aswe as we are about to liverpool as we are about to hear from the defence secretary john healey. do we have any idea about the headlines from mr healy? idea about the headlines from mr heady?— idea about the headlines from mrheal 7�* l, ~, , mr healy? john healy is giving his statement _ mr healy? john healy is giving his statement from _ mr healy? john healy is giving his statement from the - his statement from the conference stage in a few minutes at a time of huge global security and i suspect there might be times that make mention of ukraine because the government will want to show us continued commitment to supporting ukraine and that is another element, today is badged as the economy day because the chancellor rachel reeves is the big ticket item today but in the defence world there are questions about spending and you might remember in the run—up to the general election was a lot of discussion about whether or not the uk would reach the target of 2.5% of gdp spending on defence. the labour party at the time, keir starmersaid it was committed to reaching that but only when resources allow.

at the moment the uk spends about 2.3% on defence so it will be interesting to see if john healy the defence actually makes any mention of that at all, particularly given the wide economic context. we had from the chancellor rachel reeves this morning about public finances and the central labour we had in the run—up to the election about them wanting to sustain fiscal discipline. there is escalating tension in the middle east. give us an idea of where the government is on this and what messages they are trying to put a cross on both lebanon and israel. we heard from _ both lebanon and israel. - heard from the foreign secretary yesterday in a pretty wide—ranging speech when again he touched upon ukraine and continued support for ukraine.

he said the escalating tension was worrying and i had to be an immediate ceasefire and the information the government released to citizens in lebanon telling them to leave now. i think we can go no to the conference stage. i have a feed in front of me. it is the defence secretary. it will take place just behind defence secretary. it will take placejust behind me. i think the message the government is trying to give as they are getting on with it and have a plan for the country and global security. and emblazoned everywhere on banners and walls

is change. so they are trying to ensure this is a government in control and with the plan. how much is that something they will tackle during the conference speech or something it will tackle and further interviews? i it will tackle and further interviews?— interviews? i think it is hiuhl interviews? ithink it is highly unlikely - interviews? ithink it is highly unlikely they - interviews? ithink it is| highly unlikely they will interviews? i think it is - highly unlikely they will take that from present zelensky because there are real operational sensitivities around it. we know that keir starmer went to washington and sat down with presidentjoe bidenjust a week sat down with presidentjoe biden just a week or so ago when that was part of the conversations. and there is a meeting of the united nations general assembly taking place later this week and i very much

suspect conversations about whether ukraine can use those long—range missiles. i don't imagine it's something the defence secretary will feel any clear position of the competition from the conference platform. but, to very keen to be seen as leaders as supporting ukraine now and to work with western allies and i think that will continue. you mentioned in passing the united states and clearly their sr election they are. and it could be kamala harris or president trump. . how does the prospect

of different government in the united states within a few months?— united states within a few months? ~ , ., ., ~ ., months? when you talk to cabinet ministers - months? when you talk to cabinet ministers and - months? when you talk to i cabinet ministers and people here at conference there is no doubt people are watching what is happening in the united states very closely because when there is a united states election it is notjust people and entities but the wider world as well but the message must get from ministers when you asked this question, and it is a question that i have put directly to ministers before as they will work with whoever ends up in the white house but thatis ends up in the white house but that is not to say they are not watching it and there will be preparations going on so they are ready to deal in whitehall with any administration elected in the united states come the 4th of november. it is on mains here and when it is an trump was president before, clear it starts on nato —— mike �*s stance on nato. it was president trump who went some way to making it reach the two

point 0% target on defence so i certainly don't expect any direct message from the conference stage from john healy or anyone else but it is something in the minds of people here of course as it will be too many voters in the united states and the wider world. ~ ., ., , world. we will optionally come back to just — world. we will optionally come back to just as _ world. we will optionally come back to just as soon _ world. we will optionally come back to just as soon as - world. we will optionally come back to just as soon as the - back to just as soon as the defence secretary does the stage. meantime, sir ben wallace the former conservative defence actually is facing questions about the change made to a draft bill that would have helped to shield the ses from prosecution. —— —— sas panorama was told that before the report went it had information that the elite group had killed people in palestine. so ban has said it would be wholly inappropriate to commentate on this head of his appearance at

the afghanistan inquiry today. the bbc has found the number here, in the uk the number crimes logged by police which involve reference to swords, machetes or so—called zombie knives has almost doubled in five years. a bbc investigation has revealed the figures, ahead of a ban on certain weapons, including zombie—style knives and machetes, which comes into force across england and wales tomorrow. our correspondent danjohnson is at a border force centre in slough. if you've got a bigger weapon, you've got more of a chance. the knives are getting larger. devastating weapons.

