any cost, i think that was a key at any cost, i think that was a key one. and protecting the roles of those involved in making the decisions over the years that they took so wrongly. i think there is a whole batch of reasons they went ahead with it. i had a comment that was meant to have come from the board at that time that it should be buried at any cost, this court case, and i think we saw that, then trying to do that along the way. so i have no doubt that they were desperate to get rid of it for a whole raft of reasons. �* ., get rid of it for a whole raft of reasons. ~ ., ., . reasons. and that would include those criminal— reasons. and that would include those criminal appeals - reasons. and that would include those criminal appeals which - reasons. and that would include - those criminal appeals which rested on the outcome?— those criminal appeals which rested on the outcome? absolutely and that the had on the outcome? absolutely and that they had known _ on the outcome? absolutely and that they had known they _ on the outcome? absolutely and that they had known they were _ on the outcome? absolutely and that they had known they were wrong - on the outcome? absolutely and that they had known they were wrong forl they had known they were wrong for many years. they had known they were wrong for many yew-— many years. thank you, mr alan bates. i suppose _

many years. thank you, mr alan bates. i suppose following - many years. thank you, mr alan bates. i suppose following mr. many years. thank you, mr alan - bates. i suppose following mr henry, i think i have — bates. i suppose following mr henry, i think i have got _ bates. i suppose following mr henry, i think i have got this _ bates. i suppose following mr henry, i think i have got this right, - bates. i suppose following mr henry, i think i have got this right, the - i think i have got this right, the claims — i think i have got this right, the claims in — i think i have got this right, the claims in the gl 0 on behalf of some of the _ claims in the gl 0 on behalf of some of the claimants including claims for malicious prosecution so inevitably the propriety of the prosecutions were an effect on the civil proceedings. that prosecutions were an effect on the civil proceedings.— civil proceedings. that is the end of mr bates' _ civil proceedings. that is the end of mr bates' evidence. _ civil proceedings. that is the end of mr bates' evidence. thank - civil proceedings. that is the end| of mr bates' evidence. thank you civil proceedings. that is the end - of mr bates' evidence. thank you for ”rovidin of mr bates' evidence. thank you for providing your _ of mr bates' evidence. thank you for providing your witness _ of mr bates' evidence. thank you for providing your witness statement - of mr bates' evidence. thank you for| providing your witness statement and answers to a great number of questions. i can see hans preparing and they know what is coming because it is inevitable and i can understand why they want to applaud you, mr bates, but i'm going to ask you, mr bates, but i'm going to ask

you not to for this reason because there will be witnesses coming in there will be witnesses coming in the next so forth who may not be as attractive to many of you and i would hate to think that i would have to intervene when they are here to prevent bad behaviour. so in the interest of people being evenhanded, i am asking you to remember that this is not a public meeting but a public inquiry. it is not a court of law but it is a judicial process. so, please, leave it there. tomorrow morning, we will resume at 10am. as you know, iappeared morning, we will resume at 10am. as you know, i appeared on the first day of phase four and then disappeared completely in the sense that i conducted the hearing remotely. ifear my that i conducted the hearing remotely. i fear my circumstances are such that that will still be necessary, ie that i will conduct most of the hearing remotely during

this passage. i do intend to appear as often as i can. but i wanted to be frank, it will be very often. i find that i can do this acceptably but i want to be open with you about what is happening henceforth, all right? so we will resume tomorrow but i be on a screen while sitting here. —— not sitting here. studio: you have been watching the post office horizon it inquiry, as it has started its next phase as it tries to establish who knew what and when, we have been listening to alan bates, former sub—postmaster reading the campaign against the horizon it software, against the post office. as a reminder, the stakes here, more than 900 sub postmasters were prosecuted because of a faulty software system, more than 700 of

