�*welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore, i'm karishma vaswani. the headlines. a glimmer of hope in ukraine, as russia says it will scale back military operations, around the capital, kyiv. the ministry of defence of the russian federation has taken the decision to drastically reduce combat operations in the micro areas to boost mutual trust. but the u—5 is warning russia still has the capability to do great damage in ukraine.0ur other main stories. at least five people have been killed in a shooting in israel,

the third such attack in the past week. the prime minister of the solomon islands denies he's under pressure to host a chinese naval base after a leaked document hints at a controversial security agreement. the uk's lockdown party scandal — 20 fines for breaching rules in government workplaces — and there could be more. it's six in the morning in singapore, and 1 am in kyiv where there appears to be a glimmer of hope following peace talks between russia and ukraine. the negotiations — in istanbul — were the first for a fortnight. ukraine confirmed it was prepared to be a neutral country and abandon ambitions to join the nato military alliance.

for its part, moscow announced what looks like a change of military strategy, it says russian troops will �*drastically reduce�* their operations around the capital kyiv. our first report is from steve rosenberg. away from the fighting, another attempt at diplomacy. delegations from ukraine and russia came to istanbul. but would there be any room for compromise? negotiating behind the scenes, the russian billionaire roman abramovich. today, the kremlin dismissed reports he'd been poisoned at a previous round of talks as an "information war". president erdogan was the host. he called on both sides to push for peace. translation: it will be - in everyone's interest to achieve a ceasefire and peace as soon as possible. as members of the delegation, you've taken on a historic responsibility. the whole world is waiting to hear good news from you. at these talks, ukraine made

concrete proposals to russia it hopes could end the conflict. ukraine proposed becoming a neutral state. it won't join military alliances or host foreign military bases. in return, it's asked for legally—binding security guarantees, with other countries acting as guarantors. ukraine is ready to discuss the status of crimea, the peninsula russia annexed. it's also insisting that russia shouldn't prevent ukraine from joining the european union. translation: our proposal has not been accepted yet by russia. - we are handing it over to the russian side. we say, this is our position, our official position. we will wait for their answer. russia responded with what it presented as a significant concession. it said it would scale back its offensive near the ukrainian capital, kyiv. translation: the ministry of defence i of the russian federation has taken l the decision to drastically reduce

combat operations in the kyiv and chernihiv areas, in order to boost mutual trust and create the conditions for further negotiations and signing of the agreement. if russia does cut back its military activity around ukraine's capital, that would mark a key shift in what moscow calls its "special military operation," but what most of the world calls russia's war. an admission, perhaps, that after struggling to make advances, russian troops have realised they cannot take the city of kyiv. but — and there are lots of buts here — russia hasn't ceased hostilities in ukraine. it made that clear today. its troops are continuing to fight. although their main focus now, moscow says, is on the donbas, in eastern ukraine. and what about those areas in the east and their status,

under any potential deal? also, not clear. and remember, from the very beginning, vladimir putin's objective was to force the whole of ukraine back into russia's orbit. will he really give up on that? steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. since russia began its invasion of ukraine, the capital kyiv, has been a key target. but its forces have not got past the outskirts of the city. now — as you heard in steve's report — russia says it will drastically reduce its offensive around the capital. the ukrainian general in charge of defending kyiv has told the bbc that russia is suffering heavy losses and can twin. our international correspondent, orla guerin, sent this report from a key front line, north of the capital. ukrainian forces keep watch on a critical front line to the north of the capital. having said it had no plans to invade, russia now says it will drastically reduce attacks around kyiv. these troops won't be dropping their guard. the man in charge of

defending the city, colonel general oleksandr sirsky, was handing out promotions and medals today. he's been fighting the russians in eastern ukraine since 2014. now, they're on his doorstep. the russians are four kilometres from here. is it painful for you that they have come so far on this soil? it's painful, yeah. especially here, because i fight against russia eight years, during eight years. so i'd like to say, together, we are stronger. and, er, we will...win. he told me his men are

being shelled constantly, but are on the offensive in some areas. and he insisted the russians would never set foot in kyiv. sirens wail and inside the city, there is vigilance, night and day. territorial defence units out on patrol — through deserted streets, now lined by checkpoints and roadblocks. their mission, to monitor any movements and search for the enemy within. saboteurs passing information to the russians. after being stopped and searched, this man was allowed to go on his way. but in the past month, in this area, they've detained about 30 alleged informants. then, a sudden threat over our heads. they spot a russian drone

and follow its path. "i'm working on it," says this fighter, nicknamed chechen. blasts well, it was quite tense here in the last few moments, with that russian drone overhead. it has now disappeared, but members of the unit say this is happening as often as ten times a night. the russians are sending their drones to try and gather intelligence from above. there's incoming fire, but from a distance. if russia does limit its offensive on the city, it's probably because it had stalled already.

