and the budget settlement that was agreed by the previous government. so we stepped in to protect the cap at £3, which means that for rural routes in particular, where the bus fares could have leapt back up to 13 or £14 in some instances, we're keeping it at much lower at £3. but crucially for fares in cities where previously the fare might have been even less than £2, we're setting it so that operators can't raise fares in line more than in line with inflation, so we wouldn't expect all fares to rise to £3. that is a maximum amount. what's really important, though, about this settlement today is that we're improving reliability and frequency of services for lots of rural areas. they don't have a bus at all, or they don't have one that turns up before 9 am or after 5 pm. this unprecedented level of funding, particularly into rural areas, will vastly improve services, their reliability and frequency. but protecting the cap, as you put it, means increasing fares

for lots of people. and one of our viewers has been in touch. kay carter mead says her sister in law is a cleaner and a dinner lady. she has to take three buses to get to work. it's going to cost her, therefore an extra £15 a weekjust to get to work. where is she meant to find the money on? well, i think for people that rely on those kind of numbers of buses, they'd be unlikely to catch three single fares. i think it'd be much more economical to buy a kind of weekly card in lots of instances. this is a real life example. one of our viewers says in their family, somebody�*s going to have to find an extra £15 a week, and that's money they don't have. so what are they meant to do? well, if we hadn't taken action, the fare cap would have. the fare cap would have been lifted entirely. so we've stepped in with £150 million to protect that level of fare. ..up for people. but they shouldn't go up. so depending on where... depending on where this lady lives, it shouldn't go up to £3. if she's relying on bus services, particularly in urban areas, as i say, they shouldn't be allowed to

increase more than inflation, so it shouldn't go up that much. but we are keeping fares at a level that will protect those services in rural areas and crucially, improving the reliability and frequency. so it means more people can get the bus. it's not an option for too many people, and too many towns and villages are completely cut off from public transport. you are clearly trying to sort of reset this and put a focus on bus services that, you know, more than 3 million people rely on. but there's an important question here. you say you're protecting the cap at £3 for now. what happens at the end of 2025? i mean, can you tell people today that the fares are going to be held at that level for good? the fare cap is funded until the end of 2025. so we'll use this period to design what comes next. but for the funding settlement that we've been... we've agreed with the treasury is to protect the fare cap until the end of 2025. so we'll design what comes after that. but crucially, this is... up at the end of 2025. well, yeah, it's only funded until the end of 2025. but this this settlement crucially, is a record level of investment, particularly for rural areas,

places like devon, kent, essex that got very, very little under the previous government because of the way they designed their funding settlements. they pitted areas against each other. they insisted on competition and they rewarded those areas who frankly, invested in the best bid writers rather than based on need. we've designed a formula that allocates the funding based on need, deprivation and bus mileage in the area so that we can truly improve improve bus services for every corner of the country. you're also taking a different tack on the trains. you're creating great british rail, which you say is nationalising the railways. but if it's not going to actually lower fares, which you're not promising, the companies that are leasing trains will still make profits as we understand it. so what's the point if fares might still go up and people can still make profits out of the railways? well, i was very clear that my immediate priority was improving the reliability and reducing cancellations we've received. —— cancellations. we've experienced record delays and cancellations over the last few years on our railways, and that has

massively undermined confidence for people to use them and it's reduced our revenue. so stepping in immediately and resetting industrial relations with the workforce has led to improved passenger confidence. and we've achieved record revenues on some of our lines, particularly lner, where we've seen reduced cancellations and improved performance. but crucially, the important thing about bringing railways into public ownership is that you combine track and train decisions. over the last 30 years of privatisation, we've seen the infrastructure operator working in one direction and 1a different train operating companies pulling in a different one, which means the passenger is the last person that the industry focus. several several lines are already in public ownership. i mean, why would a government organisation be any better at running the train lines than other operators? i mean, northern rail, for example, is already in public ownership and everybody watching north of about watford today knows that the performance of that line is absolutely woeful. so why would louise hague, sitting in whitehall,

be any better at running a train service that people have been trying their best to do it for years. —— louise haigh. well, first and foremost, it's definitely not going to be me. i've got no experience of running a rail service. it's not going to be me. so this is crucially no great british rail, british railways. you call yourself the passenger in chief. exactly. but why should people have any faith that an organisation set up by the government and okay, it will be an arm's length body would be better at doing this? well, the irony is actually over the last few years, particularly since covid, there's been more operational interference by my department than than previously. so we've got the worst of all worlds. we're paying private operators hundreds of millions of pounds in fees, and they're paying that out to dividends to their shareholders. whilst we've got this operational interference from whitehall officials, what we want to do is set up great british railways that will be arm's length, operationally independent from the government. and that's why i'm the passenger in chief and not the fat controller.