those were brought forward by the post office itself. there is a law that has been introduced that are seeking to overturn many of these wrongful convictions. right now the post office minister has said about 100 of those convictions has been overturned. let's put into context which i have been hearing today from alan bates. a lot of what we have been seeing is his correspondence with senior post office executives as well as with the horizon it team in order to try and flag up the issues he experienced from the very start and in seeking to answer the question of who knew what and when, those correspondences, the evidence alan bates has been given, is essential. so we saw him traces correspondence from the moment in 2000 when he fact of these issues that he is having, seen him say he was met with a wall of silence. we

have seen him then afterwards talk about the correspondence that he had once his contract with the post office was terminated in 2003. and the beginning of his campaign began. his assessment of all of this has been brutal. in his own words, he said he believes they knew they were wrong for many, many years and that the post office was trying to essentially cover it up. he said the post office is in his words, alan bates is not one to mince words, atrocious, it needs building up from the ground up and it is a dead duck beyond saving and needs to be sold to someone like amazon because it is a huge injection of cash. the post office throughout has been saying it is deeply sorry for the impact that this scandal has had on the victims because the victims, to say that their lives have been impacted and this is simply an understatement,

their lives have been fundamentally changed by this. alan bates talked about losing his life savings that he put into his village shop which had a post office counter and losing those savings because of this whole ordeal. many other victims have lost homes, bankruptcy, had mental health issues, several suicides have been linked to this. one who spoke to the bbc was eight weeks pregnant is when sentenced to 15 months jail time, another victim was the clear bankrupt when losing the civil case in 2017. one victim's father was a postmaster, died in 2017, leaving this battle against the post office for him to fight on his own. for many, all they get some top with what another victim says. lee

castleton says we are not survivors, we are still victims. as far as alan bates is concerned, the correspondence he has been showing today sums it up, he told the post office there were problems, constantly victims were flagging up the issues, the post office was engaged in ignoring those complaints, instead saying it was a robust system. he said the attitude throughout all this, we are right, everyone else is wrong. in the next few weeks, because this next phase of the inquiry will last 15 weeks, we will hear from the people who have occupied some of the highest levels of power within the post office during this entire ordeal because, remember, this has been a decades long fight, including paula venables —— paula vennells. you can go straight to our website via the qr code to see our right page ——

live page. you can see some of the key moments and testimony from alan bates, champion of the sub—postmaster two and the fight against the post office, stay with us on bbc news. just to let you know, we are waiting for a news conference between lord cameron, uk foreign secretary and his counterpart antony blinken, they have been holding talks in washington so we are waiting for that news conference and when it begins we will bring it to you. other news. a man has been arrested after a woman was stabbed in bradford city centre. danny savage has the latest.

his image has been everywhere four days but he has now been detained, a nationwide appeal to find him, last known location near a park in bradford after a woman fatally stabbed in the city centre. . kulsuma akter was walking with a young baby and was stabbed multiple times. the 27—year—old was pushing her baby in a pram at the time, the child was unharmed. we now know habibur masum was bailed by magistrates in november after being charged with assaulting and threatening to kill kulsuma akter, offences he had denied. it is understood his bail conditions that

he must not contact her. police previously said they were known to each other. both the west yorkshire and greater manchester for several four the independent office for police conduct because of previous contact they had with the victim. habibur masum, 25, will now be brought up from buckinghamshire to west yorkshire for questioning. a murder investigation is under way after woman was found dead in her home in westminster and several london with several stab wounds, police alerted and forced entry to the property, no arrests have yet been made and officers said they were working to trace the woman �*s next—of—kin. last month was the hottest march ever recorded, according to the eu deaf climate change service copernicus, the tenth month in a row the new air temperature record has been set, sea surface temperatures were even more dramatic, justin rowlatt has this

report. food prices are up, zimbabwe reported a climate disaster. people at risk of hunger. one example of a pattern of drought affecting countries as far afield as southern europe and southeast asia. this graph shows how march continues the world run of wreckage breaking mother temperatures, this extreme heat has got many climate scientists worried photos. worried we heat has got many climate scientists worrie: ~ u. heat has got many climate scientists worrie: ~ u, ., , heat has got many climate scientists worrie . . . . , . heat has got many climate scientists worrie ~ ., , ., ., worried we can quantify a large proportion _ worried we can quantify a large proportion of— worried we can quantify a large proportion of the _ worried we can quantify a large proportion of the extra - worried we can quantify a large proportion of the extra heat - worried we can quantify a large - proportion of the extra heat causing these records were not available —— but not all of it. there must be much more sense coming out in the next weeks and months to understand what is happening to our climate system and are we in a new phase.

