let's get more on this now from our political correspondent iain watson. ou may remember, mike amesbury was suspended from the labour party ten days ago when video footage emerged of an incident in cheshire, in the early hours of the morning of the 26th october. that video footage appeared to show mike amesbury punching and kicking another man. this footage was described by the prime minister as shocking. mike amesbury had said he had felt threatened and agreed to cooperate with cheshire police. in the last few moments he has issued a statement which i will read to you now. he said, i have today been summoned to court to face a charge of common assault following an incident in frodsham last month which was, as he puts it, deeply regrettable. he goes on to say that this is an ongoing case so he will not be commenting any further. a court date is yet to be set. iain watson in _ court date is yet to be set. iain watson in westminster, thank you. at least a0 people have been killed in israeli air strikes in eastern lebanon, according to the lebanese health mini

here's iain watson.y. keir starmer accepted her resignation after news of a spent conviction became public. 15 years ago she was a special constable, but the roots of her resignation can be traced back to when she contacted police in 2013. she was a victim of a mugging and told officers her work phone was missing, but it later turned up at her home. she said she'd made a mistake and pled guilty to a fraud offence, she says on her lawyer's advice, which she now regrets. louise haigh's friends claim the prime minister threw the ex—transport secretary under the proverbial bus because they say he knew the full story of her conviction before he appointed her to the shadow cabinet, never mind the actual cabinet. and they accuse him of not being willing to spend political capital defending her. it feels at least like he's panicked in the face of some media attack on one of the most effective cabinet ministers he's got. i mean, she's already steered through legislation to bring the railways into public ownership

here's iain watson.gh's cabinet career today. keir starmer accepted her resignation after news of a spent conviction became public. 15 years ago, she was a special constable, but the roots of her resignation can be traced back to when she contacted police in 2013. she was a victim of a mugging and told officers her work phone was missing, but it later turned up at her home. she said she'd made a mistake. she pled guilty to a fraud offence, she says, on her lawyer's advice, which she now regrets. louise haigh's friends claim the prime minister threw the ex transport secretary under the proverbial bus because, they say, he knew the full story of her conviction before he appointed her to the shadow cabinet, never mind the actual cabinet. and they accuse him of not being willing to spend political capital defending her. it feels, at least, like he's panicked in the face of some media attack on one of the most effective cabinet ministers he's got. i mean, she's already steered through legislation to bring the

iain watson, thank ou.united states and now director of gatehouse advisory partners. i asked him why he thought sir keir starmer had appointed jonathan powell to the position of national security adviser. jonathan is such a talented individual. he's got enormous experience. as you already mentioned, he worked in the tony blair administration for ten years. he's got great expertise in international relations. he served as a diplomat before working for tony blair in the washington embassy. and i can say on the basis of personal experience, since i worked forjonathan, that he is an absolutely outstanding choice. and i think he's his own expertise of the united states and of how government works, makes him the standout choice for the role. it's an interesting time, isn't it, with the new donald trump government coming in. you will have seen the widely reported comments by the foreign secretary with regard to donald trump. does that make for a difficult start to a relationship, and how willjonathan powell, if yo

here's iain watson.phone a decade ago called time on louise _ phone a decade ago called time on louise haigh's cabinet career today. keir starmer accepted the resignation of the news of a spent conviction became public. 15 years ago, she was a special constable, but the roots of her resignation can be traced back to when she contacted police in 2013. she was the victim of a mugging and told police something was missing. they say he knew the full story of her conviction before he appointed her conviction before he appointed her to the shadow cabinet, never mind the actual cabinet. and they accused him of not being willing to spend political capital defending her. it spend political capital defending her. , ., spend political capital defending her. ,, spend political capital defending her. «i her. it feels at least like he has anicked her. it feels at least like he has panicked in _ her. it feels at least like he has panicked in the _ her. it feels at least like he has panicked in the face _ her. it feels

robertjenrick by 12,000 votes and will now begin forming her shadow cabinet. 0ur political correspondent iain watson

iain watson, bbc news.irst minister, alex salmond, who died last month. in 2020, mr salmond was cleared of 13 sexual offences charges, including attempted rape. his alba party said the new allegation was a smear. here's our scotland correspondent catriona renton with more on that allegation. (tx sot) renton with more on that allegation. alex salmond died last month. he'd been speaking at a conference in north macedonia when he had a heart attack. his funeral in his home village of strichen was last week and today we have had this news from police scotland. now, alex salmond was first minister of scotland from 2007 to 2014. he left the scottish national party in 2018 after a number of allegations of sexual misconduct came to light. now, he won a legal case against the scottish government over its mishandling of the complaints. now, in 2020, he was cleared of 13 sexual offence charges, including attempted rape. now police scotland has said that they have received a separate report of a non—recent sexual assau