and they will be running the railways in the interests of the passenger and the taxpayer. at the moment we've got, as i say, all these competing interests. and it's not even necessarily whether it's about in public or private ownership, but it is exclusively focussed on delivering for the passenger and by bringing track and train back together, we will ensure that investment in infrastructure has a knock on effect of delivery for the passenger. we reduce those delays and cancellations, we improve the reliability of the railways and we ensure the culture of the railways delivers for people. but you didn't drive a hard bargain when it came to the train drivers strike, so you got people back to work by offering them pretty chunky, inflation busting pay deals. what strings did you attach to that offer? well, firstly, it wasn't inflation busting because we were looking for the last three years. it was actually below inflation and the previous government... altogether, it was a generous deal. itwas a... it was a deal over three years when inflation at that period had been 12%. and we set it at 4.5%. so what strings did you attach? we had agreements with with the drivers union in particular to take forward agreements around training. and we're going through those agreements at

the moment in order to look at moving to a competency based training, which will improve the settlement for the taxpayer and improve and streamline delivery of particularly new rolling stock when it comes on. there are loads of archaic settlements across the railways that we're finding every day, and we need to work with the unions and with the employers, the operators at the moment to get get through them and to make sure that we have a modern, efficient set of terms and conditions for the railways. because i'm very clear we don't have that at the moment. but i inherited a picture where we had the longest running industrial dispute on our railways, and it was my priority to fix that, to get that back to work, to restore confidence in the railways. and then when we have a less combative environment, then we can work to deliver those workforce reforms. and i'm pleased that we're already starting to see progress. they have already had the pay deal, and it's good to have you with us for the first time, but we have talked about you and yourjob before. many viewers will remember they might have heard of you for the first time when your views on the ferry company, p&0, were reported. do you still think that p&0 is a rogue operator? i think everyone agrees that

what p&0 ferries did two and a half years ago was completely unacceptable. it was illegal. a rogue operator. i accept that my language was an unhelpful distraction at the time, particularly particularly at that moment. —— at the time, particularly at that moment. but what i am pleased that we are able to have done as a government, and what i think was lost in the reporting, was that we are legislating to ensure that p&0 ferries and illegal sacking of those 800 workers can never happen again. would you get on a p&0 ferry now? at the time you said you'd boycott it and other people should do so too. i would like to see p&0 ferries implement their seafarers charter and abide by the minimum wage regulations that we are bringing into force on the 1st of december, and then and then i'd be very happy to get on a p&0 ferry. 0k. we're going to talk about another issue now, which is really important to our viewers, which is social care. now, one of the government's huge problems

is that they promised that they would solve how we care for the elderly and vulnerable in england. and for more than a year, labour has promised in this studio to reveal their plans. but multiple sources have told us in the last couple of weeks there's something of a standoff at the top of government, a genuine impasse, one whitehall insider told me. the health department is keen to crack on with reform, i'm told — the treasury, understandably, perhaps, is worried about the cost, and they're both seeking a political steerfrom number ten and the chancellor, the prime minister and the health secretary are due to meet to consider what to do a week tomorrow. this is what wes streeting had to say yesterday. at the same time as we're taking those immediate steps to tackle the crisis, we're building both the ten—year plan for the nhs. we've already launched the biggest national conversation ever, and the prime minister and the chancellor and i are thinking _ about how to do the same thing with social care. so as well as taking immediate actions, we make the right long term decisions. and we know from you there are so many thousands of families caught up in this, a real dilemma. here's just one example of why it matters. deborah crisp has been in touch to explain why she thinks the system has to change.

three years ago, my 98—year—old mother had to go into a care home due to a dementia and other health issues. it's a wonderful care home. she's really, really happy there. she funded it via the sale of her retirement flat, just under £200,000. and now that money has gone. local authorities say they cannot fund her to stay where she is, and she will need to be moved somewhere else. and we feel that due to her multiple health issues, it would be catastrophic for her to be moved elsewhere. and we really fear for her safety now. for her safety. now, louise haigh, you were chair of the parliamentary group on social care, so i know it's not yourjob now, but you are familiar with this issue. do you accept that the longer the government takes to make its mind up, the worse this situation gets forfamilies not just like deborah's, but people stuck in here and people stuck in hospital? yeah, absolutely. it's really urgent that we fix this issue, and countless of your viewers will have been in exactly the same situation that deborah finds herself in now. you know, watching that, that

