his mental well—being but will still play for saracens. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. now, this is the youngest hostage taken on october 7th, and his four—year—old brother and mother. they're the bibas family and, today, hamas claimed that they had all been killed in an israeli airstrike. the israeli defense forces say they're investigating the claim from hamas, which is designated a terrorist organisation by the uk government. it's thought there are still 161 israeli hostages in gaza, and the six—day temporary truce is due to end today, though there are hopes that it could be extended. our senior international correspondent orla guerin is in tel aviv. well, tonight, the people of israel are waiting for more news about this hamas claim, which is unconfirmed. we had a statement from the extended natalie metcalf family saying they are waiting for the information to be confirmed are hopefully refuted by military members and thanking people here for their warm support —— the bibas family. government minister benny gantz says he has met the family and he has emphasised there is no verification yet for the hamas statement. baby kfir. a nation has been waiting for him to come home. but tonight, a claim from hamas that the ten—month—old was killed by israel's bombardment of gaza. hamas says his four—year—old brother, ariel, was also killed. along with their mother, shiri, who tried so hard to protect them as they were taken hostage. the israeli army says it's assessing the accuracy of the information. if true, it is devastating news for israel and for relatives. just yesterday, a cousin was pleading for the children's release. we love them so much. they are a tiny baby that we hold and we pass between each other, and we love him. and a child who loves to play with rag dolls, to dress up as batman, are they a threat to hamas? they are young children. theirfather, yarden, was also taken captive. he may now be the only one left from his family. among those still being held in gaza, 21—year—old mia schem. she had to run for her life from this music festival. then, last month, images from hamas showing her with injuries. it's a terrible, terrible situation. now her mother, keren, can only wait in torment day after day. mia is a warrior and she's a very, very strong and mature girl. and i do keep to this faith, but to wait every day for the call to tell me if she's on the list or not, it's terrible. and she won't be released today, too. and it's like a russian roulette. you don't know who will get out from there. so far, almost 100 israeli women and children have gotten out and been reunited with their families. tonight, there are indications that the truce and the release of hostages could continue — at least, for the next few days. orla guerin, bbc news, tel aviv. the world health organization is warning that more people could die in gaza because of untreated diseases than airstrikes, if the health system isn't restored there. more than a million people are sheltering in overcrowded united nations facilities, and cases of diarrhoea and respiratory infections are widespread. wyre davies has compiled this report from jerusalem. gaza has practically been bombed back to the dark ages. much of gaza city is now in ruins. the fragile truce of the last six days has allowed the un and other agencies to assess the damage wrought by seven weeks of bombing and what pressing needs the population now has. we're very concerned about an outbreak of infectious diseases, such as watery diarrhoea and other infectious diseases, as people are forced to live in very cramped conditions, with poor sanitation. the world health organization says given the living conditions and lack of health care, more people in gaza could die from disease than bombings. over 100,000 people have acute respiratory infections, and 80,000 are suffering with diarrhoea — half of those, under the age of five. this baby is 23—days—old, younger than the war itself, and the whole family is sick. translation: i don't have enough | money to buy my children medicine. my husband is seriously ill. my son was in the hospital yesterday, and my baby daughter needed help to breathe. israel has said there's no humanitarian crisis in gaza. hundreds of truckloads of aid are now getting into the territory, thanks to the negotiated calm. distributed throughout gaza, much of the badly—needed food, medicine and limited fuel is quickly snapped up. but when the fighting resumes, the aid will again be reduced to a trickle. wyre davies, bbc news, jerusalem. an inquest has been told that the four teenagers who were found dead in a crashed car in north wales earlier this month died after drowning. jevon hirst, harvey owen, wilf fitchett and hugo morris — aged between 16 and 18 — were on a camping trip when they went missing. our wales correspondent, tomos morgan, is near the scene of the crash for us this evening. sophie, it wasjust sophie, it was just a little sophie, it wasjust a little bit further down this road where this terrible tragic accident happened just two weeks and just weekends ago. it is understood the boys were on a camping trip here in an area known as snowdonia and they were last seen on sunday the 