more than the prime earns more than the prime minister. goodness gracious me , minister. goodness gracious me, what a mess. also, when it comes to abortion, where are you on buffer zones? they will soon come into play. do you support that or not? also, the amount of avoiding jail. it repulses me and i know it will do many of you too. so now is it time for mandatory jail sentences for these people? and i would go a step further. chemical castration to . all that and castration to. all that and more. but first o'clock. first at 6:00 news headlines . at 6:00 news headlines. >> good evening. i'm sophia wenzler with your headlines just after 6:00. first to the middle east, where another wave of explosions have wounded hundreds of people in beirut. it's understood that handheld radios have been targeted in the latest attacks in lebanon, rather than pages. it comes as hezbollah has

launched rockets at israel, marking the first cross—border attack since explosions rocked lebanon. the terrorist group have accused israel of what's believed to have been a remote attack, targeting hand—held communication devices. the israeli defence forces say they did strike a hezbollah target last night. meanwhile, the israeli army chief has said we have many capabilities. we have not yet activated. 12 people, including two children, were killed in the blast yesterday and nearly 3000 remain in hospital. 19 iranian revolutionary guards were also killed in syria, according to reports on saudi television. development minister anneliese dodds says the uk will be supporting civilians impacted in the explosions. >> like many others, i woke up this morning to the news and reports of developments in lebanon and this clearly is an awful situation and very concerned to hear about the reports of civilian casualties. clearly, i don't know all of the

details of this. and as i say, we woke up to this news, but the uk will be working with, particularly with our humanitarian partners in the region . region. >> now back in the uk , drivers >> now back in the uk, drivers from the aslef union have overwhelmingly backed a new pay deal from the department for transport, ending a dispute that beganin transport, ending a dispute that began in 2022. the deal promises drivers a 15% pay rise over three years, with almost 97% of the union's 20,000 members voting in favour. since july 2020, two, train drivers have walked out for 18 days, crippling services across england. but with the new agreement , passengers can look agreement, passengers can look forward to some long awaited stability on the rails . now in stability on the rails. now in other news, a public inquiry into the crimes of convicted child serial killer nurse lucy letby is continuing today. the investigation is scrutinising how letby, now serving 15 life

sentences, was able to murder seven babies and injure seven more while she worked at the countess of chester hospital. yesterday, the mother of child d told the inquiry having cctv in her daughter's hospital nursery room could have prevented her murder. the inquiry is now looking into whether all neonatal units in england should install cctv. our north west of england reporter , sophie reaper england reporter, sophie reaper is in liverpool for us, where the inquiry is taking place. >> this morning we are expecting to continue with evidence from parents. we're expecting to hear from the mother of child e and child f, twin boys who were both attacked by letby. child e was murdered by an injection of air and child f. it was an attempted murder charge , a poisoning with murder charge, a poisoning with insulin. he did survive. now, this morning we're unable to go into liverpool town hall, into the inquiry itself. partially because of concerns around anonymity. but also, as i'm sure our viewers can understand, it must be incredibly, incredibly

difficult for those to parents stand up and to share the impact that this has had on them and the lives of their wider family . the lives of their wider family. >> meanwhile, buffer zones will come into force around abortion clinics in england and wales from the 31st of october. it will make it illegal to protest or hand out anti—abortion leaflets within 150 metre radius, or obstruct anyone using or working at an abortion clinic. those convicted of breaking the new law will face an unlimited fine. a spokesperson for right to life uk said the zones will mean vital practical support provided, which helps to provide a genuine choice and offers help to women who may be undergoing coercion will be removed . coercion will be removed. inflation remained above the 2% target, unchanged at 2.2% last month, with new data out today. pficesin month, with new data out today. prices in hospitality, holidays and hotels possibly boosted by the final leg of taylor swift's

uk tour, are driving inflation, with inflation in the services sector up to 5.6% in august. treasury chief darren jones says years of sky high inflation continues to put a strain on british families, despite the slower rise. he added the government is determined to fix the foundation of the economy, to ease the pressure on households. experts believe the figures point to the bank of england keeping interest rates at 5%. tomorrow and finally, tgi friday's uk operator has entered administration as the company scrambles to sell its 87 restaurants worldwide. the chain's parent company hopes to complete the sale by the end of september, potentially saving thousands of jobs. however, it's not clear if a buyer will be found, and it may not be enough to cover the company's debts. those are the latest gb news headlines. now it's back to michelle for the very latest gb news direct to your smartphone,

sign up to news alerts by scanning the qr code, or go to gbnews.com forward slash alerts . gbnews.com forward slash alerts. >> thank you ever so much for that. my name is michelle dewberry, and i'm with you until 7:00 tonight alongside me and my panel 7:00 tonight alongside me and my panel, peter hitchens. the columnist at the mail on sunday, and aaron bastani, the co—founder of novara media. good evening, gents, to both of you. you're very welcome tonight, as are each and every single one of you at home. what's on your mind tonight? get in touch. all the usual ways. email gbviews@gbnews.com. you can tweet all ex—mayor. of course you can go to the website gbnews.com/yoursay. but look, of course there has been lots going on today . course there has been lots going on today. i've been glued to this story. i know that many of you have as well. i'm speaking, of course, about the wave of explosions that we saw. we saw this all start yesterday, didn't we? with the telephones? sorry, the pages exploding, will. today. that story has moved on.