scientists agree that it is the vast quantities of planet warming gases humanity has been pumping out causing climate change and in recent months recurring weather event known as el nino has been adding an extra blast of heat into the air, that is weakening now so temperatures should begin to fall back later in the air. the problem is, see temperatures remain extremely high, hitting many of the world's coral reefs hard. that suggest global temperatures might not fall back as expected, a fear of some scientist that the world could be entering a new phase of more rapid climate change. justin rowlatt, bbc news. gale force winds and heavy rain have battered large parts of the uk, more than 100 people had to be rescued overnight, a major incident was declared in west sussex after the river burst its banks. more than 200 homes and businesses across hampshire and

dorset was power. in england there are 45 flood warnings and 189 for the works in place, also flood warnings in parts of scotland. graham satchel. you can see where the river burst its banks. one was taken to hospital with hypothermia signs after being rescued from the local holiday park. how these were cut short in the most dramatic way but terrible weather. it was a miserable night for the residency, high tide and heavy rain falling on already saturated ground meant the emergency services were busy. the fire service help you to safety, some taken out on boats. others were able to make their way on foot with a little help. the full

affecting both the elderly and the very young. of whites, spring this year has so far proved to be wet and wild and windy. graham satchel, bbc news. we are expecting lord cameron to speak with his american counterpart antony blinken, we will bring you back. you

are watching bbc news. the uk foreign secretary david cameron is in washington where a joint press conference is expected shortly with antony blinken, us secretary of state, live pictures from the state department, two diplomats set to discuss arms exports to asia, party a sustainable ceasefire and the delivery of more humanitarian aid into gaza, and more funding for ukraine, military edge package worth billions of dollars currently stalled on capitol hill. before travelling to washington he met with the former president donald trump in florida. i leave the pictures of the news conference venue to my side because that is due to start any minute. but i have been talking to tom fletcher, formerforeign policy

adviser under tony blair, gordon brown, david cameron, the author of the assassin, given some of the things david cameron has said about donald trump in the past whether republicans would actually listen to him. fill republicans would actually listen to him. . ., , republicans would actually listen to him. , , , _ him. of course, there were spicy comments _ him. of course, there were spicy comments about _ him. of course, there were spicy comments about donald - him. of course, there were spicy comments about donald trump i him. of course, there were spicy - comments about donald trump himself is known to like to give it out a bit. i see how thick—skinned he is. i think it is importantly foreign secretary is there and ready to roll his sleeves up and engage in conversation. it is notjust about talking to people you agree with otherwise it would be easy. it is essential, david cameron has foreign secretary has got it up there at the top of his list that we need to get proper military support to ukraine in this incredibly tough challenge they are facing and key to that of they are facing and key to that of the americans. he has gone out there explicitly to try and twist pupils arms, convinced they need to get behind this package.

so i think you've got to be in that conversation. but does he have any leverage at all? one remembers only recently. that comment from marjorie taylor greene, a real loyalist of trump. she said, kiss my behind. and i've i've cleaned that up, obviously, and you'll know the exact quote. but does he have any leverage at all with the republicans? i think he does. you know, david cameron is a globalfigure. he's been prime minister for several years. he's got the networks. he's well known in the states. he's trusted in the states. he's seen as being from the same politicalfamily, although i think the conservatives and republicans are not as close a family as they might once have been. so he has real heft there. you know, he he stops the traffic. and, you know, these are tricky issues. and it's it will be difficult to navigate through some of those politics. and i'm sure there'll be some silliness off stage from people like you mentioned. but, you know, david cameron's been around the block before. this isn't his first rodeo. i'm pretty confident he'll know what he's doing.

