Its been just over 2a hours since iran came under attack. Us Officials Say israel fired at least one missile into iranian territory, no major damage or casualties were reported. This was a relatively small scale strike by israel. Earlier, the us Secretary Of State Antony Blinken would not comment on reports the white house was informed in advance about the israeli assault. The United States has not been involved in any offensive operations. What we are focusing on, what the g7 is focusing on and its reflected in our statement and in our conversation is the work to de escalate tensions. And this is why the us and its allies want to calm tensions. Last sunday iran attacked israel with more than 300 missiles and drones causing little damage. The fear in the west is that a cycle of retaliation between israel and iran could ignite a wider war. And there is hope too that the limited nature of the Israeli Attack will allow the iranians to walk away from any further response. Officials in tehr
Nasty. What a show at 6 pm. And this is the saturday five. Welcome to the saturday five. Now Prime Minister rishi sunak has been lashing out at sick britain this week. But theres none of that nonsense around these parts. The ever reliable Albie Amankona and Benjamin Butterworth are by my side as even butterworth are by my side as ever, mainly because they rarely have anything better to do on a saturday night. Ben leo has been signed off after completing his mission to be on television more than the adverts, but political commentator Conor Tomlinson has gladly stepped into his place. Been passed fit and joins us now. And the brilliant comedian Diane Spencer, fudge extraordinaire, complete the line up. She usually spends her saturdays being abused by drunken men on the comedy circuit, so its business as usual for her here tonight. And usual for her here tonight. And tonight were debating Kemi Badenoch speech on imperialism, rishi sunaks welfare reforms and asking if you should be allowed
had been killed. she described the scale of suffering as devastating. the us defense secretary, lloyd austin, in his strongest comments yet on israel s need to protect civilians, said that driving the civilian population into the arms of the enemy would replace israel s tactical victory with a strategic defeat. you see in this kind of a fight, the centre of gravity is the civilian population. and if you drive them into the arms of the enemy, you replace a tactical victory with a strategic defeat. so, i have repeatedly made clear to israel s leaders that protecting palestinian civilians in gaza is both a moral responsibility and a strategic imperative. for his part, the israeli prime minister, benjamin netanyahu, said the war would continue for as long as hamas was active. translation: we will continue the war until we achieve - all its goals, and it s impossible to achieve those goals without the ground operation. the ground operation was necessary to bring the results until
12 hours later the labour leadership have lifted her suspension. but is she banned from standing as a labour candidate in this election? plus the conservatives say if they win the election they will now protect pensioners from their own future tax rises. are they neglecting young voters? welcome to election newsnight. we are live each weekday night at half past ten on bbc 2 and bbc news with interviews and insight. with me throughout the programme tonight labour mp dawn butler and former conservative chancellor kwasi kwarteng who, like around 76 of his tory colleagues, is standing down. first, let s bring you up to date with today s election stories starting with our exclusive that we broke this morning that the labour investigation into diane abbott over her comments on racism was finished five months ago. and tonight, the labour leadership have lifted thier suspension of ms abbott and restored the whip. nick s here. bring us up to date? as you said earlier this evening si
brexit has been the great unmentionable so far in the selection. but tonight keir starmer called for closer ties with the eu. louisville just that and what can the party s social media campaigns tell us about the state of the race. good evening. welcome to newsnight, home to analysis and interviews. who would have imagined at the last election that the towering presence of brexit would hardly register as an issue half way through the next election campaign? it has not gone away as an issue, itjust seems to have been parked by all the main parties. ..for now. but tonight the labour leader, sir keir starmer, whose ming vase strategy started by saying as little as possible about britain s exit from the european union, has under the bbc s questioning given the fullest account of how a possible labour government would approach this thorny issue. we will be exploring that with the head of labour s pro european bloc, and the conservatives new approach to the election leaning in to d