orla guerin, bbc news, kyiv. so, how have ukraine and the west assessed russia's scale—back announcement? ukraine's president zelensky has said while initial signs from the talks were "positive", they do not "drown out" the explosions of russian shells. the us said they would judge moscow on its actions rather than its words. pentagon spokesmanjohn kirby says they believe russia is repositioning, not withdrawing. very early stages here. it does recently in the last few hours make this proclamation. so, we have seen a small number begin to move away from kyiv, that's about the most i can give you. i don't have any information on the resupply efforts for troops that is still going against kyiv. the russians still have a significant majority of their

assembled combat to include logistics and sustainment capabilities to them inside ukraine. in other news — officials say four people — plus a gunman — have died in shootings east of tel aviv in the third such attack in the past week. it happened in the strictly orthodox city of bnei brak. police believe he was a palestinian from the occupied west bank. the palestinian president mahmoud abbas has condemned the attacks. our correspondent yolande knell has the latest from jerusalem. the picture is a bit confused but i can set the stage this is the deadliest attack of its kind in years and it's only a week since i last set that. we had a medic in the ultra—orthodox jewish last set that. we had a medic in the ultra—orthodoxjewish neighbourhood ultra—orthodox jewish neighbourhood to ultra—orthodoxjewish neighbourhood to the east describing finding victims spread out at intervals along the street and some of them had been on foot and one of them had beenin had been on foot and one of them had been in a car and there was some

reports from witnesses in the neighbourhood saying that the earlier heard gunshots being fired towards apartment balconies and footage that appears to show the man dressed in black walking with a rifle on the street and what media are saying at the moment and security officials are saying that this attacker was shot dead was from the northern occupied west bank affiliated with palestinian military groups that is different from attacks we've seen in the others to be seen in the past. which have been associated with israeli, arab citizens who were linked to islamic state group. a very crowded neighbourhood, a jewish orthodox neighbourhood, a jewish orthodox neighbourhood in a place where people really are religious and so the attacker went and the pace that we have seen, those addressed in

black—and—white and working along the streets and at the time of the day this happened early evening, lots of people would've been just out and about and the pictures that we're getting there are quite chaotic and can see lots less of emergency vehicles and police and thatis emergency vehicles and police and that is added to some of the confusion of what is going on. police in london say there could be more fines issued, on top of the 20 announced on tuesday after covid laws were broken during lockdown in the british government. police say they won't reveal who's to be fined, though prime minister borisjohnson was at some of the events. mrjohnson attended the memorial service for queen elizabeth's husband prince philip —— as our political editor, laura kuenssberg reports. a moment to stand on ceremony.

the prime minister on the list for a grand gathering that would have been forbidden under the covid laws he set. laws that meant the queen mourned her husband alone. today, arriving for this major memorial quietly, through a side door. borisjohnson�*s already had to apologise to the monarch for rules being flouted under his own roof. diagonally opposite each other today, the queen, frail, tucked at the end of a row, but ministers were trying to avoid the subject. when people are dying in ukraine and there's a cost—of—living crisis/challenge, i think we should be focused on that. how damaging is all this? fines are being issued. there's a war in europe, if you hadn't noticed. not so long ago, claims of rule breaking in downing street were a full—blown political emergency. now, today, the police have concluded that the law was broken at least 20 times. we don't know who is receiving fixed penalty notices, but we do know they're issuing 20

fines, and this is just the first batch, with more likely to come. fines are expected to be £100 or £200, but don't come with a criminal record. and the individuals will not be named by the police, although number ten has vowed to reveal if mrjohnson is one of them. so far, that hasn't happened. it's important thatjustice is done without fear or favour in cases of this nature, and we all want to see people held to account if they've done wrong. but we live in a world where very, very serious things are happening. we cannot afford to be indefinitely lost in this conversation. this may all be hard to dismiss. evidence emerged over many weeks of gathering during lockdown. e—mail invites, loud music, staff laughing about what happened. is cheese and wine all right? claims, denials, of parties, even in the downing street flat. we know now some laws were broken, even though this was what the prime minister used to say. all guidance was followed completely during number ten. some number ten staff already paid

