will deliver his spring budget on the sixth of march. and there is severe travel disruption across the uk — storm gerrit is causing strong winds, rain and snow to some parts of scotland. hello i'm christian fraser. starting on the list on the israel gaza war and the we start with the latest on the israel—gaza war... and israel's military says it is expanding its ground offensive in the centre of gaza. the israel defense forces have released this video which they say shows elite ground troops in action in the gaza strip. israeli military officials say they have carried out strikes from the air, ground and sea against at least 200 hamas targets in the past 2a hours. the hamas—run health ministry says more than 21,000 people have been killed in gaza since the seventh of october. israeli military operations

are now focussed on the centre of the gaza strip — where the local hospital is overwhelmed with casualities. the world health organization has described the scenes there as a "bloodbath." in the occupied west bank, tensions have been rising, with more than 300 palestinians killed by israeli forces and settlers. the palestinian health ministry there says six people were killed in an israeli drone strike. our first report this hour is from out middle east correspondent yolande knell. 0n the move again. palestinian families now desperately fleeing much of central gaza, as israel's ground offensive expands into a new part of the besieged territory. "me and my kids, everyone is evacuating," says this woman. "already my niece was killed." casualties fill even the floor of the nearby hospital. the world health organization describing the scenes here as a "bloodbath".

and this as israel's army is warning that the war will continue for many more months, as it insists it will find hamas leaders who masterminded the deadly 7th of october attacks. a government spokesman says israel's aims are clear. we can't destroy hamas�*s ideology, unfortunately, that is not realistic. but we can remove them from power. we can prevent them from having control over this territorial enclave. and that will do a lot to save lives and prevent future conflict in the region. with the number of palestinians killed now in excess of 20,000, according to local health officials, this is one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history. in rafah yesterday, it was a bulldozer that unceremoniously buried the dead. and there is the constant danger of this war spreading. we've seen more attacks by iran—backed groups across the middle east in recent days. and there has been more violence, too, in the occupied west bank.

today, this was an israeli strike which killed at least six palestinians in the west bank. israel's military says they were armed terrorists. locals deny it. it comes after the palestinian president, a political rival of hamas, warned the area could implode. translation: what is happening in the palestinian territories - is far beyond a disaster and far more than a genocide. the palestinians have never seen anything like this. even during the nakba catastrophe in 1948. what is happening today is far worse. meanwhile, this was a missile being fired at northern israel by hezbollah in lebanon. and israel's military says it shot down this drone, sent by houthi rebels in yemen over the red sea. the fighting now extends across multiple fronts. yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem.

president erdogan said israel, mr netanyahu responded by accusing the turkish leader of genocide translation: all the values - of humanity have been destroyed before our own eyes over the last 80 days. we saw israel's nazi camps in the stadiums, right? they are in every sense the way we were talking about hitler. how does benjamin netanyahu and hitler differ? is there anything that netanyahu does that is less than hitler? no. mr netanyahu responded by accusing the turkish leader of genocide against the kurdish people. he said mr erdogan was in no position to preach morality. mr netanyahu hit back, saying mr erdogan was in no position to preach morality, accusing him of trying to commit genocide against kurdosh people

and imprisoning journalists. earlier i spoke with palestinian politician mustafa barghouti — the leader of the palestinian national initiative. he believes israel's actions in gaza have amounted to war crimes. what we face here is an act of war crimes, not only genocide but also collective punishment and an act of ethnic cleansing. where 90% of the palestinian people were forced to leave their homes and where 75% of their homes were destroyed. what we see is an act of annihilation and i think the israeli cabinet are war criminals and what they are doing should not be allowed by the international community. they have been trying to dehumanise all palestinians and enforce all ethnic cleansing of palestinians to egypt. they failed in that, now they want to kill all palestinians. he says it's as bad if not worse than the mass displacement and dispossession of palestinians in the i948 arab—israeli war. that is quite a bar that he is talking about there. the nakba is the great

catastrophe for palestinians. are you saying it is worse than that? in terms of intensity and the number of people killed in the short period of time, for sure. we have to remember that 70% of the population of gaza have already been ethnically cleansed during th nakba in 1948 by israel, when israel razed to the ground 520 palestinian communities and when they committed 50 massacres. but none of the massacres committed in 1948 are equal to some of the massacres that are committed now in gaza. all of you talk about jablia, beit lahia, rafah, khan younis, every spot in gaza is now in danger, there is no safe space. israel has forced the population down to the south and now they are bombarding them in the south. there is no safe place for anybody and most of the people killed are women and children.

