Im lauren taylor. Israel is marking memorial day, which honours its war dead as its offensive in gaza continues. Ceremonies are getting under way as we speak, right now, sirens are sounding across the country to honour Fallen Soldiers and victims of terror attack. Im not playing at santry because of Broadcasting Restrictions in the us. We are not playing at sound because of Broadcasting Restrictions in the us. This year, israelis are also commemorating the more than 1000 victims of the hamas attack on october seventh, which triggered the current war. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is attending the main State Ceremony at mount herzl injerusalem, followed by another event in memory of victims of terror at 1pm local time. 0ther ministers are attending ceremonies taking place right now around the country, despite some bereaved families urging them to stay away. Politicians from across the spectrum have urged keeping the deep political divisions and heated discourse out of the memorial d
An israeli bombardment in the Eastern Parts Of Rafah has already displaced Tens Of Thousands of palestinians. Mr blinken has been talking to cbs news as we look at rafah, they may go in and have some initial success, but potentially at an incredibly high cost to civilians. But one that is not durable, one that is not sustainable, and they will be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency because a lot of armed hamas will be left, no matter what they do in rafah. Or if they leave and get out of gaza, as we believe they need to do, then youre going to have a vacuum and a vacuum that is likely to be filled by chaos, by anarchy, and ultimately by hamas again. So, weve been working for many weeks on developing credible plans for security, for governance, for rebuilding. We havent seen that come from israel. Weve been working with arab countries and others on that plan. We need to see that, too. Pick we have the same objective as israel. We want to make sure that hamas cannot govern gaz
We can cross live to westminster and our Political Correspondent hannah miller. We have had some previewing of the speech. Tell us what we can expect. If they choose to spend more money on defence then it is likely going to have to come from other departments. There are questions about the extent to which that is an affordable commitment. We also expect rishi sunak to make the speech about him as an individual rather than his party. It is significant because it is her first among his first major outing since the terrible local Election Results just a couple of weeks ago. In that sense, trying to use this again to canterbury the tone. Labour, as you say, are out around the country trying to talk about the impact that their new mayor that won in the local elections could have and damage under a labour government. Their response to the speech so far before the speech is to say the conservatives cant fix the country because they are the problem. As the Prime Minister rishi sunak has the Pr
to increase the personal tax allowance for pensioners if they win the general election. they say the proposal would be worth £275 a year to each pensioner by the end of the decade. under the plans, the state pension would always remain below the tax free threshold. rishi sunak says the scheme shows the conservatives are on the side of pensioners but labour have called it desperate . rishi sunak will be out campaigning in the midlands today. let s get more on this with nick eardley. what do you love about it? how do you win over older voters? it s a question politicians ask themselves a lot. pensioners tend to get out and vote. so today, an offer from the conservatives, that the basic state pension will never be liable for income tax. the simple fact is that this tax change, this triple lock plus, will mean going forward that millions of pensioners, eight million pensioners, in fact, will be paying less tax than they would otherwise be paying. and that is clearly a tax cut