houthi capabilities to launch attacks on us and uk ships in the red sea. the us released a joint statement with the uk and four other countries: for weeks, iran backed houthis have fired missiles and other projectiles at commercial ships, as well as a number of us owned merchant vessels. the attacks have disrupted global trade and stirred fears of a further destabilized middle east. a houthi military spokesman responded to the us uk attacks, saying: the houthi movement says its attacks on red sea shipping are their response to israel s war on gaza. on monday, the us media outlet axios reported that israel has offered a proposal to hamas to pause fighting for two months in exchange for the release of all hostages still being held by hamas in gaza. families of those hostages are pressuring the israeli government to strike a deal that will bring them home. on monday, relatives of some of the hostages stormed into the knesset, israel s parliament, injerusalem. the families broke
a mosque was destroyed in a city called ayodhya. the situation evokes painful memories for muslims a 16th century mosque originally stood on the site. this was the mosque, as it appeared in 1990. but in 1992 it was illegally torn down, triggering religious violence across the country in which 2000 people were killed. and this is the hindu temple which now stands there today. the inauguration of the temple is seen by many as the unofficial start of prime minister modi s election campaign. millions of hindus are celebrating the temple opening, saying it s a long standing dream come true. many accuse mr modi of violating india s secular constitution by opening the temple. from ayodhya, our south asia correspondent yogita limaye reports. a grand opening for one of hinduism most revered deities. india s prime minister performing rituals for the consecration of an idol of lord ram. hundreds of people, holy men, actors, politicians attended the ceremony. but it wasn t just them
have fired missiles and other projectiles at commercial ships, as well as a number of us owned merchant vessels. the attacks have disrupted global trade and stirred fears of a further destabilised middle east. the us has carried out eight operations on its own against the houthi movement in the past two weeks. monday s strikes mark the second joint action by the us and uk in yemen, the first, back onjanuary 11. the bbc s defence correspondent jonathan beale gave us his analysis. it would have been a lot more intelligence used like the first time a co ordinated attempt to try to degrade at least their ability to do this. the trouble is the houthis show no sign of backing down, a determined group have been writing the saudis. the us and the uk have been involved in this action, no other country has and i think that is because they do not know what the end game is here. this tip could go on for weeks. this tit for tat. the houthi movement says its attacks on red sea shipping
one thing we ve been consistent in saying is, ok, if stormont comes back, so be it. but let s not pretend that a border in the irish sea is a good thing. let s not gloss things. let s be honest about, well, there s brexit and there s this happened and the other thing happened and this is the situation that we re in and we have to manage it. but we re quite clear editorially about that, that a barrier to internal uk trade is a bad thing. i grew up overlooking belfast lough. there were ships coming in and out when i was a child. i remember it clearly. all my life that s been the situation. it was unthinkable. you could see scotland on a clear day. it was unthinkable in my lifetime that there would be any significant barrier or checking on that route. and that s a big deal that there now is. i think really this is now a test of sir jeffrey s authority. he has to bring his party with them. he has to go in and sell that deal and face down his internal critics. an academic sees a m