agent novichok in salisbury, gives evidence at a public inquiry. the uk's health secretary wes streeting says weight loss injections could be an effective tool for getting unemployed people back to work. hello, welcome to bbc news. we begin with the latest on the war in the middle east where the office of the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says a decision to retaliate against iran for its ballistic missile attack two weeks ago will be based on israels security needs. the statement was in apparent response to a report in the washington post which said mr netanyahu told president biden he would not target iranian oil or nuclear sites. it comes as the united nations says its peacekeepers in southern lebanon will not move from their positions, defying calls by

israel to withdraw. mr netanyahu says he regrets recent injuries to unifil peacekeepers, but says he has repeatedly asked them to leave combat zones and accused hezbollah of using them as human shields. meanwhile, the lebanese health ministry says at least 21 people have been killed in an israeli airstrike on a village in northern lebanon, aitou. so far, israel's military operations in lebanon have been mainly focussed in the south. the un children's agency, unicef, has warned that more than 400,000 children have been displaced in the past three weeks. meanwhile, the un has further condemned the "large number of civilian casualties" caused by israeli strikes on northern gaza in recent days. the comments come as at least 10 people were reportedly killed by israeli artillery fire at a food distribution centre at jabalia refugee camp in northern gaza, where israeli tanks and troops are continuing a ground offensive. the hamas—run health ministry in gaza says 55 people have been killed in gaza

in the last 2a hours. i've been getting some reaction to the strikes in northern lebanon from our correspondentjonathan head in beirut, but first our middle east correspondent injerusalem, yolande knell, explains the comments from mr netanyahu. well, israel has been threatening to retaliate for that attack by iran, where it fired some 180 ballistic missiles at israel. and there has been endless media speculation about possible targets. it has long been known that israel considers iran's nuclear programme to be a significant threat. a lot of speculation was around whether it would go after its nuclear sites or oil production facilities, with the idea that this could deal a blow to the iranian economy. according to this washington post article which cites two officials said to be familiar with the ongoing discussions between israel and the us, the israeli prime minister has said israel is prepared to go

for a limited retaliation, looking at military infrastructure in iran, and also that it is prepared to calibrate its response so that there is not the perception that it is interfering with the us election that is coming up in three weeks�* time. stay with us, i want to go tojonathan in beirut. we heard from the israeli prime ministerjust some hours ago, saying that beirut is still on the target list for the idf and their operation. what is the latest? constant air strikes. it has been four days since we had one in beirut, but you can probably hear the israeli drone above us now. as far as beirut is concerned, that is what worries them. but lots of attacks on other parts of the country. 200 the israeli air force says

over the last 2a hours, mostly in the south, where it is fighting hezbollah forces, where hezbollah has its strongest presence, and in the beqaa valley and also places like this village in the north of israel, aitou. that is a big shock. it is a small christian village. 21 people dead. the pictures we are looking at suggest that a lot of those appear to be civilians, there are old women among them. israel has said very little about who it was targeting in that raid. it doesn't always explain why it strikes these places, and it doesn't always give explanations. israel has said it will review reports that there were civilian casualties in this village. there are civilian casualties in pretty much every israeli raid. these are very powerful bombs and missiles they use. it's almost inevitable that other people get caught up in them. yolande, the operation in northern gaza, the idf operation, has come under huge criticism from the un for the thousands of people who are trapped and can't get out, with food shortages and a huge number of

civilian casualties. what is the latest? we have had a series of statements from un officials about the increasingly desperate situation in the north of the gaza strip in the past few days. it is more than ten days ago that israel began a new military offensive, a ground offensive, backed up by aerial bombardment, ordering people to leave all of the north, specifically some areas in the far north, and particularly the jabalia refugee camp, which is a densely populated part of the gaza strip historically. un officials say to me this morning that there are still 100,000 people believed to be trapped there. we had this comment from the un secretary—general via his spokesman yesterday, where he talked about a large number of civilian casualties caused by this operation. the amount of humanitarian

assistance was woefully inadequate, and there was a two—week stretch, almost, where the un were saying that no food, fuel or medicines were being allowed through the northern crossings into the top third of the gaza strip where there are still about 400,000 people resident, according to theirfigures. we heard from the un that some aid has made its way through the israeli body that monitors the crossings said yesterday that it allowed 30 lorry loads of flower and other —— flour and other food aid belonging to the world food programme into one of these crossings. they passed security checks and there is an expectation of more lorry loads going on today, but we are told that jabalia camp still remains inaccessible, even if other food distribution points are able to work to some extent. with three weeks to go until the us presidential election, kamala harris

