linked to the release of hostages. women working in extreme heat are at greater risk of miscarriage and stillbirth. and after macron pulls the punches, we look at how leaders use their photos are to influence public opinion. hello, i may need welcome to bbc news now —— anitta mcveigh. european union leaders are meeting in brussels, where the war in ukraine is high on the agenda. they're examining this question — could the profits from frozen russian financial assets be used to pay for weapons for ukraine? ukraine's president volodymyr zelensky is also expected to take part. in kyiv, at least 13 people are reported to have been injured as the city came under missile

attack during the night. according to officials, air—defence units were engaged in repelling the attack, purportedly coming from russia, with missile debris falling in different parts of the city. mr zelensky is expected to ask the west to show the political will to deliver air—defence systems. our correspondent sarah rainsford has been at the scene in kyiv where the attacks happened. this has been at the scene in kyiv where the attacks happened.— the attacks happened. this is the aftermath of _ the attacks happened. this is the aftermath of yet _ the attacks happened. this is the aftermath of yet another - the attacks happened. this is the aftermath of yet another missile | aftermath of yet another missile attack on ukraine's capital —— russian missile attack. . the biggest barrage have been launched for some time here. ukraine's air defences managed to shoot all of them down, but when they do that, them down, but when they do that, the debris falls to the ground and often causes a lot of damage, a lot often causes a lot of damage, a lot of destruction. you can see the crater caused here at the spot and also the damage to the houses and businesses all around her. there are

people who have come back to try to salvage whatever they can from their homes and flats and from shops and medical clinics. justin is building here, people extremely emotional that they have lost absolutely everything. we have no eggs exact idea what russia was targeting, but we know civilians have clearly suffered as a result of it, and they said the result of vladimir putin does �*s wore that he lunged and has now vowed to go on fighting, go on prosecuting after he has just secured another six years in the kremlin —— vladimir putin's war. more casualties, more destruction, more devastation.— more devastation. sarah rainsford with that report. _ more devastation. sarah rainsford with that report. let's _ more devastation. sarah rainsford with that report. let's return - more devastation. sarah rainsford with that report. let's return to i with that report. let's return to the summit in brussels and educationalfunding in ukraine. we can look at some figures. last month, all 27 eu leaders agreed on a 50 billion euro aid

package for the country. but in washington, a $60 billion dollar — or 55 billion euro — military aid package for ukraine is still being delayed, it's being blocked by republicans in the house of representatives, caught up in domestic arguments over other policies. but washington has proved to be ukraine's most important military backer. it has provided tens of billions of dollars in support since moscow invaded in february 2022. the amount of military aid given to ukraine is tracked by the kiel institute. this chart shows commitments by governments up until mid—january. it tracks money already provided to ukraine and pledges to send funds in the future. it only shows military aid given by individual governements and not through the eu, which is why it is not listed. you can see germany has provided almost 18 billion euros in funding or commitments, and behind germany, the uk has a commitment of more than 9 billion euros.

continuing with what is happening in brussels, here is a europe correspondent, nick beake, but what european leaders hope to achieve. all the eu leaders are now in, they walked up the red carpet past all the flags of the 27 eu countries and have now gone in to start this meeting. it is the first of the year, the one they hold every three months or so. as we have been hearing, the priority today is really on delivering more aid to ukraine, specifically military hardware to try to boost the ukrainian capability on the battlefield against russia. olaf scholz, the german chancellor summed up scholz, the german chancellor summed up the mood of a lot of the leaders here, saying this has to be an absolute priority, delivering more aid to ukraine. as part of this, there is at this new idea being put forward that is to take the profits from russian assets which have been frozen in europe to take the money and basically converted into

military hardware, rockets and all the rest of it, and send it so ukraine can use it and that is something that will be discussed today. i think it is not could be signed off, today, there is a way to 90, signed off, today, there is a way to go, but it is not to be an effective way to boost ukraine's capability. and are those among the leaders gathered who are not so sure about this particular strategy? i gathered who are not so sure about this particular strategy?— this particular strategy? i think that is definitely _ this particular strategy? i think that is definitely fair _ this particular strategy? i think that is definitely fair to - this particular strategy? i think that is definitely fair to say. . that is definitely fair to say. chiefly, you have got a viktor orban of hungary, who we know has remained close to vladimir putin over passed a ban years since the full—scale invasion dashing over the past two years. we have seen how he can hold things up and make them complicated. in december, the historic decision was taken to start talks so ukraine could actuallyjoin the european union. there is no such big decision today, but they managed to work

