�* prime difficult fora labour prime minister_ difficult for a labour prime minister to difficult for a labour prime ministerto run difficult for a labour prime minister to run the country. it doesn't — minister to run the country. it doesn't happen very often. they have not started _ doesn't happen very often. they have not started very well, and that is the problem in terms of their coming occasions _ the problem in terms of their coming occasions. , ., �* , occasions. they don't see the need to explain- — occasions. they don't see the need to explain. don't _ occasions. they don't see the need to explain. don't forget, _ occasions. they don't see the need to explain. don't forget, the - to explain. don't forget, the current media operation are the same people who a year ago took nine days to explain that keir starmer in an lbc interview had not said that he thought that water and energy supplies should be cut off to gaza. he believed he hadn't said it but it took nine days to clarify. yesterday, newsnight broadcast our interview with diane abbott. here's what she had to say about the way she felt the labour party had treated her during the row over racist comments made about her by a tory donor. i think initially, i was treated as a nonperson, which very strange because at the same time, they were writing to party members trying to raise money on the back of how hester had treated me. the full interview with diane abbott is available on iplayer now. search for diane abbot: political survivor on iplayer.

let's take a quick look at a few of the stories on the front pages. starting with the daily telegraph, the headline on the front page, of course, we have been talking about it, "new phase of mideast war after walkie—talkie blitz". if we move on to the guardian, unsurprisingly, the top story tonight on newsnight again is on the front page, "fears of escalation as second wave of deadly explosions hits 11 on." and the daily express has the same headline, or a very similar one, "walkie—talkie blasts in second wave of attacks, against hezbollah up to his following page explosions. and the daily mirror, after pager attack, walkie—talkie bomb blitz, everyone seems to go with those headlines and as i say, unsurprising. the daily mail has come "labour has undermined israel, says netanyahu". and i think

finally, there is the daily star, "the king of the carriages". they have a different front page keir starmer, we havejust been have a different front page keir starmer, we have just been talking about it. thank you to my guests werejoining me. that's it for tonight. keep watching bbc two, because after the weather, it's the first episode of have i got news for you us, where they dissect the weekly american election news. paddy o'connell is here tomorrow. till then, good night. live from london, this is bbc news.

exploding walkie—talkies kill at least 20 people and injure hundreds more, in a fresh wave of attacks across lebanon. hospitals are again overwhelmed. in my past 25 years in practice, i never removed as many eyes as i did yesterday. meanwhile, israel's defence minister declares the start of a "new phase" of the war with a focus on the northern front against hezbollah. trouble inside the labour party as we reveal that sue gray — the prime minister's chief of staff — earns more than sir keir starmer. and conservationists

declare an emergency, as butterfly numbers fall to their lowest on record. hello, i'm kasia madera. at least 20 people have been killed and hundreds injured in a new wave of attacks in lebanon — this time it's walkie talkies that have been detonated. the latest blasts come just 2a hours after pagers used by the armed group hezbollah exploded simultaneously across the country killing at least 12 people and leaving more than 3,000 in hospital. hezbollah is blaming israel and has vowed to retaliate. israeli defence minister yoav gallant says the country is "opening a new phase in the gaza war" — and the "centre of gravity is shifting to the north". 0ur senior international correspondent 0rla guerin sent this report from beirut.

hezbollah, coming to bury its dead in south beirut today. casualties of a new chapter in middle east warfare. killed not by air strikes, but by exploding pagers. apparently, a message from mossad. among the dead, an 11—year—old boy. but even the mourners weren't safe. explosion. suddenly, the sound of another blast. chaos and panic filling the street and a rush to evacuate one of the wounded. the authorities say this time, walkie talkies exploded, not just in beirut. here, at a cell phone shop in the southern city of sidon. israel is being blamed for the past 2a hours of unprecedented attacks.