this time. apparently, walkie talkies . let's cross live to gb talkies. let's cross live to gb news home and security editor mark white. good evening to you, mark. bring us up to speed. >> good evening to you, michelle. it is. yes, absolutely. this is an incredible development day two of this and a second wave of these explosions sweeping across parts of lebanon. the lebanese caphal parts of lebanon. the lebanese capital, beirut and other areas of particularly southern lebanon that have been affected by multiple explosions targeting , multiple explosions targeting, not the pagers that were targeted yesterday with thousands of them detonating , thousands of them detonating, resulting in many thousands. of course , of casualties as course, of casualties as a result of that. but this time, we're told, targeting these sort of handheld devices, walkie talkie radios. but not just limited to . what? promised the

limited to. what? promised the hezbollah communications system must be in absolute meltdown at the moment. they will not know what devices they can actually turn to communicate with each other. and that very significant news that has just broken in the last hour with the israeli defence minister saying that israel has entered a new phase of this war, shifting focus away from the war in gaza to the north of the country, where, you know , much of the focus, of know, much of the focus, of course, has been on understandably, what has been happening in gaza over the last 11, almost 12 months. but in the north, there has been a very significant war that has been raging across that border from southern lebanon into northern

israel , with every single day, israel, with every single day, multiple times a day. the hezbollah terrorist group firing rockets, missiles and launching drones towards northern israel . drones towards northern israel. 8000. in fact, more than 8000 since the start of this war. from their point of view on october the 8th, after the terrorist attacks in israel on the 7th of october. and that's resulted in tens of thousands, up to 70,000 people from northern israel who have been displaced. in fact, when i was across in israel covering the aftermath of the attacks there on the 7th of october, i was staying in the hotel. with me were dozens of people from northern israel who had been relocated there because of the attacks that were being carried out by hezbollah. so it's clear now that the israeli defence forces have decided that the next phase of that operation is to take on hezbollah in the

north, to secure the return of its citizens to these northern communities, and to deal with this very significant threat from hezbollah. but michele, in doing that, in taking on hezbollah, they are taking on a very significant adversary. of course, at the moment, while all of these communications devices have been compromised, while many of hezbollah's fighters have been affected , injured, have been affected, injured, some killed in these explosions, it is a very powerful organisation in comparison to the hamas terrorist group. they have many thousands of missiles that are capable of, journeying much further into israel, into its major population centres and are much more accurate in their targeting as well. so we could be in for a very difficult, few weeks and months ahead as this

next phase of the war, as it's been described by the israeli defence forces, begins . defence forces, begins. >> our homeland security editor thank you for that, aaron bastani. goodness me. what do you make of all this? >> well, i think this is pretty much a dictionary definition of terrorism. we're looking at ieds , terrorism. we're looking at ieds, improvised explosive devices across the entirety of lebanese civil society. somebody could say, well, they're being targeted exclusively at hezbollah targets. but we know that the victims of this are not purely people with hezbollah. there are health care workers. two children have died, as was just mentioned by your colleague. and i think when you have thousands of ieds going off across a country where you have civilians being maimed and killed, that to me, as i've said, is the dictionary definition of terrorism. now, some of your viewers and listeners might agree, some might disagree. what i would implore them to think about, however, is why is this happening? and i think that

shift from gaza to the west bank, but more importantly, the lebanese border, is because netanyahu needs to stay in power and subsequently needs to shift the political focus from a failing war to a new front. and thatis failing war to a new front. and that is what is happening here. this is a political choice being made by netanyahu, the israeli prime minister, in order to stay in power rather than to keep his people safe. >> the israeli army's army chief, one of them, says peter quite recently, in the last hour or so, we've got many capabilities that we have not yet activated. yes we relate to it all, but what are they for? >> i don't want to enter a semantic argument with aaron, but what we call it. but i think that the thing which i struggle to understand is what on earth the israeli government hopes to achieve by this behaviour, and what netanyahu used to be clever at and until about a year ago was playing off iran. so that

and making out that iran and therefore its client hezbollah, was his main enemy , while in was his main enemy, while in general terms he grew closer and closer to saudi arabia and the rest of the arab world, who also hate iran. and this was actually quite a clever strategy. and for the most part, it meant that despite his supposedly extremely , despite his supposedly extremely, extremely tough nature, netanyahu didn't engage in very much in the way of war. but since last october, he seems to have completely abandoned that. and to be seeking violence. and ihave and to be seeking violence. and i have to say, the explanation that he's doing it to stay in power does more and more seem to me to be the only really acceptable one, because none of this makes sense if you if you want. israel can't, i don't think win a war against simultaneously against hamas and against hezbollah and against the growing hostility of much of the growing hostility of much of the arab world over. what's going on in gaza and the continuing bombardment of

