this is bbc news. the headlines... lebanon is reeling — with 20 dead and at least a50 wounded in explosions — a day after thousands of pagers detonated. the us says its working to prevent a further escalation in the conflict between israel and hezbollah, as israel says it's opening a �*new phase�* in the war. the late mohamed al—fayed — former owner of harrods — is accused of rape by five female ex—employees, a bbc documentary reveals. evacuations in northern italy as storm boris — which has killed at least 2a people across europe — batters the country causing severe flooding and landslides. and coming up — the bank of england will decide whether to cut interest rates from five percent. it's after the us central bank announced a cut last night, for the first time

in four years. the bbc has been told that sir keir starmer s chief of staff received a pay rise after the election which means she is now paid more than the prime minister. sue gray asked for and was given a salary of £170,000 — £3,000 more than the pm and more than any cabinet minister. 0ur political correspondent, henry zeffman, has more. i knew that there were tensions at the top of government and this story's existence in some way from chris mason and me attests to those, but my phone has practically blown up in the hours since we published this story yesterday, with people across whitehall and westminster who are furious at sue gray, keir starmer�*s chief of staff. and let me explain why. it is not necessarily about her salary in absolute terms. there will be people out there who think that

not only sue gray as prime minister's chief of staff, but the prime minister himself ought to be paid a lot more. i'm sure they could earn lots more in the private sector or certainly in parts of the public sector, too. but at the same time that her pay increased, there are other more junior advisers working under her who have been complaining for weeks privately, but via us kind of now publicly, that their pay is being cut. so what that all speaks to is very real tensions at the heart of downing street, so early in this new government's ten year. this new government's tenure. which i think raised questions about whether they will be able to get other things done if they are fighting over things like this. and all of that was among the questions put earlier by our colleagues on bbc breakfast to jonathan reynolds, the business secretary. look, in terms of this story and officials' pay more widely, there is a process that exists. it is a civil service process. it hasn't changed. it is wrong to say there is any kind of

political input in there or people set their own pay bands, but there really is to be honest not much i can tell you. i don't even get to sector pay directly for my own advisers... well, my question was a fairly simple one which was, do you i think it is odd that she is paid more? | i think there are and always have been officials that are paid more than politicians in our system and that hasn't changed. business secretary jonathan reynolds speaking to bbc breakfast. so, where is this going to go next, henry? i should stress that there are a lot of people in here and there's a misplaced and deeply personal, malicious campaign against her. and look, it is clearly the case that the story that chris and i have been working on here, it does contain really personal briefing against her. it is quite unusual, certainly this early in a government. but whether it is fair or not, which isn't really for us to

judge, it is clearly a problem for sir keir starmer and one word keeps cropping up again and again in off the record exchanges that i have been having with my contact around westminster about this, and that word is "unsustainable." there aren't many people who think that this level of briefing from different factions within keir starmer�*s government can go on much longer. he is going, they think, to have to make some sort of move to draw a line under this. the bank of england will decide later whether to cut interest rates from five percent. the decision, expected at midday, comes after inflation, showing the rise in consumer prices, remained at 2.2 per cent last month. the central bank in the united states lowered interest rates by half a percentage point yesterday — the first cut for more than four years. we will have live coverage of the announcement by the bank of england and discuss what it means for borrowers, businesses, save and more. some libraries and public toilets could be forced to close as councils across england try to account for the soaring costs of homelessness. the government says ministers

are working on a long term strategy to tackle the issue as a record number of families are now living in temporary accomodation. 0ur social affairs correspondent michael buchanan has been speaking to one of those families. this is our only social area, aside from the bedrooms, but we can't get five people in one room or the other really. so social interaction is a challenge. kelly, her husband and three children have been living in this property in eastbourne since july. my husband sleeps here. my 15 year—old son is on that bed over in the corner. it's temporary accommodation after the family were given a no fault eviction by the landlord. a set of bunk beds for my nine and ten year old girls, and a single bed, which is where i sleep. they could afford the rent on an alternative property, but ended up homeless as they couldn't find a guarantor. my dad, who was my guarantor, is no longer able to be my guarantor. he's now retired and unless he has in excess of £58,000