19th of november. the alarm was raised on the monday after they didn't return home back to shrewsbury. and on tuesday morning, the tragic news, a member of the public spotted their silver ford fiesta overturned and partially submerged off the road, and police confirmed four bodies were found. and now today, we have had that provisional report that the provisional cause of death was drowning for the four boys. north wales police have appealed for dashcam footage from anybody travelling on the a4085 between sunday and tuesday morning, as they continue their investigation. but for the families and communities involved, their grief goes on. tomos morgan. thank you. have you noticed a significant rise in the price of some brands of baby formula, baked beans, mayonnaise and pet food over the past couple of years? well, now the uk's competition watchdog says many of the makers of some of the most popular food brands have been raising thier prices by more than their costs. it also says it's launching a review into supermarkets which only offer discounts to customers who sign up to loyalty schemes. here's our business correspondent, emma simpson. they're some of our biggest and most popular brands. amid soaring food inflation, the competition regulator's been taking a look at them. what we've seen is that a number of the leading brands, for example, in relation to baked beans, mayonnaise, pet food, they have chosen to increase their prices by more than their costs have gone up. but what matters here also is how consumers have reacted to that, and where people have been able to switch to cheaper alternatives, own—label products, that suggests that competition is broadly working effectively in those markets. the real worry for us is when we look at baby formula, where we don't see that switching. the cma says parents could save £500 in the first year of a baby's life if they switch to cheaper options, but there isn't much choice. aldi is the only supermarket to sell own—label formula. baby milk�*s gone up by an average of 25% over the past two years. i think it's expensive. i think if you don't have, if you're not able to breast—feed, you have to rely on formula, it's obviously a huge expense to families. we're finding the price has gone up since my youngest. - i stick with one brand, it was a brand that i started off on day one and i've just always stuck with it. nestle and danone have 85% of this market, with several brands. regulators say they've managed to keep their profit margins high, the companies say they are keeping prices as affordable as they can. it's also a highly regulated sector. the laws at the moment prevent price promotioning on formula milk. they also prevent us being able to accept loyalty cards, cash equivalents, high street vouchers and the like. you can't even donate to food banks with infant—stage formula, so it all needs overhauling. the regulator looked at just ten categories in the supermarket aisles. it says brands are hoping to win back business through promotions, but increasingly, shoppers can only access these deals through loyalty cards, and they're now going to scrutinise these schemes to look at their impact on customers and the competition. emma simpson, bbc news. nottingham city council has declared itself in effect bankrupt, meaning it will stop all spending other than services it must provide by law. a recent report said the labour—run local authority was set to overspend by £23 million this financial year. the council said cuts in government funding and a rising demand for services were to blame. rishi sunak has accused the greek prime minister of trying to "grandstand" over the parthenon sculptures — also known as the elgin marbles — which are in the british museum. the prime minister was defending his decision to cancel a planned meeting with his greek counterpart yesterday over a row over the sculptures which greece wants returned to athens. in a fiery exchange in the commons, the labour leader sir keir starmer accused mr sunak of trying to humiliate the greek leader, as our political editor chris mason reports. jeering prime minister's questions is a brutal spectacle. jeers and cheers prime ministers fear it, even hate it. order! the thing is, that is the point of it — the brutality of accountability. the greek prime minister came to london to meet him. a fellow nato member, an economic ally. but instead of using that meeting to discuss those serious issues, he tried to humiliate him and cancelled at the last minute. when it was clear that the purpose of the meeting was not to discuss substantive issues for the future but, rather, to grandstand and re—litigate issues of the past, it wasn't appropriate... rishi sunak accusing a fellow european leader of grandstanding is quite a thing. keir starmer tried to portray himself as a prime minister in waiting, pointing out he did meet the greek prime minister. and again and again, he mocked mr sunak. there can be few experiences more haunting for the members opposite than hearing this prime minister claim that he's going to sort out a problem. it is ironic that he's suddenly taken such a keen interest in greek culture, when he's clearly become the man with the reverse midas touch. just