this is bbc news, the headlines: the bbc sees evidence that staff at nasser hospital in gaza were mistreated by israeli forces we bring you a special report. aship a ship loaded with humanitarian aid has left a cypriot port bound for gaza. remote—controlled sea drones have been taking ukraine's fight to the russian fleet. the bbc has had access to the special unit carrying out operations. and why bananas are getting more expensive. a conference in rome is looking at a global growing problem. time for a look at the business news now with ben thompson. we start in the us where we've just had the latest indication of the rate at which prices are rising. the consumer price index rose 0.4% last month after climbing 0.3% in january.

that's slightly higher than expected and driven mainly by higher costs for gasoline and rents. in the 12 months up to february, the cpi rate increased by 3.2%, compared to 3.1% injanuary. the core rate, stripping out those volatile elements such as fuel and rents, fell to 3.8% from 3.9% injanuary, but that was still higher than the 3.7% expected. this latest data suggests there is still some stickiness with inflation that will be scrutinised by the federal reserve as it weighs up a highly anticipated interest rate cut injune. let's head over to new york and speak to our north america business correspondent michelle fleury. as far as the fed is concerned, it

is about how they respond to this number. it is not going in the direction they wanted it to. the tricky word _ direction they wanted it to. the tricky word that _ direction they wanted it to. tue: tricky word that you direction they wanted it to. tte: tricky word that you were stumbling over, sticky, and a lot of this is to do with housing. you can't look at these numbers without talking about that in part because you mentioned the core number 3.8%, and two thirds of that was as a result of higher housing costs, and that has been the big story. in part typically, an area that is very sensitive to high interest rates that have been rising to try and dumbed down inflation but because there is a shortage of supply, prices in houses have gone up —— dampen down inflation. rents remain very high. it has been a struggle for most americans and you see that playing out in the polling and it continues to be a problem in the inflation data. the hope is that will start to cool off in the months ahead so potentially there is a

sense that prices continue to move on the right direction but right now the number is not quite the number that those inside the federal reserve would have liked. big questions _ reserve would have liked. big questions about what they would do about it. but also in an election year a question about whether people feel better off, such an emotive issue, do people feel like they have money in their pocket, that could determine how they vote? absolutely. pollin: determine how they vote? absolutely. polling shows — determine how they vote? absolutely. polling shows consistently _ determine how they vote? absolutely. polling shows consistently that - polling shows consistently that americans are very sensitive to prices and it has contributed to a feeling that they are not better off than they were four years ago, and that has hurt president biden in the polling, so he will be paying close attention to this number and it does not offer the relief that the administration would like to see and they are hoping it starts to improve it so they can taper their economic —— they can say that their economic

policies are working in the coming months, but we are seeing republicans come in the trump campaign, highlighting how much prices have increased —— republicans, with the donald trump campaign, highlighting how much prices have increased, the cost of eggs has gone up 50% sincejoe biden took over, which we will hurt him, but he will hope the numbers show improvement and they can tout that once the campaign truly gets under way in the next few months. absolutely. thank you for explaining that much more eloquently than i could! the value of the crypto currency, bitcoin, is trading at an all time high. the price is above $72,000. earlier this year, us regulators made it easier for investors to trade the currency. that's helped fuel the record breaking run. and now the uk's financial watchdog says it will loosen some of the rules. here's the bbc�*s cyber correspondentjoe tidy. for the last two years,

lines charting the value of bitcoin have mostly been in one direction. but in the last few weeks it's all changed. almost hourly now, this virtual currency is hitting new all time highs. the reason? well, it's mostly down to this place. injanuary, traders from us investment giants were given the green light by us watchdogs to start selling products linked directly to bitcoin. as a result, they've spent billions buying up coins. further stoking the fire, uk financial authorities say they too are open to allowing some trading based on crypto assets. some are now wondering just how far this virtual currency can go. some people think that the potential of bitcoin is to replace all other currencies and there are shops and restaurants like this one in london that accept bitcoin. ijust bought this £7 burger, for example, which was 0.00009 bitcoin. but the way prices are going now, who knows what it'll be worth tomorrow? i don't think we're going to see bitcoin becoming a genuine currency,