civilians . they just can't do civilians. they just can't do it. so there's no achievement there. the war, which he seems to be fighting, is one with his own political class and to try and remain in power. and i can't see what advantage this has for anybody. i'm also very dubious about all the sort of use of clever , clever weapons, the use clever, clever weapons, the use of drones by the west in the middle east has not been very much focused on, but in fact it really isn't particularly morally scrupulous to kill people out of the blue from the air. and it does begin to seem that the moral advantage which we like to claim over organisations which have always engagedin organisations which have always engaged in terror, is growing thin. the more we do this, and it is , what is the military it is, what is the military political purpose of it? >> well, million dollar question, one of my viewers has got in touch, aaron, and said, it's disgusting, basically that aaron bastani calls this terrorism. she this viewer asks why do her words, the far left,

have a problem with the jews fighting back, >> well, if she thinks it's disgusting that i have a problem with the ten year old girl being killed, then we disagree. we live in a free country, and people are welcome to disagree with one another. this is terrorism because we're talking about thousands, not one, two, five, ten, thousands of simultaneous explosions across a country . there has never been country. there has never been anything like that as far as i understand. and like i say, these are ieds. the videos that we've seen, it broadly looks like a shotgun. so it's not like a major explosion with semtex, but it's a pretty significant, small explosion. so i would use that word and i use that word pointedly, but also with great thought. i'm not just throwing that term around. this is unprecedented. and by the way, if russia pursues a similar course of action in the future, what do you think our government and the americans will call it? they will call it terrorism, and they will be right. >> i know, but the pushback will come. so people will watch this.

and the people that have the view that you're wrong to call it terrorism. i know what those people will be saying. those people will be saying. those people will be saying, how come you call this act almost instantaneously? terrorism? but when october the 7th happened, the same collective of people that that view would regard as the so—called far left were really reluctant to call those those kind of , horrendous, those kind of, horrendous, atrocious, atrocious acts terrorism. >> well, on the day i think i was even here with peter, or maybe the day after i called it terrorism, it was these were war crimes. and that's been detailed by the international, criminal courts. those were war crimes, as are, by the way, what we're seeing right now, i don't know about this because we haven't got enough data, by the way, that's really important to say. we don't know what products are exploding. there's also claims with regards to solar panels. we don't know who brought them there. and we don't know who the final users are at the moment. we're hearing it's just hezbollah fighters, but then we're hearing also healthcare workers. we're hearing that there are secondary markets with people buying devices which are blowing up. >> can i ask you a reply to your

contributor? >> talking about is about israel fighting back. israel does have an absolute right to fight back when attacked, but that doesn't mean there's no limit on what it can do. and if it is as it as it has always said, it is concerned with the purity of arms and with having a higher ethical standards than its than its enemies. and neighbours, then it has to think quite carefully about the things which it does and how it does them. i think that ever since the bombardment of gaza began, israel has been putting itself in the wrong in a very serious way. i know a lot of i am myself a defender of israel of many decades and i have not ceased to be one. but this doesn't mean that i'm incapable of saying some things, which israel does are stupid and wrong , and much of what's been wrong, and much of what's been going on since last october has been stupid and wrong and misplaced. not least because it neglects the very important problem , which is that israel problem, which is that israel depends for its existence. ultimately upon the political and military support of the major western democracies. and if it loses that it has nothing . if it loses that it has nothing. and what it's doing at the

moment is having a very , very moment is having a very, very powerful effect on the large parts of the population of western countries who previously were supporters of israel and are now having second thoughts. and i can't believe that this goes on and on and on without without more criticism. >> well , another one of my >> well, another one of my viewers, ross, he's called, he's just got in touch and said, please, can you remind your guests it was not that long ago that there was a rocket attack, a hezbollah rocket attack into israel, into a children's playground which killed multiple children. >> well, who's who is not condemning that was terrorism as well. >> yes. who is not condemning that terrorism. >> if you condemn if you condemn that , then then then you have to that, then then then you have to consider what is it i say? i'm not i'm not joining in in calling this terrorism as such. but if you if you condemn that, then you surely must examine the actions of israel in, in using the same moral compass as you used to say, that was terrorism. can you really say that these

sort of attacks are fall within the legitimate laws of war? i think there's some serious doubt. i don't know enough about this particular attack. my absolute conviction, however, is that the bombardment of gaza, where there is a large civilian population, is completely outside the laws of war and should not continue. and every body of conscience, whatever they think about israel, should be against it. they think about israel, should be against it . and i urge people be against it. and i urge people to be against it. but that's on this matter. my mind is less is less made up than aaron's, but if you don't like the blowing up of innocent people, then you don't like it. wherever it happens. >> honestly, you can see it for yourselves on twitter. so many people are getting in touch about this. there's so much angen about this. there's so much anger, on this . it's in a very anger, on this. it's in a very emotional topic, especially when children, innocent children will always be innocent. getting killed in this way. one of my viewers had just said, this is essentially, i'm paraphrasing a bit, but essentially great. they're saying, bravo , israel,