was exactly the situation my grandma was in until until she died. it's... you know, for too long, we've let this problem fester. and that's why it was really important that we stepped in to establish the fair pay agreement in legislation. that was actually one of the really key things that my all party group looked at with the previous social care minister, gillian keegan, when she was still in parliament. this is about the longer term overhaul. now, your manifesto said that there would be plans for a national care service. wes streeting, as shadow health secretary 18 months ago, sat in that chair and said that the plan would come. we haven't seen the plan. there is no suggestion that it is imminent. we know there's a meeting shortly between three people at the top of government. i suppose the question many people wonder is how can you convince them you really are taking this seriously when there's no sign of your long term plan? well, just a few, you know, four months into government, wes streeting has set out

the ten—year plan for the nhs. and crucially, a big part of that reform is to move to prevention and to community care. now that will that community care element will start to ease pressures on social care. in the budget, there was £600 million allocated through local authorities for social care. you're making care homes pay national insurance. that's not even going to touch the sides. some providers told me this week they might not even be able to. they might have to close down because of that extra cost. well, and that kind of funding will be set out as we develop through the budget and through the through the allocations. but the fair pay agreement, i can't stress how important that will be, because there were 150,000 vacancies in the care sector when we entered government, and that is precisely because there aren't the progression opportunities in the care sector. too many care workers aren't paid properly, despite it being a really important and in a lot of cases, a really medicalised, highly skilled job that paid not faroff minimum wage. so we need to make sure we are tackling those long term issues in the workforce with progression opportunities properly paid and properly negotiated on a collective basis. and do you want to involve

the other parties in putting together a solution here? i think wes streeting was on your programme just a few weeks ago and said exactly that. i think it's really important that we build that long term consensus, because this problem has plagued our politics for too long. women who usually go running in the early morning or evening say they're having to change their routes because they don't feel safe. almost three quarters of women told the this girl can campaign that while it's darker outside, they can't do their usual exercise routines for fear of being heckled, cat—called or threatened. natalie bell reports. people have commented on my running. commenting on my appearance. things about parts of your body. - some of the harassment women say they face on a weekly basis when they go out for a run. and when dusk hits, the problem intensifies. we've had cars literally just following you, and then turning around, obviously, and coming back again, and it's very unnerving. the only times i can really fit

in my runs are really, really early in the morning or after work, and it is dark. being a runner myself, i also know this feeling all too well. so i'm just about to leave the house to go for my evening run, and the last time i ran at night a car beeped at me, and then that same car followed me further down the street, and it was a group of men inside, and they wound the window down and started heckling me, which made me really anxious. so i'm hoping there's no incidents tonight. bleep. there were three incidents in that one run, mainly groups of teenagers shouting things as i ran past. and then a girl put her hand right in front of my face as i ran past her to distract me. and then there was a wolf whistle as well. itjust really put me off, really made me feel intimidated, and ijust couldn't wait to get back from the run, actually. two thirds of women say they experience abuse while out running, yet few report

incidents to police. and in the winter months, nearly three quarters of women change their outdoor activity routines because of safety fears. i've got the function on my watch to be able to be tracked. always carry my phone in case of emergency. i have ran early in the morning holding a torch. i do feel saferjust holding that torch, like it can be used as a light, but also as a means of protecting myself. a woman whose body was found inside the boot of a car has been named by police. 24—year—old harshita brella from corby, northamptonshire, was found by officers in the early hours of thursday in a vehicle in ilford, in east london over 100 miles away from her home. police were first alerted to concerns for her welfare on wednesday and have begun a murder investigation. police say there is no wider risk to the public. now for a game of guess who.

can you tell the difference between one of the most famous voices in broadcasting, sir david attenborough, and his ai generated clone? here is a clip of the real sir david talking about his new series asia. if you think you've seen the best the natural world has to offer, think again. there's nowhere else on earth with so many untold stories. welcome, then, to asia. now listen to this... donald trump has nominated florida congressman matt gaetz as the next attorney general, a move that has generated significant controversy due to gaetz�*s legal history. and james webb space telescope recently made a jaw—dropping discovery. catching sight of massive supermassive black holes from the early universe. nato is preparing for the worst case

scenario — a large scale evacuation of wounded troops in the event of a war with russia. what do you think? could you tell the difference? those items you just heard were found on a website by some of our collegues here at the bbc. there are several sites that offer ai—generated voices of the trusted broadcaster. the bbc also contacted sir david in light of this. here's his response. this morning, the website posed another clip clarifying its stance. let's set the record straight. unless mr attenborough has been moonlighting for us in secret and under an assumed name, with work authorisation in the united states, he is not on our payroll. i am not david attenborough.

