welcome to newsday. i'm katie silver. more than a million people are without power after russia's strikes on ukraine's power grid on wednesday night. russian forces launched 90 missiles and 100 drones in an attack that lasted for more than nine hours, according to kyiv�*s military administration. ukrainian emergency workers are servicing at least 1a affected regions, including kyiv, odesa, kharkiv, and sumy. authorities say people could be without electricity for days. the attack is a massive blow to ukraine's energy system, which is crucial to both front line troops and civilians as winter approaches. during a visit to kazakhstan on thursday, russian president vladimir putin said the strikes were in response to ukraine using american and british long

range missiles to hit targets in russia. he warned that should ukraine retaliate further, russia will use its new ballistic missile to hit ukrainian sites, including what he described "decision—making centres" in kyiv. translation: we will use the means at our disposall against significant targets. we did not exclude the use of oreshnik against the military, military industries facilities over decision making central, including kyiv. bearing in mind that the kyiv authorities continue to attempt to strike at our vital facilities, including st petersburg and moscow. ukrainian officials called mr putin's claim "ridiculous". president volodymyr zelensky said russia used cruise missiles with cluster munitions to specifically target energy and civilian infastructure. despite the wide range of russia's overnight attack, reports suggest no—one was killed. inna sovsun is a ukrainian member of parliament.

she described the situation after the attack. i'm sitting out of my home right now, i don't have electricity right now, i didn't have it from the early morning and i came back home in the evening and i didn't have electricity. unfortunately, that is the situation for the majority of the ukrainians right now. unfortunately, this night's attacks had a drastic effect on the energy system and unfortunately, there are people who didn't have a single hour of electricity supply to the houses. the attack took place to a very big extent on the west of the country, but unfortunately, it's a unified energy system, so it means that there are outages all over the country, so it's not specific cities, they hit the system itself, so, unfortunately, all over the country, basically, is under very strict limits as to how much electricity is in the system and thus

the majority of the people don't have electricity in their homes. the latest attack on ukraine has left more than i million people without power. joining us now is charles miller, a lecturer in politics from the australian national university. thank you forjoining me. we see this massive attack almost three years into the war — what does this suggest about what the russian a game plan might look like in the next few months?— look like in the next few months? ~ ~ ., , ., months? we know the purpose for the attack is _ months? we know the purpose for the attack is purely _ months? we know the purpose for the attack is purely coercive, - the attack is purely coercive, it is similar essentially to the goal of hitler and bombing britain in 1940 and the goal of hitler and bombing britain in 19110 and 1941, and britain in 1940 and 1941, and thatis britain in 1940 and 1941, and that is the cause of leverage on the population of the popular cetaceans of ukraine to try to agree to — essentially the russian demands and then there is an operational goal thatis there is an operational goal that is basically to force the ukrainians to divert more

resources to defending the population centres against russian missile strikes, so there are two main goals, the russians have been pursuing both of them and for quite some time and what is different is the scale and the type of weapons they are using. vladimir putin has also threatened to attack decision—making centres in kyiv, what you call those centres, how much of an impact will that have in the ukrainian war effort? 1 will that have in the ukrainian war effort?— war effort? i was listening to earlier your _ war effort? i was listening to earlier your report _ war effort? i was listening to earlier your report and - war effort? i was listening to earlier your report and i - war effort? i was listening to | earlier your report and i think we said — i cannot speak russian but from the translation he said the decision—making centres such as kyiv, so obviously is a centre because it is the capital of the country, and whether that means he will be targeting the ukrainian parliament or the ukrainian parliament or the ukrainian president, the fight, evenif ukrainian president, the fight, even if it does presumably — they can be taken to safe and

secure locations, so i do not think that necessarily will be many anything much by itself. we have seen a lot of this, washington allowing the use of the long—range missiles, and vladimir putin saying this is part of what it is in response to. what more can washington do in these last two months of the biden term to increase ukrainian chances here? hot ukrainian chances here? not very much — ukrainian chances here? not very much for— ukrainian chances here? not very much for one _ ukrainian chances here? iirrt very much for one thing they could do is simply confiscate the central bank assets held in the central bank assets held in the western countries, they could confiscate them and handed them over to ukrainian, so this would give ukraine an additional resource of funding and punish russia, but there are certain drawbacks that would have to be considered and certain risks that would occur for the united states and european countries, such as the legal challenges and the possibility that other states might react to that by trying to minimise the exposure to dollars or keep their central bank assets in areas that the