and donald trump have held rival campaign events in the battleground state of pennsylvania. ms harris announced a plan to give black men more economic opportunities and described some of her opponent's behaviour as increasingly unhinged. i believe so strongly that a second trump term would be a huge risk for america and dangerous. cheering. donald trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged. donald trump spoke at a town hall event in 0aks where he promised to increase oil drilling to drive down energy costs. mr trump's remarks were twice interrupted by medical emergencies in the crowd. he blamed a lack of air conditioning and called for music to be played. some people have been waiting here for two days for this,

so it's a little bit tough. it's a little bit tough, but they have to try and get through. is the door open? do they have air conditioning? they probably can't afford it, sir, in this economy. - they don't want to give us air conditioning, it's too expensive. it costs too much. anyway, but they are both 0k. yes. they are both in good shape. would anybody else like to faint? cbs news correspondent jarred hill explained why people were fainting at trump's town hall rally. the exact cause at this point is unknown. as we saw from president trump, commenting that it was warm in the room. this is happening as there is this huge focus on the state of pennsylvania, one of a number of battleground states that these candidates have been focusing on over the past couple of weeks

and are likely to focus on more in the coming days as we get closer to election day. pennsylvania is a crucial state for a number of reasons, because of how many electoral college votes there are. we are talking about a general election where every vote is counted in the same way, but it is the electoral college, with those states individually. it is essentially a toss—up at this point for pennsylvania. tell us about kamala harris, who has been checking black and latino voters, with some stories that donald trump is gaining ground with those voters. that's right. it's interesting on a couple of levels. 0n the one hand, the conversation is specifically around black male voters and their support for vice—president kamala harris, which is still overwhelmingly at this point upwards of 80%. but there does seem to be some slippage from what we saw with

both former president 0bama as well as president biden in terms of their support. vice president harris recently unveiled a new plan that she says targets or is being marketed towards black men which touches on a number of things including small businesses, trying to provide more money for small businesses as well as mentorship programmes targeting black men and supporting those mentorship programmes, making an effort to drum up as much support among blackmail voters as possible as we go —— black male voters, into election day. similarly, we are seeing a bit of shifting in the support for vice president harris, but it is still overwhelmingly in favour of her. one of the other things that will be interesting, both in some of the exit polling, as well as more specifically speaking about latino voters in terms of geography as well as nationality, this is obviously not a monolithic group. depending where they are in

the us, if things are important to different members of the latino population in the us. we are creeping closer to election day. what are polls suggesting? the polls at this point are showing that this is still a tight race, both on the national level as well as in the key battleground states, which is why we are seeing so much focus here. when we talk about the battleground states, i was speaking to democratic strategist about this yesterday. the candidates are not looking to sway voters at this point. by and large, theirfeelings on either candidate are ingrained. but can they get voters to turn out in the numbers that they need to come election day so that they can win their respective states? that will be the big push. let's take a look now at how the presidential candidates are polling.

new polls are arriving every day, each one with its slightly different take on the figures. right now kamala harris appears to be three points ahead at 49%, but this is of course a very tight race still. anything could happen over the next few weeks. and if we turn to the battleground states, those states that were very close last time around and that could be decisive in the election. the polling shows kamala is ahead in four of the states and donald trump in three. they are all well within the margin of error, so it is going to be a fight to the finish. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

south korea's military says it has fired warning shots after north korea blew up sections of road connecting the two countries. there has been heightened tensions between the north and the south. pyongyang had vowed to cut off the roads and railways once seen as symbols of cooperation between the two countries. the bbc�*s shaimaa

khalil gave an update on the border tensions. she said the move had long been signalled by the north. these are two main roads that link north and south korea. one of them is a main line of roads and railways that connect south korea's western border town to the north, and the other line connects north and south east coast. as you mentioned, they are seen by several south korean governments as a symbol for unification efforts, something the north has made clear it is not interested in and is not on the table. what happened today is not surprising. it is consistent with pyongyang's stance that it wants to separate itself from the south. we heard as recently as last week, pyongyang saying they are going to completely separate from the south they have announced this move to the united states. for the past year, north korea has been fortifying its border area and using heavy equipment

to dismantle these roads. the manner by which it destroyed the reds today has —— the roads, has ratcheted up already heightened because it used explosives. there was footage shared by the south korean military of blasts on those roads linking north to south and that prompted the south korean military to fire warning shots on its side of the border as a response, but it also prompted this response from the reunification ministry, condemning this move, saying it is backwards and abnormal, but really strengthening pyongyang's stance that it has no interest in re—unifying with the south. this is the latest in the continuation of heightened tensions. last week, north korea accused the south of flying drones with a huge amount of anti

north leaflets over pyongyang. initially, the south korean military denied that, and then they said they wouldn't comment, even after the north said this could be a declaration of war. you can't draw a straight line between those two incidents, but the general picture is a worrying one in the region, but also in the united states, the continuing tensions between the two koreas. the mother of a woman who died after coming into contact with a perfume bottle containing the nerve agent novichok is giving evidence at a public inquiry today. caroline sturgess�* daughter dawn died in 2018 after spraying herself with a contaminated bottle that had been discarded. she described her as a sensitive and kind person. she said the family found comfort that dawn was the only person killed during the salisbury poisonings when the potential harm was much, much more. ukraine says it shot down 12 attack drones launched by russia overnight.