in a savings account, he can't guarantor for us. kelly's property is mostly paid for by eastbourne borough council. they're spending £4.5 million on temporary accommodation this year. half of all the money they receive in council tax is spent on homelessness. the soaring costs are leading to cuts. the heritage centre at beachy head is to close. arts spending is being cut. swimming pools and toilets could also go. none of these savings are easy for us to make, and i would prefer the government to be funding us in full for the cost of temporary accommodation. but as you've said, we've got to provide a balanced budget and in order to do so, without additional government support, we're going to need to look at making some really difficult decisions. the cost of homelessness is forcing other councils to make cuts, too. in north norfolk, six public toilets are to be sold or closed. in east london, a number of libraries are set to close. last year, councils in england spent £1 billion of their own money on temporary

accommodation. councils have a legal obligation to house the people that they are paying for, but the government doesn't fully reimburse their costs. and as demand for temporary accommodation has increased, so some councils are having to cut services to make ends meet. in manchester, the council are converting this former children's centre into temporary accommodation. one of many efforts to control spiralling costs. they welcomed the government's plans to end no fault evictions, but are currently using their reserves to help pay their homelessness costs. as budgets in local authorities have gone down, and as homelessness pressures have gone up, because of a whole range of national challenges that we've seen around the housing market, around private sector evictions and around changes to the benefit system over the last 14 years, local authorities are now left with a perfect storm. ministers are said to be preparing a long term strategy to tackle homelessness. untilthen, however, councils will have to struggle on,

as indeed will the homeless families they're supporting. i wake up every day wondering if today is the day that i've got to pack up my family again and not know where we're going to next, because ijust don't know. we're just living day by day and waiting to see what happens, and it's mentally exhausting. michael buchanan, bbc news. maternity care in england needs urgent reform to prevent harm becoming normalised. the care quality commission warns that there are widespread problems across the country and urgent action is needed. 0ur health correspondent, catherine burns has been following this story.

fiona designed this nursery when she was pregnant, picking out outfits for her baby, but her daughter aliona never lived to enjoy any of this. things that i made for her birth announcement. pictures... fiona went into labour at home, her waters broke and she was worried because she didn't think her baby was moving as much as normal. she should have been assessed then, she wasn't. when she was in hospital, her baby had an abnormal heart rate. this should have been escalated, it wasn't. baby aliona was pronounced dead within half an hour of birth. when they came over and said my name, ijust turned around to them and went, "she's dead, isn't she?" and they said, "yes." and this primal scream is probably the only way i can describe it — just came out of me with no sort of control over my body. a tiny piece of her hair. leeds teaching hospitals has said it's sorry that the care it provided was not at the standard it would expect, and that it has learned lessons from what happened. but stories like fiona's are happening too often. you will stay. you are very welcome. 0ver recent years, we've seen high—profile

maternity scandals. yesterday, bereaved families in nottingham heard a progress review on what's become the biggest investigation into maternity failings in nhs history. almost 2,000 cases are being reviewed there. the healthcare regulator, the cqc, was worried about this, so it carried out a national maternity inspection. it focussed on about two thirds of hospital maternity units, any that hadn't been inspected since march 2021. of the 131 units it inspected, not a single one was rated as outstanding for safety. 35% had good safety ratings, leaving 65% as either requires improvement or inadequate for safety. in other words, two thirds of maternity units are not safe enough. this report doesn't hold back, saying unless things change, poor care and harm will become normalised. but in some ways

none of this is new. there have been warnings about maternity safety for years now. we've reported on this over and again, but still the problems remain. this report picks out certain key issues. women not getting assessed quickly enough, trusts not learning from mistakes, not enough staff, discrimination based on race. it says, disappointingly, none of these problems are new. it is one of the biggest issues that keeps me awake at night, worrying about the quality of care being delivered today and the risk of disaster greeting women in labour tomorrow. he says trusts will be supported to make rapid improvements so all women can feel confident using maternity services. but fiona and other families say, for things to improve, there should be a public inquiry into the state of maternity care. catherine burns, bbc news.

let's talk more about this with our health correspondent nick triggle, who's with me now. we have had so many different reviews into wear maternity services have failed. truth? services have failed. why hasn't anything _ services have failed. why hasn't anything change? | services have failed. tree'iy hasn't anything change? just over the last few years we have heard about major failings at shrewsbury and telford maternity unit and east kent where investigators found that poor care could have contributed to the deaths of babies and others being left with life changing injuries and consistently maternity care is one of the key reasons for clinical negligence claims made against the nhs. talking to the royal college of midwives, they point to staffing shortages. around one in ten posts are vacant and that has been pretty consistent for the past few years. this report by the care quality commission also talks a lot about buildings and equipment. we know from that