us or europe can control and that could lead to some quite dangerous financial consequences the united states or europe that is something the bank still could do. fascinating, thank you for coming on the programme and sharing those insights. riot police in the capital of georgia, tblisi, have used pepper spray and water cannon against protesters demonstrators have taken to the streets after the government suspended moves tojoin the european union. they have been setting up burning barricades. and it's notjust the capital. demonstrations erupted in several cities after the prime minister announced he would not pursue eu membership until 2028. this was in response to a european parliament resolution which rejected the results of last month's election, citing irregularities. brussels had already suspended the membership process because of what it calls democratic backsliding by the ruling georgian dream party. the ceasefire in lebanon

appears to be largely holding for a second day, although authorities there say israel committed several violations. israel has again imposed a curfew for southern lebanon. earlier it fired at border settlements, in what was seen as a warning for people not to return to their homes. 0ur security corrrespondent frank gardner is injerusalem and has sent the latest. well, it's only day two of a 60—day ceasefire, and so far, it is largely holding up. neither side is looking to back out. but it would be an exaggeration to say that this has been a perfect ceasefire so far. it hasn't, because the israeli military, their tanks have fired several rounds towards lebanese villages and towns in the south of lebanon — they say, to warn off villagers who were coming back too soon. israel has imposed a curfew, an overnight curfew, on the area of southern lebanon between the litani river and the israel border. and they don't want to see any movement in that space during that time.

remember that this is still very early days and it's a phased withdrawal. hezbollah are due to move north of the litani river. israeli forces are supposed to move south of the border. now, the lebanese army has accused israel of "multiple "violations", in their words. israel says that its warplanes struck a hezbollah weapons dump containing medium range rockets. but so far — at least in theory — it is holding. no—one is talking about pulling out of the deal, because the penalty for that would just be so big. nobody wants to see a resumption of these massive air strikes on beirut and baalbek and southern lebanon. they want this deal to work, to hold. of course, none of this resolves what's going on in gaza, and really, that is where the push is now, because the humanitarian situation there is atrocious, it's really dire. winter has set in.

there's poor conditions pretty much up and down the gaza strip, with massive displacement of people, and there doesn't appear to be a plan in place for how israel is going to hand it over, if at all, to any kind of civilian authority — preferably a palestinian authority, the americans say. but there doesn't seem to be any sign of that. there isn't even a sign of a ceasefire at the moment, although a lot of people are talking about it. that is the situation across the region at the moment. let's speak to roger shanahan, a middle east security analyst who spent considerable time in the region including a period in beirut as the military liaison officer for australia. you forjoining us. let's start with the ceasefire, mostly holding up, imperfect in the first two days, how fragile is the agreement?— the agreement? like all of these agreements, - the agreement? like all of these agreements, the - the agreement? like all of - these agreements, the fragility is probably going to be felt

most acutely at the start of the period as people get used to the new ways of working with each other and also understanding that israeli troops of bill in lebanon and have 60 days to get out, so while we have civilians coming back to the areas where they live and lebanese military deploying to southern lebanon, they will do that at the same time that israeli military forces are still there, so it is fragile but it is holding. do you are expected to last the 60 days? i do you are expected to last the 60 da s? ., do you are expected to last the 60 da s? ~ ,., ., 60 days? i think so, we all ho -e 60 days? i think so, we all hepe so. — 60 days? i think so, we all hope so, obviously, - 60 days? i think so, we all hope so, obviously, but. 60 days? i think so, we all. hope so, obviously, but there is a degree of exhaustion on both sides. we also have to realise that israel has to continue to mobilise reserves for these kind of operations that has a net effect back in israel, on the israeli economy. also in orderfor israel to

achieve its political aim of providing security so that 60,000 displaced, internally displaced israelis can move back to the north of the country, they needed some agreement from hezbollah, they now have that agreement, so what is in israel's best interest to continue so their population can go back to the north and it is in hezbollah�*s is interest as well so they can start the process of reconstituting itself. let's turn to gaza, _ reconstituting itself. let's turn to gaza, our - reconstituting itself. let's - turn to gaza, our correspondent mention the humanitarian situation and we have heard warnings from the world health organization saying that 90% of 0rganization saying that 90% of displaced gazans are living in tents and making them vulnerable to respiratory disease, a true humanitarian crisis also are there any hopes the ceasefire could have widespread impacts or hopes of a ceasefire when it comes to gaza? �* ., a ceasefire when it comes to gaza? �* . ., ~ ., gaza? again, we would like to think s0- _ gaza? again, we would like to think so. one _ gaza? again, we would like to think so. one of— gaza? again, we would like to think so. one of the _ gaza? again, we would like to think so. one of the reasons l think so. one of the reasons why israel is keen to get this

