this is bbc news, the headlines: ukraine's the headlines: f or say russia has launched ukraine's f or say russia has launched an intercontinental ballistic missile at its territory, hitting the city of dnipro in the south—east —— ukraine's airforce say dnipro in the south—east —— ukraine's air force say russia have attacked. these are the pictures showing the damage from this russian missile strike. this happened early this morning. these pictures are from the state emergency service of ukraine. this residential building, also damage to a rehabilitation centre for people with disabilities. we have not had independent confirmation from

any russian authorities. we have reports from our sources in ukraine, from ukraine's air force and correspondence on the ground, but we have not had confirmation from any moscow kremlin —based sources yet. this is the bbc live page we are seeing with these images on screen right now. the live page is continually updated with the latest. these are from the state emergency service of ukraine. the significance if this is the case is that it would be the first time an intercontinental ballistic missile would have been used by russia against ukraine in this war, so a potentially significant escalation. these are moving pictures of the aftermath of the damage, just in in the last few moments. i am seeing these images for the first time with you. the

initial reports were not significant amounts of damage, which seems to be borne out from the first viewing. these types of missiles are large and they can carry nuclear payloads. we have had confirmation that that is not the case in this instance. the afp news agency say the russian launched intercontinental missile did not have a nuclear charge, so this wider context for the reports of this russian launched intercontinental ballistic missile are that in the last few days, we have had approvalfrom the last few days, we have had approval from the uk and the the last few days, we have had approvalfrom the uk and the us to use long—range missiles from ukraine into russian territory. we have had reports that that has taken place and in the last few hours, reports from the kremlin that they have shot down two uk made storm shadow

missiles, presumably over russian territories. we had that confirmation in the last couple of hours. also a development in the last few hours is that another aid package from the us was given the green light by the biden administration of things like ammunition and antipersonnel landmines. that will be heading from the us to ukraine. many commentators believe this is a surge of support from the joe surge of support from thejoe biden administration before the handover of power in the us to a donald trump administration where the support for ukraine is still open to question, given statements made by donald trump in the run—up to the election. i was speaking to a ukrainian mp in the last couple of hours and saying that donald trump's statements previously are worrying for ukraine. more

coverage on the live page. in the uk, politicians have been reflecting on the death of deputy prime ministerjohn prescott. deputy prime ministerjohn prescott. ~ , prescott. prime minister keir starmer is — prescott. prime minister keir starmer is speaking. - prescott. prime minister keir starmer is speaking. he - prescott. prime minister keir| starmer is speaking. he lived it. as one of the key architects of a labour government, john achieved that rare thing. he changed people's lives and he set the path for us all to follow. i will always be grateful to him for that. mr speaker, he did it all in his own way, with humour, pride, passion and total conviction. he truly was a one—off. there will be a moment for fuller tributes, but today i send my deepest condolences and i'm sure the whole house does, to john's wife pauline and his family, to the city of hull and

all who knew and loved him. his legacy lives on in all of us. i would like to update the house on my engagements at cop and 620. we live in a dangerous world. we all wish that wasn't the case, but it is. that means global problems are reaching into the lives of our constituents more and more. climate change causes extreme weather, like the terrible floods we saw in september, and it drives down economic growth. conflicts drive up the prices of fuel, food and energy, and threaten our stability and security. and both are drivers of migration. so to serve the british people, we must tackle these problems head—on, because they do not stop at our borders, and this is the fundamental point. at every meeting i had at cop at the

g20... ,, , ., , 620... studio: that is keir starmer. — 620... studio: that is keir starmer, the _ 620... studio: that is keir starmer, the prime - 620... srumo: that is keir| starmer, the prime minister, detailing some of his recent engagements after making those tributes to john engagements after making those tributes tojohn prescott, the former labour deputy prime minister, one of the key architects behind the new labour movement of tony blair and later 6ordon labour movement of tony blair and later gordon brown. he was seen as the cement that bound various factions of the labour party at that time together. he had a style all of his own. he was straight talking, could be powerful but also could be a deal—maker and a power broker. tributes have been flooding in from political leaders in the uk and around the world. he played a significant role internationally in his role in climate change and the kyoto talks in the 1990s.