report last week into the wider nhs, there is ageing infrastructure in the nhs and they talked about ward being full and one occasion where a mother and her baby had to be keptin mother and her baby had to be kept in storage cupboard after an emergency cesarean, equipment i didn't wear, operating theatres that weren't available when they were needed in emergencies. so there are some deep—rooted problems in terms of staffing, buildings and equipment that are at the heart of this problem. we heard the health _ heart of this problem. we heard the health secretary _ heart of this problem. we heard the health secretary wes - the health secretary wes streeting in the report saying this is a huge concern to him so what is a government saying they will do about it? he called it _ they will do about it? he called it a _ they will do about it? he: called it a national shame and said the government will be working closely with those trust that are struggling but there is a significant number, nearly two thirds are failing on safety. 0ne nearly two thirds are failing on safety. one of the things the regulator has called for,

and this is unusual for the regulator to do? is greater investment in services. we are yet to hear whether the government will put any money in this year. the budget is set for this year but we are going to get a spending review next year which will set out what the health service is going to get in the coming years. one option would be to ring fence funding for maternity care to make sure that if they do increase the budget it specifically goes on this one area of care instead of perhaps getting swallowed up in other parts of the health service. thank you very much. the public vastly overestimates how much asylum seekers account for uk immigration, leading to "skewed perceptions" that make the debate on migration "unbalanced", according to new research. let's speak to sunder katwala, director of british future, a uk based think—tank who produced the immigration attitudes tracker study.

what have you found? this is a survey we do regularly, we've been doing it for the last nine years, tracking how attitudes change over time. one of the things we asked people this time was to split up their different flows of immigration, how much do they make up of white people they come to the uk and so for asylum, which is 7% of immigration, the average guess was 37%. people over estimated that five fold. they overestimated the amount of family migration, underestimated the amount of work visas and study visas as a show of immigration. lastly; work visas and study visas as a show of immigration.— show of immigration. why do eo - le show of immigration. why do peeple get — show of immigration. why do peeple get it _ show of immigration. why do peeple get it so _ show of immigration. why do people get it so wrong? - show of immigration. why do people get it so wrong? i - show of immigration. why do | people get it so wrong? i think one of the _ people get it so wrong? i think one of the reasons _ people get it so wrong? i think one of the reasons is - people get it so wrong? i think one of the reasons is there - people get it so wrong? i think one of the reasons is there is l one of the reasons is there is a lot of political debate about asylum and channel crossings, it is an important issue, there is a physical lack of control and because it is politically argued about, the rwanda scheme, the general election, it is on the news a lot where

as other forms of immigration, people coming in with a basis for social care, the nhs, students are much larger numbers but not the same level of political argument about them, not the same amount of news and you hear much less about it. so it is not surprising that people think the thing that politicians argue about and is on the media law, must be very big, even though it is less shared than those other flows. there we find that people have a very balanced approach. most people, 55% of people say they think that overall numbers for fall, when you go through the different things that they were cut, they wouldn't cut nhs visas are care visas. some would cut student visas but some wouldn't. people who wanted the numbers reduced, which is over half the country

but not everybody, are very reluctant to produce the largest flows so people end up wanting to select and control perhaps more than just to bring the numbers down. perhaps more than “ust to bring the numbers down._ the numbers down. thank you very much- — thank you very much. thousands of pharmacists across england, wales and northern ireland are to be balloted on whether to reduce services and cut opening hours, in a row about government funding. the national pharmacy association says it's the first time in history that it will hold such a vote. here's more from our health editor, hugh pym. 0livier runs a small group of pharmacies near reading. they can regularly open for up to 60 hours a week, but that could be cut to just a0 — the minimum required under a government contract if there's a vote in favour of protest action over funding. work outside that contract, including some emergency contraception, substance misuse services and free medicine delivery would be suspended. he says feelings are running high about funding lagging behind rising costs.

the last thing that we want is to take industrial action, but our members at the national pharmacy association, they are crying for action. they are telling us they want to stop providing services, which is why we are balloting members. but pharmacists are individual and professionals have always, always looked after their patient and never taken such actions. and the reason they haven't is because they really care for their patients and they realise that the impact it would have on patients could potentially be quite dramatic. so as a result, we're not taking this action lightly. the ballot is being carried out by the national pharmacy association. it has 6,500 community pharmacy members in the uk, out of a total of 13,000. the npa says about 1,500 have closed since 2016. since then, core government funding in england has fallen by 40% after adjusting for inflation. the pharmacy first service, launched injanuary in england, extended the range of services which can be provided,