we are both male british voices, for sure. however, i am not david attenborough for anyone out there who might be confused. we are not naming the website. drjennifer williams researches ai audio and ethics surrounding artificial intelligence. here she explains how voice clones like these can be created. there's actually a few different ways that you can get a voice clone that matches so closely. one would be to scrape the internet of a target, for example, sir david attenborough collecting enough of his data to create a model of his voice, and then, of course, putting words in his mouth. another way is that it could potentially happen accidentally. so there are no safeguards in place to guarantee that a synthetic voice is uniquely different from a real person. so by scraping the internet, what kind of mechanisms who's doing it?

we know that there are websites out there who are using these ai generated voice to get their messages across, for whatever reasons, but what kind of organisations do it? surprisingly a lot. so before this interview, i did a quick google search, and i found that actually there are tools that you could go to right now and get a clone of the voice. i don't know how they they're making it. —— i don't know how they're making it. they're probably, of course, scraping the web, but it's... anyone could make a clone of david attenborough's voice. that's absolutely extraordinary. and you can hearfrom his response when we told him about this, that he was disturbed. he's obviously upset about this. just the implications of this going forward. arguably, what could these different companies be using these voices for, especially trusted voices like sir david's? i think some people probably see it as a creative outlet,

so they may want to be doing something like humour or parody. then, of course, there's the nefarious purposes of creating an actual voice and then presenting that as an authoritative figure for various misinformation or disinformation. but i think it's important to make the distinction between, you know, creative uses of voice cloning technology and these nefarious, uh, you know, uses that present falsely as someone. how aware do you think that the public are about the use of these ai—generated clones? it's becoming more and more commonplace, i think, to talk about voice cloning. and i don't think that we need to be in a state of fear and hide ourselves away from the internet orfrom other conversations, but it is important to just be aware that this technology exists. it didn't exist several years ago, and it wasn't in the hands of of everyone online for free. —— of everyone online for free.

so i think raising awareness about the issue and just being aware of how the technology is developing and even thinking about, you know, legal frameworks and regulatory frameworks that will help protect people. and, drjennifer, just in terms of learning how to deal with this, i guess arguably, what could we do? because we know that the music industry has issues with this, especially ai—generated music content. are there ways of protecting ourselves from it? so i recommend an approach called the sift method. stop. investigate the source. find other sources. then, you know, really think about what what is the context here. so anytime you see something that might be out of place, just stop. examine it. think about is this supported by other types of evidence or other types of information sources. and then what is the context? you know what what is this a political advert? is this... you know, what is the topic? a major retailer has opened

to customers on a sunday on the isle of lewis in the hebrides. the tesco's in the main town, stornoway. the move has divided an island where hanging out the washing on the sabbath was once frowned upon. 0ur scotland correspondent catriona renton reports. birds squawk. sabbath observance has survived on lewis, even after it disappeared from most other parts of scotland. around 7000 people live in the main town, stornoway. the bible's fourth commandment lays down that sunday is a holiday for worship and rest from work. —— is a holy day for worship and rest from work. st martin's, church of scotland there — it's dominated by steeples... this minister believes it should stay that way, and seven—day opening from tesco's is not essential. the culture here is very distinctive, and that culture seems to be increasingly eroded when you have shops now opening on a sunday. i'm concerned, disappointed

because i'm christian, and i fully believe that god has given us his word and that word says that there is one day for his worship. tesco's decision to open on sunday is controversial. at this packed public meeting nine days ago, a show of hands of those against, and a petition attracted almost 2,000 signatures asking that it does not go ahead. many of those against not for religious reasons, but for a lifestyle. there's no such thing as sunday opening of the bar. this local councillor represents part of the island and has been reflecting on what his constituents have told him. i think it will be a fairly mixed reaction. but i would gauge that probably most folks — when i say most, as a percentage, maybe 60—40, 75—25, 70—30 would be against sunday tesco's, tesco's opening on a sunday. because it does mean a seachange in what's going on in the town on a sunday. so i would suspect that most