they're saying, bravo, israel, you're eradicating the evil , you're eradicating the evil, this is not terrorism. they say it's payback. and they're asking questions about why would children have things like pages? i mean, i've got to say, a child, i don't know if you've got children, but if you've got a device, a telephone or anything like that, and it makes anything like that, and it makes a strange noise, children do actually go tearing over to those devices or. mummy, daddy, you know, this is ringing. i mean, i'm not really sure. >> let me throw a question back to that person. if this was such a justified, legitimate act, why didn't the israelis tell the americans and the british about it beforehand if it was so virtuous and necessary? >> and why have they not? because they did. they didn't. they didn't ask for it. >> that's the bit that i don't understand. if they're so proud of what they're doing, why aren't they coming out and saying, yes, this is us, and we stand by that and we're doing it for this reason. that's the bit that i don't get as a layperson. >> they didn't do that because they know washington and london would say, this is deeply unwise, and we absolutely do not

back you. and by the way, when iran sent hundreds of ballistic missiles, loitering munitions, drones heading towards israel, it was the royal air force and the united states air force which shot them down alongside the jordanians. so when we need it, of course, we get the call. but when something like this is happening, the idf says nothing. i don't think that's particularly fair. maybe that person who called in disagrees. >> honestly, it's not just person , it's plural. there are person, it's plural. there are so many people getting in touch with me right now. very angry saying that it's absolutely sickening calling these things terrorism. this is basically israel defending themselves. you are telling me that about this constant sea of rockets that constantly get fired into israel, and there is a real fury about this issue coming in on my well, it's everywhere, quite frankly. you can see it. it's all over twitter. it's all over email. many of you at home are saying that this is essentially justified and payback. i can tell you now, when i saw this unfolding yesterday, the first thing that i did is push my telephone away from me. that's

the first. the first thing i did like a almost like a subconscious act. i'd never, everin subconscious act. i'd never, ever in my life ever even considered the prospect of a piece of electronic hardware in the vicinity of me just randomly, deliberately exploding, and my worry was, is this going to kind of inspire other terrorist organisations? >> who knows? it's quite. i think imagine it would be quite difficult to do. but in my point of view, this if you eliminated the word terrorism from this discussion and simply used the term the killing of civilians by a stealthy method, how many people actually prove that whoever does it, the judgement that you must make usually on these things is how would you react if somebody else did it to you? and if you have one view, if you do it to somebody else and another view, if somebody doesit and another view, if somebody does it to you, then you're kidding yourself. really again, if you if you want to conduct warfare and most of us think that warfare should really be

between trained soldiers in in situations of declared battle, we absolutely are terrified. and if we're not, we should be of war spilling over into civilian life and the destruction of homes, the driving of people from their homes, the killing of innocent civilians. >> i'm sure it is. >> but if israeli children, it's a nobody in your. what do you think israel should do? just sit there, not kill other children? >> i think would be one. first thing i would say, because if you're against killing children, you're against killing children, you're against killing children. absolutely, as i am. you're not against killing one children. you're against killing everybody's children. i'm not a pacifist. i believe that countries should be able to wage war, though there are very strong limits within which they should do it. but there are laws of war and people should keep within them. and i think any form of war which carelessly but inevitably targets civilians, is something which should be avoided and actually condemned. and i do not think that the

israeli government is currently in the hands of people who have any sort of intelligent idea of how to proceed, and i'm very worried by it for the sake of israel. and if people if people who are inundating your inbox are concerned about the state of israel, they should ask themselves, how long can israel survive if it loses the support of the populations of the western democracies? and the answer is not very long. it survives very heavily military, militarily, economically, and diplomatically because it continues to have that backing once it's lost , it's continues to have that backing once it's lost, it's very lonely andifs once it's lost, it's very lonely and it's very small. >> well, i can tell you there is a lot of people getting in touch and defending this action, saying that israel absolutely has the right to defend themselves. paul says you can all call it terrorism if you like, but ultimately shouldn't terrorists have to look over their shoulder from other terrorists or hezbollah? then essentially, in your view, getting what they deserve, i mean, really a huge, response coming into this. >> what do people what do people who say this, i say i won't