we are talking about at least 8,500 palestinian children killed. and you count people under the rubble, you would be talking about almost 12,000 children killed in less than 70 days. this cannot be accepted. and the world's second biggest shipping firm, maersk, says it's making plans to resume journeys through the red sea despite continuing attacks by iranian—backed houthi rebels based in yemen. the firm said it had scheduled several dozen container vessels for the coming weeks, but its plans were subject to change based on specific risk assessments. the world's biggest shipping company, msc, said one of its ships was hit by a missile while sailing from saudi arabia to pakistan on tuesday. it was the latest attack by the houthis, who have declared their support for hamas. an international military coalition, led by the united states, has been deployed to the red sea in response.

our business reporter, jonathanjosephs, has more. this is certainly causing some major disruption and confusion to global shipping. remember, this is a really important route. about i2% of global trade travels through that route, the suez canal and the red sea. and we have heard today from two of the world's biggest shipping firms but with slightly contradictory messages. we have heard from denmark's maersk, which is the number two player, saying that with the support of that international military coalition they are preparing now to resume shipping after a gap of almost two weeks through that route. but any diversions will be assessed on a case—by—case basis, so there still could be some and the safety of their crews is their number one priority. but at the same time we've heard from germany's hapag—lloyd, which is the numberfive player in the industry, and they say it is just too dangerous to resume shipping through that

red sea—suez canal route and that they will continue to take the longer route down the south of africa, around the cape of good hope and that adds anything from seven days to two weeks to a ship's journey, depending exactly what the route it's taking is, whether it's going to america or the eastern mediterranean. and we have already heard in recent days from some of the world's biggest companies, such as ikea and danone, saying that there is some disruption already to their supply chains. and the longer this all goes on, the more likely it is that we will see products not available on shelves in shops. here in the uk, the chancellor jeremy hunt will unveil his spring budget on march 6th, in what could be his last chance to introduce tax changes before a general election. the conservative party has been hinting it could make pledges on housing and taxes, as rishi sunak struggles to turn around his party's major deficit in the polls. with more on this, we can speak to our political correspondent, helen catt.

in the absence of the election which will soon be upon us, we presume, this could be the most significant political deep in the calendar. it absolutely will. and after the election comes, it is likely that this budget will be the last time the government has the opportunity to make these sort of big tax and spending commitments. so in a way it is a way for the government to set out its stall ahead of an election campaign. so we are seeing a lot of speculation about what the chancellor may choose to do in that budget. as you mentioned, there has been suggestions this morning that he is looking at abolishing inheritance tax. that is something there was a lot of tax about the head of the autumn statement last month and it did not happen in the end, certainly there are number on the conservative party benches that would like to see it go. 0thers warning against such a move instead he should be looking at cutting things like income tax. downing

street has been down in the dumps with the reports today when asked about the story about whether the chancellor was considering abolishing inheritance tax and saying, they could not comment on speculation and points to the fact that it speculation and points to the fact thatitis speculation and points to the fact that it is only applying to a small number of households raising several billion a year. the number of households raising several billion a year-— billion a year. the date of the election some _ billion a year. the date of the election some speculating - billion a year. the date of the election some speculating inl billion a year. the date of the - election some speculating in may some in october, do you think what is contained in this budget is giving us clues as to what the prime minister may call it. this giving us clues as to what the prime minister may call it.— minister may call it. this is going to be the favourite _ minister may call it. this is going to be the favourite sport - minister may call it. this is going to be the favourite sport of - to be the favourite sport of westminster in the next few months is to gaze the d of the election —— guess. certainly i think it is a bit strong to point to a may election certainly it is towards the earlier end but certainly in line on with the last two budgets held in the spring were held in those first few weeks of march. the state would leave the government the option of calling it on may the 2nd which of course is the day when there are