this past week, we've delivered the biggest tax cuts since the 19805, for millions of people and businesses, increased pensions and benefits, and this week, secured £30 billion of new investment for this country. so he can keep trying, mr speaker, to talk... audio cuts out ..but britain isn't listening... that moment at the end, his microphone turned off, underlining it was one of those days for rishi sunak. he won't want many more days like this one. chris mason, bbc news, at westminster. the time is 6:15. our top story this evening: israel says it's investigating hamas claims that the youngest hostage — a ten—month—old baby — has been killed with his mother and brother in gaza. still to come... as the government misses its own house—building target, we look at the difficulties of getting on the property ladder. coming up on bbc news, arsenal need just one more point to make the last 16 of the champions league. they play lens tonight, while manchester united are clinging on to their hopes of progress, needing a win in turkey against galatasaray. the covid inquiry has heard that senior health officials accepted that some infectious people would be returned to care homes during the pandemic, to ease the pressure on hospitals. our health editor hugh pym has been at the inquiry today. hejoins us now. what more did we learn? the whole issue of patients being discharged from hospitals into care homes in the early stages of the pandemic has been very controversial and much talked about the step today the inquiry was shown e—mails between a senior health official and dame professorjenny harries, then the medical officerfor dame professorjenny harries, then the medical officer for england. dame professorjenny harries, then the medical officerfor england. the official says it looks as if we will have two discharged patients with covid symptoms into care homes otherwise the nhs will get clogged up. damejenny says it is not something we should wish for but it does look as if that will have to happen because of all the pressures. here is a little bit of what she had to say today. it was a very bleak picture because i think the reality was this isn't an invitation to be discharging covid patients, its actually a reality that says if hospitals overflow those who can benefit from treatment there?will be there. anybody — it doesn t matter if it's residental care settings or going on to other ones — that hospitals will have to manage that. damejenny dame jenny went on damejenny went on to say she had warned people in government at that time, a week before the final lockdown, about the possible impact on safeguarding of children. dominic raab, then a cabinet minister, also giving evidence today, he also said he had been very concerned at that time about the impact of lockdowns on children and schools. so all of that will have to be weighed up by the inquiry and by the chair, baroness hallett.— the inquiry and by the chair, baroness hallett. well, almost four years after covid brought a lot of the world to a standstill — bbc news is looking at the legacy of lockdown and how it affected all of us — in work, health and education — as part of a new series. we start today with young children. meet reggie — he was two at the start of the pandemic. so was ivy — who was just about to start nursery school, and this is cali. all three children are now five years old. before the pandemic they were all struggling with their speech. then lockdown came and any hope of accessing help disappeared. reggie, ivy and cali are just some of the 75,000 children across the uk still waiting to be seen by a speech and language therapist — but these three children have been lucky — they've been part of a special scheme at reading university for speech and language therapists. lucy watkinson has been following their progress. turning two. cali, reggie and ivy all celebrated their second birthdays during the first lockdown, in spring 2020. right, we're in the big room again today, ivy. by the time they started primary school, they were unable to talk. we've been allowed into this university teaching clinic to follow the children's progress. on your feet, you've got... so this is called a... after working with a speech and language therapist here for a year, they are beginning to express themselves more clearly but still struggle to make certain sounds. shoes. shoes! shoes. really good try. well done. she had so few words. she was very aware that people weren't understanding her, and therefore her sort of default position was, "well, i just won't talk." children would typically have spent a lot of time in early year settings, enjoying socialising, learning language, learning from other children, and that opportunity was denied from them when we were all in lockdown. hello! things have fell by the wayside, i think, as a parent. _ it was crazy, wasn't it? we were home schooling, secondary level, late - primary level and ivy. we were just so stretched as parents trying to... - surviving. yeah. treading water every day, i think. lyeah, and i think that's potentially| how we didn't pick up as stringently on ivy's development. no, say yo—yo. the parents of all three children all say they became frustrated at