it was a sword. with deadly consequences. if that went through my child's heart... there is a new ban on zombie knives and some machetes. these are used to intimidate, they are used to harm, injure, kill. there is no other reason they are made. faron was almost stabbed to death twice. now, he's taking weapons from teenage hands. so in the six years i've been collecting weapons with the amnesty, i've personally seen the weapons are getting bigger. from lock knives and we are getting more of the type of zk and zombie—style knives — like isin upwards. i get calls from all around the uk, like three or four a day right now. really, every day? yeah, every day. a young man in south london wants to hand over a pair of machetes. let me see, my guy, are you good? put it down, show me what you've got, my guy. he says he bought these online when he was 19. why have you got weapons like that? i bought them to protect myself a while ago after i got attacked and kidnapped. he had no enemies. he didn't do anything wrong. he didn't carry a knife.

the kanda family's felt the worst impact. he was just a happy kind of 16—year—old living his best life. i dedicate my life to my son. they cling to the last glimpse of ronan, who was stabbed to death two years ago. that was the last moment i see my...my son. i live for that moment. this is ronan about to be mistaken for someone else and attacked by two teenagers carrying swords they'd bought online with fake id.

the law's also struggled to keep up. this is not the first attempt to ban zombie knives. manufacturers quite cleverly got around the design and so, like everything — and laws are iterative, aren't they? they have to adapt. and, of course, it needed to change. why will this ban be any different? well it will have an impact. i can't say it will be the end of the issue because it clearly won't. so you can see further legislation? yeah, quite possibly, yeah. the reality is these weapons aren't covered by the new ban. neither are the swords used to kill ronan kanda. i know the sword went through ronan�*s heart. but i die knowing what happened to ronan, every day. how many more lives have to go before they can ban these things and see the danger of these weapons? the government is now reviewing online sales of these weapons. it describes knife crime as an epidemic. wycombe, a labourgain, wycombe, a labour gain, aldershot, a labour game. labour is the part of defence. security will be the foundations on which a labour missions are built. it will be our past to increase labour defence spending to 2.5% of

gdp, a level not much since 2010 labour was last in government. in my second day in thisjob they government. in my second day in this job they travelled to ukraine and spent the afternoon with president zelensky visiting injured soldiers. they told us about the daily attacks, the destroyed homes and the dead friends and they told us that they were fighting for their country's freedom and they were fighting for europe's future because defence of europe and defence of the uk starts in ukraine. and today, todayis starts in ukraine. and today, today is day 9a2 of keating �*s illegal war.

today is day 9a2 of keating �*s illegalwar. —— —— putin. iam proud that labour has stood with kyiv from day one and new packages of artillery and armoured vehicles and a new guarantee to speed up deliveries and a new defence industrial strategy and a treaty with new export guarantees and a new commitment to train ukrainian troops throughout 2025 and a pledge to spend £3 billion of military support for ukraine this year, next year and for every year it takes for as long as it takes ukraine to win. confidence, is global threats increase, the first duty of this party in government is to defend the country to keep our citizens

safe. war in europe, conflict in the middle east and growing russian aggression, we know these are serious times. and we know there are serious problems with our armed forces, horribly underfunded of the last 14 years. and the problems the tories have left much worse than we thought. as defence secretary i know this myself. ships without enough sailors to crew them, military housing with no running water, defence plans with £1 billion black holes, and yet in despite everything the tories did, the total commitment to civilian staff and industry workers and service personnel remains undiminished, so i said to them

on behalf of a cell we are proud of your professionalism, we are proud of your dedication and thank you for everything that you do. i stood here last year and i promise that britain would be better defended with labour and own government we are getting on with thejob. we have increased uk support for ukraine and dedicated britain securing an immediate ceasefire in gaza and have launched a strategic defence review to fix the foundations of our defence for the future. we can solve the problems all at once, but we can begin the change and we have. legislating for a new armed forces commissioner to improve service life, confirming we will set new

minimum standards for military housing, delivering the largest pay increase for the armed forces and over 20 years. so that no the first time —— now i defence secretary can see that everyone in uniform will be paid at least the national living wage. confidence, this is what it means when a labour government says we will put people at the heart of our defence plans. and confidence, you hear some say young people today don't want to serve the country. i know this is wrong. over the last ten years, more than i over the last ten years, more thani million applied over the last ten years, more than 1 million applied tojoin their forces. than 1 million applied tojoin theirforces. three and than 1 million applied tojoin their forces. three and four gave up, just give up on the process because it takes months

