Joining me tonight are political Strategist And Commentator Rina Shah and columnist for the i and former Labour Executive Director of Policy Andrew Fisher first , the latest headlines. Israels Defence Minister has said the military is opening a new phase in the war, and will be diverting troops and resources northwards. Yoav gallant was speaking to troops at an airbase near the border with lebanon. It comes as 14 people have been killed and at least a50 injured in further explosions across lebanon involving Walkie Talkies. The us Federal Reserve has cut Interest Rates by half a Percentage Point in its first reduction since the pandemic. It puts the Central Banks benchmark Lending Rate at between 4. 75 and 5 , sharply lowering the cost of borrowing with less than 50 days to go until the us president ial election. The Foreign Office has summoned the russian ambassador to the uk over the expulsion of six british diplomats from moscow. A spokesperson Accused Moscow Of Making malicious and
legendary singer and campaigner harry belafonte died at the age of 96. the un secretary general sent their condolences to his families and friends. welcome back to our programme. we ve been learning details of that british evacuation effort with the flights leaving cyprus and that centre being opened in the airfield to the north of the capital. we ve heard from the prime minister s also is office that many more flights evacuating british nationals from the conflict torn country into tomorrow. we don t know any numbers in terms of people out, but we ve seen pictures from the military personnel leaving cyprus. let s bring in our political correspondent, jonathan blake. the prime minister s office just giving us a few more details. that mission is clearly up and running. confirmation in the last few minutes that what appears to be a large scale operation by the british government to evacuate british citizens from act iii is now under way, and downing street confirming it has
he scores early, as manchester united put three past nottingham forest, in the away leg of their league cup semi final. and we catch up with radio one extra s dj ace to find out why he s campaigning for more black and asian heritage organ donors. good morning. there is a touch of frost in western areas first thing. for many it will be a dry day with sunny spells, a little bit of cloud, and some showers in the east. details later in the programme. good morning. it s thursday, 26th january. ukraine s president zelensky has described the decision to send dozens of powerful nato battle tanks to the country, as an important step on the path to victory. commitments from germany, the us and the uk, follow weeks of diplomatic deadlock about the supply of heavy weaponry. president zelensky said the free world was united as never before, but that it was essential for the equipment to arrive quickly. our correspondent robin brant reports. for months, he s campaigned for these, in publ
welcome to the programme. amid the turmoil in uk markets this week, the chancellor met the us banks today and was told in no uncertain terms that his budget which he has planned for november is way too far away . the government needs to communicate much sooner, said the banks, on what the solution will be to the problem the city believes they created. it has been another chaotic day on the markets. this morning, the bank of england performed a screeching u turn, putting the brakes on its plan to sell government bonds and instead launching a new scheme to buy them. think of it as a form of digital money printing. the bank is creating funds to to buy bonds which the government issues to borrow money. and this is why. since the mini budget, the cost of government borrowing long term has shot up. it was spiralling above 5%. that s a 20 year high. we have seen rises in the last two days that would normally take years. the bank of england is buying up the debt, in essence creating