ceasefire happening now was to disentangle a gaza ceasefire in lebanon, hezbollah ceded position had always been it would not allow a ceasefire in lebanon unless there was a ceasefire in a gaza. that was a no go for israel and they were able with these leaders ceasefire to separate wymah conflict from the other. the positive thinking people would like to say that in order to — if they were to come up — a ceasefire is more likely after the inauguration of the new president trump administration in washington and trump is also publicly saying he could solve this conflict, so that maybe the reason for optimism, that the reason for optimism, that the lines of operation

politically and the new administration in washington and the israeli desire to start and the israeli desire to start a process of disengagement from gaza, they might meet sometime early next year, we can only hope. early next year, we can only ho e. , ., , early next year, we can only ho e, , ., , ., early next year, we can only ho e. , ., , ., ., hope. everyone is waiting for january next _ hope. everyone is waiting for january next year. _ hope. everyone is waiting for january next year. roger, . hope. everyone is waiting for| january next year. roger, the middle east security analyst, thank you forjoining us. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

you are live with bbc news. australia will become the first country in the world to ban social media for under—16s. it is one of the toughest crackdowns on the likes of tiktok, instagram and facebook. the new law forces tech giants to stop minors logging on to their platforms, orface fines of up to $49.5 million australian, that is about $32 million us — if they don't comply. the ban will not take effect for at least a year. for more where was he film

philip mercer in sydney. this happen late last night, marathon on a vote in the senate, lawmakers divided on the issue? senate, iawmakers divided on the issue?— senate, lawmakers divided on the issue?— the issue? politics is divided and exnert _ the issue? politics is divided and expert opinion - the issue? politics is divided and expert opinion is - the issue? politics is divided j and expert opinion is divided and expert opinion is divided and australian society is divided. this banned that was introduced by australia's centre—left labour government has a tough road from its inception to being passed by both houses in federal parliament, to make significant questions are still not answered — is the banner viable and how will it be enforced? the australian prime minister is called anthony albanese and he believes this pioneering legislation is needed to protect australian children from what he describes as the harm, the damage inflicted by social media. he says australian children under the age of 16 need to be protected from cyber bullying, exposure

to violent and pornographic content, as well as misogynistic content and the behaviour of creditors. we heard earlier from a behaviour of creditors. we heard earlierfrom a senior government minister saying that social media was a cesspit, and he said the ban would not be perfect. we heard from tiktok, one of the platforms involved, and it said the safety of young people on its platform was a priority and in its opinion the reforms passed by the australian parliament have been rushed. expert opinion is also divided. there are researchers who believe the banner will harm young people because they will not have the opportunity to navigate the digital world. they will not have the opportunity to explore social media and cope with it, the sensitive areas, the challenging areas and also cannot take advantage of its benefits. 0ther cannot take advantage of its benefits. other researchers

believe that social media has unleashed an epidemic of mental illness in this country and that the ban is needed. what happens now in a year's time, the law should be in a place in between now and then, the australian government and other agencies will work out exactly how the banned will work. thank ou for how the banned will work. thank you for your _ how the banned will work. thank you for your reporting _ how the banned will work. thank you for your reporting there. - you for your reporting there. terry is a professor of digital communications at the university of sydney and he told me that while there may be these divisions among experts and politicians, the public is not so divided. he would appear to have majority public support, about 60 to 70% public support, judging by opinion polls, and i think it responds to what is a very strong perception of the failure of self—regulation in australia, that rightly or wrongly, there is a view that social media platforms have had two decades to sort out age verification issues and it manifestly failed to do so, and this legislation gives a very

strong nudge to those platforms to put in much more robust age verification measures or to develop platform models that are designed for young people. is it practical? are these social media giants going to be able to introduce legislation like this, or how can it be achieved? well, there will be a lot of devil in the detail, no question, in particular the whole question of age verification comes up, and while there are facial recognition trials going to happen over the course of 2025, facial recognition is a pretty crude measure for determining age. you mention tiktok. tiktok has recently removed 1 million australians from its platform on the basis of being under 13, so there are a lot of people under the age that are actually the stipulated requirements for these platforms using these platforms, and there

is a strong view, notjust 1536