with widespread disruption for passengers. the un secretary general meets ukraine s president for talks he says he s gravely concerned about safety at a nuclear power plant that s now in russian hands. joe fraser becomes the first british man to take gold in the european gymnastics final. and coming up on the bbc news channel. ben stokes helps limit the damage as england claw back wickets on the second day of the 1st test against south africa at lords, following a disappointing first innings. good evening. there s been delight but also disappointment on results day for hundreds of thousands of teenagers across england, wales and northern ireland who ve had their studies severely disrupted by the pandemic. almost 850,000 a levels were taken this year, when pupils did sit exams again. as you can see here, the proportion of top grades has fallen compared with 2020 and 2021 which are marked here in red that was when teacher assessments were used instead of exams because
hostages under a temporary truce agreement with hamas will not happen before friday. the deal was agreed last night by israel and hamas which is designated a terrorist organisation by some western governments. it could also mean a delay to a four day temporary ceasefire and the release of 150 palestinian women and teenagers from israeli prisons. our senior international correspondent orla guerin reports and there are distressing images from the start. a reminder of how all this began on october 7th, hamas gunmen storming across the borderfrom gaza, hunting israelis to kill or capture. around 240 were taken hostage. among them, shiri bibas, trying to shield her two little boys from the horror all around them. ten month old kfir had just started crawling. ariel, who s four, loves climbing and batman. now they and their mother are expected home in the coming days, along with dozens of other women and children. they don t know yet that hamas killed their grandparents. shiri s
of the economy, chancellor? jeremy hunt has some good news he wants to trumpet. the bank of england has driven inflation down it s halved this year. so now the chancellor says it s time to try to get the economy growing. in today s autumn statement for growth, our choice is not big government, high spending and high tax, because we know that leads to less growth, not more. instead, we reduce debt, cut taxes and reward work. he announced, under the triple lock, the state pension will go up by over 8% next year, and many benefits up by more than 6%. i m going to go further and cut the main rate of employee national insurance by two percentage points, from i2%, to 10%. it mean someone on a salary of £35,000 a year would save over £450. to encourage businesses to invest, he is making a temporary scheme permanent it allows the cost of any upgrades, computers, machinery and the like to be deducted from profits before they re taxed. i will today make full expensing permanent,
good evening from hull. we are at the streetlife museum, which celebrates this great port city s economy and transport. we ve been listening here to the chancellorjeremy hunt in his autumn statement unveiling his tax and spending plans for the year ahead including measures affecting the take home pay and household budgets of millions of people. we ll hear from our political editor chris mason and our economics editor faisal islam, and our cost of living correspondent colletta smith is here in hull with me. but first, let s look at some of the measures announced. there ll be tax cuts including a cut in national insurance from 12% to 10% for 27 million people. the state pension will increase by 8.5%, and universal credit and disability benefits will rise by 6.7%. but those on welfare must take a work placement if they are still looking for a job after 18 months or risk losing their benefits. and the overall picture for growth is gloomy the independent watchdog, the obr,