local elections to have them together so this date would leave that option open to the government and then as you say, whatever is set out within it is likely to set at least part of the agenda for the election campaign, whatever deep the government chooses to hold that actual polling date. 0pposition parties are suggesting that in a way it makes no difference. labour is saying that nothing the government can do in march as they put it, would repair the damage done to the economy. the lib dems saying that it is too late for the government to turn the tide as they say on flatlining growth and public services. at a breaking point. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. rail passengers are experiencing major disruption to theirjourneys because of planned engineering works being carried out at london st pancras.

east midlands railway have cancelled all services towards luton airport because of a signalling issue. the midland main line from st albans has also been hit by similar problems. network rail has apologised for the delays. metropolitan police officers have arrested a 16—year old boy on suspicion of arson after a fire at a school in west london. ten fire engines and about 70 firefighters were called to the selective catholic school on seagrave road in fulham this morning. the blaze at the london 0ratory school is now under control. renowned australian chef bill granger — known as the �*godfather�* of avocado toast — has died at the age of 5a. a self—taught cook from melbourne, granger became a celebrated global restaurateur and food writer. he died in a london hospital on christmas day, with his wife and three daughters by his side. you're live with bbc news. sport and for a full round—up, from the bbc

sport centre, here's sarah. hello from the bbc sport centre. manchester city are back in action in the premier league later, after winning the club world cup just before christmas. they take on everton at goodison park later as they look to close the gap at the top of the premier league table on leaders liverpool. city are currently eight points behind them with two games in hand. pep guardiola's side are the first english club to win five trophies in a calendar year, but the manager is still keen for them to try and emulate last season's success. the most difficult is arrive to play this tournament. once we are here we have to perform well and, yeah, really pleased. i had the feeling that we closed a chapter. we won already all the titles, some of them in a row. so there is nothing else to win. i had the feeling that the job is done, it is over, and tried to buy another book and start writing again.

because the book, the last eight years it is over. chelsea are looking to bounce back from defeat at wolves on christmas eve when they take on struggling crystal palace at stamford bridge. mauricio pochettino admits his side are way below where he'd hoped to be. we want to be on the top, even if no one believed but of course in the circumstances i think we are in a position where we are fighting for different things. yes, we are chelsea because of our history and everything, the demand is to be on the top but at the moment being realistic we need to increase in the way that we compete if we want to win more games. so there are the fixtures — in the third match, brentford could jump above wolves into 12th

on the table with a win at home. three games going ahead in the scottish premiership later. there should have been five, but ross county's trip to second—place rangers has been postponed, with snow, heavy rain and strong winds stopping them from making thatjourney. and motherwell�*s trip to aberdeen is also off due to the travel disruption. those other three are still scheduled to go ahead as things stand. to cricket now, and australia captain pat cummins took three wickets to shift momentum away from pakistan on day two of the second test in melbourne. pakistan were 124—1 before cummins took his first wicket, abdullah shafique caught and bowled by the aussie skipper — a couple of overs later, he dismissed babar azam. pakistan ended day two on a disappointing 194—6, given how they started the day. they trail by 124 runs.

