broadcast on tuesday. we have a special preview coming up. today it's the uk's boxing day sales. so will it be mile—long queues and chaos at the tills? we take a look. hello, i'm catherine byaruhanga. us armed forces have carried out air strikes in iraq against what it called �*iranian—sponsored militias�*. the pentagon says it's in response to an attack on the erbil airbase that injured three us military personnel — one of them critically. pictures of the attack have been posted on social media — the bbc has not yet verified these videos.

in a statement, us defence secretary lloyd austin said that military forces conducted "necessary and proportionate" strikes on kataib hezbollah and affiliated groups in iraq." he added, "we are committed and fully prepared to take further necessary measures to protect our people and ourfacilities." our correspondent shaimaa khalil is injerusalem — she's been giving us the latest from there. we know that this is the latest in what has been an escalation in strikes and targeting of us facilities, both in iraq and in syria. this time, it was the erbil airbase which resulted in three injuries of us military personnel, one of them seriously. the statement that you mentioned from lloyd austin, the defence secretary, saying that the us will respond and protect its facilities. it is very interesting,

i think, the language that the defence secretary is using, the fact that he is making it very clear that the us will have to respond to any strikes against it from what they describe as iranian—affiliated militias, specifically mentioning hezbollah and kataib hezbollah and other militias on the ground and i also think that this shows the difficult position that the us finds itself in because on one hand, they have to respond. on another hand, they need to contain the fallout from the war on gaza. so, at a time where the united states, israel's closest ally, have repeatedly asked the netanyahu government to scale down to make sure that as the military operation continues in gaza are that the safety of civilians is ensured and we have heard benjamin netanyahu say that he is going deeper, it is going to last for a long time, you are getting a fall out from areas that are already very

volatile in the rest of the region. so, it is also about trying to contain, trying to make sure that the fallout, that the resulting anger and intensity of fighting that is happening in gaza doesn't spill over into other areas, which it already is. so, control and containment is where the us finds itself as the war in gaza continues. earlier, i spoke to shahin modarres, director of the iran desk at itss verona and independent think tank. he told us about the possibility of the war between israel and hamas escalating into a wider regional conflict. it is possible that the war breaks out somehow from the region.

it is most important to understand the idiosyncrasy that the islamic republic had put into play. what we are facing today are a series of proxy and satellite groups that we have. the fact is, after the 1979 revolution, and the lack of r&d and sanctions regimes, the islamic republic international community is somehow came to an alternative way of using and creating those proxy groups and ballistic missiles as a part of a programme that can raise the tensions in the region so they can use the same tensions later is leveraged against the international community in order to make them pay or in order to make them somehow agree and come to agreements with the islamic republic. it is quite probable now that if the united states tries to raise the level of deterrents against the proxy groups of the islamic republic, it is quite possible that the war between israel and hamas might break out and be wider in the region. i think that is the first reason why the us has been so cautious

regarding increasing the level of deterrents against islamic republic and its proxy groups. however, the cff coalition can be quite useful in the red sea region as we already that the eisenhower and navies being sent to the region somehow created some sort of deterrence. i think it is important to mention that the us and iranian officials have both said that they don't want to see any kind of escalation, they don't want to see the situation get out of hand. it is what they claim but the truth is, the islamic republic is being a satellite state itself are russia because if you look at both wars that happened and both levels of increased tensions that happens, within the past few months, you can see that the main country benefiting from this is russia because first of all, the price of oil is rising, that is what russia needs in order to provide for the war against ukraine. the second thing is the media man, the mass media, is somehow covering and changing focus to cover the news

from israel and hamas from the red sea. we can again see that the tension and focus on russia has been losing colour and finally, the united states has been made somehow to divide forces between the red sea, mediterranean sea and the focus it already had on aiding ukraine both militarily and humanitarian aids somehow decreasing and we can also see that congress members are more prone somehow to help israel and taiwan than to help ukraine. so, the real winner of the existing conflicts that somehow were triggered by the islamic republic of iran both between israel and gaza and both arming the houthis in yemen and the red sea has been russia and somehow the islamic republic has been playing as a satellite state in favour of russia. the un's humanitarian agency says a hospital in gaza has been overwhelmed by victims of an israeli

air strike on sunday night. survivors of the attack were taken to the al—aqsa hospital. hamas health officials say 70 people were killed. yesterday, israel's prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, vowed to intensify the fight against hamas. this report from meghan owen. there's a constant stream of casualties entering the al—aqsa hospital in gaza. with no fuel, no water and minimal supplies, it's overloaded. ijust left the resuscitation room where a nine—year—old boy named ahmed was being treated basically with sedation to ease his suffering as he dies.