of my constituents would we be marginally against it. —— so i would suspect that most of my constituents would probably be marginally against it. long gone are the sundays when children's play parks were closed, and the cinema now opens. over the past 20 years or so there have been significant changes on the isle of lewis. on a sunday you can get a flight or a ferry, and some pubs and restaurants are open. but what about opening a supermarket? is that a step too far? it's there if people want to use it, and if you don't use it that's also fine. me personally, i won't be there tomorrow, but that's not to say i won't be in the future. if the whole place was shut i would understand, but it's not. so if i can buy a pint of beer i should be able to buy a pint of milk. there are people who will benefit from tesco's being open on sunday, and that's great, but there are people who are going to be hurt by it, and it's all how it's dealt with. i look back to my childhood and i hated sundays. - you know? but now i actually like it i when there's a slower pace

on the isle on friday. totally against it. we moved up here from yorkshire 3a years ago and what attracted us was the peace and quiet and the way of life. we are christians, but that's nothing to do with it, we like the way of life. in a statement, a tesco spokesperson said: and we will see in just a few hours' time what islanders choose. will they shun sunday shopping, or has that ship sailed? catriona renton, bbc news, in stornoway. wa nt to ta ke want to take you live to berlin in germany is that we are

monitoring this shot, this protest against president putin. it is taking place in berlin. there is one in london as well. we are seeing two former political prisoners in russia who were released, they are just in the russia who were released, they arejust in the middle of russia who were released, they are just in the middle of that scram. we are taking very much for keeping an eye of the massive anti—putin protest. you are watching bbc news. hello again. we've already started to see some snow falling over the higher ground of scotland through this morning. that's going to continue as we go through the next few days. that's the scene in the highlands at the moment. you can see snow—topped mountains, and those snow showers continuing to feed in during the afternoon. showery rain across much of northern ireland, into parts of northern england, wales, eventually the midlands as well. further south and east a little bit drier, some brighter skies here. a bit of sunshine, too, for parts of eastern scotland,

north—east england. but chilly, or cold, really, across scotland, 4 or 5 degrees here. 9 or 10 celsius further south. now, tonight, the area of showery rain will continue to spread to the south—east but with clear skies across northern england, scotland, there is going to be a hard frost. temperatures down to —5, maybe —8 degrees celsius. the coldest night of the autumn so far. and with those snow showers continuing to feed across the far north of scotland, the risk of some ice as well. but into monday, we are keeping an eye on this area of low pressure moving in from the atlantic. it contains milder air with rain but the problem is when that bumps into the colder air and that's when we are going to see the risk of some snow monday night into tuesday. but during monday day there will be further snow showers into northern scotland. plenty of dry and sunny weather to these northern and eastern areas before the cloud and the rain spreads in from the south—west containing that mild air. 13 degrees in plymouth on monday afternoon, whereas further north, temperatures barely above freezing. then it's monday night,

as that rain, as you can see, moves further north and eastwards, a spread of snow over higher ground of northern ireland, but in particular the south pennines, into north wales, the north midlands eventually into the early part of tuesday morning. 1—3 centimetres, even down to some low levels as well, but 5—10 centimetres over the higher ground. this is likely to cause some disruption to your tuesday morning as that continues to spread to the south—east. there will be a mixture of rain, some sleet around the edge of this area of snow but it could well bring a bit of falling snow for some in eastern areas on tuesday. but then during tuesday this northerly wind continuing to bring in some snow showers and the very cold air. a very cold week to come, temperatures 4, 5 degrees celsius at the best. widespread night—time frosts as well with further wintry showers. bye— bye.

live from london. this is bbc news. at least 10 people are killed after russia hits ukraine's power infrastructure. president zelensky says his country was targeted by 120 missiles and 90 drones. officials in northern gaza say at least 26 people have been killed by an israeli strike on a residential building. rescuers are trying to reach many more trapped under the rubble. police name a woman found dead in the boot of a car in east london as harshita brella from northamptonshire. china's president xi holds his final meeting withjoe biden — and pledges to work with incoming us

president donald trump. ukraine's president zelenksy says russia has launched around 120 missiles and 90 drones in a "massive" combined air strike on his country's energy structure. at least 10 people have been killed. the foreign minister andriy sybiha described it as "one of the largest russian air attacks... against peaceful cities, sleeping civilians, critical infrastructure." ukraine's energy operator announced "emergency power cuts" in the kyiv region. the bombardment also forced power cuts in two regions in the east. people in kyiv immediately made their way to underground stations to shelter from the assault. after the attack, emergency workers began examining the damage. the debris of a missile was lifted from one residential building in the capital. also struck were mykolaiv and the black sea port

of 0desa, which experienced a city—wide power cut.