applause. still campaigning long after leaving office... this is hull's finest export! ..john prescott was labour to his fingertips. has she done another u—turn, jeremy? apparently, yes. apparently. 0h, blimey. you can't trust this woman. she does u—turns. .. in the 2017 election, the plain—speaking prescott was on the stump forjeremy corbyn, taking aim at theresa may. and you can't trust her. # things can only get better.# but it was new labour 20 years earlier that putjohn prescott on the political centre stage. after labour's landslide election win, john prescott became deputy prime minister and a key player in the blair 6overnment. # can only get better.# quite a journey for a man who began life in prestatyn in north wales, leaving school at 15 before working as a steward in the merchant navy. studying as an adult at ruskin college in oxford

gavejohn prescott confidence and he became an mp in 1970, rising through the party ranks and playing a vital role in the former labour leader john smith's campaign in 1993 to end the union block vote. there's no doubt this man, our leader, put his head on the block by saying, basically, "i fervently believe" because that's what he believes of a relationship and a strong one with the trade unions and the labour party. he's put his head there. now�*s our time to vote. give us a bit of trust and let's have this vote supported. applause. john prescott spent a decade as tony blair's number two — often mediating the stormy relationship between the prime minister and the chancellor, gordon brown. he was secretary of state for the environment and then local government — an old labour link to the party's past. ever ready to mock new labour pretensions, here, the claws out for his colleague, peter mandelson. you know what his name is? he's called peter. he was never the slickest politician.

those five pledges are essential. you can see i can't find them. i knew this would happen. you know me. i can't use the boards. i'm old labour. i've got to still look to my old ways. john prescott�*s most notorious moment came during the 2001 election, when his short fuse ignited and he punched an egg—throwing protester. tony blair's response when told was, "john will bejohn." tribal, rumbustious, a straight—talking bruiser. we're on a roll, aren't we? for five decades, john prescott moved with the currents of the party he loved. tributes have been pouring in.

i mean, people often used to see him as traditional labour as opposed to new labour, and that was true to a degree. i mean, he obviously came from a completely different background from me. he reached parts of the labour party and parts of the electorate that probably i couldn't reach. but he was actually an innovator. he was highly intelligent. that was sometimes masked by, you know, people used to make fun of his speeches and his use of the english language. but he was an incredibly direct communicator. even if the syntax never quite made sense, the sentiment was very powerful and made complete sense. and ifound him, you know, we had our disagreements from time to time but he was loyal, committed and an enormous help to me. he had a fantastic gut instinct about politics.

even though you say you knew it was coming, it must be an emotional thing to hear this and also to know someone that you were so close to isn't here any more. yeah, and i came to have a huge, genuine affection for him. i mean, it was, it surprised people because they always thought of us as the sort of yin and yang and i was never sure who was the yin and who was the yang and maybe it switched around at points. but i also had a lot of funny times with him. i mean, he could be a very amusing guy and i wasjust thinking this morning about the time when in the 2001 election, remember when someone smashed an egg on his head and he turned around and punched the guy and laid him out. and this caused a huge fracas and was an immense media story and we had to give a press conference in the election campaign the next day. some people would say, "he is the deputy prime minister, you can't have a deputy prime minister thumping a voter".

and then there were other people who said, yeah, but, you know, he had this egg slammed on his head and he turned around and whacked the guy and a lot of people think, fair enough. so we had a long debate about it at the press conference and when i was asked about it, ijust said, "well, john isjohn". he was one of the all—time greats of the labour party. i mean, no ifs, no buts. he was, in many senses, the anchor of new labour and our three times successful elected labour government, the longest labour government in the country's history, and he was completely central to that. he was, in many ways, the cement that kept new labour together, the glue that kept us together in

his own very inimitable way. how did he do that? was it his beliefs, his values, his personality? how did he manage to play that role? and sheer brute force! the thing you have to understand aboutjohn, people say, you know, he was the working—class bit of labour. well, yes, he was in a sense, he had great trade union roots. and he was a fighter working for working people in this country, no doubt at all about that. but he wanted working people to get on. he was for the aspirational working class. he wanted people to have all the opportunities that he had had. he wanted people to get on. he wanted them to be properly paid, properly rewarded, properly acknowledged, treated with real dignity as they got on in life. and in that sense, he was an essential part of new labour. sometimes people say he was an add—on to new labour or a bolt on like some sort

of fashion accessory to new labour. that doesn't quite get it, i'm afraid. he was central to it because new labour was about both of those things. it was about, as it were, aspirational working class people in this country and the more middle—class types of the university educated ones. and he bridged that very effectively indeed. he believed in it. that's why he was so central to them. he had many colourful moments on camera, on the campaign, punching someone, things like that. what was he like when the cameras were not on him? was he very similar? behind closed doors, when those big moments happened, what kind of person was he? he could be one of two things or both things together in any given meeting. he could be very robust

