Hello, im lewis vaughanjones. Welcome to the programme. First this hour a deadline set by the west African Regional bloc ecowas for the militaryjunta to reinstate nigers ousted president Mohammed Bazoum expires later on sunday. Ecowas gave the coup leaders a week to restore the president or potentially face Military Action. Meanwhile, france says it will support efforts by ecowas. Nigers Prime Minister has been in paris saturday, meeting lawmakers and greeting protestors outside the niger embassy. He has dismissed pro coup protests taking place in his country. With the deadline only hours away, our correspondent chris ewokor reports from sokoto, North Western nigeria, close to the border with niger. They are bracing for the worst. Many of them were born here in nigeria but they have never been cut off from their roots in niger. The coup has caught them unawares. With the border is closed and the current political crisis, they are now separated from their families. This man lives here b
out to the atlantic again, various weather fronts moving through. look at the squeeze on the isobars it s going to turn really very windy. most of us will wake up to temperatures above freezing as we head through saturday morning. there will be outbreaks of rain again possibly heavy at times just drifting in from the west, so some wet weather but look at these temperatures rising back up into double figures for western spots as we head through saturday. warnings in place on sunday for strong winds for much of the uk and for heavy rain, too. it turns even milder into the start of next week. bye bye. pakistan carries out overnight strikes on what it calls terrorist hideouts in iran s border province two days after iranian attacks on pakistan. hamas says hundreds and people have been killed. tata steel is to push ahead with plans to close both blast furnaces at port talbot works in south wales. the move is expected to lead to the loss of up to 3000 jobs. rishi suna
today, a senior commander with the islamist hezbollah movement was reportedly killed in an apparent israeli drone strike in southern lebanon. and israel s prime minister benjamin netanyahu was on the northern border today, where he signalled that he is prepared, if necessary, to escalate military operations in lebanon, with 80,000 israeli s now displaced from their homes. to the south, the death toll in gaza, stands at 23,000, according to the hamas run health ministry. and so intense is the fighting that several aid agencies have now begun withdrawing medics from the only functioning hospital in central gaza. on his visit to qatar, secretary blinken said washington has an intense focus on preventing this conflict from spreading and a warning to some members of the israeli government. palestinian civilians must be able to return home as soon as conditions allow. they cannot, they must not, be pressed to leave gaza. we reject the statements by some israeli ministers and lawmak
plus, the remarkable story of this 9-year-old and how she s using her own voice for the first time all thanks to a rare and complex surgery. we re following these stories and more all coming right here to cnn central. we begin on the southern/u.s. border where thousands of migrants right now are making a very long trek by foot to the u.s. the caravan is called quote, the exodus of poverty. homeland security. p encounters with migrants at the border is averaging 10,000 nor the month of december alean. and border patrol agents say they ve been 380,000. what s unfolding from eagle pass, texas. what do you know about this caravan and how are officials preparing? jessica, they departed on christmas eve and they have spent their christmas day walking towards the united states. make no mistake about it, it s going to create an even more complicated situation. what we see and hear at the border, and, behind me it s a holding area that was empty when we arrived here this morning a
israel s security cabinet has approved measures in response to the killing of seven people outside a synagogue in eastjerusalem by a palestiniaun gunman. family members of attackers are set to lose their residency and health insurance rights. the former nato general, who will be the next czech president, has described the election outcome as a victory for the values of truth, dignity and respect. in a speech to cheering supporters in prague, petr pavel said it was time to return those values to politics. now on bbc news, our world: the hunt for the superyachts. for years, many russian billionaires enjoyed lavish lifestyles in the west. they bought the most sought after villas and holidayed on their beloved superyachts. but with russia s invasion of ukraine, theirfairytale came to an abrupt end. western sanctions sparked a game of cat and mouse between some of the world s most powerful nations and some of russia s richest men. there was a real frenzy around the world between d