bowen. >> michael. thank you. a very good morning to you. it's just gone 10:00. these are your latest headlines from the gb newsroom. the king will shortly lead the nation in a two minute silence to mark remembrance sunday. crowds are beginning to gather in whitehall ahead of the service. king charles will be joined by members of the royal family, including the prince and princess of wales, at the cenotaph. the royals and senior politicians will lay wreaths dunng politicians will lay wreaths during the national service of remembrance to mark the armistice of the first world war, and all other conflicts involving british and commonwealth forces. the royal british legion's veteran parade will also see 10,000 veterans marched past the cenotaph. buckingham palace has said that the queen will not attend remembrance events this weekend, as she recovers from a chest infection . wing—commander infection. wing—commander howard, leader, spoke to stephen and anne earlier on about the importance of today , which is importance of today, which is much deeper. >> almost like peeling an onion, really, of a set of

considerations that are be thinking about every remembrance. and that's to do with, of course, paying our respects to those who've lost their lives, but remembering also that a great many people who have been put into those very challenging circumstances forever carry the sometimes extreme physical injuries that have come with that, because they've been involved in an incident that's cost them arms and legs or whatever. and the mental stress stays with a lot of people to , to the us, where of people to, to the us, where in some breaking news overnight, president elect donald trump has won the state of arizona, meaning he has now won all seven swing states. >> the white house announced yesterday that president biden hasianed yesterday that president biden has invited donald trump to a meeting in the oval office on wednesday. it comes as the president elect has begun appointing his top team. last night, he shared that former republican presidential contender nikki haley and former secretary of state mike pompeo

will not be asked to join his administration. sticking to us politics this morning, chief secretary to the treasury darren jones has said that it is probably unlikely that the government will work with nigel farage as an intermediary to the trump administration, adding that mr farage should focus on working with his constituents in clacton as opposed to being a transatlantic commentator . the transatlantic commentator. the sunday telegraph is reporting today that farmers are threatening to target ports and disrupt supermarket supply chains. in reaction to rachel reeves budget, which changed the rate of inheritance tax for farmers . ahead of the rally, farmers. ahead of the rally, organised by the national farmers union on the 19th of november, a separate splinter rally has also been organised alongside the official mass lobby event, which will see around 1800 nfu members. lobby parliamentarians in westminster. the nfu have said that they cannot take responsibility for people in the streets brazier to ukraine, where ukrainian forces attacked moscow this morning with at least 32 drones. the

biggest drone strike on the russian capital since the start of the war in 2022. flights have had to be diverted from three of the city's major airports, and at least one person has been injured. russian air defences have reportedly destroyed 7070 ukrainian drones this morning over six different russian regions. ukrainian forces say that they attacked an arsenal which resulted in at least eight explosions and a large fire. yesterday a russian airstrike hit odesa, where two people were injured . thousands took to the injured. thousands took to the streets in spain last night in protest against the management of emergency flood responses after the recent deadly flash floods in certain regions of the country. police and protesters violently clashed in valencia dunng violently clashed in valencia during the rally , demanding during the rally, demanding accountability for the government's response to the floods that killed 217 people. protesters argue that a lack of effective emergency protocols exacerbated the tragedy, which caused destruction across roughly 80 municipalities. municipalities in the country. tv chef jamie oliver has

apologised and withdrawn a children's book he wrote after it was criticised for causing offence to first nation australians. the observer has reported that first nations communities condemned the subplot to his book, billy and the epic escape, for being damaging and disrespectful, it said. the national aboriginal and torres strait islander education corporation criticised the book, which tells the story of a first nations girl living in foster care for contributing to the erasure trivialisation and stereotyping of first nafions and stereotyping of first nations peoples and experiences . nations peoples and experiences. in a statement, mr oliver said he was devastated to have caused offence and apologised wholeheartedly. the 49 year old and his publishers, penguin random house, have decided to withdraw the book from international sale . those are international sale. those are the latest gb news headlines. now let's go back to michael .

now let's go back to michael. >> thank you very much, katie. today's national act of remembrance has its origins in armistice day, which was dedicated in great britain on the 11th of november, 1919. in commemoration of the one year anniversary of the peace agreement that ended the great war. king george v requested that the country pause in silence for two minutes in acknowledgement of the war's fatalities. thereafter, a period of silence became the centrepiece of armistice day. events that occurred annually until the outbreak of world war 2 in 1939, when it was decided that the loss and sacrifice would be marked not on november the 11th, but instead on approximate sunday, observed as approximate sunday, observed as a day of dedication. during the span of the war and after the peace, the government, seeking to honour participants in both world wars, officially replaced armistice day with the new sunday observance, which was thereafter known as remembrance sunday. in recent years , sunday. in recent years, armistice day has been revived as an additional occasion for silence, though remembrance sunday remains the main day of

commemoration. it is, of course, a day when we recall losses in all the campaigns in which british and commonwealth forces have been involved since world war two. it's the day that bnngs war two. it's the day that brings together at the cenotaph in whitehall, the monarch and the royal family, the prime minister, other ministers and representatives of other parties at westminster. high commissioners from commonwealth countries. the ambassadors from ireland and nepal. faith leaders, the military representatives of non—military services and civilian organisations, and many thousands of veterans who disperse from the ceremony by marching past the cenotaph. the cenotaph was designed by edwin lutyens. the permanent portland stone memorial was unveiled on armistice day, the 11th of november, 1920. the memorial rapidly became a central point for all those whose family and friends had died during the first world war, with no known grave. well, i'm joined now by the shadow and former minister for defence, also conservative

mp for rayleigh and wickford, mark francois. mark, good morning to you. i know you're hurrying to a remembrance sunday service. thank you very much for joining us on remembrance sunday. where are your thoughts? mark francois? >> well, for me it's always a poignant day. personally, michael , poignant day. personally, michael, because my as i think you know, but your viewers may not. my late father, reginald francois, fought in world war two. he was born into a working class family in north london in 1925, and he joined the royal navy aged 18, in 1943 and aged 19 as a stoker, first class reg francois. he was on a minesweeper called hms bressay at d—day. i have all his naval papers. i notice you're wearing an admiralty board tie , michael, an admiralty board tie, michael, this morning, so it's always poignant for me and for the

whole country, because what we do today is, as you said, is we commemorate those people who gave their lives, who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can have the privilege of living in a free country. and that is something we should always commemorate and never forget . commemorate and never forget. >> mark francois, that is deeply interesting . did your did your interesting. did your did your father talk very much about his experiences and in particular, did he talk about those people that he'd lost? >> it's interesting. you ask michael. he like a lot of veterans, he didn't talk about it often. they don't . but when it often. they don't. but when i was a boy, when i was about 11, he he'd gone to a naval reunion in london and he came home late at night. normally i would have been long to bed, but for some reason the lord was kind and i and i stayed up and he came in

and i stayed up and he came in and he sat down and he just started talking about it. so if you can picture it there i was literally at my father's knee as he began talking about what happened on d—day. and he didn't glorify it or anything remotely like that. quite the opposite. he kept talking about the number of young men that had died that day to liberate us from , from day to liberate us from, from nazi tyranny. it obviously deeply affected him. that was the one really substantive conversation that the one really substantive conversation tha