and quite angry and, you know, shouting the odds and laying down the law, and everyone would be sitting bolt upright wondering what was going to come next. but he could also be the sober one, the broker, the person who brought people together, who made sure at the end of the meeting there was an agreement, there was a solution. he was both those things, and many other things besides. i mean, he was a force of nature, and ifjohn wanted to get his own way, if he thought something was important, if he had locked into something, whatever it was, something to do with the party or some policy, or something that he really cared about, he would lock into it. he was like a dog with a bone and he wouldn't let go. but he was also a negotiator. he understood that there had to be give and take. there had to be compromise and other people had to be accommodated. he was a weird and

wonderful guy, you know, who made things work at the end of the day. and that is what made us successful in government. he made sure the government worked. he was incredibly loyal to the prime minister, tony blair. i mean, people said, you know, yin and yang, and how could two people who were so incredibly different ever have got on and done what they did? but you see, john, for all his disagreements about whatever the issue was on that day, he would, as i say, reach and outcome, reach a solution and then, even if he wasn't completely happy with the outcome, he would go out and fight for it. really loyal. and he would do so in his own inimitable way. the syntax, as tony blair said this morning, wasn't always right, but it was the sense that mattered withjohn. and you were never left in any doubt about the sense of what he was saying in any given time.

the reflections of lord peter mandelson on the death ofjohn prescott. next to the middle east. in the last hour there's been more strikes on southern beirut. this is the scene live — the israeli military had issued an evacuation order. lebanon's official national news agency has reported a number of violent strikes on the haret hreik neighbourhood. this comes as us special envoy has arived in israel, where he'll hold talks with the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, as washington tries to secure a ceasefire between israel and hezbollah in lebanon. meanwhile, a 30—year—old man was killed when shrapnel from a rocket struck a playground in the northern israeli town of nahariya on thursday, israel's mdamedical service and local media said. the israeli military said around 10 rockets were launchedfrom lebanon towards nahariya. channel 12 said three rockets hit the coastal town. hospital officials in northern 6aza say many people have been killed in the latest israeli airstrikes.

at least five buildings in beit lahiya and gaza city were hit early this morning. the israeli military made no immediate comment. it's intensified its offensive in northern 6aza in recent weeks, it says, to prevent hamas from regrouping. now the latest from our breaking news in ukraine this hour that the city of dnipro was the site, ukraine says, of an intercontinental ballistic missile launched from russia. if that is confirmed, it would be the first time russia has used that weapon in this war. vitaly shevchenko is bbc monitoring's russia editor. we have been seeing videos emerging from ukraine showing apparently what is known as re—entry vehicles,

ie, the attack parts of a missile, coming down in the middle of the night. it's pitch dark, it's not possible to verify where exactly this is happening. but these videos appear to be new, they claim to show a russian rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile attack in dnipro in ukraine. i have to say it again, we haven't confirmed that this is indeed what happened, but yesterday there was an expectation among ukrainian commentators that russia was preparing to launch this missile. this morning, the ukrainian air defence force said it had shot down an intercontinental ballistic missile without saying what type. but people believe that this is a rubezh. in terms of damage, authorities on the ground saying that it is kind of minimal, several houses damaged, there's a fire, two people injured in dnipro,

however, they are saying that an industrial facility was damaged in the strike and they are being very vague about what sort of facility, how badly damaged it was, so it is possible that it was targeted by this missile strike. but as things stand things, things are less than clear, there is a lot of uncertainty about what is going on. the kremlin refused to confirm or deny that moscow used an intercontinental ballistic missile this morning. but it's reasonable to expect some clarity to emerge, something in terms of evidence collected by the ukrainians. i'm sure they would be keen to show to the world that this is what russia has done and that this is a clear escalation. and just talk us through the process, not necessarily linked to this

specific incident, but how do you get confirmation out of the kremlin and russia? what is the process? what do you look for and where do statements come from and when, normally? russia has been reasonably quick in saying that it was attacked with long—range missiles fired by ukraine. this is what happened with atacms missiles two days ago and this morning the russian defence ministry said it had shot down two uk storm shadow missiles. the point russia is making is we are being attacked and we need to respond. when it comes to actions taken by the russian army, russia is much slower and of course there are some things it prefers not to say, including various violations that it has been accused