and this tied up in red tape. so today i am announcing the first steps to start to fix the tory recruitment crisis. first, we have scrapped 100 outdated policies that block people from joining. secondly, setting new targets for forces to reject a conditional offer within ten days and to give people a training start date within 30 days. and third, i am setting up days. and third, i am setting up a new direct route for cyber military recruits because if you are a top gear macro recorder your country needs you. and we will always maintain the highest standards and we will create an armed forces that draws the very best of britain's talent, better fit

to fight, better reflecting the country they defend. so, conference, this labour government will be a government that reused the nation �*s contract that those who serve and our veterans and insurers defence and helps boost the uk economy and makes britain securing tall strong abroad. the public voted for it, labour will deliver it, change has become. begun.- will deliver it, change has become. begun. you have been listenin: become. begun. you have been listening to _ become. begun. you have been listening to the _ become. begun. you have been listening to the defence - listening to the defence secretaryjohn healy addressing the labour party conference. he talked about the defence of europe starting in ukraine and promised to increase defence spending and also talked about what he has in saying they are

to ukraine and started a strategic defence review but they can't solve all problems at once. he was also talking about the issue of recruitment. it was a pretty short speech i would say overall because we discussed a few ago beforejohn healey took to the stage he did say the government would reach a 2.5% on defence, commitment man might get before the election that only said when resources allow ill still no clear timeframe and that perhaps not surprising given what we have had from the chancellor about the state of public finances. we did hear him reiterate britain support for ukraine and seeing the government had increased that support since it is coming to office and he described the armed forces as having been hollowed out and he did set out

some steps the government plan to take to improve recruitment, particularly younger people he wants to attract into the military so he talked about pay and speeding up and simplifying the recruitment process and speeding up the point before you applied starting your training specifically said they were interested in attracting gamers and courtiers, setting up gamers and courtiers, setting up an entirely separate avenue for people to apply to the military who have that kind of background, cyber military he called it, your country needs it. ., , called it, your country needs it. he also said they can't solve all _ it. he also said they can't solve all the _ it. he also said they can't solve all the problems i it. he also said they can't solve all the problems at| it. he also said they can't - solve all the problems at once and some are quite deep—seated, ships with not enough sailors and the state of some of the uk army and all forces accommodation, that something they can't solve overnight. that is a theme developing through this conference, theme we have heard from labour since have been in power. they are setting out publicly, i think, and saying they are being honest about it. the challenge

they say they face when it comes to all of these areas, public services and in this case the military and armed forces. they are trying to roll the pitch on labour ground to see things will not happen overnight but we are working on it and have a plan. very similar to the narrative we have had from other key figures including keir starmer. the criticism and perhaps the what if some is labour were elected on a platform of change and they are going to have to deliver on some of those so people can really feel a difference in some of these areas and be convinced they need the right choice at the election. ., ., need the right choice at the election-— election. you mention the strategic _ election. you mention the strategic defence - election. you mention thej strategic defence review, election. you mention the - strategic defence review, how long is that likely to take before the medicines on it? they have been pointing to that as a that needs to happen before they can make some decisions around defence spending in procurement and focus attention so if that's what he said before the election i think that allows them a little wriggle room to

have time for further have time forfurther commitments, have time for further commitments, that has to happen first and decisions will follow that more broadly. that was the message from john healey and there are challenges. we know there are challenges. we know the number of people and the army has fallen in the number of full—time people in the army �*s fallen quite considerably so i thinkjohn healey was saying away at the party of defence which is what labour has not always been seen as but he was trying to rotate it is actually pretty forgiving particularly at a time of real insecurity. here, in the uk the number crimes logged by police which involve reference to swords, machetes or so—called zombie knives has almost doubled in five years. a bbc investigation has revealed the figures, ahead of a ban on certain weapons, including zombie—style knives and machetes, which comes into force

across england and wales tomorrow. our correspondent danjohnson is at a border force can you give us an indication of the scale of the problem to deal with noise at the moment? the scale is —— knives. that scale is huge and is picked over the last decade and i think the issue with zombie knives and machetes over eight inches have become more prevalent in the last five years especially suggesting the number of these have doubled in crimes. and also in terms of my a youth worker, anyone who works with young people will notice these weapons cropping up notice these weapons cropping up in conversation and social media posting so it is