he was crossing the street in front of the shelter where his family is staying, when the building beside him blew up. we're seeing kids like ahmed dying unnecessarily because of bombing and fighting and because the health system doesn't have the capacity to even come close to managing these kinds of complex cases. aid agencies in gaza have reiterated their fears for civilian safety, after hundreds were killed in major strikes over the weekend. following reports of one attack on al—maghazi refugee camp, the israeli military told the bbc that it's committed to taking feasible steps to minimise harm to civilians. but the war is not close to being over. benjamin netanyahu has vowed to intensify the fight against hamas. after visiting troops on the ground in gaza, he faced the families of hostages heckling their prime minister at the israeli parliament, with demands for the immediate release of their loved ones. his answer? translation: we won't succeed at releasing all the hostages -

without military pressure, operational pressure, political pressure. and that is why there's one thing that we will not do — we will not stop fighting. but at a time when so many around the world are celebrating as the year draws to a close, there's no sign of such respite for the people of gaza — or those trying desperately to save them. meghan owen, bbc news. earlier, i asked william bell, the head of middle east policy at christian aid. i asked him what his teams on the ground in gaza are experiencing. they are completely terrified and i am afraid those words from benjamin netanyahu yesterday have only intensified that fear. this is a population that is by and large almost completely displaced and many of them have been displaced many times over. the people, when we manage to speak to them and the organisations that we are supporting, with blankets, medical relief, emergency food and water and sanitation, they are at their wits end and they themselves are terrified,

obviously, but you are dealing now with the population suffering from severe malnutrition and increasingly a number of diseases such as hepatitis, colour and skin diseases. so, we are hearing despair, you are hearing in people's voices real fear and genuine concern as to whether they, their families will make it through to the next day and they are obviously also terrified at what their future will bring because so much of gaza has been destroyed. over 50,000 homes have been destroyed, so much civilian architecture has been destroyed, schools, roads etc. this is a society that is now not even on its knees, it is a lying prostrate on the floor, absolutely in agony. that is why us and so many other in the humanitarian sector believe that a ceasefire is absolutely imperative to be able to support that population. mr bell, we saw the passing of a un security council resolution recently which called for more aid to be

brought into gaza, have you seen any result from that? well, nothing like a sufficient amount. obviously, that is in some ways welcome, but it falls so far short of what is required and even if more aid does get in, which as i said, people will be relieved about, the scale of need means you will have seen the pictures of people who have raided trucks when they have come in because they are literally desperate. they are starving. they are trying to find blankets, food, medicine, water for their families and if the aid does get in, then it is the problem of distribution. so many people are stuck in shelters or on the move but they are unable to access or even know where the aid is actually being distributed from. so, it is one thing to get a bit more in, it is not nearly enough, but it is quite another to actually be able to coordinate and distribute that aid which clearly at the moment

is not happening in any wear like an adequate way. that was william bell at christian aid. india says it's sending three war ships to the arabian sea after an israel—affiliated merchant vessel heading to an indian port was hit by a drone off its western coast last week. a navy statement said three guided missile destroyer ships had been deployed to maintain what it called a credible deterrence. our south asia correspondent anbarasan ethirajan has more from delhi. the fact that within days of this attack on a tanker, chem pluto, in the arabian sea about 400 kilometres off the coast of the indian state of gujarat shows how seriously india is taking this particular attack. this oil tanker was supposed to go from saudi arabia to southern india when it came under attack in the arabian sea.

we still do not know who carried out this attack. now, what it shows is that whatever is happening in the red sea, where the houthi rebels were targeting many of the vehicles, we touched on the subject early in the programme, now the impact can be seen far away, more than 2,000 kilometres away from the red sea. the us blamed iran for this attack but the iranian foreign ministry dismissed that accusation as baseless. what is important for india is to maintain the security of its shipping lanes because it depends on oil supplies from the middle east — some of the topmost oil exporters are saudi arabia and iraq, to india — so that is why india is sending three guided missile destroyers to send out a message in case this particular drone was launched from any boat or any other medium range chip, that would send a clear warning that we are here

to protect our waters and protect our shipping lanes because this will have a huge impact on the economy. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's take a look at some of the other stories today. homelessness among military veterans has risen by 14% over the past year despite government funding to support those having difficulty with housing and wraparound social care. according to the department of housing, 2,110 veteran households were assessed as homeless — up from 1,850 in 2022. a 16—year—old has been arrested in connection with the murder of a 22—year—old woman in south london on christmas eve. police were called to a residential propertyjust after 10pm on sunday and provided emergency first aid to the woman, who died at the scene. the suspect, who police believe was known to the victim, was arrested a short distance from the scene.