not being able to express themselves. say yo—yo! ivy was no exception. if we couldn't understand what she was trying to say, yeah, it was quite horrible. she would either bang her head on the wall or tend to hit herself. sometimes she would kind of lash out at other kids at nursery, _ which did cause problems, i but it's so much better now. monkeys like to eat...? bananas. what about you 7 do you like to eat bananas yet again? yeah... they're your favourite fruits, are they? the biggest impact was access to services. so, although families were recognising that their children were struggling with speech, language and communication, a lot of the services were based in settings that were closed, and so waiting lists had built up. and unfortunately, children's development doesn't wait for covid to go away. during lockdown, cali was put on to an nhs waiting list to see a speech and language therapist. three years on, she's still on that list. what is the microphone for? it's so people can hear me talk and hear mummy talk. i don't think we have a problem hearing you talk, so that's ok. being observed by trainee therapists enabled cali to be seen sooner. that's it! so should we give mummy a drink for the moment? cali had never said a clear word ever, and allie got her to say the word spider. i had tears in my eyes. i wasjust like, "oh, my god, finally i've heard her speak." it was something i wasn't sure i would ever hear. nearly! blue. blue! that's it, blue! so tell mummy what colour it is. blue. blue! this is cali a year on from when i first saw her, where virtually every single sound was replaced with a "yuh". so if she was counting, it would be... she vocalises mummy says that you've been doing really, really well with your magic finger sounds. reggie? those key words that parents expect, like mama, he just couldn't say it. and it's one of the earliest sound combinations that a child does. i can't do it! i think you can. i felt completely lost, _ completely overwhelmed, scared — "how am i going to help reggie? "how am i going to help this little boy that is - "desperate to start talking?" a lot of the children that we see are going into school very behind where they should be for their age, not meeting those sort of typical milestones. you ready? fantastic! so it means that the teaching assistants, the teachers, they're having to do far more work to get children up to the level that they should have been sort of pre—covid. the government told us that they've made almost £5 billion available for education recovery and have helped over 160,000 children in primary school improve their speech and language. since seeing allie, the children's confidence has returned. would you like a chocolate now? yes. they're keen to speak. they're understood by their families and their friends at school. they're no longer silent. lucy watkinson, bbc news, reading. the bbc�*s long running current affairs programme, newsnight, is to be cut to 30 minutes and will focus on interviews and debates. more than half of the programme's 60 jobs are to go. the cuts are part of wide—ranging plans to save £500 million. other changes include moving the bbc news at one bulletin from here in london to salford and extending it to a full hour. the england rugby captain owen farrell has announced he will miss next year's six nations tournament "in order to prioritise his and his family's mental wellbeing." his club saracens said that the 32—year—old is taking a breakfrom international rugby but will continue to play for his club. british gymnastics has announced new safeguarding rules for young athletes, which will mean coaches can no longer weigh gymnasts, deny them drink breaks, or take them out of primary school to train. last year, a review found "systematic" physical and emotional abuse in the sport. thousands more families are renting smaller homes than they were three years ago, according to new data seen by the bbc. consultancy firm dataloft looked at which houses families earning between £30,000 and £70,000 were renting. in the first half of 2020, 57% of those households with children were starting tenancies for houses with three or more bedrooms. three years later, that was only 51% — instead there was an increase in this group renting one or two bedroom homes. it comes as rents have been rising at a rapid rate — increasing more than 10% in a year in some places. statistics out today show there were just over 230,000 new homes in england last year — 210,000 newly built, plus 20,000 buildings that changed from non domestic to residental. that's a way off the conservative party's target of 300,000 new homes a year by the mid 2020s. our political correspondent alex forsyth reports from bedfordshire. so how long have you been trying to buy a house? probably since the pandemic. at 28, kayleigh still lives with her parents. she works full—time and has been saving for a house with her long—term boyfriend but owning her own home is still a long way off. when you're a teenager, you don't think that's how your life's going to turn out. you think, "oh, 20s, we'll have our own house, we'll move in, it will be this happy dream". you don't think, "oh, i'll still be waking up in my pyjamas and mum's