it s wednesday, 31st january. our main story. scotland s former first minister, nicola sturgeon is due to give evidence about the decisions she took during the pandemic, when she appears before the covid inquiry today. ms sturgeon, who led the scottish response to the coronavirus outbreak is expected to face questions surrounding lockdowns, and missing whatsapp messages as the inquiry continues sitting in edinburgh. our scotland correspondent lorna gordon reports. 1,044 positive cases were reported yesterday. nicola sturgeon was at the helm throughout scotland s pandemic response. as head of the scottish government, she was the key decision maker and first in the firing line when things went wrong. we will have made mistakes on all aspects of the handling. now about to be questioned on that handling and how decisions the truth, the whole truth. the former first minister s closest political ally amongst those who admitted texts between the pair no longer exist. are those t
critical races stand this morning. plus in a couple hours, the man accused of attacking the husband of house speaker nancy pelosi is expected in court. the new details about what he was allegedly planning. also, right now, anguished families confronting the parkland shooter in court today. what they have said so far. and overseas, former israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu tried to return to power as israelis head to the polls for the fifth time in less than four years. we have a live report from jerusalem. and we begin this very busy hour with the intensifying midterm races now just seven days from election day. so far, more than 23 million people have already voted. both parties are looking for that crucial 11th-hour boost from party stars. today president biden will be in battleground florida stumping for democratic gubernatorial candidate charlie crist and val demings here in the south florida area. former president obama making a campaign push and in a few
to flee to for safety, earlier in the conflict. hospitals say they re overwhelmed with new arrivals. the world health organization says it s been told by israel to move medical supplies out of two warehouses in southern gaza within 2a hours although israel has denied this. these pictures show explosions in gaza on monday evening. a spokesman for the un children s charity, unicef, says there s simply nowhere safe for people to go. all this comes as the us state department says it s too early to say for sure whether israel is heeding us advice to protect civilians in gaza. but it did say israel was making more targeted requests for civilian evacuations in southern gaza. here is the latest from the ground from our middle east correspondent yolande knell. in the past few days israel has put out evacuation orders, particularly for the south of the gaza strip, affecting tens of thousands of palestinians, many of them people who have already been displaced by the fighting. it is t