ministry ofjustice figures show that shoplifters would benefit the most from the government's moritorium on 12—month prison sentences. you're live with bbc news. a ukrainian missile has damaged a russian warship in the black sea. the novocherkassk was hit in an attack on the port of feodosiya in russian— occupied crimea. ukraine says it destroyed the vessel. local officials say at least one person was killed. james waterhouse reports. ukraine has done this before. it took out a major russian warship called the moskva last year, a missile strike. and overnight, it seems that a russian landing vessel has been targeted, too, through an air strike. we have had ukraine make that claim and it has subsequently been

confirmed by the kremlin. the landing ship was in the port town of feodosiya, but we don't know what the military significance of that might be yet. i think russia's naval dominance, certainly round the crimean peninsula, an area it has occupied since 2014, as well as the neighbouring black sea. russia's dominance has been slightly weakened over the past few months, when we have seen successful ukrainian missile strikes, but whether this alters the overall course of the battle in the near term, i think that is less likely because in this part of the world, on the north—eastern and eastern front lines, it is russia mounting attack after attack. we have seen russian forces claiming to have taken the city of marinka in the east, which like so many places has been reduced to rubble. ukraine dispute that but i think what that shows is the direction of the tide here, where it is russia, for now, mounting attack after attack and it is not ukraine realising its ambition of liberating

all of its territory. james waterhouse reporting. russian opposition leader alexi navalny has been transferred to a penal colony north of the arctic circle. navalny posted an update on x, former known as twitter, after disappearing for more than two weeks. he said he had seen his lawyer and was in good spirits. navalny considered one of vladimir putin's leading critics has been imprisoned since 2021 after surviving an attempt to assassinate him by poisoning. australia's eastern states have been battered by storms. flash flooding, giant hailstones and heavy rainfall brought chaos to parts of queensland and new south wales. winds have reached 100 kilometres an hour. live now to sydney where we can speak to our reporter, phil mercer.

phil, just tell us what is the situation in queensland? it phil, just tell us what is the situation in queensland? it has been earnina situation in queensland? it has been earning credibly _ situation in queensland? it has been earning credibly tempestuous - situation in queensland? it has been earning credibly tempestuous start l earning credibly tempestuous start to the australian summer. from the start of december, we have had very significant flooding in the last week or so. in the northern part of queensland, around the city of cairns, record—breaking rainfall there has caused absolute chaos for residents there. in the last 2a, 36 hours in south—eastern parts of queensland, we have had torrential rain, flash flooding and very significant damage. trees uprooted, power lines brought down and roofs ripped off homes. all of this across the christmas holiday period. also, here in new south wales, this is australia's most populous state, inland areas had such a severe hail storm but they were treated to an

unexpected white christmas so you have to remember that australia is a very big place. it is the world's sixth largest country and the weather and the climate varies from region to region. although this is a country well used to nature's extremes, what nature has been throwing at us in the early weeks of summer certainly has taken many australians by surprise.— summer certainly has taken many australians by surprise. thank you. phil mercer — australians by surprise. thank you. phil mercer in _ australians by surprise. thank you. phil mercer in sydney. _ australians by surprise. thank you. phil mercer in sydney. thank - australians by surprise. thank you. phil mercer in sydney. thank you i australians by surprise. thank you. | phil mercer in sydney. thank you for that update. cameras have followed king charles for more than a year for a bbc documentary that will be broadcast on tuesday evening. it'll feature new video of the king with his grandchildren rehearsing before the coronation, and informal moments with the queen. our royal correspondent, daniela relph, has more. the coronation rehearsals inside westminster abbey. an important practice for all the family. wow. look at that!

and a greeting from a grandfather and father, as well as a king about to be crowned. what struck me particularly is how extraordinarily affectionate they are. they're clearly a very close family. you know, of all the generations. and, in a sense, you felt you're part of a family occasion as well as, you know, a royal occasion and a national occasion. for the first time, the programme will show the intricate preparations and alterations that were made to the crowns used during the coronation. and, on the big day, after the service, cameras filmed the welcome back at buckingham palace. three cheers for his majesty, the king and her majesty, the queen. hip, hip. hooray! the programme is not a critical eye over the royal family's year. there is no mention of the duke and duchess of sussex, harry and meghan, nor prince andrew. it is instead a view of some of those moments we don't

normally get to see. ijust love the way the sun comes through the cotinus. it's marvellous, isn't it? the king and queen are here at balmoral and some time away from public duty. where's your ball, beth? there we are. they chuckle. don't leave it. oh, busy eating grass, what are you doing? she loves eating grass. for those who know them best, amidst the noise of coronation year, a reminder of something very personal. she is his rock, and i can't actually emphasise that enough. she's somebody who is completely loyal and she isn't somebody who has huge highs and lows. he brings to her everything. i'm not talking about all of this, but, you know, he has such a knowledge and interest in so many different things, which she wouldn't really have been open

