperatures again above the seasonal norm, 11 to 13 celsius.

as we head through wednesday night, it�*s dry for a time. then we see another area of low pressure gathering force out west that will bring a band of showery rain into northern and western areas. that rain starts to pep up, begins to cross england and wales. again, a fairly mild night to come across the south, something a bit cooler working its way into northern and western areas. that�*s a sign of things to come as we head through thursday, as this low pressure system, with its heavy rain and strong winds across the south, spreads across the country and pushes on in towards the north sea, starts to open the floodgates to a much colder west northwest. that�*s when you can see that�*s evident here with the blue colours, not particularly very cold, but certainly colder than what we�*ve had over the last week or so. so a rather unsettled, wet day to come, i think, for much of the country, certainly england and wales on thursday, windy in the south. as the rain pulls away, the colder air starts to move in. so those showers begin to turn wintry over the higher ground of northern and western hills. and notice the temperatures as well.

it will be noticeable. 5 to 9 degrees factor in the wind. it�*ll feel colder than that. it stays fairly unsettled into the weekend. sunshine and showers again, these wintry over northern and western hills and nights will be turning colder with some frost.