what i think we're seeing it become is a recognised and potentially widely used investment asset. people buying it to save for the longer term and to benefit from the price rises. bitcoin was created by an anonymous internet user in 2009 to make sending money as easy as sending an email, all without needing any financial institutions. bitcoin transactions are processed by a huge network of volunteers who use computers to check transactions. as a reward, they're automatically given new coins. right now, the demand for those coins seems to be higher than ever, and many bitcoin fans are celebrating their new—found riches. 0thers, though, are wondering with caution which way the notoriously unpredictable line will go next. joe tidy, bbc news. let's go to denmark now,

home of lego, because the plastic brick maker hung onto its place as the world's top toy firm last year. that's despite a slump in china and what it called the most downbeat toy market in 15 years. global toy sales fell 7% last year but sales in lego were up 2% driven by strong growth in the united states and central and eastern europe. lego boss niels christiansen told me new stores and a range of new products has helped the company keep growing. 0bviously that comes from taking market share. and we've taken market share very broadly globally in basically all different markets. we have a very strong brand. the lego brand stands really strong. we have a very well resonating portfolio of products. we increased it to 780 products, of which 50% were actually new. and that has, i think, done really well. we've invested behind digitalisation, we've opened new stores and we made good progress on sustainability. so all in all, i'm very satisfied. talk to me about opening new stores

because you have more than, what, 500 in china, half of all your new openings were in china. you say that you've opened 147 new ones last year. why do you need your own stores? why can't you sell through other people? we are primarily selling through other people. i think that's the main kind of way of business. we need our own stores to build the brand. so typically, if we take china as an example, if we go out, i mean, there are lower tier cities in china with maybe a million or 2 million people living there where they did not play with lego bricks when they were children or the parents didn't, and they're not bringing it to their children. so we need to build the brand from scratch, basically, and putting a branded lego store in the centre of the city while we work with partners, while we start to market the brand is what's really working. so it's really for us to be on brand. it's less about opening stores for the transactions.

as such, we have many partners that will do that, but it's important that people can really feel what it is to be in the lego brand universe. and for that, stores are really strong. you talk there about people who didn't grow up playing with lego bricks. your customer base has changed. who would you say is your typical customer? who are you selling to? i mean, my core customer is a kid, somewhere in the world, really excited about that. but, you know, it's broad. we have fans of all ages today. mission critical to us is really getting lego play to as many kids as possible because we fundamentally believe in playing, particularly lego play, will give you access to acquiring some of the skills you need through your educational system and into an adult life. so kids are at the centre, but we will serve any fan of any age that really likes the lego universe and that gets just broader and broader. many economies around the world are facing recession and people have less money in their pocket and that is a problem because your stuff is not cheap. some of the lego creator sets are very expensive,

several hundred pounds. it is expensive but also great value, and there is something for everybody. we have 780 products at all kinds of price points in all kinds of different passions and that is one of the strengths we have, we can serve whatever you like, whatever your passion is, whatever your building skill level is, there is something that can inspire and challenge you and that works really well. the boss of lego speaking to me earlier. those are the top business stories. this is kathleen's last virtual ward checkup, she has been getting care at home after a hospital admission. they are polite and efficient and they listen. if they say it will be a visit, it's a visit.

if they say no visit tomorrow, but it will be a phone call, a phone call. she will do the assessment... the idea is simple, patients can leave hospital and go home sooner and their care continues using a mix of technology and home visits and it frees up hospital beds and patients prefer it. what we don't often talk about is the side effects of being in hospital and the implications of that. it's hugely disruptive for people, noisy, not a great place to recover, and also problems with hospital—acquired infections and falls in unfamiliar environments so this is a good initiative from the nhs. for more stories, head to the bbc news website. we can return to the middle east. a ship towing a barge loaded with almost 200 tonnes of food aid has left larnaca in cyprus bound for gaza.