sirens. well, one more ambulance there passing by. we've been seeing them in the last half an hour or so. also fire brigade trucks. people have been looking at the sky, worried there are drones. they're beginning to leave the area, to get off the streets. the attacks began yesterday afternoon with explosions in food markets, in homes, in restaurants. soon, casualties were streaming to hospitals — almost 3,000 wounded in an hour. doctors say many lost fingers and many were blinded. it has been a nightmare. probably this is the worst day of my life as a physician. unfortunately, we were not able to save a lot of eyes. i can tell you that probably more than 60 to 70% of the patients ended up with eviscerating or removing

at least one of their eyes. and we're talking about young population, about patients in their 205. from israel, no admission of responsibility. but the defence minister, yoav galant, says a new phase of the war is starting. hezbollah, which is iranian—backed, has been waging war with israel since last october — the two sides trading fire across their shared border. over the past 2a hours, hezbollah has been shaken and humiliated, but it's still better armed than many nations. israel, too, has plenty of firepower and today released this footage of its troops training near the lebanese border. a source told the bbc that a second division of the army has moved to the area. there are growing

fears of all—out war. 0rla guerin, bbc news, beirut. these ongoing attacks have stunned people in lebanon and caused widespread fear. 0ur security correspondent, gordon corera has been looking at how the assaults have been carried out in the past 2a hours and who's orchestrating them. these have been extraordinary attacks — taking communications devices people carry around and turning them into weapons to be used against them. today, hand—held radios, walkie talkies, were exploding suddenly in lebanon. this was what was left of one of them. it follows yesterday afternoon when thousands were injured by small explosions in people's hands and pockets. this was the culprit — a pager, which can receive text messages. pagers and walkie talkies are old school technology, but something hezbollah turned to recently because it feared its mobile phones could be tracked.

this map details the locations of injuries sustained in yesterday's attack, the vast majority in the capital, beirut. but how was it done? today, washington said it didn't know. the united states did not know about, nor was it involved in these incidents. and we're still gathering the information and gathering the facts. so what do we know? if we look at the debris of this pager, you can see part of a brand name here. it's gold apollo. now, that's a company based all the way over here in taiwan. the owners today said they had not made the pagers involved, though. instead, they had licensed making them to another company called bac consulting. now, bac consulting is based in budapest, the capital of hungary, and the bbc�*s nick thorpe went to visit today. this is the registered address of bac consulting here in budapest.

and in fact there's very little sign that they're based here at all — just a piece of paper with their name alongside 12 other company names behind the geraniums. very few people have been coming in and out of this building all day. no—one seems to know anything about this company at all. so this is debris left from a pager after it exploded. so israel looks to have intercepted the supply this year of thousands of pagers to hezbollah, and hid tiny amounts of high explosive inside. a signal was then sent, which meant five seconds after a pager buzzed to say there was a message, it blew up. something similar may have happened with the radios today. supposedly japanese—made, they also arrived a few months ago. but why now? one theory is that israel's spy agency, mossad, had put in place the capability to be used in the event of an all—out conflict in neighbouring lebanon.

but hezbollah became suspicious about the pagers, and so mossad decided it was a case of "use it or lose it", triggering first the pagers and then today the radios. if that's right, then it's not quite clear whether there is a wider plan behind launching the attack. it has sown confusion and fear and inflicted many injuries, but it may also spark a response. staying with the middle east, the un general assembly has adopted a resolution demanding that israel end its illegal occupation of palestinian territories within a year. 100 and 2a countries voted in favour. 124 countries voted in favour. 0ur correspondent nada tawfik has been following the proceedings from new york. the palestinians see this as an historic resolution. it's the first one, actually, that they've been able to bring forward themselves ever since. forward themselves ever since they were given new rights

and privileges in may. but they do remain an observer state, non—member observer state. so they weren't able to vote themselves in this resolution. but nevertheless, after the icj declared that israel's occupation of occupied palestinian territory was illegal, they wanted to move forward with this resolution. now, it is up to the security council to implement the findings of the icj, which is the un's highest court, as it is the principal judicial organ of the un. but we know that the security council has been paralysed, certainly because of the united states, israel's strongest ally. so instead, the palestinians took this resolution to the general assembly, where, though the resolutions are not binding, they do hold kind of symbolic political weight, given all 193 members are able to express their positions. and so for the palestinians, this was a major victory for them,

