shortly after that cabinet call, we saw in person, arriving on foot, john healey, the shadow defence secretary labour and also sir lindsay hoyle, the leader of the commons, arriving in 70 whitehall, which is the cabinet office that adjoins downing street and that the connecting corridors all lead through as if it is effectively one building. we also saw the foreign secretary, lord cameron, going into downing street. the expectation in situations like this, when time allows comets that senior opposition figures such as keir starmer, who we think has probablyjoined a call to be briefed as well, as well as the defence secretary and the house of commons speaker, would be briefed, where time to allow and it would appear in this instance that there is time because, as we understand it, no military strikes have happened as yet. the uk government always has the capacity to respond without consulting either the opposition or wider parliament, but convention would normally point in the
business reporter david waddell. let s have a look at the geography of the situation. right here is the bab al mandab strait. it s right next to yemen, from where those houthi attacks originated. it s at the southern end of the red sea. at the northern end is the suez canal. now, ships cannot pass through the suez canal from the south without first passing through this choke point. a couple of days ago, the maersk shipping container company and hapag lloyd both announced they wouldn t be making that transit. they ve since been joined by other shipping companies. now, if you re a ship master trying to get your vessel from the indian ocean to the atlantic ocean and you cannot or will not traverse through suez, you need to pass by the cape of good hope. that adds an extra 3,000 nautical miles to thejourney. and there are other issues for ships trying to traverse from the atlantic to the pacific ocean through here. the panama canal is accepting many fewer ships right now because
we aren t. we haven t spoken for quite a while. um, no, not recently. health, teaching and rail unions are to hold talks with ministers today, to try to head off another wave of industrial action. businesses will find out later, exactly how much support they ll get with their energy bills. the amount of government help available is expected to more than halve from the spring, with firms facing rapidly rising costs. thousands of supporters of the far right former brazilian president, jair bolsonaro, have attacked government buildings in the capital. drama in the fa cup in what was one of the upsets of the weekend. how stevenage of league 2 knocked out aston villa in two madcap minutes in yesterday s third round tie. good morning. if you are just stepping out is a chilly start in the east. then we are in for a day of sunshine and showers. some will be heavy and thundery. it will be breezy. the outlook for the rest of the week remains unsettled. details later in the programme. g
borisjohnson urges energy companies to act in the national interest and do more to cut rising bills as he meets energy bosses at downing street. the police watchdog says forces in england and wales are failing victims of burglaries, robberies and theft with too few suspects being charged. the crisis of local swimming pools the bbc finds more than 60 have closed across the uk in the past 3 years. hello and welcome to bbc news at 5:00pm. an amber heat warning for large parts of england and wales has come into force, as temperatures look likely to peak at 37 degrees celsius over the next four days. the met office has also warned there s an exceptional risk of fires spreading in many places and water companies believe a drought could be declared soon. celestina 0lulode has this report. this is what emergency services want to prevent. tinderbox dry conditions helped cause these fires last month. london fire brigade said it needs the public s help to prevent grass fires.