engagein who say this, i say i won't engage in the use of the word terrorism simply, simply blots out any, any sense in this discussion. >> what do what do what do people who take this view say, for instance, about the targeted assassination of people whom israel or the united states regards as enemies in the middle east by drone? what do they think about it? do they think, do you think this is legitimate action? >> very briefly, if the if the if the iranians did it to us, what would they think of it, >> jeremy, he's got in touch and he's asking, and i need to be brief, because i was supposed to have been on a break by now, but he's saying, well, what do your panel actually think is a proportionate response, then to the thousands of rockets that are fired into israel each and every single day? >> well, the proportional response is that basically none of them get through. iron dome is an exceptionally effective technology at stopping that. the big problem for israel is not rockets landing in israel. as peter said, the big problem is pubuc peter said, the big problem is public opinion in this country, in the united states turning away from them. extraordinary polling yougov 66% of people in

this country now have an unfavourable view of israel. in the long term, that's a much bigger problem. that's disastrous than than whether or not you know , your viewers today not you know, your viewers today disagree with peter rac . that's disagree with peter rac. that's a much bigger problem. >> i thought, michelle, i thought i was i was a really strong and rather fierce supporter of israel until last october. and then i suddenly found that huge numbers of people i'd never heard of before were far more militant than i, and there was this strange attitude among some people who think of themselves as conservative and pro—israel in this country, that ultra militancy is somehow the answer to a problem which has has absolutely not shown any signs of being solved since 1948. i don't agree, and i am. i used to think i was as hardline as you've got. i think this is very foolish, and i think that what aaron has just said about the poll gives you a very strong example of that. this is particularly serious in the united states, which has been an absolute bedrock iron wall supporter of the of the israeli state for decades. and i think

that that support is now fading. and if there isn't the political support there, people perhaps don't realise just how vital american military and diplomatic support is for israel. all the time in my inbox are asking, why do people bring up international law when it comes to the actions of israel, but seem to turn a blind eye didn't bring up international law? i haven't brought it up once, malcolm said. >> michelle, why is everyone calling all of these people civilians? they are hezbollah members and they are designated terrorists, other people getting in touch saying, how are you all so sure that this was israel ? so sure that this was israel? apparently nobody has yet claimed, i think we can be sure it's israel, i don't think i don't think anyone said they're all civilians. >> i think what aaron said is that some of them are civilians and some of them are children. so that is that is just the case. but no one is. i think saying they're all civilians. >> well, i can, but how wide if you if you want to say that you can you can legitimately kill people by this method. >> how why do you draw your net? >> how why do you draw your net? >> well, there you go. you can

ponder that question. how wide is your net? what do you think to the conversations that we're having? you've got very strong opinions on it at home. get in touch with me and let me know. there's lots going on in this country that i need to talk to you about for the rest of the program, abortion centres, do they need buffer zones? keir starmer his new free 93v- free gay. kia. gracious me. what's going on? we're in the

hi there. i'm michelle dewberry and i'm with you till 7:00. peter hitchens and aaron bastani remain alongside me. i can tell you there is very , very strong you there is very, very strong opinions coming through thick and fast in the email. lots of support for israel, lots of people very angry at the conversation, very angry, pushing back, saying will people stop attacking israel for simply trying to defend herself? children in israel getting

killed? no one seems to care. the flip side of that is, of course, children getting killed each and every single day in gaza. many would push back and say, people don't seem to care about that either. look, let's talk about something a bit, a bit different, shall we? keir starmer, he's now gained the nickname, has only been in office about five minutes. he's been called to turkey. he's now called free gear. keir. why? because it's come out now that he has accepted freebies. he's accepted more than any other party leader in recent times. his freebies have now topped £100,000 and i can tell you their broad spread. you've got clothes which we've discussed at length, you've got football tickets, sports tickets, you name it taylor swift. it goes on. what do you think to this, aaron? >> i think it's absolutely extraordinary. this is a man in his early 60s who's been earning six figures for a pretty long time. he was director of public prosecutions on around £200,000 a year about a decade ago. now, if you're earning £200,000 a yean if you're earning £200,000 a year, a decade ago, i struggled to understand why you need

somebody else. spending £2,485 on your glasses. so your issue is not that he's accepting stuff, your issue. >> so if this was if this was a guy that had entered public office, let's just say used to be a doctor. so he's not got he's not got this wealth that you think he might have. would you think he might have. would you not have an issue then with that leader taking all these freebies? that's a great point. >> i would like to remain intellectually coherent and say that i would have the same criticism, regardless of who it is, but i do think it really jolts in particular with keir starmer, because he's had a very successful career. he's very wealthy, he's done extraordinarily well. he's a knight, he's a knight of the realm, and he's he's taking, like you say , freebies to go and like you say, freebies to go and watch the football and to watch taylor swift. i think in a way it doesn't just make him look silly and ridiculous. i genuinely think it's now getting to the point. £100,000 in tickets and gifts where it diminishes his office. it makes the prime minister, which is meant to be the highest elected office in this land. it makes it

