In accordance with the decision of the political echelon, a few hours ago, the idf began limited, localized, and targeted ground raids based on precise intelligence against hezbollah terrorist targets and infrastructure in southern lebanon. These targets are located in villages close to the border and pose an immediate threat to israeli communities in northern israel. This is the live scene in beirut, as bbc teams report hearing explosions in the capital s southern suburbs israel has ordered the evacuation of three areas. Meanwhile the uk government has chartered a flight to help british nationals leave lebanon, scheduled to leave beirut on wednesday. It s as israeli tanks were seen gathering at the border on monday. Israel s defense minister yoav gallant said the military is prepared to use forces from the air, land and sea to allow thousands of displaced israelis to return to their homes in the north. Meanwhile, the deputy chief of hezbollah, naim qaissem, said the groups fighter
And apologised to the actor Amanda Abbington, who appeared on the programme in 2023. Lets cross straight to our media and arts correspondent, david sillito. David, tell us what the report says. Strictly come dancing, the bbc s biggest Entertainment Show by some distance, has been rocked by headlines for the last few months because of allegations by former contestant Amanda Abbington, who left midway through the last series, saying, revealing in interviews later, that she felt that the behaviour of her professional dancer had been abusive, demeaning, insulting and bullying. And what there has been, there has been an investigation into those specific complaints from Amanda Abbington. Bbc studios, the Production Arm of the bbc, has concluded that her concerns and complaints were in part upheld, they have apologised to Amanda Abbington, but not holy. So the question we understand is probably that its a matter of verbal abuse, verbal Harassment And Bullying that have been upheld but nothing
The idf says strikes happened in beqaa, close to the syrian border and Southern Lebanon, and targeted weapons depots, rocket launchers, and military buildings. The lebanese Health Ministry said more than 70 People were killed by israeli airstrikes on wednesday. Allies, including the us, uk and eu, issued a joint statement for a pause in the fighting for what they said would provide space for diplomacy towards the conclusion of a diplomatic settlement and a ceasefire in gaza. It follows a meeting at the Un General Assembly in New York. Yair lapid, leader of Israels Opposition Party says israel should accept the Biden Macron Ceasefire proposal, but only for seven days. But its a not shared by bezalel smotrich, the far right minister of finance in Benjamin Neta nyahus government. He says the campagn should only end in one scenario crushing hezbollah. Our State Department Correspondent Tom Bateman looks at the diplomatic efforts to de escalate tensions. Apologies we will bring you that rep
At the moment the uk spends about 2. 3 on defence so it will be interesting to see if John Healy the defence actually makes any mention of that at all, particularly given the wide economic context. We had from the Chancellor Rachel reeves this morning about public finances and the central labour we had in the Run Up to the election about them wanting to sustain fiscal discipline. There is escalating tension in the Middle East. Give us an idea of where the government is on this and what messages they are trying to put a cross on both lebanon and israel. We heard from both lebanon and israel. Heard from the foreign Secretary Yesterday in a pretty wide ranging speech when again he touched upon ukraine and continued support for ukraine. He said the escalating tension was worrying and i had to be an immediate ceasefire and the information the government released to citizens in lebanon telling them to leave now. I think we can go no to the Conference Stage. I have a feed in front of me. It i