definitely a big problem that needs to be solved. haifa definitely a big problem that needs to be solved. how much difference _ needs to be solved. how much difference to _ needs to be solved. how much difference to think _ needs to be solved. how much difference to think the - needs to be solved. how much difference to think the band i difference to think the band will make? i difference to think the band will make?— difference to think the band will make? ~ ., , ., , will make? i think it has to be uuite will make? i think it has to be quite measured _ will make? i think it has to be quite measured response - will make? i think it has to be quite measured response to l will make? i think it has to be i quite measured response to this and it is an important vital step to ban them and should have happened a long time ago and allowing them to be legal has plagued this issue since 2016 so it is really important forward step and will create a disincentive for people selling them so it holds adults to account when making this problem worse and also allows young people to hand in their names and a lot of people anecdotally speaking have done that. nonetheless there are only few opportunities those of us working in issue have every year, and this is probably one of them. and i encourage people not to focus too much on this legislation because at the end of the day it is banning one type of weapon used in the minority of homicides. the vast majority of homicides still use

kitchen knives and people can go into the kitchen and use one. what makes young people pick up knives in the first place is what he should be targeting so mental health services and targeting social media and ensuring young people who need it are targeted with mentoring and enough support in schools. these are things we should give more airtime to that this is nonetheless an important step forward. you mentioned _ important step forward. you mentioned practical- important step forward. you mentioned practical measures helping people not go down that route. as there are cultural and gang element here that also needs to be tackled?— needs to be tackled? without a doubt, needs to be tackled? without a doubt. gang — needs to be tackled? without a doubt, gang related _ needs to be tackled? without a doubt, gang related issues - doubt, gang related issues across the country are rife and i would say young people �*s affiliations and tenses to be pulled in by gangs happen when they are isolated and not

feeling supported by the services and families and communities that should be a random so i think these problems have worsened over the last ten years without a doubt and also lots of underlying problems and just framing it as a gang issue i think needs to be looked at. now it's time for a look at the weather with carol. hello again. we've had some torrential downpours of rain overnight, some parts of the south sast having a month's worth of rainfall. not surprising the met office has an amber weather warning in force for its central and southern england, which is valid today up until 9:00 this evening. this rain, of course, falling

on already saturated ground. disruption is quite possible. there are already reports of flooding and also some disruption to transport. it's courtesy of this area of low pressure which eventually will pull away towards the east. but it's produced heavy rain this morning in the south east. it's drifting that bit further west, the lighter colours telling you where the heaviest bursts are likely to be behind. it's sunshine and showers and further rain across northern england, and we've also got some rain sinking south across northern scotland, but in between something drier, a bit brighter as well, with our temperatures today ranging from ten in the north to 20 in the south. now, through this evening and overnight, the rain pulls steadily eastwards. there'll be a lot of cloud in its wake, and we have the rain in the north of scotland sinking a little bit further south. with the wind here picking up, it's going to be a cooler night tonight than it was last night as well, but temperatures between seven and about 13 degrees. so tomorrow we start off with the dregs of today's weather front.

across the south east, producing this cloud and some spots of rain that moves away. the rain across scotland sinks a bit further south across central and eastern areas, eventually getting into northern england. but for western scotland, northern ireland and much of the rest of england and wales, it will be a drier day than today, with just a few showers and temperatures ten to about 18 degrees north to south. then, as we move from tuesday into wednesday, we're watching this system coming in from the atlantic. it's going to bring some heavy rain, we think at the moment across parts of england and wales and strong winds, potentially gales through the english channel. but it could well change the position of this. this is what we think at the moment, coming in from the south west, pushing north eastwards. north of that it's a mixture of sunshine and showers, temperatures ten to 16 degrees. so you'll notice these temperatures starting to slide a bit. but as we head towards the latter part of the week, the temperature will continue to slide. and by friday we could be looking at highs of 11 to 13.

live from london. this is bbc news. the chancellor promises to rebuild britain in herfirst

labour conference speech, rachel reeves is under pressure to deliver optimism and boost economic growth. at least one person has been killed and several others wounded after israel launched dozen mondays more strike. we have a special report on zombie knives before a new ban comes into force. rachel reeves will use her first labour conference speech as chancellor to promise on delivering a budget that will rebuild britain. she is under pressure to regain economic optimism after weeks of negative headlines over the decision to means test winter fuel payments for pensioner, our political correspondent reports. after days of questions over donations and internal feuds, enough of the doom and gloom show us the hope is the cry

from many labour mps.