look almost ridiculous . cheap. look almost ridiculous. cheap. >> peter's just chipped in and said, second class, it makes no nisei. >> second class, his second highest. the highest office in the land is the king. and don't let's forget it. what i think, increasingly, is that he is that he. perhaps he is actually clueless . one of the most clueless. one of the most worrying thing that he said before the election in an interview, was he was asked whether he had a favourite book or a favourite poem, and he answered, no, he doesn't have either of those things. and i thought, what a really peculiar response. maybe it's true. maybe he doesn't actually have anything much in the way of an imagination. maybe he is a sort of man without qualities who really doesn't have the sort of ideas about how to behave that most people are granted . and most people are granted. and because this, this acceptance of these gifts is quite minor on these gifts is quite minor on the scale of human behaviour. but it's not gigantic formula one type sleaze of the sort. the blair government was trapped in very soon after it came into

office. but it's pretty ludicrous. and it's very easy to understand anybody can see he's being given clothes. he's being given glasses, and his wife is being given clothes and helped to buy them. and it's really, really, really odd. it must be damaging. and anybody who he had told about it among his circle of political advisers would have said to him , don't do this. said to him, don't do this. perhaps you didn't tell them , perhaps you didn't tell them, but and didn't have the sense that it's really , really that it's really, really strange. that's the way it strikes me. and therefore, because it is strange and clueless, it has limitless possibilities to damage him personally . as the leader of the personally. as the leader of the labour party and his prime minister, jones got in touch. >> he says michelle, i'm a serving police officer and i'm not even allowed to take a free cup of coffee from the gas station in case i get accused of showing them favouritism, he says. good bernard says michelle, why are you all just calling this what it is? these things are all bribes. what do you think taylor swift wants from, keir starmer? then you'll

have to enlighten me on that. bernard, i would simply ask keir starmer this. if you're watching, have you got no self—respect? have you got no dignity? what kind of grown up individual? a professional. dignity? what kind of grown up individual? a professional . one individual? a professional. one needs another person to pay for their spectacles. needs another person to buy their wives clothes, take away every other aspect of everything . where's aspect of everything. where's your self—respect? have a word with yourself. it's appalling. anyway, look, i'll tell you what else is appalling. i'll talk about them before the end of the programme. i want to see them chemically castrated, quite frankly. and also abortion centres. do you support buffer zones surrounding them or not? i'll see in

hello there. i'm michelle dewberry and i'm with you till seven. aaron bastani and peter hitchens remain alongside me. now, this one, i mean, we're going from emotional topic to emotional topic. this one i want

to talk to you about is the matter of abortion. because buffer zones will come into force around abortion clinics in england and wales from the end of october. the 31st, to be precise. essentially, it makes it illegal to hand out anti—abortion leaflets or obstruct anyone's way. there's been lots of conversations about people silently praying in these buffer zones. peter hitchens, where are you on this? >> well, i think that it's certainly there should be a freedom for people who are opposed to abortion to protest against where it takes place, provided their behaviour remains reasonable and considerate. i don't think anybody wants to see screaming mobs, shouting baby killers at women going into abortion clinics. that would be uncivilised and disgraceful. but i think there's no reason for a free society to prevent people to stand quietly within a reasonable distance of an abortion clinic , offering abortion clinic, offering support to those women who are going there. if they want it from a different point of view. and i think there is a kind of, how should i put it, a special

status is given to abortion by the modern left. it's to them, it's kind of a good act which has to be defended. and they've forgotten that it has any disadvantages or any bad sides, and they've forgotten that there might be legitimate reasons to oppose it. and in fact, it's very interesting . the years ago, very interesting. the years ago, hillary clinton, who was a great supporter of abortion rights, used to say what we want is for abortion to be to be safe, legal and rare. but the abortion campaign in the united states has now removed the word rare from that. they don't care about rare. they think abortion is a thing to be actively approved of. and they don't. they don't think it should be rare. and again, that's something i think again, that's something i think a lot of us would would disagree with whatever side we took. it's not a pleasant thing when it happens. so yeah, i think that the i think it's wrong for the, for the law to take this stand against what are in general peaceful and discreet demonstrations. if it turns into something else, it's a different

matter. but as long as it's peaceful and discreet, i really don't see why it should be banned. >> and so i'm going to disagree with peter on this. i think in a rather rare, in a rather rare way, i personally , i think it's way, i personally, i think it's very important to uphold the right to free speech freedom of assembly, freedom of protest. and i think if people want to protest around this issue, they're absolutely entitled and free to do that . but i think free to do that. but i think what makes this really unique is that it's women accessing health care. and i think that potentially being obstructed or being hectored or being protested at while seeking health care, does seem beyond the pale. >> but many people will be watching this, pushing back, saying killing a child is not health care. >> they would. >> they would. >> well, what would they? what would they regard as the boundary there? because in many instances, of course it is. of course it is. there are many there are many instances of abortion where it is undeniably health care. >> well, there aren't if you've got a history of ectopic pregnancy, of course there are. of course there are. >> there aren't that many. actually it's not. that's that's when my mother had it. i mean,

