this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak with the headlines. people take to the streets in celebration as the ukrainian city of kherson is retaken after months of occupation. the democrats are a step closer to retaining control of the us senate, as mark kelly is re—elected in arizona. the ethiopian military and tigrayan rebels sign an agreement to immediately implement a peace deal that ends almost two years of fighting. hello and welcome to bbc world news. we start in ukraine — where the government says that victory in the war against russia, is �*only a matter of time',

after russian troops pulled out of the city of kherson on friday. ukraine regained control of the southern city — but there are reports that the kremlin�*s forces are making new fortifications on the left bank of the dnipro river. and russia has chosen a port city in southeast ukraine to be, what it calls, the "temporary capital" of the kherson region. fears have also been expressed after satellite images show significant new damage to a major dam in the area. the bbc�*s, catherine byaruhanga, sent this report from the capital, kyiv. this is the vital kakhovka dam 36 miles north of kherson. it's one of ukraine's biggest hydroelectric power plants. under the cover of darkness, a massive explosion is unleashed. if the dam collapses, it could cause massive flooding and quickly swamp over 80 settlements, including kherson. images from friday morning show sections of the dam were destroyed. the bbc could not verify the extent

of the damage or who caused it. over in kherson city, there have been emotional celebrations after ukrainian forces arrived. people here have lived under russian occupation for more than eight months. many are still without power, water or the internet. however, retreating russian forces still pose a threat from across the dnipro river. we have been warned yesterday by our general staff of the ukrainian armed forces that russians are making new fortifications on the left bank side of the dnipro river, and there is a likelihood of massive artillery shelling. speaking at a southeast asia summit in cambodia this morning, ukraine's foreign minister warned that other countries could follow in russia's footsteps if action is not taken. violation of borders. use of force. committing mass atrocities against civilian population.

if anyone in the world sees that russia can get away easily with all of this, then this someone will be tempted to follow the lead. winning kherson has been a big boost for the national morale, but a complete victory over russia remains elusive. catherine byaruhanga, bbc news, kyiv. in america, democrats now need just one more seat to keep control of the us senate, after the democratic senator for arizona — the former astronaut, mark kelly, beat his republican rival for his seat in the us congress. blake masters' defeat, means the two parties now have 49 seats each, in the senate. there are two races still to call — georgia and nevada. our north america correspondent, david willis, has the latest. it david willis, has the latest. is a real cliffhanger. h are it is a real cliffhanger. here we are four days after election day and

it is still undecided, the senate race, as you say, 49 to 49 with the democrats now needing that vital seat of nevada if they are to retain their majority in the upper house. they are set to be about 20,000 or so votes still outstanding, still waiting to be counted in nevada. at one point, the republican challenging their was ahead by a couple of hundred but they are still votes to be counted in the most populous part of nevada which is clark county, the area that includes the city of las vegas itself, and so there is every chance that the democratic contender there could make up that laid and tilted for the democrats. we might not know, however, until monday or tuesday because today is the last day for postal ballots to arrive and to be counted in that state of nevada.

the ethiopian government and tigrayan forces have signed an agreement which lays out the road map for the implementation of a truce. both sides reached a peace deal in south africa earlier this month. disarmament is set to begin on tuesday, whilst the provision of much needed humanitairan aid will be put into effect �*immediately�*. 0ur correspondent anne soy has the latest the deal that has just been signed here today breaks down how the deal that was signed previously in pretoria will be implemented. key among them is the disarmament of the rebels in tigray, and the parties have agreed that they will form a joint body to oversee that. it is likely to be a very delicate issue because the question is, who will move first? however importantly, the parties have agreed here today that aid will start moving to the north tigray and neighbouring regions immediately. people are in desperate need of food and medicine and that is a major step that has been taken today.

however, people on the ground will be waiting to see when it actually happens. spending cuts of about £35 billion and plans to raise some 20 billion in tax in the coming years are expected to be set out in thursday's autumn statement. 0ur political correspondent ben wright has been giving us more details about what we could expect. i think it will be the defining political and economic moment of rishi sunak�*s government. the consequences and the legacy of this will last for years, in terms of taxes and public spending. and we know that the size of the fiscal hole that it is called, the gap between what the government spends and what it is getting in on taxes, the government reckons it is about £55 billion a year, so they are the raw sums that the chancellor is dealing with. and he has already warned of eye—wateringly difficult choices as he approaches the statement.