our political correspondent iain watson has more. have you got a lot of work to do, miss badenoch?u? she's a new conservative leader who's promising to drive her defeated party down the long road back to power. a massive week for both of you. kemi badenoch sat beside the labour chancellor today, but she was keen to emphasise that there weren't politically close. thinking about the economy in a different way, in my view, is going to be completely the opposite of what rachel reeves is doing. raising taxes in this way, whether it's employer ni or elsewhere, is not going to grow our economy. and despite not making any specific policy commitments during her leadership campaign, she has pledged to scrap labour's vat on private school fees. that is a tax on aspiration. taxing education is wrong. it is against our principles. she said conservative governments had got some things wrong, too, and drew an interesting lesson from lockdown. a lot of the stuff that happened around partygate, i thought that it was overblown. we should not have created fixed penalty notices, for example. that was

iain watson, bbc news. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. this is bbc news.ang — as ukraine claims that north korean troops are in russia and ready to support russia's military. it's suggested tens of thousands of north korean troops could be deployed. our analysis editor ros atkins, along with bbc verify, has been looking at what we know about north korea's alleged involvement in the war. ukraine says north korea has entered its war with russia in a fully fledged manner. the us says upwards of 12,000 north korean troops have been deployed, primarily in russia's kursk region, where ukraine has seized territory. and based upon what they've been trained on and what they the way that they've been integrated into the russian formations, i fully expect to see them engaged in in combat soon. the bbc has verified footage from inside russia showing soldiers speaking korean. ukraine also says russia is using north korean missiles. there are many questions about north korea's alleged involvement in this war. this is what we know. the conflict is primarily being fought

iain watson, bbc news.a little later about what may be in the inbox for the new conservative party leader a little later in the programme but let's take a look at all of the other main stories. luxmy has those. thank you. spanish authorities are facing growing criticism over their response to the recent floods, which have now claimed the lives of more than 200 people. thousands of troops have been deployed to the worst—hit valencia region, where many remain missing and officials are warning of insecurity due to looting. 0ur reporter barry caffrey has more. rescuers still at work in underground tunnels and car parks, searching for signs of life. they're nowjoined by 5000 more troops and the same number of police and civil guards — the national government's response after criticism the regional authority has failed to cope. i've been at home for three days with no light, no water, no phones — nothing. i could not go to my mother to tell her i was feeling 0k. and we didn't have food, no waterfor drink — nothin

let's speak to our political correspondent iain watson who's at westminster. on been to these figures? we had the understudies at prime minister's question, the shadow cabinet minister was leading the charge for the conservatives with kemi badenoch standing down. he said that labour were stoking the inflation increase, firstly by agreeing to big public sector pay increases and because of the budget. the difficulty for him when he attacked angela rayner was she was able to point out that he was a minister in the conservative government when inflation stood at ii%. but the government when inflation stood at ii%. but the government is under pressure on a number of fronts, the conservatives and liberal democrats brought up the anger of farmers over the tax changes they're facing. and they said they were punishing people who don't usually vote labour. not just the farmers, but small businesses, parents with kids in fee paying schools and pensioners. but the government says some of the difficult decisions are necessary, because of the state of the public finances beq

all ministers supported the plans which were announced in the budget. 0ur political correspondent iain watson, isn�*t it? was being suggested this morning, isn't it? ., �* , was being suggested this morning, isn't it? . �* , , ., isn't it? that's right, this morning in the house _ isn't it? that's right, this morning in the house of _ isn't it? that's right, this morning in the house of commons, - in the house of commons, conservative mps were pushing government ministers to admit they�*d got this policy wrong and to do a complete u—turn. a complete u—turn, i don�*t think was ever on the cards, but inside the department for environment food and rural affairs, defra for short, there was a suggestion that perhaps older farmers could be exempted from this policy, although the treasury were not keen. the government has moved very swiftly not just to fend off those calls from the conservatives but to quash any suggestion the policy will change. they�*ve issued a statement saying all ministers agree with this policy and it will not be altered. government sources are underlining this by saying there

iain watson reports. juliette is gathering winter fuel.ves alone in a northamptonshire village, and she intends to take the government to court. i feel quite angry about what's happened. she used to vote labour. she's nowjoined the greens. but she says she was better off under the last government. the current government has successfully pushed more people to apply for pension credit. but becausejuliette gets a modest private pension, she doesn't qualify, so loses out on her winter fuel payment. last year, when we had a conservative government, i actually received £500, which was the winter fuel allowance, plus a cost of living payment. and this year i won't get anything. the threshold for pension credit is too low and you have to literally be on the breadline. juliette is one of unite�*s nearly 200,000 retired members, and the union has now applied to the high court for an urgent review of the government's policy. what is it going to cost in terms of illness? what it's going to cost in terms of death. what i'd like the court to do is them