including treatment of sinusitis, earache and shingles. the npa said members were not being asked to pull out of the scheme, but noted that a reduction in opening hours to a0 per week would have an impact on its effectiveness. health is a devolved issue, and separate ballots are being carried out among pharmacists in wales and northern ireland because of similar concerns about funding. there's no discussion about protest action in scotland, with the npa saying there is more adequate financial support. a department of health spokesperson covering england said pharmacies had been neglected for years and better use would be made of their skills, including more independent prescribing. hugh pym, bbc news. when two—year—old rhino, amara, broke her leg earlier this year, her keepers were unsure how to help her — so they called in a team of specialist surgeons to perform a world—first operation. jayne mccubbin takes up the story from knowsley safari.

it has been fascinating this morning that you can say amara there really, really lazy. what we wanted to show you was her toddling around on four legs because her story is incredible. instead, she is sleeping. good morning from all the team down here in knowsley safari this morning. everybody is off to wake up the rest of the animals, get on with the day but the story behind amara is incredible. when the call came through david saying she had broken her leg, it was high jeopardy because she could have died. instead, they cast around for their experts and found a solution to a huge problem. have a look at this film and we will chat to david in a moment. how many bets does it take to fix a baby rhino's lead? the answer is ten. 0ver

fix a baby rhino's lead? the answer is ten. over five hours, answer is ten. over five hours, a team of surgeons, zookeepers and equine specialist performed keyhole surgery on amara the southern white rhino, thought to be the first operation of its kind in the world. staff at knowsley safari first noticed amara was limping earlier this year. tests confirmed she was suffering from a broken leg. but the team couldn't find records anywhere in the world and for this type of leg injury so for the purposes of treatment amara was turned into a horse. specialist from the university of liverpool used surgical method normally intended for horses. after the operation, a leg cast was applied. the expert team will ensure that procedure would work. nothing like this had ever been tried before. but several weeks later, amara's cast was removed and the baby white rhino was reunited with

mum. miraculously, amara made a complete recovery. she is now fighting fit to enjoy the finer things in life, like munching on sticks. things in life, like munching on sticke— on sticks. such a brilliant sto . on sticks. such a brilliant story. doctor— on sticks. such a brilliant story. doctor david, - on sticks. such a brilliant story. doctor david, you | on sticks. such a brilliant. story. doctor david, you will have seen him in those pictures are, when the call came through, where you terrified or thrilled? we through, where you terrified or thrilled? ~ thrilled? we were thrilled. it was very exciting _ thrilled? we were thrilled. it was very exciting to - thrilled? we were thrilled. it was very exciting to come i thrilled? we were thrilled. itl was very exciting to come and see a rhino, they are magnificent animals so we quickly had to rustle up a team to come out here. didn't take long, as you can imagine, to get student volunteers and look for the equine practice and we came out and work collaboratively with the vets in knowsley who expertly managed to open till a point. so we came out to x—ray her and the student x—rayed her and did a fantasticjob and made a

diagnosis. this is where the world first contain because it is a very unusual fracture, equivalent to our wrist. she broke one of the bounty and a wrist that horses don't have. so we were certainly stopped at that point. so we were certainly stopped at that point-— so we were certainly stopped at that oint. ~ ,,., , , , that point. absolutely stumped. and if ou that point. absolutely stumped. and if you had _ that point. absolutely stumped. and if you had been _ that point. absolutely stumped. and if you had been able - that point. absolutely stumped. and if you had been able to - and if you had been able to treat it, she wouldn't be here today. treat it, she wouldn't be here toda . , , ., treat it, she wouldn't be here toda _ , , ., ., today. sadly, she would not have been _ today. sadly, she would not have been here. _ today. sadly, she would not have been here. she - today. sadly, she would not have been here. she was i today. sadly, she would not| have been here. she was too painful, very lame, miserable, vocalising, managed brilliantly but it couldn't go on indefinitely.- but it couldn't go on indefinitely. but it couldn't go on indefinitel. ., indefinitely. so you cast a net wide. indefinitely. so you cast a net wide- you _ indefinitely. so you cast a net wide. you literally _ indefinitely. so you cast a net wide. you literally called - wide. you literally called around the world saying, he was done this procedure? an answer came back. ida done this procedure? an answer came back-— done this procedure? an answer came back. no one. we spoke to an one came back. no one. we spoke to anyone who _ came back. no one. we spoke to anyone who had _ came back. no one. we spoke to anyone who had operated - came back. no one. we spoke to anyone who had operated on - came back. no one. we spoke to anyone who had operated on andj anyone who had operated on and elephant are rhino no one had encountered such a problem. what could have gone wrong? what could have gone wrong? what were you learning? everything along the way. we had to have several plans in place. we went sure if we would be able to visualise this big chunk of bone that she had