house!" kayleigh�*s far from the only one struggling to get on the property ladder. for others, it's soaring rents or a shortage of social housing which amounts to what many now call a crisis. across bedfordshire, there has been significant development but there are still questions over affordability and impact. so the timescales for the new primary school is september 2024. sarah moved to this new town, south of bedford, two years ago, ideal housing for her family but despite investment in facilities, a planned gp surgery and railway station are yet to be built. it's a lovely area but will you child get a space at the local school? will you have access to a community centre or a local shop? so it's a real shame that the promises that were put in place when we bought the houses haven't been delivered. housing and infrastructure has become a key political issue. the government insists it's on track to provide a million new homes this parliament, despite missing annual targets, while building is a central labour pledge. there are many elements to this: the planning system, the role of house—builders, empty homes, second homes and, of course, the wider economy. but there is a particular political challenge. there's often tension between the need for new homes and the impact on existing communities. even some mps who advocate house building have opposed developments in their areas where there's local concern. murray and jane are fighting proposals for thousands of new homes here. developers say it would offer much—needed sustainable housing but they're concerned about flooding and nearby heritage and nature sites on land that hasn't been earmarked for development by the council. it's about how you build, not whether you build. so there's probably a lot of acceptance that we need better houses in stock and we need social housing and all those important issues. but certainly the impact on infrastructure has left people feeling they're left behind. we feel like we're living in a wild west rather than a properly controlled system where government, central government supports local government to deliver the needs of people. there's consensus that homes are needed but building the right ones in the right places, it seems, remains the challenge. alex forsyth, bbc news, bedfordshire. the chilterns, the cotsworlds and dorset — they're all parts of england that are being considered as part of plans to create a new national park. there are already ten in england, along with three in wales and two in scotland. our environment correspondent, claire marshall has the story. there are thousands of square milesj of country and coast which should be made into national parks. extensive districts to be preserved in their natural aspects and kept . for public enjoyment and health. national parks, the road to freedom, freedom of england's country. - post—war, this road to freedom was taken. a network of national parks created to help protect the jewels in the crown of the british countryside. 15 so far across the uk. now, there are plans for a new one. they're a really important part of our way of life — that's why we're launching this competition for a new national park. but we're going further than that. we're putting in an extra 5 million this year, an extra 10 million next year. people enjoy the national parks for a reason. we want to expand that and really build on the history we have and have a further national park as part of that process. lines on a map haven't even been drawn yet. it will take years for this new national park to become a reality. and in the meantime, the existing network is already struggling. like here on dartmoor, where dwindling park resources makes it a challenge to fund even vital repair work, like shoring up eroded footpaths. park chiefs will study the new funding announcement carefully. the devil's in the detail. what we really need is revenue funding to pay for salaries of staff on the ground. feet on the ground helps us deliver practical projects for nature and for people. with wildlife in steep decline, a clear vision of how to protect nature is needed more than ever. claire marshall, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. here's louise lear. my my daughter sent me a picture of snow in newcastle, is there more of that to come? a little, and i'm impressed she up early enough to send it. lots of cold weather out there, hard frost and some snow showers but we are talking about the temperatures at the moment, the feel of the weather. this is what we should be having in late november. generally double figures. but this is what we're going to see over the next few days, a real shock to the system. some of us barely seeing temperatures above freezing. so it will stay cold and yes, when you add any moisture into that factor, you could see a wintry mix of rain, sleet and snow. an easterly wind driving a few showers tonight in eastern scotland, north—east england, may be some ice around. some fog, some phrasing in the midlands and down into the south—west perhaps in rain arriving later on in the night. away from the coast, the temperatures will fall away once again. it will be cold and frosty. we start off again with a lot of rust around. we will