it's the first shipment along a maritime corridor which it's hoped will bring desperately needed supplies to palestinian civilians. the un says a quarter of the population in gaza is at risk of starvation. 0ur middle east correspondent quentin sommerville is on the ground in larnica. i spoke to him a little earlier, and asked if there is any indication of what might happen once that aid finally arrives. this is the first time it has been attempted. the surplus corridor and they hope that where they're hoping that once the open arms, the spanish vessel, which set off from here in larnaca

earlier this morning, gets there and offloads its 200 tonnes of aid, that plenty of other ships will follow in its wake, delivering more aid. but it is going to be challenging. first of all, it's going to take them a long time to get there. it's going to take at least two days for the ship and the barge to make it across the eastern mediterranean when they arrive in gaza. of course, the part of gaza which we think they're heading towards has been absolutely flattened in places. most of the infrastructure has gone and there is no functioning port. so the charity behind this operation, world central kitchen, is, while the ship is in the water, building a jetty using the debris, the rocks from the destruction in gaza to create a jetty out into the mediterranean, which will allow this aid to be offloaded. 0ffloading the aid then presents its own challenges because distributing aid in gaza, particularly in the north of gaza, is extremely difficult, many aid groups say, because of a collapse in civil order there since the israeli bombardment and the israeli attacks, that they will no longer deliver aid there. so there are many challenges ahead for this mission. it's onlyjust got underway, but it's a critical mission. there's still a lot more required for gaza. a second ship has set off for gaza from the us state of virginia,

carrying the materials to build a temporary pier to receive aid. tom bateman was there as it set sail. these are the us army aircraft that will be departing, making around a 30 day trip to get to the shore off the coast of gaza. and you can see there are several of these vessels here that will be heading out. you see a vehicle on one of these over to my left here, another one which will connect with what they call a roll on, roll off facility that will enable a very big civilian cargo ship to bring containers full of aid to be collected, picked up by these vessels, and then brought to what will basically be a huge floating pier that will be floated, driven towards the shore of gaza. now, what the officials are saying here is that the facility, once it's built, will allow them to deliver 2 million meals a day or 2 million bottles of water per day to the population in gaza.

all of this ordered by president biden and announced during his state of the union speech last week. but the political reality about this is that all of this could be done far more easily over land. and, infact, in israel, 30 miles or so north of where this may be built in the gaza strip, there is an international container port. that's why aid agencies say that the solution is to open up more land crossings. they've been urging israel to do so. and we've seen this increasing public spat between the us administration and the israelis over this entire issue. while the un continues to warn that a quarter of the population in gaza is at risk of famine.

ta ke take a look at these sea drones. we have this exclusive report from 0desa. this is ukraine's new deadly weapon — a sea drone. it's become a major threat for russian warships in the black sea. this unit has destroyed five russian military vessels since it was set up last year. they are called group 13, and they're part of ukraine's military intelligence agency. this drone model is called magura after a slavic war goddess. its main advantages are size and speed. when russian sailors detect these drones it is often too late to defend their ships.

translation: the drone doesn't emit a lot of heat so it's almost _ invisible for thermal cameras. it's made from plastic, therefore even radar struggle to see it. last month, group 13 destroyed a russian warship, the tsezar kunikov. its crew members desperately tried to stop the drones but it's a very difficult target to hit, especially among the waves in the dark. last week, they sank another russian ship, the corvette sergei kotov. such frequent attacks already forced moscow to move its fleet away from crimea to safer ports further east. and these uncrewed vessels have revolutionised naval warfare because they are relatively cheap, but can destroy military ships that are worth tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. and thanks to these naval drones, ukraine can successfully resist russia's attempts to dominate in the black sea.

drones like magura can sail hundreds of kilometres thanks to its long lasting battery and satellite connections. the war in ukraine is a war of new technologies. military innovations have helped kyiv to gain an advantage in the sea, despite all odds. abdujalil abdurasulov, bbc news, 0desa region. now to an intriguing story. bananas are set to get more expensive because climate change is posing a threat to the world s supply. that's the warning from a top economist at the un s world banana forum which is meeting today. here in the uk, some shops have recently seen banana shortages due to storms at sea. i spoke to an expert at the un who is attending the summit in rome and she told me by climate change is making bananas more expensive.