because you had 124 nations supporting this resolution, which called for israel to end its occupation within a year, called for them to withdraw their military forces, to cease new settlement building to evacuate settlers. it also called on states to impose sanctions on anyone who is seen to be trying to violate the international law set out by the icj, and to ban importation of products from israeli settlements, and also to seize the transfer of arms to israel. in cases where there's grounds to believe that it's being used in the settlements. so for palestinians, a major movement here by the international community to say that international law has to be abided by, especially in a time where there is concern about the multilateral system and the international rules based order being violated. there's consternation in the labour party after the bbc

revealed that sue gray, the prime minister's top adviser, now earns more than the prime minister himself after she asked for a pay rise following the election. we've been told that she's now on a salary of £170,000. that's 3,000 more than sir keir starmer. 0ur political editor, chris mason has the story. this is sue gray. she is sir keir starmer�*s chief of staff. before this she was, for years and years, a senior civil servant. she wrote the report into parties in downing street during the pandemic which contributed to borisjohnson's downfall. after that, she went to work for the labour party and is now one of the most senior figures in the government. i can reveal that she earns £170,000 a year. now clearly that is a lot of money relative to the uk average salary, but it is considerably less than some in the public sector and many

in the private sector at a similar level of seniority. look at the bottom right of your screen. here is how close sue gray is to power. two down from the prime minister, president biden on the other side of the table at the white house last week. will the reason this story really matters is not actually about what sue gray earns. it's the fact that someone in government was so incensed by it and by her perceived power in a sense that others are inadequately paid, that they wanted to leak this information to me. they did that on sunday, and they are far from the only ones with concerns. we've spent three days seeking to independently verify and corroborate those claims, and we have done that. and it gives you a sense of the rows in governmentjust months after labour won the election. this man, sir craig oliver, worked alongside david cameron when he was prime minister and sue

gray was a senior civil servant. sue gray is an incredibly talented, very capable person and i can see why keir starmer wants her to be his chief of staff. she's obviously putting up the backs of a lot of people who are involved in the labour party and in campaigns there making them feel that they're not as important as perhaps they thought they were. that's leading to clashes. that's leading to a lot of leaks. in 2020, sue gray applied to become head of the civil service in northern ireland. here she is a year later, telling the bbc why she thinks she didn't get the job. i suspect people may have thought that i am perhaps too much of a challenger or a disruptor. i am both. and perhaps i would bring about, you know, perhaps there was going to be too much change. the conservatives reckon our story reveals hypocrisy in government. the prime minister's chief of staff is getting an enormous pay rise. i at the same time, this _ labour government is slashing winter fuel payments for pensioners, earning half the level- of the minimum wage.

it's pay rises for labour cronies and cuts for- hard—pressed pensioners. is sue gray worth more than the prime minister? hello, we are very lucky to have sue. plenty in government are rallying behind sue gray. the prime minister will hope the anger and the rows end quickly. an overnight drone attack on a huge russian military facility has been a large overnight drone attack by ukraine has hit a huge russian arms depot, producing a minor earthquake. the attack was in the tver region of russia to the north west of moscow and some 460 kilometres from the ukrainian border. james waterhouse reports from kyiv. they were explosions which reflected the target. a russian weapons arsenal eviscerated in a single drone attack. it caused a minor earthquake to be reported and satellites even detected the heat. missiles, artillery shells,

explosives and fuel were stored on this site in toropets, and the ukrainians knew it. with the sound of booms in the background, local russian officials claim the drones had been shot down and that people were being evacuated. despite a lack of permission to do the same with western missiles, president zelensky seemed pleased. translation: there was a significant outcome from last night _ in the territory of russia, and this is the type of action that weakens the enemy. i thank all those involved. such inspiring precision. ivan stupak used to be in ukraine's security service and thinks hitting russian ammunition depots will bring results, just not immediately. destroying this object, it's not a short—term impact because russia has to replace it.