elsewhere, south africa closed day two on 256—5 in response to india's first innings total of 245, in their first test in centurion. 0pener dean elgar going really well in this, his farewell series — 140 not out to push south africa ahead. david beddingham the only other to pass 50. and bangladesh have beaten new zealand by five wickets in their first t20 in napier. lytton das' unbeaten 42 giving the visitors a 1—0 series lead with eight balls remaining. the second game takes place on friday. keep across all the sport using the bbc website and app. and that's all the sport for now. here in the uk, parts of the country

are being battered by storm gerrit. there are strong winds, heavy rains and six flood warnings in place. a yellow weather warning for snow has been issued for parts of scotland. 0ur north of england correspondent fiona trott, who is in lancaster, has more on the impact of the storm. there's a yellow warning for rain here today in this part of the world. flooding is likely on some roads and there is also a yellow warning for wind, too. so motorists are being told to slow down here on places like the m6, and particularly problems there for high—sided vehicles. let me give you an idea of what's happening across the uk. the met office is explaining that the worst—affected areas at the moment are parts of scotland, central and eastern parts of scotland, where we have snow and rain. rain in north—west england, like here in lancashire, and rain and wind across most of wales. let me show you what eastbourne and east sussex looked like earlier today. that's because the met office is saying there that in southern england, winds across coastal areas like that could be peaking at up to 70 mph today.

and there are 13 flood warnings in place across england, scotland and wales. now, as for transport disruption, because of the weather i was telling you about in scotland, most of the roads there are worst affected, mainly due to fallen trees. in dundee though, strong winds are causing a problem. the a92 is closed to high—sided vehicles there, and in wales one of the largest newspapers in the us, the new york times, is suing the companies behind chatgpt — 0penai and microsoft. the times alleges that the powerful artificial intellegence models used millions of articles for training without permission. the newspaper is seeking damages as well as an order that the companies stop using its content, and that they destroy data already harvested. the lawsuit says the ai companies "seek to free—ride on the times' massive investment in itsjournalism." the defendants are yet to respond to the lawsuit. for more on this, i spoke to executive director of the minderoo centre for technology and democracy at the university of

cambridge, gina neff. that is what the complaint alleges. they were able to find examples of how the model verbatim fed back exact articles that were hidden behind the pay wall of the new york times. and so they say this hurts their business, and it hurts their business, it hurts their ability to keep democracy alive by producing independentjournalism. because presumably people would subscribe to the new york times website for the archive? according to the complaint, 10 million subscribers are currently paying for that privilege to be able to search the archive and the times is producing — again, according to the complaint — 250 original articles every single day. they say in order to be able to keep their business going, they need to be able to maintain, well, control over their copyrighted material. so when you send a request to chatgpt, does it regurgitate verbatim from the new york times

website or does it give you a synopsis of what it has read? well, any schoolchild who has been trained how to write a school paper knows that you need to provide a citation and you need to say, according to. according to this complaint, the new york times was able to get verbatim articles that did not reference that they had come from the new york times. and in addition, they essentially say it is stripping out, the models are stripping out in their output the sources where they have come from. when they do, and are ask for sources, they sometimes they make up the wrong information, and the times alleges that hurts their bottom line too because they want to be seen as the source for reputable news and journalism. jack to lore has died at the age of

98. the former european commission president was a key figure in the creation of the euro currency and he has just been remembered creation of the euro currency and he hasjust been remembered in the creation of the euro currency and he has just been remembered in the last few minutes by the french president emmanuel macron highly. of course he will try to bring you some of that reaction shortly. this country of course he will be remembered for some of those famous tussles with her then british prime minister margaret thatcher in fact it was their row over european integration in the october 1990 their row over european integration in the 0ctober1990 european council summit, the meeting in rome that led to the resignation of the thatcher deputy park in the conservative prime minister pursuing election in which thatcher was ousted. a huge figure in european politics. jacques delors who has died at the age of 98. more than 50 french actors, writers and cinema producers have signed an open letter in support of gerard depardieu, who faces

accusations of sexual assault. there've been calls for him to be stripped of his legion d'honneur. the letter denounces what it calls the "lynching" of depardieu, one of france's most famous, and most divisive, actors. he denies any wrongdoing. meghan 0wen has more. gerard depardieu is one of the most famous faces of french film. the oscar and bafta—nominated actor is famous for his work in over 200 films and tv series. but since 2020, he's been under investigation for rape. he also faces allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment from over a dozen women. and a documentary released in december revealed sexual comments that he'd made to and about women. now, he strongly denies all of the allegations and there's no court ruling against him, but its continued to spark controversy across france. now, the french president, emmanuel macron, came underfire for a tv interview he did in december where he defended the actor, saying that it was all a manhunt.

