after they went missing. and, the wait is almost over super fans are poised online as tickets for eurovision go on sale later. hello and welcome to bbc news. welcome to viewers here in the uk and around the world. britain s home secretary, suella braverman, has accepted the government is pushing the boundaries of international law with new legislation aimed at stopping asylum seekers crossing the english channel in small boats. it s thought the measures, being introduced in parliament today, and which put a legal duty on ministers to remove anyone who enters the uk illegally would face legal challenges. here s our political correspondent, iain watson: five years ago, fewer than 300 migrants attempted to cross the channel in a small boat. last year, more than 16,000 undertook the hazardous journey. and as the numbers grew, so too did the political pressure on the government. so injanuary this year, the prime minister made this pledge. we will pass new laws to stop small
means the bank has at this stage opted not to raise them any further. this raises lots of questions, does the bank of england think we have hit peak inflation and therefore as a result, we have hit peak interest rates? how long will it take for the rest of the economy to fair and how long will it take for that to filter through until we start to feel a bit better off? as we know, rising interest rates mean it is more expensive on your mortgage and any borrowing. saving rates have been rising but the bank of england has been raising them pretty sharply, iii times from their record low. that was after the financial crisis. up to 5.5 5.25% of the was after the financial crisis. up to 5.5 5.25% of the opting today to 5.5 5.25% of the opting today to keep them on hold. some relief for mortgage holders right now of the big question, whether this is as high as they will go or indeed the bank will decide later on that it needs to keep raising them to keep a lid on inflation?
our priority has been, our concern has been, the rain that has fallen with that wind. we saw a lot of rainfall over the last few weeks, which resulted in a lot of flooding, and as a result the ground is saturated and so any rain that is falling now will fall through the day, will run off quite quickly and flow into the already swollen rivers. currently, we have 68 flood warnings in force across the country and a further 174 flood alerts, which means that flooding is possible. i would urge anybody who is thinking of going out and about to listen to the advice of other emergency services and the coastguard near the sea, and seriously consider your own safety. certainly when you are driving, we would expect to see quite a lot of surface water flooding. driving through flood water has its own risks and i would discourage anyone from doing that. if the water is deeper than about a foot, cars can start to float. you cannot see what is below floodwater. you cannot see how deep it is