of course it can happen, but it isn't. >> so i mean, that would be my view on it. i mean, as somebody who supports the right to abortion, i don't think the law should be changed either way. i think the term limits where they are are sensible. i mean, this is almost a small c conservative approach. i think the law, as it stands, you know, some people don't like it. most people think it's broadly agreeable, so i think that, look, i'm very wary on curtailing people's rights to protest, but i think 150 metre radius. i think that's sensible. i don't want to ban these people from making these points , from making these points, publicly. they're entitled to do that. i would like to see a constitutional right to freedom of speech. but i think when people are trying to access healthcare, i think it's, an exceptional circumstance . do you exceptional circumstance. do you know what? >> i think this country should hang its head in shame over? you can legally have an abortion right up until the moment you're literally giving birth. if your child has got something like cleft palate or clubfoot, things like that . and i think that is like that. and i think that is so appalling. i think it is. i'm

a mum that's spent too much time on a nicu ward with very premature babies , and i've seen premature babies, and i've seen these tiny, tiny little babies that have been born, actually, before the cut off for the abortion i've seen. these are babies. they're not clumps of cells. they're babies. don't don't ever be fooled, killing a child until the second it's born. because it's got a hole in its mouth. for example, it's so appalling. and if that parent killed that child seconds after it had exited that body , that it had exited that body, that parent, that mum would be hopefully behind bars. and i think that is one of the great shames of our nation. and i think all politicians should be looking at that and should be urgently rectifying that. what do you think? at home you'll have strong opinions and i'll tell you what else. you will have strong opinions on the one after the break. goodness gracious me. is it time to have mandatory jail sentences for these people? also, i'd go a step further actually, and i'd enforce mandatory chemical castration. do you agree or

not? hello there. i'm michelle dewberry aaron bastani, peter hitchens . remain alongside me. hitchens. remain alongside me. welcome back everybody. the sun newspaper did a very interesting investigation, which they published today looking at some of the cases off the back, of course, of the huw edwards one, which we've discussed to death now, but they use that as the hook into looking at how many, have basically gone to prison when they've been, viewing, child abuse imagery. get this, less than 20% of those convicted of accessing this grotesque, disgusting, illegal content actually went to jail . yes, you actually went to jail. yes, you heard that right. less than 20% of them. so that means 80 odd percent there or thereabouts of

looking at child abuse images don't go to prison. i think that it should be mandatory. aaron bastani, if you look at this content, there should be no ifs, no buts , no maybes gone to no buts, no maybes gone to prison. what do you think? >> well, they certainly shouldn't be free to carry on doing this disgusting behaviour. isuppose doing this disgusting behaviour. i suppose the counter—argument is it costs approximately £55,000 a year to have somebody incarcerated. so what? well no. but if all of these people are in prison, i suppose that's the question for you. it's the question for you. it's the question for you. it's the question for your audience. i think prison prisons are very expensive to solution to. >> yeah, but i've got a fix for that i would get rid of, i would deport the foreign, prisoners that are in our prisons. i would get them sent back to their countries of origin, so i'd save myself a few bob there. and i think if you asked most people, would you be happy to invest your tax money on getting off the streets and into prison? i think that that actually is something that people would be

more than happy to see their tax pounds go into hundreds of millions, billions of pounds, billions of pounds a year, i don't know, i mean, that's a question. what price do people put on the well—being of a child? we've just been starting this. >> i agree entirely with you, but there are trade offs in regards to how how do you respond and what's the best value for money for the taxpayer, sending them all to prison is quite an expensive solution. >> can i just make a broader, broader point here? >> you can. anyone can do this. sit in front of your computer, use a search engine and feed in the words spared jail and you will just find an endless unrolling spool of thousands and thousands and thousands of people who've done terrible things, some of them, some of them violent persons, some of them violent persons, some of them thieves, some of them repeat, repeat offenders. in all these things who are spared jail, in the magistrates courts, in the crown courts of this country , every day, all the country, every day, all the time. just look it up, spare jail. it comes up. there are so many of them. you'll, you'll you'll get bored reading it. thatis you'll get bored reading it. that is what our judges and magistrates do. they spare people jail because they've been instructed by the government not

to send them there. and they don't because the prisons are full and the prisons are not full and the prisons are not full because the because our criminal justice system is so tough and fierce and sends lots of people to prison. our prisons are full because you have to spend years and years and years getting into them, committing offence after offence after offence. first you have to get the attention of the police at all. then you have to go through the whole system of probation, fines you don't pay, then you get a suspended sentence which is never activated and then another one which isn't activated and eventually the criminal justice system finally loses patience and sends you to prison. by which time? what are you, a habitual recidivist criminal who will not be affected in any way by prison? the purpose of prison was always to frighten people out of committing crime. and to do that it has to get you on the second offence. and until we reintroduce that procedure and stop waiting until people have become habitual criminals, our prisons will be too full and the magistrates and the judges, whatever the sun says and whatever the sun says and whatever michelle says, doesn't matter. what you say can't be