where we have to replace it? from what side? iran, north korea? ok. but the next stage is money. but what for? how much it will cost for russian federation to replace it? because every ballistic missile cost maybe $1.5 million. there was no mention of the ukrainian strike by vladimir putin as he spoke to officials in moscow today. it is a setback, but not enough to slow his invasion. james waterhouse, bbc news, kyiv. inflation remained unchanged in august at two point 2%, inflation remained unchanged in august at 2.2%, that's slightly above the bank of england's target. many analysts believe it makes a further cut to intereast rates unlikely when the bank's monetary policy committee meets tomorrow. but this evening the us federal reserve cut its rates for the first time in four years. our economics editor faisal islam has more.

two things going two things going on here aside from its staying at 2.2%. service prices given, driven by airfare rises have actually gone up again. that puts you where you work, and as you say the expectations are that that inflation number, there will be further cuts this year, that would happen at the meeting tomorrow, the us equivalent of the bank of england, the federal reserve, has cut it by half percent. this is a really important moment in the world economy. it's not that they think there is a recession coming around, they say it's in good shape, the us economy, it's that they think they've done most of the job of draining inflation across the world economy. that's what we see and most of the world's central banks. will it change the mind of the bank of england tomorrow, probably not, but it mayjust make them think again.

10,000 drivers walked out 18 times in england, wales and scotland since the industrial action began. now the drivers from 16 different companies have overwhelmingly accepted an offer which their union says is worth a 15% rise over three years. here's our transport correspondent, sean dilley. it's the end of the line for industrial action, for now. nearly 97% of aslef members have backed a pay deal that closes the chapter on more than two years of disruption and pain for passengers. the train drivers union where the last to hold out for a deal they said better reflected the cost of living stop i reflected the cost of living. i sat down with their leader. two years of covid, we did not seek a pay rise, but we had many members have not had a pay rise for five yea rs. we wanted something that put a dent in the cost of living, that's

what we asked for. then you negotiate and maybe people making an offer. in cash terms, the deal they have backed isn't worth vastly more than what was being offered by the conservative government at 12% over three years. the sticking point was 55 changes to working terms and conditions that the union said they were not prepared to accept. so, what have they agreed today? it is 15% over three years, but aslef say they backed it because there were no strings attached. the conservatives are highly critical of the deal they say will cost the taxpayer and all train passengers more money. the government though, says the settlement is worth every penny. the cost of industrial action, they say, it has been around £1 billion. duties may rise by 15%, that's a lot i think. it duties may rise by 15%, that's a lot i think. ,., , duties may rise by 15%, that's a lot i think. , ~ j duties may rise by 15%, that's a lot ithink. , ~ j i think. it sounds like they've come to reasonable _ i think. it sounds like they've come to reasonable accommodation, - i think. it sounds like they've come to reasonable accommodation, the| to reasonable accommodation, the previous— to reasonable accommodation, the previous tory government wasn't prepared _ previous tory government wasn't prepared to discuss them. this deal only covers — prepared to discuss them. this deal only covers until _ prepared to discuss them. this deal only covers until next _ prepared to discuss them. this deal only covers until next year. - prepared to discuss them. this deal only covers until next year. they . only covers until next year. they are into union says it's recommended are into union says it's recommended a new payoff or to its members. for

these passengers, relief that a deal has been done. pm these passengers, relief that a deal has been done.— has been done. an end to strikes, i think it's right. _ has been done. an end to strikes, i think it's right. shaun _ has been done. an end to strikes, i think it's right. shaun bailey, - think it's right. shaun bailey, bbc news. two british soldiers who were killed in the second world war during the battle for arnhem in the nazi—occupied netherlands have finally been buried with full military honours. the remains of private henry moon and lieutenant dermod green anderson were identified using advances in dna testing. they were laid to rest 80 years after they died at arnhem's oosterbeek war cemetery during ceremonies attended by theirfamilies. anna holligan was there. i am the resurrection and the life. marking the footsteps of the men who gave their lives for our freedom. private henry moon of the seventh battalion, the green howards, was part of the ground offensive sent to relieve the surrounded airborne troops in arnhem, dropped behind enemy lines. in operation market garden, the allies' daring campaign to capture key bridges over the rhine to establish a direct