with theirjobs when a senior civil servant found there were serious failures in leadership. with the first fines now emerging, the opposition says mrjohnson�*s handling of this means he should go. first of all, he said there wasn't any, then he said it was outrageous that there'd been some parties. and then, when he found out that he was at them, he says — i didn't know that they were a party. i mean, the prime minister has completely lied about this situation. the police have issued fines so, therefore, lockdown rules have been breached and the prime minister has to go. borisjohnson denies misleading anyone, but spin back a couple of months and some tory mps were so dumbfounded by the mess, they believed he would have to quit. a few of them were publicly prepared to say so. privately, more of them were plotting to make it happen. but russia's invasion of ukraine upended priorities round here. the upset faded, but it was never forgotten. tonight, the prime minister invited all of his mps for what you might term a party. and if borisjohnson is found to broken the law himself, he may find keeping his tribe in step an almost impossible job. laura kuenssberg, bbc news, downing street. you're watching newsday on the bbc.

still to come on the programme. the prime minister of the solomon islands denies he's under pressure to host a chinese naval base following a controversial security agreement. the accident that happened here was of the sort that can, at worst, produce a meltdown. in this case, the precautions worked, but they didn't work quite well enough to prevent some old fears about the safety features of these stations from resurfacing. the republic of ireland has become the first country in the world to ban smoking in the workplace. from today, anyone lighting up in offices, businesses, pubs and restaurants will face a heavy fine. the president was on his way out of the washington hilton hotel, where he had been addressing a trade union conference. the small crowd outside included his assailant.

it has become a symbol of paris. 100 years ago, many parisians wished it had never been built. _ the eiffel tower's birthday- is being marked by a re—enactment of the first ascent by gustav eiffeh — this is newsday on the bbc. our headlines. a glimmer of hope in ukraine, as russia says it will scale back military operations, around the capital, kyiv. western leaders have expressed doubts about russia's intentions. us secretary of state anthony blinken said moscow continued to brutalise ukraine. away from ukraine — i want to tell you about this story: australia and new zealand have both voiced their concerns about the potentialfor a chinese military presence on the solomon islands. a document leaked last week indicates that china could deploy troops to the south pacific island nation —

and potentially establish a naval base there. the solomon islands and australia have long been interlinked. since the second world war, australia has been the islands�* largest aid donor, development partner and until now their sole security partner. here's australia's prime minister talking about the issue over the weekend. we have stepped up in the face of increasing threats and increasing pressures and we have been responding to those and we will responding to those and we will respond as a family of nations which australia is one. new zealand is another. the solomon islands' prime minister has said the proposed security agreement with beijing was "ready for signing", and denied reports that his country had been pressured to allow a chinese naval base to be built in the pacific island nation. here he is speaking in parliament. we are not pressured in any way by

our new friends and there's no intention whatsoever to ask china to build the military place in the islands. goodness, we are insulted. in beijing, the foreign ministry dismissed all concerns and said the new pact should not be criticised. the security corporation such as china and the solomon islands is in line with international law and international practice. it's conducive to stability and beyond reproach. for more on this i am joined now by professor alan gyngell from the australian institute of international affairs. talk to us about the security agreement which the solomon islands have acknowledged but has not clearly said but it is about. it's

this idea of a naval base in china possibility? we this idea of a naval base in china possibility?— this idea of a naval base in china ossibili 7~ ~ ., , . possibility? we don't know very much about the agreement _ possibility? we don't know very much about the agreement at _ possibility? we don't know very much about the agreement at all. _ possibility? we don't know very much about the agreement at all. we - possibility? we don't know very much about the agreement at all. we saw. about the agreement at all. we saw links and documents around five or so, days ago, but we have seen, we have not seen the full text. it seems to me that the claims about a chinese naval base are a bit of a stretch. it would certainly strengthen beijing's ties with the area by china, like all this has limited resources and to be frank, it is strategic priorities that do not lie in the south pacific, they rely on central asia and the south china sea. although it has been labelled an naval base and this

feeds into growing concern in australia about china's power in the south pacific, ifeel australia about china's power in the south pacific, i feel will australia about china's power in the south pacific, ifeel will be something less than that. . south pacific, i feel will be something less than that. . looking at close relations _ something less than that. . looking at close relations between - something less than that. . looking at close relations between china - something less than that. . looking | at close relations between china and the solomon islands, it's something they said they are absolutely within their rights to have been due. that's right and of course, that is true and australia has been putting an awful lot of effort and money and there was more money in the budget they came down last night and to aid for the self pacific. but the issues involved here are solomons, which