changed. no one can afford anything different. the way we run things, it will be spared jail, spared jail, spared jail. every other headline in your local paper. so and so. spared jail. just read them tomorrow morning, read your local paper or just morning, read your local paper orjust read it online. spare jail. that's what they all are. spare jail. >> people brought in mandatory jail sentences for things like killing an emergency service worker. good, by the way. so these things can absolutely be brought in. the second thing i'd do, and they can't be they can't be implemented when brought in. >> that's the trouble. >> that's the trouble. >> the second thing i'd do, aaron bastani, is chemically mandatory chemical castration of any convicted in the land. would you agree with that? >> well, certainly be cheaper than the prison option. you've got the data here from the nspcc up to five, and this is an extraordinary statistic. up to 500,000 men have used child sexual abuse images in the uk, up to 500,000. which gets to my point about incarcerating. i'm not saying this lightly. that's a half a million people. >> let me tell you now, a million men in the world, right?

if you these half a million disgusting monsters, if you would if you understood in this country that if you look at an image of a child being abused, you will be going to prison, and that 500 number will immediately come down. because if people genuinely thought, i better not look at this because i don't know, keir starmer might be knocking on my door tomorrow, that would immediately reduce that. none of this would be that volume. >> none of this will happen in the real world, just like just like your mass deportations, because it's not possible with the current system of government and law that we have. unless you became some, some terrifying dictator with absolute powers, it won't happen. i don't think you're going to become that terrifying dictator, wouldn't you? >> wouldn't it also just be easier to block access to these images on the internet? i mean, that seems technically easier to me. >> i want to just say to andy, you said i'm a disgrace saying that criticising people for being able to kill children with cleft palate, an awful impediment. i think you need to actually research andy what a cleft palate is and how easily it can be fixed, my friend. thank you, gents, for your

contribution. thank you to each and everyone of you at home. i'll see you tomorrow night. >> a brighter outlook with boxt solar, sponsors of weather on gb news >> hello. good evening . welcome >> hello. good evening. welcome to your latest gb news. weather update a lot of cloud to come in overnight tonight across eastern areas. that will make for a fairly dull start to thursday with the best of any brighter weather across western areas. so weather across western areas. so we do have an easterly wind at the moment. that's because high pressure is set over to the north and east of the uk, bringing in that easterly wind, and that's what's going to drag in the cloud overnight. once again tonight, i think the cloud is going to be more extensive tonight compared to previous nights. and probably linger a little longer into tomorrow morning. we could see some drizzly rain over any high ground as well, but with drizzly rain over any high ground as well , but with the ground as well, but with the strength of the breeze and fairly extensive cloud, it's going to be another mild night away from the clearer skies across the further north and west parts of northern ireland

and western scotland in particular, seeing a very fine start to the day and with a fairly brisk breeze across more southern areas, the cloud should start to break up quite quickly across more southern areas of england, but across more northeastern areas, parts of central england. it will linger through a lot of the morning, even across parts of eastern scotland, aberdeenshire in particular, seeing some fairly extensive cloud , possibly some extensive cloud, possibly some sea fog as well. first thing. and across eastern coasts of scotland, northeastern england, it will probably stay quite cloudy through a lot of the day and cloudier and cooler day here to come compared to today. but elsewhere that cloud should clear away quite nicely after lunchtime to leave another dry and fine day for many areas. but nofice and fine day for many areas. but notice there'll still be a fairly brisk easterly breeze as well, particularly across parts of the channel coast. but despite the breeze, it's still going to be feeling pretty warm for september. temperatures climbing as high as 26 degrees. another fairly dull start to come on friday, and that's when we see a real switch in our

weather, as once that cloud does clear, we could see some fairly heavy and thundery showers developing across a lot of england and wales, and it's going to stay quite unsettled for more southern areas all the way through the weekend until sunday. in fact, we could see some surface water issues by sunday. bye bye. >> looks like things are heating up. boxt boilers sponsors of weather

gb news. >> good evening . well, more >> good evening. well, more extraordinary exploding devices in lebanon this afternoon. but what does it all mean for the middle east? and can we expect iran to come back with a very strong response? public sector pensions talk about a ticking time bomb. talk about a black hole. forget about your 22 billion. we keep hearing about from labour. this is a biggie. and the big story in the sun today that walk free whilst those that say nasty things on

facebook go to prison. is this two tier justice? all of that in just a moment. >> good evening. i'm sophia wenzler with your headlines at 7:00. first to the middle east, where israel has declared a new phase of war as its army turns its attention to the northern front with lebanon. it comes after another wave of explosions have reportedly killed 14 people and wounded hundreds more in beirut. it's understood that walkie talkies have been targeted in the latest attacks, rather than pages. it comes as hezbollah has launched rockets at israel, marking the first cross—border attack since explosions rocked lebanon. the terrorist group have accused israel of what's believed to have been a remote attack, targeting hand—held communication devices. the israeli defence forces say they did strike a hezbollah target last night, but they declined to comment on the explosions. 12

people,