of committing in ukraine. but we would be looking at statements by the russian defence ministry first of all. we're keeping a close eye on what it's saying and also the kremlin, which hasn't said anything about this so far. and also, there's a host of various commentators speaking through the russian media who have access and links to the government and the licence to speak about such things. so i would say that within the next few hours, we will have more clarity about whether indeed, an intercontinental ballistic missile has been used in ukraine for the first time, and for the first time ever in a combat situation. let's bring you up—to—date with what we do and don't know about the intercontinental ballistic missile sent from russia into

ukraine, hitting the city of dnipro. let's look at the images of the aftermath that we have. two clarifications to make. there were a number of different missiles launched by russia, hitting dnipro, and only one of them was an intercontinental ballistic missile. that statement is from the ukrainian authorities. we have not had independent verification from russian authorities that they have launched an intercontinental ballistic missile. but kyiv is saying they did in the early hours of this morning and we can see some of the damage done notjust by the not just by the intercontinental ballistic missile, but other missiles launched too. the significance of this would be that this would be the first time russia has used a weapon like this in

the war so far in ukraine. we haven't had confirmation from russia that it has launched that missile. 0ur correspondence on the ground, news agencies and authorities in ukraine, but no confirmation from the kremlin that that has happened. let's take you live to the house of commons. a committee hearing is under way. that is the defence secretary here in the uk, and he is being asked about ukraine and the uk. the defence secretary has told the defence committee that he won't comment on the use of storm shadow missiles because he won't be drawn on operational detail. he did say that defence intelligence will reveal today that the front line is now less stable than at any time since the early days of the full—scale russian invasion in 2022. so no comment

from the defence secretary on those storm shadow missiles. plenty more coverage i'm going on the bbc live page on events in ukraine. i am going to take you to some other live pictures now, a volcano erupting it again in iceland. thankfully, the damage not significant as yet. this is not farfrom the capital. 0ne town nearby has been evacuated as a precaution, but no major damage taking place. this is the tenth time this volcano has erupted in the last few years. more coverage online and we will be back in just a few minutes with all the headlines at the top of the hour. forthe headlines at the top of the hour. for the moment, headlines at the top of the hour. forthe moment, i'm lewis vaughanjones. this is bbc

news. hello again. we've had a combination of rain, sleet and also some snow across the south—west of england this morning and also strong winds, gusty winds courtesy of this area of low pressure which is continuing to push southwards and eastwards. another weather front crossing the north of scotland, introducing further snow showers as well. here we could have as much as 5—10cm blowing in the wind, but things easing through the afternoon across the south—west. we will still see some wintry showers coming in on the wind across south—west scotland and northern ireland, north—west england and north wales. but aside from that, it's going to be a mostly dry and cold day with some sunshine. as we head through the evening and overnight, the wintry showers continue across the north of scotland, coming across northern ireland, isle of man, northern england, wales, to the midlands and the south—east.

clear skies means there is a risk of ice on untreated surfaces and a widespread frost with temperatures widely below freezing. so that takes us into tomorrow. tomorrow, too, we are looking at some wintry showers. we have this ridge of high pressure building in, so that will kill off some of the showers across northern scotland. but there will still be some coming in on the wind across the north—west of the country blowing inland, a few coming down the east coast and again a lot of dry weather, some sunshine. not quite as cold as today. it will still feel cold if you are out and about. then we see a dramatic change in the weather as this deep area of low pressure comes in. we are pulling in warmer south—westerly winds, or milder, i should say, as represented by the yellows and the ambers, and with that we are also going to bring in some heavy rain. as this bumps into the cold air, we will see some snow across parts of england and also scotland. even at lower levels, the vale of york, for example, could have as much as 5—10cm. these are the values you could see on the hills. strong winds, gales, even

severe gales, stormy conditions for some with exposure, and what will happen is as the milder airfollows in behind this, the snow will start to melt and we will see further rain. so there's a risk of flooding as well. so disruptive weather on the cards. the snow then continues to push steadily northwards and eastwards into the north—east of scotland. as we head on into the overnight period of saturday into sunday, there will be further heavy rain and it looks unsettled into the beginning of the week. but milder.

live from london. this is bbc news. ukraine claimed dnipro is being targeted by an intercontinental ballistic missile, the first time such a weapon has been used in 1008 of the war. russia says it downed two british made storm shadow cruise missiles, and refuses to say whether it launched john prescott — uk's former deputy prime minister and a towering labourfigure — has died at the age of 86. and live from iceland, where lava is spewing from this volcano near the capital for the tenth time in three years. welcome to the programme. ukraine says the city of dnipro, in the southeast,

has been targeted by a russian intercontinental ballistic