now, we won't know, of course, the exact details about the plan until the chancellor stands up on thursday but sources close to the spreadsheets are giving us some sense of what is likely to be in this plan. 0n taxes, i mean, the government does not want to put up taxes directly but there is a way of raising a lot more revenue from all of this by freezing tax thresholds where they currently are, so the more people earn as their wages go up, if the tax thresholds are frozen, then they end up paying more, and that can provide billions of pounds to the treasury, and we think that tax thresholds will be frozen across the board. sources are also indicating that the highest—paid could start paying the top rate, 45p, when they earn £125,000 a year. the current rate at the moment, that kicks in at 150,000, but that threshold could come down to 125,000. so, a lot of money, i think, that the government is hoping to raise on the tax front. when it comes to public spending,

we expect a phrase to continue, in terms of departmental budgets, until at least 2025. now, everybody will know that public services are under a massive strain at the moment. inflation is eating away at their spending power so a freeze to public spending will have quite an impact. the bbc has calculated that the number of people who've crossed the channel in small boats this year, has now surpassed 40,000 and that's the biggest number since records began in 2018. just over 28,000 people made the same journey last year. our home affairs correspondent daniel sandford has the latest. when the small boats crossings started in 2018. the number in the first year was less than 300. but if you look at this graphic, you can see that each year it's gone up and up again and up again. and as you say, last year it reached 28,500. well, by last night, we werejust less than 100 short of 40,000.

and talking to witnesses and to rescuers today, it's clear that more than 100 have crossed since midnight last night. so that red line has gone over 40,000. and of course, we're only in mid—november and last year, around 8000 crossed in the last two months of the year. so it's likely that the figure by the end of the year is going to be closer to 50,000 than 40,000 if the weather stays good. it's very, very awkward for ministers, not least of all, because it makes them look as if they're not in control of the southern coast of the united kingdom, but also because of the risk of people dying. it was only in november last year that 27 people died in a single night when boats got into trouble on the channel. and yes, there's more talks going on with the french to try and increase patrols on the beaches, maybe put some british officers into the french control rooms. but that's not going to make a massive amount of difference to the people crossing

in the short term. and yes, while the weather's been bad for the last couple of weeks, ministers have managed to reduce the number of people being held in the manston processing centre. but as the weather's gone good again, those numbers are going to start to rise again. and they've only managed to get those numbers down by putting people out into hotels. and of course, people are very concerned about the millions of pounds being spent every day on keeping migrants in hotels. the government insists that the deputy prime minister dominic raab "values civil servants" after claims he was rude to staff. reports suggest staff have been anxious about his return to thejustice department and had been offered the chance to transfer out because of his behaviour. the news once again puts the spotlight on prime minister rishi sunak�*sjudgement after he appointed raab over two weeks ago. 0ur political correspondent jonathan blake has the latest. rather than specific accusations about dominic raab�*s behaviour

there is talk of him creating a culture of fear as far as sources who have spoken to the guardian put it. they talk in terms ranging from demeaning, to rude, to aggressive, to describe his behaviour. the paper reports that when he was reappointed as deputy prime minister and justice secretary by rishi sunak as prime minister, civil servants at the department ofjustice were given the option to be transferred elsewhere, given concerns they might have had about working under him previously. none of that is denied by a spokesperson for dominic raab, who has issued a statement saying he has high standards, he works hard and expects a lot from his team as well as of himself. but they deny and reject any accusations of bullying. a statement from the department forjustice said there was zero tolerance of bullying across the civil service and it is a place where civil servants are valued and the level of ambition is high. a petition launched against the proposed relaxation of rules on the ratio of staff

to children in childcare settings will now be considered for debate in parliament. the government said it was considering changing the rules in england to reduce costs for parents and give nurseries more flexibility. ellie price reports. cheeky, funny, little terror at times, but not too much. he wasjust a perfect baby in the sense that he only cried when he really wanted something. 0liver stepper was nine months old when his mum, zoe, got a call from the nursery to come straight away. i remember thinking at the time, well, they wouldn't have sounded so vague if something bad had happened. so i kind of got myself down there. that's when i knew that it was bad because there were two ambulances there. so i thought, hmm, this isn't good. 0liver had choked. he never regained consciousness and died a few days later in hospital. what happened that day at 0liver�*s nursery is yet to be established.

a police investigation is ongoing. but his death has turned his parents into campaigners. their petition is against proposals to increase the number of two year olds and over a member of staff can look after in a childcare setting. while there are no plans to change the ratios for the under twos, as 0liver was, they feel once one age group is changed, all could be. we've gone through such a traumatic experience. we can only sit there and think that if they do change the ratio, it makes it more unsafe than it is already. and another set of parents potentially have to go through this nightmare, what we've gone through. and we just couldn't sit there and feel comfortable with that. and that's why we had to start the petition. it received 100,000 signatures, the point at which parliament will consider a debate on the first anniversary of 0li's death in september. # the wheels on the bus go round and round...# at the moment,

for every four two—year—olds in a childcare setting in england there needs to be one member of staff. the government is looking to increase that, as it is in scotland, to one adult in every five children. we need key persons for children. that's the very fundamental part of ourjob, is to make sure - that their social and emotional needs are being met. - once a child is happy- and the environment is right, then they will learn. i if you haven't got the staff there. to even begin those conversations, that communication and interaction, . then that opportunity is missed. . according to the early years alliance, a recent survey suggested around 90% of childcare settings were against the changes. only 2% said it would lower fees for parents. the government says no decisions have been made, and it's looking at ways to improve the availability and affordability of childcare, and the welfare and safety of children remains a priority. ellie price, bbc news, new romney.