and most recently, over 50 french actors and other a—listers have written an open letter to le figaro, which is a french newspaper, saying, "don't cancel gerard depardieu." they say that it's a case of lynching. now, here are some of the famous faces who have signed the letter, including former first lady and singer carla bruni. yanni is one of the other actors to have signed the letter. translation: gerard depardieu is part of the history _ of french heritage. he has left an indelible mark. so whatever you do, you won't be able to erase it. and we don't want to cancel him and we don't want to do without him. he's essential to the artistic history of our country. the letter has sparked backlash from feminist critics and has divided opinion, including on the streets of paris. translation: why should he be protected just because he's - an important figure? translation: it's notjust one person making accusations, - there are quite a few, so i don't think it's a lynching. i think there are real questions to be asked about depardieu, who was a brilliant, sublime actor in the '70s and '80s

and who's become a real wreck. translation: as long i as he hasn't been judged, we cannot attack him and take him down. i but on the other hand, - we have to stop it taking too many years for him to be brought to trial. - depardieu himself has called the signatories "courageous" and has praised the letter. but mounting accusations against the actor suggest he won't be out of the spotlight any time soon. you are watching bbc news. hello there. compared to the fine, settled, sunny weather of boxing day, today is looking pretty wild, all thanks to storm gerrit which is bringing a whole host of hazards, widespread gales and heavy rain and significant hill snow across scotland, all likely to cause disruption for the rest of the day, even as we head into tonight as well. here it is, storm gerrit then dominating the weather scene across the uk. lots of isobars on the charts, active weather fronts bringing the heavy rain.

this next weather front poised to bring in some frequent and heavy showers as we head through the overnight period. but the rest of the day stays very wet and blustery. by the end of day, we could see up to 90 millimetres of rain across some western hills, severe gales developing across northeast scotland where we'll continue to see snow on the hills. gusts here in excess of 80 miles an hour. stays very windy across southern and western coasts, 50 to 60, even 70 miles an hour here. perhaps some late brightness at the end of the day towards western areas. but most places will stay cloudy with outbreaks of rain. on the face of it temperatures in the low teens, but it won't feel like that when you add on the strength of the wind. this evening and overnight, it stays very windy. gales developing again across southern and western areas with showers or longer spells of rain. severe gales continue across the north of scotland to the northern isles with rain and further blizzards too. a little bit of a chillier night to come, i think, across the board with lengthy, clear skies certainly across eastern areas. into thursday, not quite as windy across the north of scotland as what we'll see today, but another blustery day to come with gales certainly across north west england, northern and western wales. it'll be a mixture of sunshine

and blustery showers. some of these will be heavy at times, merging together to produce longer spells of rain. double figure values again for england and wales, something a little bit chillier in scotland, northern ireland. as we head into friday, we see this area of low pressure bring another spell of gales and blustery showers, some wintriness over the high ground of northern scotland and also the northern isles. colder air sinking a bit further southwards as well. it could turn this band of showery rain into something a bit wintry, certainly over the hills, a few showers across southwest england. otherwise better chance of seeing the sunshine. but a chilly day to come across the board on friday. so we head into the weekend then, the run up to new year's eve. we see another deep area of low pressure hurtle in, that's going to bring another spell of gales, heavy rain and hill snow across northern areas and that could affect new year's eve as well. so stay tuned to the forecast.

there's a huge barrage going on overhead just at the moment.

yevgeny prigozhin seemed determined to march his men to the top of the hill. then, he marched them down again. political persecution like something straight out of a fascist or communist nation. this is southern israel and that is gaza, and the war here has dominated the news agenda since early october. tragic and polarising, it's one of the biggest stories of 2023 and one that i have followed here and reported on throughout, speaking to people in israel and in gaza about how they're living through it. the year has seen many important and profound stories, from the war in ukraine to donald trump's legal affairs in the us and for india, a successful moon landing.