but such interceptions are an almost nightly occurrence 1,000 days into russia's full—scale invasion. across the country, ukraine's air force relies on volunteers to help protect the skies, and with many men being called up to the frontline, more women are stepping in. 0ur eastern europe correspondent, sarah rainsford joined one patrol, who call themselves the witches of bucha. russia �*s attack drones arrive almost nightly here, forcing ukraine into this deadly game of search and destroy. so, outside the city, they are supported by volunteer teams. we followed one in a recent air raid as they rushed to help protect the skies. they call themselves the which is of buccha, because apart from him, they are women. stepping in as

ever more men are sent to the front line. a vet and a manicurist helping assemble a machine gun that is more than eight decades old. it is ancient, but effective. the team say it has downed three drones so far. they are saying they don't know how the drones will behave, and they are saying we need to work in the dark, essentially. 0n in the dark, essentially. on a tablet, this lady spot to drones in the air. but not close yet. translation: 0f close yet. translation: of course it does nervous work because we need to be focused, to react to the slightest sound. this is how the witches of buccha now spend their

weekends. lesson one on storming a building. not perfected yet, but these skills are empowering for women who lived through the russian takeover of their region and were terrified. i remember how we were under occupation. i rememberall the occupation. i remember all the horror. occupation. i rememberall the horror. i rememberthe occupation. i rememberall the horror. i remember the screams of my own child. i remember the dead people when we were fleeing. that's where i find the strength to go on. they combine — the strength to go on. they combine doing _ the strength to go on. they combine doing all - the strength to go on. they combine doing all this - the strength to go on. they combine doing all this with | combine doing all this with their dayjobs. a maths teacher and an office manager. tired of feeling helpless. you and an office manager. tired of feeling helpless.— feeling helpless. you cry and suffer for— feeling helpless. you cry and suffer for the _ feeling helpless. you cry and suffer for the people - feeling helpless. you cry and suffer for the people who - feeling helpless. you cry and j suffer for the people who are no longer here will stop those taken by this stupid war. then

they were recruiting women here and i tried it and did not fall apart. this full—scale war will soon be 1000 days old, and valentina �*s life has been transformed. but the women here refuse to give up believing in victory, and in their role trying to bring that about. a bbc investigation has found that the practice of incinerating much of the uk's household rubbish is as polluting as burning coal. almost half of all household waste now goes into industrial incinerators and recycling rates have stagnated. here's our environment correspondent matt mcgrath. steam billows down mandy royle's street from what she calls the monster next door. look how thick it is. it's blown straight at our houses and we're breathing all that in. her home in runcorn, in the north west of england, is a stone's throw from the uk's largest energy—from—waste incinerator. if you want to sit in

the garden and enjoy the sun, you've got the smell, the steam, flies, and then the noise, as well. i have lived to since 1998 and from 2015 they put the incinerator in the front garden. it felt like my front garden. it felt like my front carden. , . ., , , garden. ever since it has been a nightmare- _ garden. ever since it has been a nightmare. the _ garden. ever since it has been a nightmare. the company - garden. ever since it has been| a nightmare. the company say their site is closely monitored by the environment agency and the amount of noise and water vapour remain within permitted levels for the environment and human health. they used to bury rubbish in landfill sites like this, but the government imposed heavy taxes about worries regarding planet warming methane seeping from underground, so councils turned to burning. over the past decade there has been a rush to build energy from waste facilities, with many more in

the pipeline. all the incinerators are using increasing amount of black bag increasing amount of black bag in waste, but our investigation shows that burning this is the same as burning coal and that's because we are using increasing amounts of plastic. it makes energy from waste our dirtiest way of making electricity. we do have way of making electricity. - do have concerns about the building of new energy from waste plants. this can't be seen as just a way of getting out of jail seen as just a way of getting out ofjail for seen as just a way of getting out of jail for free seen as just a way of getting out ofjail for free and dealing with the whole management of waste. we raised these questions _ management of waste. we raised these questions with _ management of waste. we raised these questions with the - management of waste. we raised these questions with the body - these questions with the body that represents uk incinerator operators. in a statement they said... the government said they are considering the role waste incineration will play as it de capsizes and grows the economy.

