Good morning. It is going to be fairly cloudy and wet today across the central swathes of the uk. To the central swathes of the uk. To the south of that mostly dry and mild. In the north, blustery showers with gales in north west scotland. Details later. Good morning. Its wednesday, 13th march. Rishi sunak is facing calls to hand back millions of pounds donated to the Conservative Party by a businessman accused of making racist comments about the mp, diane abbott. Tech boss frank hester is reported to have said ms abbott made him want to hate all black women, and that she should be shot. The Prime Minister called the comments racist and wrong. Our Political Correspondent Hannah Miller has more. Hello, rishi. How are you . Very nice to see you. When rishi sunak made this visit to a mill near leeds in november, his Helicopter Ride had been provided by one of his partys biggest donors, frank hester, Who Last Year donated £10 million to the Conservative Party, now alleged to have made com
funerals are being held for the 2a soldiers killed in israel s deadliest day since the war began in gaza. there has been intense fighting around khan younis, israel says it has surrounded the southern gaza city. could i hostage deal close, though? reports that israel has proposed a two month pause to negotiate prisoner exchanges with himars. the us and uk carry out joint strikes against houthi targets in yemen for the second time in two weeks. hamas. and oppenheimer leads the oscar nominations with 13 but barbie s margot robbie and director greta gerwig miss out. time for a look at the business news now with lu kwesa burak. it afternoon, lukwesa. could afternoon. good afternoon. we start here in the uk with the government s finances because the amount it had to borrow last month was far less than expected. that has raised hopes the chancellor, jeremy hunt, may have extra room to cut taxes when he announces his spring budget in march. a lot of it is down to lo
calls to stop punishing addicts if it is to end its reputation as the drugs capital of europe. president biden has tested positive for covid. the white house says the symptoms are mild. the bbc has apologised to the former royal nanny tiggy legge burke over a number of serious and false allegations made against her by panorama reporter martin bashir in order to obtain an interview with princess diana. a coroner has said that the five people, including four teenage soldiers, who died in the guildford pub bombings in 1974, were unlawfully killed. and no ordinary telescope for the first time scientists will be able to detect the smashing together of neutron stars good evening. now that the conservative leadership contest has been whittled down to two candidates rishi sunak and liz truss, the focus is shifting to what each of them stands for. it s early days but the battleground appears to be economic policy. mr sunak was chancellor for nearly two and a half years but ms truss sa
fire. forthe responsible for the effects of the fire. for the first time, counsel has admitted they knew that the building was defective. the infected blood scandal of the 70s and 80s thousands of surviving victims should receive immediate six figure compensation, rules a judge. and coming up in half an hour, foreign correspondents based in london give an outsider s view of events in the uk in dateline. hello, welcome to bbc news. it is good to have your company this evening. rebekah vardy has lost her libel case at the high court. in what had become known as the wagatha christie trial, the wife of the former england footballerjamie vardy had sued coleen rooney after she accused vardy of leaking private information about her to the tabloid press. in a statement after the verdict, coleen rooney said she was pleased with the judgment, but added that the case should never have gone to court. rebekah vardy said she was extremely sad and disappointed , and that it wasn t the