National and international news from BBC Radio 4
National and international news from BBC Radio 4
A wave of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers has spread across the UK. Nigel Farage says Reform UK would seek returns deals with countries like Afghanistan and Eritrea, as part of plans for "mass deportations" of migrants. And dozens more deaths are reported in Gaza -- including a family whose tent was hit by an Israeli attack on a camp for displaced people.
A United Nations-backed body has confirmed there is now famine in Gaza, with more than half a million people in the strip's largest city facing "starvation, destitution and death". The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, dismissed the report as an "outright lie". Also: The government seeks the right to appeal against a court ruling preventing it from becoming involved in a case about a hotel housing asylum seekers. And the former Doctor Who star, Noel Clarke, loses a libel action against the Guardian.
Figures from the Home Office show that there were a record number of asylum applications made last year. Also: Teenagers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland open their GCSE and BTEC results. And the celebrity judge, Frank Caprio, has died at the age of 88.
A number of councils have signalled they will follow Epping Forest in Essex by taking legal action to stop hotels housing asylum seekers. Also: A former evangelical priest in Sheffield is found guilty of sexually assaulting women in his group in the 1980s and 1990s. And the Welsh Rugby Union has insisted that cutting the number of professional clubs from four to two is the "radical step" needed to save the game in Wales.
A local authority in Essex has been granted a temporary court injunction to prevent asylum seekers from being housed at a hotel in Epping that's been besieged by violent protests. Also: President Trump rules out sending US troops to Ukraine to guarantee a peace deal, but suggests he may provide aircraft to support European forces on the ground. And why whales play a part in preventing global warming by absorbing carbon.
President Zelensky and several European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, have arrived at the White House for meetings with Donald Trump to discuss the future of Ukraine. Also: A Hamas source tells the BBC that it has agreed to the latest Egyptian proposal for a Gaza ceasefire deal with Israel. And the Cambridge Dictionary has added six-thousand new words to its latest edition.
Sir Keir Starmer and several other senior European leaders are to join the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Washington tomorrow, where he's due to hold talks with Donald Trump at the White House. Downing Street said the "coalition of the willing" would seek robust security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of any deal with Russia. In other news, there have been dozens of arrests in Israel where protestors have taken to the streets demanding a ceasefire and a deal to secure the release of hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza. And the British actor, Terence Stamp, has died at the age of 87.