for mandy, the personal impact of living next door to an energy from waste site is taking its toll. i energy from waste site is taking its toll.— energy from waste site is taking its toll. i am sort of stuck. taking its toll. i am sort of stuck- i — taking its toll. i am sort of stuck. i am _ taking its toll. i am sort of stuck. i am stuck- taking its toll. i am sort of stuck. i am stuck in - taking its toll. i am sort of stuck. i am stuck in a - taking its toll. i am sort of stuck. i am stuck in a rut i taking its toll. i am sort of- stuck. i am stuck in a rut down here. you can watch more on this story in the nightmare next door available on iplayer from 6pm this evening. tomorrow, we ll be looking into this issue more, looking at where these giant furnaces are built and how the companies that run them operate. american rapper sean combs is facing fresh allegations of rape, sexual abuse, and sexual assault. at least six new lawsuits were filed in a new york federal court monday, involving allegations spanning from 1995 to 2021. the accusers — two women and four men, who are remaining anonymous, allege that some of the assaults took place at mr combs' parties, which were attended by high—profile celebrities. the rapper is currently in pre—trial detention for charges of sex trafficking

and racketeering — which he denies. in response to the new allegations on monday, his attorneys issued a statement saying "mr. a statement saying... you are watching bbc news. apologies. we have more on this because entertainment reporter kj matthews says the allegations are mounting and getting more serious by the day. so so many so many are coming so many are coming forward now. of course, you know, these are civil allegations against him but six more people, as you've just stated today, and one of the people that came forward and said that he was sexually attacked when he was only 16 years old, so he was a minor. this is really the first

individual to come forward and make allegations against mr combs, stating that he was a minor when he allegedly raped him. so this is really a first. of course, mr combs �*s people are denying it but they have not responded to every single person that filed a lawsuit on monday, but they are basically saying that he can't sit around and respond to every single person that brings some sort of allegation against him. basicallyjust allegation against him. basically just saying that they are all money grabbers, essentially.— are all money grabbers, essentially. are all money grabbers, essentiall . ,, , ., essentially. stay with us on bbc news- _ hello again. we've been talking about the temperature a lot this week and over the couple of days, you'll notice it is going to turn much milder than it has been. you can see this illustrated on our air mass chart where we've got the yellows and also the ambers,

notjust today, especially tomorrow, but even as we go through the next few days. that does not mean it will be bone dry, it's actually going to be wet and windy. now today, it's a breezy day, mostly dry but there's a lot of cloud around and that's been producing some drizzly bits and pieces. the cloud should break as we go into the afternoon for some of us and it will brighten up but the lion's share of the sunshine today will be across the north of scotland. then we've got some rain coming in across the south—west later in the afternoon. temperatures 12 to 19 north to south. so, talking of later on in the day, you can see how we start off with all this cloud. the rain comes in from the south—west, pushing steadily north—eastwards. again, breezy, with exposure in particular, and some of the rain will be heavy and thundery, especially in the south. but once again, it is going to be a mild night. so we start on that note tomorrow. a lot of rain around. it's trying to edge northwards and eastwards, its passage being blocked by an area of high pressure on the near continent. but as it slowly moves towards the east, behind it,

it will brighten up a little bit but there will still be some showers and dependent on how much sunshine we get in the south—eastern corner, we could see highs of 20 or 21 but regardless, it will be mild, even in the rain. so as we head through thursday, again, a lot of dry weather around after the rain clears and then into the weekend we've got more wet and windy conditions coming our way. so the rain clears early doors. that leaves us with a lot of dry weather, a fair bit of sunshine around, but a peppering of showers in the north and also the west. temperatures 13 to about 19 degrees. and, again, another windy day with exposure. into friday then, and friday too sees a lot of dry weather to start the day. it's going to be windy, especially in the west. a risk of gales across the far north—west. you can see some showers and then some heavier rain pushes in from the west as well. temperatures ranging from 12 in lerwick, to 16 in hull, to 17 in london.

wage growth in the uk. to its lowest level since 2022. so what will the bank of england

duty. the boss of bmw tells the paris auto show that europe should cancel its planned ban on petrol and diesel cars. and going nuclear — google becomes the world's first company to use small reactors to power its data centres. welcome to business today. let's start in the uk where the latest data on wage growth have raised expecations of further cuts to the cost of borrowing this year. average wages, excluding bonuses, grew at an annual pace of 4.9% between june and august, falling below 5% for the first time since 2022. i'm joined by kathleen brooks, research director at xtb. kathleen, it does still show that wages are growing much faster than prices in general, but how is it shifting the market's expectations as to when the bank of england win

next at interest rates?