switched recognition from taipei to beijing in 2019, wants to demonstrate australia but it does other options besides just lining up beside us on everything. china is also trying to demonstrate both its growing interest in the world and also, sending a message to australia which the rather poor relations in the past few years. i think domestic politics in the solomon islands plays into this. find politics in the solomon islands plays into this.— politics in the solomon islands plays into this. and those tense relations between _ plays into this. and those tense relations between china - plays into this. and those tense relations between china and - relations between china and australia also possibly a factor in what we are seeing from the australian response. how do you see

australian response. how do you see australia in the us, for instance also responding to this the future? i think there will be a great deal more emphasis from washington on the pacific than we have seen for washington has announced it will open a new embassy and the capital of the solomon islands and the state department is putting a great deal more effort into relations at this very tiny country but i think there's a sense that there's competition with china that has become almost global and that you have to engage with it wherever in the world you happen to be. in the strate . ic the world you happen to be. in the strategic rationale _ the world you happen to be. in the

strategic rationale for _ the world you happen to be. in the strategic rationale for the - the world you happen to be. in the j strategic rationale for the solomon islands in many countries in the pacific is economic with china. absolutely. we should not forget about that. the development of these small islands are very real and china has come in with a lot of money with the initiative and has built stadiums in the case of the solomon islands. houses, elsewhere in the region. it is delivering visible signs of its presence but also, underlying support in the security area for them to run through policing as well and i think

the small island states that the pacific welcome the opportunity to have other partners besides australia. and the base, i think, they take seriousness of australia. i don't think we are about to see a fundamental split from australia and the us relationship.— the us relationship. thank you so much for your— the us relationship. thank you so much for your thoughts. - as we saw earlier, queen elizabeth has taken part in a thanksgiving service for her late husband prince philip — in herfirst public appearance for five months. the ninety five year old british monarch arrived at westminster abbey walking with the help of a stick. she was accompied by her son prince andrew. there'd been concerns about whether she'd make the ceremony after recently experiencing problems with mobility.

the queen has cancelled several engagements since spending a night that's all for now — stay with bbc world news. hello there. the weather has been turning colder, and on tuesday, it was certainly cold enough for snow in the far north of the uk. that was the wintry—looking scene for a weather watcher in shetland. those colder conditions continue to sink southwards behind this weather front, the front bringing some outbreaks of rain, but with some sleet and snow mixing in, especially over high ground. and to the north of that weather front, a very cold start to wednesday. particularly in northern scotland, a widespread frost. further snow showers giving some accumulations in places and the risk of ice, but there will be some spells of sunshine to start off wednesday, whereas southern scotland will start off cloudy. a bit of sleet and snow in places,

some patchy rain to start off in northern ireland, some wet weather in northern england, some snow mixing in up over the pennines, bit of rain into north wales and the north midlands. but to the south of that, a mainly dry start with some areas of low cloud, mist and fog, but equally some spells of sunshine. now, our band of cloud in the rain, sleet and snow will continue to push southwards, most of the snow over high ground, but we could see some to low levels. to the north of that, sunny spells and wintry showers. to the south, some spells of sunshine, but increasing amounts of cloud, the odd shower. still quite mild in the south at 12 degrees, but more widely, we're looking at top temperatures between 4 and 8 degrees. it will feel cold, particularly as the wind starts to pick up. now, through wednesday night, this band of rain, sleet and snow continues to move southwards. could be some wintry weather, especially over the hills in the south, but possibly even to low levels. and behind that band of rain, sleet and snow, a very cold and frosty start to thursday morning. there will be some icy stretches here and there. thursday, a day of sunny

spells and wintry showers, the showers tending to push westwards as the day wears on. a keen north or northeasterly breeze just adding to a cold feel. top temperatures for many of us between 5 and 8 degrees. some spots in the west — maybe glasgow, plymouth — getting up into double digits. now, as we head towards the weekend, as this area of high pressure sinks its way southwards, a subtle change. we lose the northerly winds. we pick up something of a westerly wind, bringing something just a little bit less cold. there won't be a heat wave, but temperatures will climb a little. a lot of dry weather, just one or two showers.

this is bbc news. the headlines: following talks in istanbul, moscow says it will "drastically reduce combat operations" around kyiv and the city of chernihiv. but ukraine's armed forces say moscow is continuing full—scale armed aggression. western leaders too have expressed doubts about russia's intentions. us secretary of state antony blinken said moscow continued to brutalise ukraine and wasn't showing seriousness. 20 fines will be issued by police as part of the inquiry into downing street parties that broke covid rules. downing street has said it would confirm if borisjohnson was facing a fine.