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cabinet meetings happen every week, usually on a tuesday rather than wednesday, but it was cancelled yesterday because the prime minister was abroad. lots of civil servants say they were encountering bizarre behaviour from officials in say they were encountering bizarre behaviourfrom officials in downing street, not communicating with them in the way they would normally expect. and slowly, the building blocks of a likely announcement started to take place. now sources are emphasising privately that we are emphasising privately that we are probably not many minutes away from that confirmation after lots of discussions in the heart of government going on for some time about when to go for a general election. it s a quirk of the british electoral system that the power lies with the prime minister to pick the date, up to a legal backstop beyond which they cannot go. that is at the tail end of january next year, but the prime minister holds the power of surprise, and this will be ....
that is just the reality of the situation. here is some who believes jeremy corbyn could make a good minister of a country not once, but twice. jeremy corbyn wanted to pull a set of metal, scrap the army. multiple members of the government that labour would provide don t believe in a nuclear deterrent, so i don t see how you can say to the country with a straight face to say i will keep you safe to the country. it is because of that increase in defence spending that i can stand here and provide more support to ukraine, and notjust that, can say that that support to ukraine will be provided for as long as is necessary to repel russian aggression. keir starmer can make that pledge. the labour party and keir starmer not matching our investment on defence spending and our adversaries. what you think putting things when he, that the west isn t prepared to make the tough choices to invest in their security. russia s economy has utilised for war. we need to meet that aggression with ....
our reporter ben philip has the latest. as you can tell, i m sad that my time as first minister is ending, but i m so grateful and so blessed for having the opportunity afforded to so few, to lead my country. a week is a long time in politics. last monday an emotional humza yousaf resigned, leaving the snp looking for a new leader and scotland a new first minister. focus quickly turned to who would replace him in the frame. john swinney and kate forbes. i want to unite the snp and unite scotland for independence. shortly after mr swinney entered the contest, ms forbes said she wouldn t stand. technically, the deadline for nominations is at midday, and that s the only current contender and with the clock running down, it was widely expected that john swinney would become the next snp party leader and country s seventh first minister unopposed. that was until a last minute twist over the weekend. snp activist graeme mccormick was hoping to launch a challenge for the leadership ....
to negotiate the release of israeli hostages. a hamas official has described the move as a dangerous escalation . the un and us have warned that an assault on the city, where more than a million displaced palestinians are sheltering, could have catastrophic consequences. 0ur security correspondent, frank gardner has more from jerusalem. you can break this down into three aspects the humanitarian, the military and the political. 0n the humanitarian side, the americans have made it very clear to israel that they will they do not approve a rafah military operation until they see a plan that safeguards the lives of all the civilians there. and certainly when antony blinken was here a few days ago, the us secretary of state, he said, still haven t seen that plan. so i think it s going to be a slightly frosty phone call between the us president and prime minister benjamin netanyahu. no doubt that netanyahu will try to reassure him that this is only a limited operation. so, on th ....
because of the prospect of high numbers of civilian casualties. meanwhile, officials from israel and its closest ally, the us, have been holding meetings to discuss alternative, more focused plans. it s not yet clear if the new evacuation orders are part of those. let s speak to james elder who s a spokesperson for the united nation s children s fund also known as unicef. juan tell us what you think the impact will be of this evacuation. absolutely devastating. you have families in rafah, their coping capacity has been smashed, this is six months of injuring this wall, moving many times, probably having lost a home already, the children are malnourished, they have already been living in conditions with one shower for 3500 been living in conditions with one showerfor 3500 people, being told to move to a humanitarian zone , unilaterally declared humanitarians and, not a unilaterally declared humanitarians and, nota humanitarian unilaterally declared humanitarians and, ....