to if she hadn't met him. it's lovely to bounce on that bridge. every child that comes here, they rush there and bounce about on the bridge for hours. all access to the royal family is carefully managed. but here the curtain is slightly lifted on some of the more private moments of a very public year. i knew that would be... yes. daniel relph, bbc news. daniella relph, bbc news. and viewers in the uk can watch �*charles iii: the coronation year�* tonight at 6.50 on bbc one and the iplayer. mile—long queues, stampedes at opening time and chaos at the tills — that�*s certainly how the uk�*s boxing day sales used to be. but with so many pre—christmas discounts and online deals, are people still heading out to the high street in search of a bargain? our business reporter jonathanjosephs joins us now from oxford street in central

london this morning. what is trade like this morning? oxford street is normally one of the busiest shopping streets in the whole of europe, packed with shoppers from around the world. it is something of a useful gauge of consumer confidence, how willing people are to splash the cash. but, compared to years gone by, you can see there is not a huge amount of people. i have certainly been hit the day after christmas before and it has been a lot busier. we don�*t have any figures for today, but we do know that on the day before christmas, the analysts mri said there was a significant full in the number of people in the shops compared to a year ago. there are a few reasons behind this. some of the big name uk staples such asjohn lewis, marks & spencer and next haven�*t actually opened their physical stores. they are giving their staff the day off and that is partly linked to another reason that shoppers are more likely to buy online. even though it isn�*t really

that cold here at this time of december. thirdly, perhaps most importantly, is the wider state of the economy. the cost of living crisis is still ongoing here in the uk, as it is in many other economies around the world. people aren�*t feeling that shopping for stuff like clothes and make—up and jewelry is something they necessarily can afford right now, that they need to save their cash for a rainy day. thank you very much. jonathanjoseph there on oxford street, the world—famous oxford street there. we will have more reports on how the boxing day sales are going here in the uk. we will show you these live pictures now from southern israel looking out into northern gaza and we have seen billowing smoke there over the horizon on several occasions throughout the morning there. this

is now the familiar scene for viewers around the world of these pictures of what looks like an explosion in northern gaza. these are pictures from gaza as well where tensions have been continuing in the occupied west bank and we will bring you more developments here on bbc news. you are watching bbc news. hello. today one of the better days this christmas period to get out and enjoy some fresh air. most parts of the country dry with some spells of hazy sunshine before tomorrow, potential for more travel problems as wet and windy weather pushes its way in and plenty of snow on the scottish hills. that�*s the weather system brewing for tomorrow, that�*s the one clearing from christmas day. we are in the window between them. most dry, even fewer showers across northern scotland

areas of high cloud drifting northwards, though, sunshine and a bit more muted for some of you during the second half of the day. temperatures down on yesterday but overall, above average for the time of year. rain in cornwall, channel islands, pushing its way northwards overnight. heavy rain at times later and is that hits colder air in scotland, where we�*ve temperatures drop down to “4 —5 before it moves in, snow will fall. maybe on the hills on the tops of the pennines and the southern uplands too. into tomorrow, some chilly air in the north of scotland but this is the weather system that will bring extensive rain and strong winds. the snow, though, even on modest scottish hills in central and northern areas will cause some travel issues. could see some blizzards as well with over 15 centimetres of snow mounting up and some strengthening winds, too. rain will be the issue elsewhere, lots of puddles, surface water, in east anglia and the south—east, some will stay drier until into the afternoon and it will brighten up after some heavy

bursts of rain out in the west later. the other issue tomorrow, of course, the strength of the wind. strongest in the far north of scotland, 60 or 70 mph gusts and around through some english channels. some temperatures on the milder side of things for late december but don�*t forget, that will be tempered a bit by the strength of the wind and it will remain windy through wednesday night. windier spell through the irish sea coast compared with the day. winds gradually easing down through northern scotland but for most, the blustery conditions continue into thursday. winds down a little bit compared to what we saw on wednesday and bit more sunshine at times but a scattering of showers. some of them heavy and thundery and some longer spells of rain and even a bit of snow on the tops of mountains later. to see out the new year, further rain at times. your best dry and brighter weather for the end of the weekend will be on saturday. take care.

now on bbc news, we take a look back at the year�*s sports news stories. 2023 was a remarkable year for sport. up here, an historic treble.

down under, a women�*s world cup. england and australia couldn�*t be separated in the ashes, whilst cricket, rugby union and netball all had world cups of their own. golf came togetherfor the solheim and ryder cups. but the start of this sporting year was, for some, less a beginning and more a resumption. football had onlyjust returned after its unprecedented winter world cup break. also resuming, returning, the australian open once more welcomed novak djokovic, a year on from his deportation over his covid vaccination status. still no vax for novak, but here he was, back and unbeatable. his was a 22nd grand slam title. for irina sabalenka, a first. saudi arabia�*s bid to become a major player in global sport was laid bare. cristiano ronaldo becoming a figurehead for the fledgling football league. before the end of the year,

they had all but been awarded a world cup.