around it with a viktor orban of hungary. i'm react to this proposal put forward. also slightly tricky, you have countries like malta and ireland and austria, traditionally not militarily aligned to anyone, so that makes things quite complicated in terms of taking these profits of frozen russian assets and converting it into military capabilities, so i think it is something to watch out for, but there is also a changing mood in europe at the moment, notably present macron of france has been saying in the past few weeks that he cannot rule out sending western trips to ukraine to take part in the fight against russia. that initially seem to alarm some of his allies, but he has been saying this time and again and he wants to create this if not allusion, he wants to be sure that vladimir putin thinks this is something that might be done in the future, whilst stressing, mr macron, that the french are not actively looking to be involved any military conflict

with russia.— be involved any military conflict with russia. �* ., ~ with russia. nick beake reporting. let's stay with _ with russia. nick beake reporting. let's stay with this _ with russia. nick beake reporting. let's stay with this story. - with russia. nick beake reporting. let's stay with this story. our - let's stay with this story. our guess is from the military department in kings guess is from the military department in king's college london and says using the assets would be a problematic view by the eu. we and says using the assets would be a problematic view by the eu.- problematic view by the eu. we are talkin: problematic view by the eu. we are talking about _ problematic view by the eu. we are talking about some _ problematic view by the eu. we are talking about some 10 _ problematic view by the eu. we are talking about some 10 billion - problematic view by the eu. we are talking about some 10 billion they l talking about some 10 billion they are looking for, perhaps more, depending on what the decision will be and what assets will be used. aside from legal issues operating in a legal grey area, there are precedents to such sort of actions, for instance during the gulf war in 1991. however, it was the un security council in forcing these kinds of decisions. the problem is that europe also risk scaring away other countries which have efforts in europe, so it is problematic in that specific area, but it is also problematic in terms of procurement of weapons, meaning releasing that

money and giving it to ukraine does not necessarily speed up the delivery of weapons, so the crux of theissueis delivery of weapons, so the crux of the issue is converting the assets into actual military equipment. typically how long would that take? because from what the ukrainians are sane, they needed these weapons yesterday, didn't they? absolutely. we have to understand the european defence industry has been damant. it is not only were footing and it is waiting for european governments to sign long—term contracts —— has been dormant, it is not on a war footing. it consists of different components coming from different parts of the world and with the global supply chain crisis, this increases both the crust and any waiting time, so thatis the crust and any waiting time, so that is a problem —— increases both the cost and the waiting time. they share artillery shells and gunpowder from china will no longer be received from the european union because china has banned those

experts, so you have to look for gunpowder elsewhere. the artillery sheu gunpowder elsewhere. the artillery shell prices have quadrupled in recent months so the waiting time has also increased because of other conflicts, such as that in the red sea. we are seeing delays in terms of military equipment, we are seeing also the need for nato itself to replenish its own stockpiles, which makes things even more complicated. where do you allocate that military equipment? to you first restock your own stockpiles or send it to ukraine? there are a lot of questions which need to be answered which unfortunately for ukraine does not look good and it does not look like it will get the amount it needs any time soon. marina miron. the government should apologise and pay compensation to women affected by the increase in their retirement age —

that's the recommendation from the ombudsman which has been been looking at the impact of raising women's retirement age to bring it in line with men's. campaigners say millions of women burnin campaigners say millions of women burn in the 19505 have suffered financially because they were not properly warned about the changes. sanchia berg has the story. # heigh—ho, heigh—ho, it's off to court we go...# after years of protesting, a victory for women born in the 19505. the government changed the age they would get their state pension, and didn't let them know in time to plan. our reaction is today is we're glad the report is finally out and with parliament. parliament actually decided to take the action to increase the state pension age for women, and they didn't do the job properly. the department for work and pensions should have told us and they didn't. and is time important? 270,000 of us have died since we started this campaign 13