indeed, the climate crisis is of important concern to global banana production and because bananas are produced in tropical countries and these are the kind of countries that have seen really an increased amount of climate emergencies, flooding, tropical storms, drought, heat waves. these are events that have occurred much more frequently and these events threaten banana production locally, on small island producing states, where in a matter of a few hours, a tropical storm can wipe out an entire banana production of a country, so this is causing a big concern to the banana industry and it is a threat to supplies. we saw that in the uk last week

with some shops running out because of storms in the atlantic so all sorts of factors playing in, fertiliser worries, energy worries, labour costs, but in terms of solutions, you are there at the conference, so what has been offered up? the conference really focuses on how all the stakeholders in the industry, the producer organisations, the private sector, the governments, can come together to address these challenges and identify what the obstacles are and to work on solutions together. absolutely, the environmental impact of the industry is a big topic in terms of trying to reduce the amount of fertilisers that are used, making production more sustainable and more future proof and also more resilient to spreading plant pests and diseases. the latest from that summit. you are

watching bbc news. the government has committed to building new gas fired power stations warning that failure to do so would risk blackouts. the new plants will replace stations coming to the end of their lives. environmentalists argue it's a step backwards but the government says they have to be "realistic" in the move towards cleaner energy. we can talk to greg jackson, the ceo of 0ctopus energy. thanks for joining us. the notion of building new gas powered fire stations, does that make sense to you, in terms of creating electricity by 2030, reaching net zero? the creating electricity by 2030, reaching net zero?- creating electricity by 2030, reachin: net zero? , , . reaching net zero? the big picture, the most important _ reaching net zero? the big picture, the most important thing _ reaching net zero? the big picture, the most important thing is - reaching net zero? the big picture, the most important thing is to - reaching net zero? the big picture, | the most important thing is to drive down energy costs as we electrify everything we can. especially electrifying transport and heat, and that means we will be troubling the amount of electricity we use and the cheapest form of electricity is renewables. the mona renewables we

can build, the cleaner electricity we bill —— the more renewables we can build. if we are electrifying everything, some gas might be a part of the mix, but the interesting thing is that for example, an electric heat pump is so efficient that even if the electricity comes from a gas power station, uses less gas than a gas boiler. an electric car is so efficient, even if the electricity comes from a gas power station, it has less emissions than a petrol car. electrifying everything, that was the most important thing. t5 it everything, that was the most important thing.— everything, that was the most important thing. is it worth a new generation _ important thing. is it worth a new generation of— important thing. is it worth a new generation of gas-fired _ important thing. is it worth a new generation of gas-fired power - generation of gas—fired power stations, i suppose that is the question, but other ideas have been floated around, locational pricing for customers. explain to people who are maybe not familiar with that phrase what that actually means.

today the national grid runs an auction every half hour to decide which electricity generators will contribute to the grid and whichever unit is the most expensive they buy becomes the price that everyone pays, so even if one generator is up 5p pays, so even if one generator is up 5p and the next is 15, one that is 5p 5p and the next is 15, one that is 5p gets isp and we all pay for it, and if we break the country into different regions, what you find is that in most regions, the winning bid will be lower than it is today. and in every region in fact the average price will be lower than it is today. sometimes people say, isn't it fair that we have the same level of electricity costs all the time everywhere? that is saying, the way we would make them face to judge everyone the same level of rent that people pay in london around the country, but that is not fair. we wasted a lot of money last year

turning off wind farms and balancing the system, but instead of doing that we should be getting cheap electricity to the people that live near the generation. you electricity to the people that live near the generation.— electricity to the people that live near the generation. you talk about fairness and — near the generation. you talk about fairness and people _ near the generation. you talk about fairness and people may _ near the generation. you talk about fairness and people may disagree i fairness and people may disagree with your assessment about what is fair but there are obvious other problems and you may have energy companies delaying in terms of where to build two —— to work out where it might be most profitable, these are potential problems? tt might be most profitable, these are potential problems?— potential problems? it solves most of these problems, _ potential problems? it solves most of these problems, and _ potential problems? it solves most of these problems, and today - potential problems? it solves most of these problems, and today we i potential problems? it solves most i of these problems, and today we are building wind farms in places where we can't send the electricity anyway, we are paying them to turn up, it would be better to build wind farms and solar farms and new infrastructure in the places where we need electricity, and then there are things like, you can't build houses dotted up would it not be better if scotland