route into the heart of germany and so shorten the war. ultimately, this was a bridge too far. private moon was killed at the age of 21. we were expecting just a very small number of, a small number of individuals to show up to this, but there are hundreds. and it's a very proud, humbling experience. his remains were identified through a dna match. this is the final resting place for almost 2,000 allied soldiers. this peaceful land witnessed some of the most intense battles. so ferocious was the fighting, the british called oosterbeek the devil's cauldron. five victoria crosses were awarded. only 1,700 of the 10,000 troops made it home.

lieutenant darmod green anderson, a glider pilot, flew into a village northwest of arnhem. he was killed when an enemy shell exploded near his trench just hours before the evacuation order came. his remains were discovered nearby two years ago and have now been identified using dna. over the last 30 years, i've visited groesbeek memorial and i've seen diarmid's name, and on all those four occasions i walked within 50m of where his body lay. fire! reload! hundreds came to show their gratitude and witness this symbolic moment, a reminder of the price paid to restore peace in europe. anna holligan, bbc news, oosterbeek. let's take a look at some of thursday morning's front pages. the daily telegraph leads with the latest on the violence in the middle east — and the fresh wave of second wave of explosions from wireless communication devices in lebanon.

and the guardian notes the fears of the conflict escalating across the wider region. the mirror reports on the israeli defence chief's comments — yoav gallant declaring "the start of a new phase in the war." meanwhile, the daily mail has an interview with israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, who claims that the labour government is "undermining israel". the financial times focuses on news out of the us — the federal reserve reducing interest rates by half a percentage point for the first time in overfour years. and the i leads on an investigation into a nursery firm founded by labour mpjas athwal, which is now facing allegations of child safety breaches. you're up to date with some of the warning papers. that's it for me. now time for the weather with ben rich. hello there. thursday promises to be another unusually warm september day for large parts of the uk, although in the north of scotland it may not be quite as warm

as it was on wednesday when aviemore got above 25 degrees celsius — some nine or ten degrees above the seasonal average. but notice — lake vrnwy languished at 1a degrees because in those parts of mid wales we saw a bit more cloud lingering for a good part of the day. some of that cloud returning from the east as well, so england and wales seeing a pretty cloudy start, actually, in some places. but that cloud tending to retreat by the afternoon towards the east coast, some cloud rolling onto the coast of eastern scotland. elsewhere, though, some good spells of sunshine, just a very, very small chance of seeing a shower across southern counties of england. but it really is only a very small chance. now where you're exposed to the breeze along the north sea, temperatures may only get to 17 or 18 degrees. compare that with 25 in parts of south—east england. and then through thursday night, we do it all again, we bring more cloud back in from the east, may turn a little bit misty and murky in places. that cloud will hold the temperatures up — 15 degrees in london as we start

friday morning, maybe eight or nine in aberdeen and glasgow, a little bit cooler, where we start with clear skies overhead. but the focus of our weather does start to shift as we go through friday. we start to turn our eyes to the south with this developing area of low pressure, and that will start to bring some showers and some thunderstorms across parts of southern england, perhaps getting into the midlands, perhaps into the southern half of wales as we go on through the day. eastern scotland, north—east england holding on to a lot of mist and murk and low cloud that will peg the temperatures back. conversely, western scotland and northern ireland should see plenty of sunshine. now into saturday, those showers and thunderstorms in the south perhaps becoming more frequent, pushing a little bit further northwards. still rather cloudy for coasts of eastern scotland and north—east england, western scotland and northern ireland seeing plenty of sunshine. but those temperatures generally down just a little bit by this stage. and then by sunday, our area of low pressure really makes its move, bringing showers or longer spells of rain, particularly across england and wales.

the odd shower and some extra cloud in eastern scotland, but generally in the north of the uk it will stay largely dry.