we played some pictures of david cameron and anthony blinken because that meeting is happening in the next few minutes, a news conference in about 45 minutes. much more alignment in thinking around the gaza war. but of course, we heard only yesterday from benjamin netanyahu reiterating that a date has been set for rafah and that seems to be a direct collision course with london and washington. again, what can those two capitals, the administrations, do to actually bring about a change in israeli strategy? well, that's the crucial question alongside ukraine, of course. and every day that goes by, there's more bloodshed. we've had six months now of these brutal retaliations against gaza for those awful hamas attacks on the 7th of october. and clearly, patience has run out with netanyahu,

whether it's from the uk or the international committee and now even the americans. so much of that conversation, i'm sure, will be about how do we retain and use the leverage we have. clearly, private pressure on netanyahu has not been working. he has a very difficult cabinet. sorry to cut across to you, but what's left if behind the scenes hasn't worked? what's left? well, we are seeing more aid getting in. and that and some of that will be because of pressure from blinken and david cameron and others. so you can make some progress, but they'll be focused on how do we ensure that this doesn't become a wider political battle, drawing in trump and others in a way that would actually make it would escalate the situation. but also, how do we ensure it doesn't escalate across the border into lebanon and more widely in the middle east? they want to get that aid in. they want to get those hostages out. and they want to get back to a conversation about a political horizon. there are extremists in that israeli cabinet and extremists and hamas who just want to bury the two state solution for good. and i'm pretty certain that anthony blinken and david cameron will do everything they can to stop that. tom fletcher.

live pictures from the podium setup, we will hear from david live pictures from the podium setup, we will hearfrom david cameron live pictures from the podium setup, we will hear from david cameron and antony blinken, life here on bbc news. ., ., , ., , news. one of the worst miscarriages of “ustice news. one of the worst miscarriages ofiustice in — news. one of the worst miscarriages ofjustice in british _ news. one of the worst miscarriages ofjustice in british legal— news. one of the worst miscarriages ofjustice in british legal history, - ofjustice in british legal history, hundreds of people who run post offices across the country wrongly prosecuted for theft and false accounting by the post office, owned by the british government. the cases between 1999 and 2015 were based on the faulty accounting software system, horizon, some people went to prison, others have died in the time it has taken to seekjustice, so for 95 wrongful convictions have been overturned. alan bates, former sub—postmaster who led the campaign to expose the it scandal, has been giving evidence at the post office inquiry in london today and explained how he took up the fight.

i think a lot of the ministers coming from stick an inquiry the rest of it and i am sure some of it is deserved i hold the department and the civil service more to blame in a lot of these instances, why things never progressed at the time because i am sure between them and post office briefing ministers they were briefing them in the direction they wanted to brief them in, not that was for the benefit of the group are the individuals in there because of the positions they felt they were in and that should be taken at that time, and also knowing that they probably have other organisations hammering away, nagging at them. but they will probably wait and see who got the furthest. but i do certainly hold the officials far more guilty on

august and politician. for the officials far more guilty on august and politician. for from that ublic august and politician. for from that public inquiry _ august and politician. for from that public inquiry a _ august and politician. for from that public inquiry a little _ august and politician. for from that public inquiry a little later— august and politician. for from that public inquiry a little later in - august and politician. for from that public inquiry a little later in our. public inquiry a little later in our programme. this information over a cholera outbreak has been playing for the deaths of almost a hundred people after an overcrowded makeshift ferry sank off the coast of mozambique, a reporter has more. there were a hundred people on board, many children, one of the crew members has been speaking to local media there about what went wrong, take a listen. translation: when i saw the boat was at risk i ask a crew chief to increase the speedin ask a crew chief to increase the speed in order to avoid the worst, we dragged it to shore but it was too late, the water. in the boat. the victims' family say they were fleeing the mainland over concerns over cholera when they piled into the boat. translation: they were

running away from the cholera outbreak and got into the boat, the sea was rough, the boat capsized and killed a lot of people. officials say there was no outbreak and have blamed this information for the panic. but these conspiracy theories, is mozambique and other west —— southern african nations. there is because at 15,000 32 deaths, the most affected region, is where the boat capsized. not the first time false claims have caused issues in mozambique, this is a bbc verify article published last year, violence and death sounding false claims over a cholera outbreak, spread by word—of—mouth and via social media. let me bring you some