and northern ireland and the south—west had a cheap electricity? by south—west had a cheap electricity? by the way, we have seen heavy industries leave the uk because of high energy costs, but if we had this kind of pricing, consumers in every region would have cheaper power than they do today, and actually, scotland would have the cheapest poem europe, northern england will do great, industries would come back —— the cheapest energy in europe. we would come back -- the cheapest energy in europe.— would come back -- the cheapest energy in europe. we are about to take a break- _ energy in europe. we are about to take a break. we _ energy in europe. we are about to take a break. we have _ energy in europe. we are about to take a break. we have a _ energy in europe. we are about to take a break. we have a busy - take a break. we have a busy programme coming up at five o'clock with more on the political controversy going on, after a top tory donor made the comments about diane abbott, saying, you see diane abbott on television and you want to hate all black women because she is there and then he goes on to say, she should be shot. we will speak to a labour spokesperson on that story

and we also have a special report because the bbc has been talking to gaza medics about the situation and mistreatment by israeli forces. the foreign secretary lord cameron saying that the bbc report was very disturbing. we also have the latest on the situation on the ground in haiti with the mayhem on the ground with the humanitarian situation and the prime minister resigning today. one other story to bring you because we will show you these great pictures from the river severn as surface flock for a giant tidal wave —— surfers. we have got that all coming up. first we have got the weather forecast. hello there. good afternoon. well, it's been another wet start to the day with a band of heavy rain moving eastwards, particularly across england and wales.

sodden ground here in herefordshire, although the rain has largely eased here. lots of low cloud, still some rather misty, murky conditions and for the rest of this week you'll notice that it is turning milder with more of a south—westerly wind. more rain to come, though. and here's the rainfall accumulation chart for the rest of the week. you can see for most of us, another 20 to 30 millimetres, but for some spots for northwest england and for western wales, as much as perhaps 70 to 80 millimetres of rain, a lot of surface water around and indeed there could be some more flooding. already plenty of flood warnings up through the severn estuary and towards the south coast with those high spring tides yesterday and today. and here's the satellite picture showing all of that cloud. the weather fronts gradually pushing through. the rain will eventually clear east anglia in the far south east of england. some showers following on behind. a lot of low cloud. perhaps the best of the brightness today will be across north western areas of scotland, although here perhaps still a few showers and a brisk south—westerly wind dragging in that mild feeling air, i2—i3c across the south of england. now, overnight tonight, we'll see further weather fronts

just gradually push their way in from the west, bringing some heavy rain across north western scotland, northern ireland and down through northwest england as well. further south and east, it is drier. there'll be lots of low clouds and misty, murky conditions, still rather breezy, io—iic. it's a mild start to the day on wednesday. now, wednesday, that weatherfront stalls across north west england and western wales, there will be some rain here to the south of the front, plenty of cloud, a few brighter skies. and that will really help to lift the temperature. sunshine and showers further north and gales blowing across the far north of scotland. but that milder air now firmly established across most of the uk. 0ur weather front will gradually be pushing further northwards as we head through thursday. bringing some more heavy rain across perhaps parts of northern ireland, southern scotland and another rash of showers pushing eastwards, some heavy and thundery, particularly out towards the west. if we do get any brightness on thursday, temperatures across parts of east anglia could rise as high as perhaps 16 or 17 degrees celsius.

there's more showers to come in the forecast, though, as we head through friday. drier by the end of the day, the air stays mild, but still some more wet weather to come. bye— bye. live from london, this is bbc news. race row — downing street calls

alleged comments by a top tory donor about britain's first black female mp unacceptable. diane abbott has described as "frightening" the alleged remarks by frank hester that she made him want to hate all black women and that she should be shot. the bbc sees evidence that staff at nasser hospital in gaza were mistreated by israeli forces — we bring you a special report. described we bring you a special report. by the uk foreign secretary described by the uk foreign secretary as very disturbing. a romanian court rules that social media influencer andrew tate and his brother tristan can be extradited to the uk on rape and human trafficking charges. haiti's prime minister calls for a return to stability after announcing his resignation. we'll hear the latest from our correspondent in the region. and one more headline. surface up on the river severn, where it is time

to write a huge, 5—star title