twitter has halted its new $8 blue tick subscription in a u—turn by the social media platform's new billionaire owner elon musk. it comes as a number of accounts impersonating big brands received the blue tick which was previously a signal that the firm had verified the user as being real. the firm's shares fell 4% on friday amid the confusion. paul armstrong is an emerging technology strategist at advisory firm here/forth. he told me whether this is the end of twitter. no. i think elon musk has made it very clear that subscription is the way forward for twitter. he can make an awful lot of money through it. they are making billion pounds through advertising and elon musk

wants to stabilise that and make more money through subscription. 0bviously that would have been something at the previous owners had thought about, there must be something in verifying rather than buying your way in? absolutely. verification is essential to knowing who you are reacting with. elon musk is very early in his ownership of twitter which is causing a lot of people to be quite skittish as he is making very quick moves, notjust in the verification space. he has also just fired a lot of staff that had a lot of knowledge in intricate details when it comes to the verification. tojust make hard, quick, broad brush strokes is not working. the issue when it comes verification is that, for him, he has viewed it as a sort of lord and peasant mentality and that, in my view, isn't correct. it is more of a status to show that the person you are interacting with is an official representative of that brand or maybe themselves. at the moment that is something elon musk are struggling with. do you think elon musk understand social media?

i think he has got a very good personal understanding of social media, he uses it very well and whips up stock prices on things like that. i think you could argue, what he is doing is getting interest back into twitter which is something they haven't seen in a few years. it is getting a lot more daily users than it has done recently. that's something. he is also tweeting a lot more personally. i think it is 25 times more per day than previously when he was not the ceo. that is something that is interesting from a couple of levels, number one, obviously the future, if that sustainable? you could argue more users equals more opportunity to make money for him. but equally, can he keep it up, keeping everyone�*s interest going. people are saying what other options does he have to generate revenue? in terms of people who are thinking of going elsewhere, what other options are there out there? there are lots of social media options out there from facebook to snapchat, they offer different things at different levels. on a similar, 1—1 level

there is a site called mastodon which is essentially a decentralised version. they have said they have got over 1 million people over. to put that to perspective, twitter has 238 million users. it is a very different offering. a lot of people have said they are never going to pay elon musk eight dollars per per month to use twitter. i think that is a bit bolshie of some people. i think we have to ride this one now and see where people land. at the moment we have a lot of options including mastodon. a petition launched against the proposed relaxation of rules on the ratio of staff to children in childcare settings will now be considered for debate in parliament. the government said it was considering changing the rules in england to reduce costs for parents and give nurseries more flexibility. ellie price reports.

that was a report we rank by a price i shall time ago, we will have more details on that. any price has the report. cheeky, funny, little terror at times, but not too much. he wasjust a perfect baby in the sense that he only cried when he really wanted something. 0liver was nine months old when his mum, zoe, got a call from the nursery to come straight away. i remember thinking at the time, well, they wouldn't have sounded so vague if something bad had happened. so i kind of got myself down there. that's when i knew that it was bad because there were two ambulances there. so i thought, hmm, this isn't good. 0liver had choked. he never regained consciousness and died a few days later in hospital. what happened that day at 0liver�*s nursery is yet to be established. a police investigation is ongoing. but his death has turned his parents into campaigners. their petition is against proposals to increase the number of two year olds and over a member of staff can

look after in a childcare setting. while there are no plans to change the ratios for the under twos, as 0liver was, they feel once one age group is changed, all could be. we've gone through such a traumatic experience. we can only sit there and think that if they do change the ratio, it makes it more unsafe than it is already. and another set of parents potentially have to go through this nightmare, what we've gone through. and we just couldn't sit there and feel comfortable with that. and that's why we had to start the petition. it received 100,000 signatures, the point at which parliament will consider a debate on the first anniversary of 0li's death in september. # the wheels on the bus go round and round...# at the moment, for every four two—year—olds in a childcare setting in england there needs to be one member of staff. the government is looking to increase that, as it is in scotland,

to one adult in every five children. we need key persons for children. that's the very fundamental part of ourjob, is to make sure - that their social and emotional needs are being met. - once a child is happy- and the environment is right, then they will learn. i if you haven't got the staff there. to even begin those conversations, that communication and interaction, . then that opportunity is missed. . according to the early years alliance, a recent survey suggested around 90% of childcare settings were against the changes. only 2% said it would lower fees for parents. the government says no decisions have been made, and it's looking at ways to improve the availability and affordability of childcare, and the welfare and safety of children remains a priority. ellie price, bbc news, new romney. remembrance sunday services will take place across the uk tomorrow to recognise the service and sacrifice of those who defended our freedoms.