broken off into her wrist joint, so we were planning to do keyhole surgery initially but we couldn't get the camera into the joint because we can't feel the joint because her skin is so thick compared to artists. we do keyhole surgery on horses every day but we couldn't do it. we had to use ultrasound scans in real—time to guide the camera into the joint but we didn't know if we could ultrasound a rhino through their very thick skin. we struggle with some of the horses that live on the wirral to get nice images. we had x—rays back up, we managed to do it, got the surgery done, we were unsure how we could closer rhinoceros skin. you broke a lot of needles? a good friend of mine broke 12 needles. aha, of mine broke 12 needles. a gigantic success. here she is today, sleeping behind the

teenage bowl here in front of us. who by the way has been booted out of the closure by all of the female. there is amara at the back, living her best life. quick final question for david. up until this point, what was the betting you'd ever done? . , . what was the betting you'd ever done? ., , ., ., what was the betting you'd ever done? .,, ., ., ., , what was the betting you'd ever done?_ backi done? castrated a giraffe. back to ou. done? castrated a giraffe. back to you- she _ done? castrated a giraffe. back to you. she did _ done? castrated a giraffe. back to you. she did ask, _ done? castrated a giraffe. back to you. she did ask, and - done? castrated a giraffe. back to you. she did ask, and she i to you. she did ask, and she answered —— and he answered! she did ask, and she answered —— and he answered! a capybara missing from a shropshire zoo has been spotted, but remains on the run in the wild. cinnamon, managed to escape from her enclosure at hoo zoo in telford on saturday, but has now been spotted in a nearby field, using a thermal imaging drone. however, one of her keepers says locating her and catching her are "two very different things". she seems to like the long grass under wild blackberry so she is living her best life. now it's time for a look at the weather

with matt taylor. plenty of sunshine across the uk, even where you are seeing lots of low cloud today but there will be changes through there will be changes through the rest of their week. friday into weekend, low pressure moves up from iberia and that is set to bring rate. rainfall amounts from friday through to sunday, it pinpoints part of wales, central and southern england, a months worth of rain in some places but river height highly variable but further north and west it stays dry as it does today for many. we have had plenty of sunshine across western areas, more developing more widely through the afternoon. sim card will take awhile to shift, lingering through part of wales in the midlands lincolnshire, east yorkshire down the coast when he could stay cloudy all day. in the breeze, cooler, temperatures mid to high teens. elsewhere, low to mid 20. highest in london and the south—east, 25 or 26. this evening and overnight, that breeze will drag all the cloud backin breeze will drag all the cloud back in again. more extensive

tonight, part of scotland, central and eastern areas especially but were in the west you could have single figures, may be even lower single figure is farfrom may be even lower single figure is far from isolated spots. for most, mild but a great start to friday. low cloud lingers, eastern scotland and eastern england and through the day when the sunshine so we could see thundery showers develop and hit or miss at this stage. many will stay dry. listen to where you have the sunshine with temperatures creeping down and always cool it with a onshore breeze towards those north sea coast. into the weekend, saturday we see some of the show is lingering from friday night across the south—west and developing more widely across parts of central and southern england and wales. isolated showers in northern england but the low cloud which could bring drizzled towards north sea coast. plenty of sunshine north and west but temperatures here dropping more as they breeze picks up. that breeze will pick up further into sunday, low pressure

drifting towards us by this stage so longer spells of heavy and thundery rain possible across wales, central and southern england. some spots may avoid, east anglia may not be bad, drierfurther north but with patchy drizzle where that low cloud lingers near eastern coast. that is how it is looking. goodbye for now.

live from london, this is bbc news. lebanon is reeling, with 20 dead and at least a50 wounded in explosions a day after thousands of pagers detonated. the us says its working to prevent a further escalation in the conflict between israel and hezbollah, as israel says it's opening a new phase in the war. the late mohamed al—fayed, former owner of harrods, is accused of rape by five female ex—employees, a bbc documentary reveals. evacuations in northern italy as storm boris, which has killed at least 2a people across europe, batters the country causing severe flooding and landslides. and coming up — the bank of england will decide whether to cut interest rates from 5%. it's after the us central bank announced a cut last night, for the first time in four years.