campaign ——eight or nine years ago, so one of us are dying every 30 minutes withoutjustice, without knowing that parliament have the decision to make good what it got wrong. many say they struggle with money. suffering financial hardship. what they did was absolutely wrong. they could have had a pen and paper and an envelope and stamp, and sent it to all of us in 1995, was it, when they came to this decision, and let us all know and we would have all been prepared. i want to ask you all to help. it was the post—war labour government, led by clement attlee, that brought in pensions for all, starting at 65 for men and 60 for women. ..5o that we can buy what we need. nearly 50 years later, the conservative prime ministerjohn major decided that should change to 65 for all, a change that was accelerated by the coalition government. that led to confusion for some, ignorance, then hardship for many. the ombudsman said the women should

be compensated but it also said the department for work and pensions had made it clear it would not comply. the ombudsman said this was unacceptable. in a statement, the department for work and pensions said it would consider the ombudsman's report and respond in due course. it said the government had always been committed to supporting all pensioners in a sustainable way. sanchia berg reporting. the us secretary of state is in egypt to discuss a post—war plan to govern and secure gaza. antony blinken landed in the capital cairo, where he's meeting senior ministers from six arab states and the palestinian authority. he's already met egypt's foreign minister and had talks with president si5i. mr blinken told reporters washington has submitted a draught resolution to the un security council calling for an immediate ceasefire in gaza which is linked

to the release of hostages. well, in fact, we actually have a resolution that we put forward right now, that's before the united nations security council, the does call for an immediate ceasefire tied to the release of hostages. and we hope very much that countries will support that. i think that would send a strong message, a strong signal. of course, we stand with israel and its right to defend itself, to make sure that october 7th never happens again, but at the same time, it's imperative that the civilians who are in harm's way and who are suffering so terribly, that we focus on them, that we make them a priority, protecting the civilians, getting them humanitarian assistance. it's getting closer. i think the gaps are narrowing and i think an agreement is very much possible. we worked very hard with qatar,

with egypt and with israel to put a strong proposal on the table. we did that, hamas wouldn't accept it, they came back with other requests, other demands. the negotiatiors are working on that right now. our middle east correspondent yolande knell has more. these arab countries are wealthy, powerful countries in the region. also in the case of egypt and jordan, they neighbour israel and the palestinian territories. they are important players that mr blinken has to have on board. they are trying to look to the future, to look to the longer term here as well as focus on the immediate problems of getting aid into gaza and of solving the issues between israel and hamas that are at the moment preventing a new deal on the truce that would see the release of more of the israeli hostages still held by hamas. i think we are seeing a change in the messaging on this trip. mr blinken, when he has talked

about that un security council draught resolution that has been drawn up, that is significant. we don't know much about the details or the timing, but of course the us, israel's closest ally, has repeatedly shielded it at the un security council. it has used its veto power to block previous resolutions, draught resolutions, calling for a ceasefire in gaza. when mr blinken comes here to israel, something else i think we are going to be hearing a lot about is this plan of israel to go into rafah in the south. we've had israeli officials in the past few hours just reiterating how important that is for israel, saying the war cannot be won without going into rafah. of course, washington is extremely concerned about that. it has said it would be a mistake. you have at the moment more than half the population of the gaza strip, 2.3 million

people, in the rafah area. still has an important role to play in providing medical facilities to the north of the gaza strip. israeli forces went back in there on monday, having previously raided it in november. they say they have intelligence that there were senior hamas operatives in that area. what the israeli military has now said is that it has killed, in the past day, some 50 terrorists, more than 50 terrorists, it says.

and that brings to a total some 140 have been killed in the past few days since it began its operation there.

not today but when, the bank of england leaves interest rates at a 15 year high but it is facing growing pressure to ease the cost of borrowing after a fall in inflation. and the value of online chat, the

cult social media platform reddit goes public with a valuation of more than $6 billion. welcome to world business report. we start in the uk where we've just heard from the bank of england that interest rates are staying where they are at 5.25%. they've been on hold since last august, when they were hiked to tame soaring inflation. well, on wednesday we learned that inflation — the rate at which prices are rising — came down more sharply than expected last month, from 4% injanuary to 3.4% that's a huge fall from its peak back in october 2022, when inflation was running at three times that level at just over 11%. inflation here in the uk is now at its lowest in two and a half years, but it is still above the target the bank of england sets itself — of 2%. people across the country

are still feeling the effects of higher prices, despite claims by the prime minister that the economy is on the road to recovery. joining me now is kathleen brooks,