dramatic pictures from kenya where a bus full of passengers were stranded for many hours after the vehicle plunged into a swollen river over night, rescuers managed to get a rope across the river bank on which many passengers were held, to pull themselves a cross, others were rescued in the end by a lifeboat. 51 people on board including some children were safely rescued. in case you missed it yesterday, let me just finish this half hour with some stunning images of the total solar eclipse we saw yesterday running on the bbc news website, these put together by a visualjournalism team, taken from everywhere, from mexico to the us. as we have been hearing the total solar eclipse happens about every 18 months but they are often in unpopulated or remote areas but this one passed over several big cities across three

countries and you can see the full photomontage currently on the bbc news website. some absolutely spectacular images witnessed by so many millions of people in north america, i am many millions of people in north america, iam back many millions of people in north america, i am back in a moment. tuesday was another fire early wild weather day for many of us, coastal flooding across parts of southern england and wales, this was the picture in rural early in the day, the strongest of wind, heavy of the rain easing quickly, turning quiet at night and colder especially in the east, as low clues away to the north of the rain easing quickly, turning quiet at night and colder especially in the east, as low—pressure clues away to the northey, the ridge of high pressure with us, under clearing skies temperature dropping quite quickly, by the time we get to the early hours of wednesday morning, especially for central and eastern parts of scotland, those

temperatures to a three degrees, in some urban areas, a touch of frost around in the east, cold air mass with us not long until the next area of milder air works in behind this weather front, of milder air works in behind this weatherfront, warm of milder air works in behind this weather front, warm front tracking eastward through wednesday bringing rain i think at times to all areas, the best of any sunshine through the morning for eastern scotland and england, there is the cold of the rain tracking east which, when picking up from the south—west, a breezy day on wednesday, gusts up to 30 mph, perhaps stronger around coastal areas, 30 mph, perhaps stronger around coastalareas, it 30 mph, perhaps stronger around coastal areas, it will not be as windy as it has been during monday and tuesday, heaviest of the rain across western scotland is here, temperatures on the rise from the west, belfast up to 16 or so, one of the warmer spots on wednesday, we have to milder air with us thursday, when coming from a westerly direction, not much on the front, bringing low cloud and drizzle in

the south to start the day. best of the south to start the day. best of the practice on thursday for parts of north—east england that later in scotland but most places should brighten up through the day, a bit of a breeze coming in from the west or south—west and lifting temperatures to 18—19. for some. looking milderfor temperatures to 18—19. for some. looking milder for thursday, temperatures to 18—19. for some. looking milderfor thursday, the milder trend continues to fight it but look at the blue colour is returning as we head through sunday and into next week. temporary waste some slightly warmer weather on the cards, particular towards the south, 19-24 cards, particular towards the south, 19—24 guns and, more unsettled further north, we see the temperature dropping down as we head through the course of next week, goodbye.

this is bbc news. the headlines... benjamin netanyahu vows nothing will stop him from eliminating hamas in southern gaza — including in the crowded city of rafah, the former sub—postmaster who led the campaign to expose the horizon it scandal, gives evidence at the post office inquiry. and solar spectacular — we'll show you more of the stunning pictures from yesterday's total solar eclipse — which transfixed millions of stargazers in north america. the uk foreign secretary is going to give a press conference with antony

blinken, that is going to start in the next few minutes and we will bring you that live. time for a look at the business news. we begin in the us — where investors are sitting on the sidelines ahead of the latest read on us inflation figures. they're due this week and could determine the path of interest rates. markets have already reined in their expectations of several rate cuts this year, with a consensus ofjust 2 or 3 cuts in the cost of borrowing. that's after a better than expected jobs report, and expectations that consumer prices will have risen by 3.5% well, earlier i sspoke to our north america business correspondent erin delmore — and she explained what is being anticipated. something of a