from new york, the bbc s michelle fleury reports. major western brands have found themselves hit by a grassroots often unplanned boycotts because of their stance on the israel palestine conflict. this includes mcdonald s. the burger chain came a target became a target after videos online showing them giving away thousands of free meals to the members of the israeli military. this resulted in boycotts of the brand. owners and muslim majority countries such as kuwait and pakistan put out statements distancing themselves. in a message on linkedin, mcdonald s ceo wrote that the burger chain is experiencing a meaningful business impacted due to the war and associated misinformation. all of this in the middle east and beyond because of the war in gaza. he added, this is disheartening and ill founded, pointing that many of the restaurants are operated by local owners. he didn t elaborate on the scale of the impact, but mcdonald s has around 2,000 restaurants in the region. it isn
to ferry people across the channel, it is about getting after the money of these people smugglers and it is about working hard both on the uk border and across europe. that is what driven this 36% reduction. at the same time, is that you re seeing an 80% increase. we are a positive outlier because of the actions that we have taken. so this is not about the weather, this is about the work the home office officials have been doing both domestically and with their counterparts across europe. opposition labour party says ministers are manipulating the figures. here s the shadow home secretary yvette cooper. rishi sunak s claim to have cured the asylum backlog isjust totally false. in fact, the figures are nearly 100,000 cases and they haven t even fully cleared the bit of the backlog they were targeting. our political correspondent nick eardley has been working with the bbc verify team and looking at the claims. the big claim from the government today is that it s got rid of the
goalless at half time at the london stadium. a win for brayton could see them move into sixth place and they would leap frog the hosts in the process. staying with football, staying with english robot because wayne rooney us says he does not believe 13 weeks was sufficient to oversee changes at birmingham city. following his sacking by the championship club earlier on tuesday. he has been dismissed after just 15 games in charge following a dismal run of four. birmingham in the top six when he took over, but after just two wins the top six when he took over, but afterjust two wins come the club are now down in 20th place with just six points clear of the relegation zone. in a statement. he admits that results had not been at the level he wanted to be. the january transfer window may have only recently open, manchester united looked busy already after donny van de beekjoined eintracht frankfurt on loan, another of their players could be heading to germany. sancho being linked w
the german shipping line hapag lloyd has said in the last couple of hours that it will continue to avoid the area for at least another week. it made the decision after another ship belonging to its rival maersk was attacked over the weekend. in that attack, houthi rebels based in yemen hit the ship with a missile and tried to climb aboard before the us navy intervened and sank the rebels four boats killing the crew in the process. the us military says there have been at least 23 attacks since mid november on a route that acconts for about 12% of global trade and which is now being avoided by several of the world s biggest shipping companies. let s unpack the latest on this with peter sand, chief analyst at the shipping analytics platform xeneta. thanks forjoining us. does this latest development suggests tha things are getting worse rather than better? you are hitting the nail on the head. we can see that from the direct developments on the platform where an essential
big ben strikes midnight. it s europe s biggest fireworks display and as the countdown began, more than 100,000 people watched along the river thames as the london skyline lit up and the sounds of big ben chimed. you can actually smell the gunpowder the air, you can smell it. it is fireworks night here. big ben, the chimes have rung and we are now officially in 202a. the best show on earth. amazing, indescribable, no words. so worth it, i am loving it so much. this is my first time for london, coming here and seeing this. i i love it, it is so good. this year s theme is unity, a message played from the king. 0ur society is woven from diverse threads. and the london mayor, who thanked those working in the nhs, the police and the fire service. he said the event took months to organise. we have planned this sincejuly. there is a team of 75 who have been working over the last four days. one of our strengths as a city and country is our diversity. we will be celebrating our dive