ahead of the 80th anniversary of the end of world war two, the bbc is trying to gather as many first—hand accounts from surviving veterans as possible, to preserve them for future generations. john bennet wasjust 17 when he signed up for the navy, even though his mother tried to stop him by hiding his birth certificate. this is his story. i am so lucky i'm still alive, like, that's the way i think about it. the heroes is the ones who gave their life. if you've got life, you've got everything. my mum said i couldn't go. she wouldn't give me my birth certificate, thinking she had the last laugh on me but the funny thing was they never asked for the birth certificate when i went, so i was in the navy. explosions. we realised what war was about.

explosions continue. i'm not saying you were frightened. it had you on your toes and hoped you wouldn't get no worse, put it that way. your life depends on each other. when we're in normandy, there was a couple of marines in a boat, fishing bodies out of the water. it didn't hit me at the time they were dead men who'd been washed back out, you know? terriblejob, fishing bodies out of burning water. i did write a letter to my mum when we were at anzio, saying there was a good chance i wouldn't see her any more. i never did ask her did she get it. chuckles. my darling joyce.

a thousand times better after heard from you. your loving sweetheart. my own darling future wife. all my love, all my life. i happened to have a letter ready. that was joyce. she was the type of girl, yeah. i get emotional at poppy time. but you must always remember somebody gave their life so you could do be what you are today. and me. i'm lucky. because i got 70—odd years of freedom. i've enjoyed my freedom.

i hope they remember all the lads my age at the time who are laying in these cemeteries all over the bloody world. i sit back now and thank god for our crew, yeah. couldn't go to war again, i don't think. chuckles. i'd know all of the dodgers! chuckles. the anonymous street artist, banksy, has confirmed that he's been at work in parts of ukraine that have been ravaged by the war. he's posted images on his instagram account of a mural on a building damaged by shelling in the town of borodyanka, west of kyiv. it features a gymnast doing a handstand.

various murals in banksy�*s signature spray—painted style have been spotted around the capital in recent days. now on bbc news the weather with susan powell. hello. it is unusually warm across the united kingdom at the moment. yesterday was the warmest armistice day on record and in fact tomorrow for remembrance sunday, we may see very similar temperatures once again. it is notjust warm by day but also by night. our overnight temperatures are looking fairly similar to the figures be more typically see during the day at this time of year. this is what we would normally expect in november, highs of ten and 11 degrees, and this is the forecast for sunday. many areas, we are looking at at least six or 7 degrees above average. heading through this evening and overnight,

we will continue to sit in relatively warm air, thanks to the southerly winds carrying that air away from the atlantic. cloud will fill in and once again mist and fell closing in on the north sea coast. a lot of fine weather overnight and here are the overnight lows. they look a lot like the daytime highs we should be seeing at this time of year. throughout remembrance sunday, i think it will stay fine across the uk but it could be cloudy to start across central and eastern areas. some club will burn off through the morning but the north sea coast might remain overcast. it is getting windier towards the west, by the end of the day we will see some rain, just after dark getting into northern ireland and the far south—west. there are the temperatures, may be up to 19 somewhere in the south—east of england. the start of the new week, we do start to pick up a more westerly feed of weather as this

area of high pressure across the continent gives way, we start to bring in a more mixed ms from the atlantic so it will be a mixture of some arctic air and atlantic air, that will mean the result for the week ahead means our temperatures will ease back down eventually, closer to average values. tuesday, wednesday, early hours of thursday, some strong winds, particularly across western and southern most reaches of the uk. as the areas of low pressure go through, they will be spells of heavy rain as well. but the end of the week, it looks quieter and quite a difference in our temperatures, 10 degrees or so for some.

people take to the streets in celebration as the ukrainian city of kherson is retaken after months of occupation. about 35 billion pounds of spending cuts — and plans to raise some 20 billion pounds in tax, are expected to be announced byjeremy hunt on thursday the democrats are a step closer to retaining control of the us senate, as mark kelly is re—elected in arizona. the ethiopian military and tigrayan rebels sign an agreement to immediately implement a peace deal that ends almost two years of fighting. more than forty thousand people crossed the channel

in small boats this year — the highest since