all highly trained, highly professional and a truly tragic loss to both us and their loved ones. and we will have the latest reaction to that attack from israel and from on the ground in gaza. also on the programme... the strongest earthquake to hit taiwan in 25 years, killing at least nine people and injuring hundreds. the greatest risk to our railways is climate change. network rail explains why it wants to spend money on dealing with extreme weather. i grew up in a time with major pay disparity between the lead actor and myself. and actor kirsten dunst talks to us about hollywood's issues with equal pay. coming up on bbc news... manchester city manager pep guardiola defends striker erling haaland after pundit

roy keane says his general play is at the level of a league two player. good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. israel is facing growing pressure to explain exactly how seven people working for an aid charity were killed in an air strike in gaza. three britons are among those who died — john chapman, james henderson and james kirby. the family ofjames kirby, has today called him "a hero". and in the last few minutes, the family ofjohn chapman said, we are devastated to have lost john, who was killed in gaza. he died trying to help people and was subject to an inhumane

act." the group had been travelling in a clearly marked aid convoy at the time. last night, us president biden expressed concerns about the way israel is conducting its operations in gaza. israel said the strike was a grave mistake in complex circumstances. from jersualem, yolande knell reports. seven beautiful souls. that's how world central kitchen says it will remember its colleagues killed by an israeli strike in gaza. they included three british security workers, all ex armed forces. john chapman, james henderson and james kirby. the us charity's team was traveling in a convoy. its distinctive logo on display. each car was hit in a precise attack. the uk said these deaths were completely unacceptable. australia's demanded accountability.

america called what happened an outrage. israel says it's still investigating. i want to be very clear. the strike was not carried out with the intention of harming wck aid workers. it was a mistake that followed a misidentification at night during a war in a very complex condition. already the impact is being felt by many thousands of hungry gazans who'd been relying on world central kitchen for a daily meal. its operations are now on hold. this suspension will really affect the lives of people and their access to food, especially children and pregnant women. the situation is going to become even more catastrophic. without world central kitchen staff to offload it. some 240 tonnes of desperately needed food sent to gaza on these boats is now being sent back to cyprus. other aid organisations are also having to reconsider their work

until there's better protection in the war torn territory. we are devastated and we're worried. we're worried about what this means for the delivery of humanitarian aid. and an area has decided to pause our humanitarian operations. we need to have greater security for our staff and for their families. there's been a growing international outcry about the trickle of aid that's getting into gaza because of israeli controls. now deepening concerns about the safety of relief workers is limiting assistance even more, all at a time when famine is looming and gazans most need help. yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem. the three british men who died in the attack were working as security staff for the charity. paying tribute today, their employers, solace global, said their loss was a tragedy and praised the men's professionalism. duncan kennedy reports from poole in dorset. the company says everyone here has

been devastated by the loss of their colleagues. the three men were all ex military and war in gaza as safety advisers to the aid workers. john chapman, james kirby and james henderson had seen military action all around the world and had only beenin all around the world and had only been in gaza for a few weeks. their families were told the news by the company after the attack happened. solace global is very much a family. all former serving soldiers with long experience in the risk management industry, all highly trained, highly professional and a truly tragic loss to both us and indeed their loved ones. the three men had worked _ indeed their loved ones. the three men had worked for _ indeed their loved ones. the three men had worked for the _ indeed their loved ones. the three men had worked for the world - indeed their loved ones. the three . men had worked for the world central kitchen charity for many years in gaza, advising on how to deal with the multiple dangers present. in a statement james kirby's the multiple dangers present. in a statementjames kirby's family statement james kirby's family said...

solace global didn't want to go into detail and set an incident like this should not have happened. mil should not have happened. fill accidents are avoidable with the correct risk control measures. it is extremely difficult to know exactly what happened on the ground and i know that the israel defence force has very publicly stated that they are investigating this matter. the com an are investigating this matter. the company is _ are investigating this matter. the company is carrying out its own inquiry into what happened and says it believes all their protocols were followed and the three men will be deeply missed. duncan kennedy, bbc news. the foreign secretary has said an investigation into the deaths of the aid workers in gaza must happen "very, very quickly". lord cameron was speaking at a meeting of nato foreign ministers in brussels. our diplomatic correspondent

paul adams is here. what was said at the meeting. ever since the attack happens, international condemnation and outrage has been growing. president biden said he was outraged and heartbroken by what had happened. the un leader, antonio guterres, said what happened was unconscionable. but what unites them all is there has to be an investigation that has to be quick, transparent with full accountability. that is what david cameron was talking about this morning. he was in a meeting with nato foreign ministers in brussels and he said israel simply had to do more to protect aid workers and he said britain would be watching very carefully what happens next. i welcome what the israeli foreign minister said yesterday to me about a full, urgent and transparent inquiry to how this dreadful event was allowed to happen, and we want to see that happen very, very quickly. the question is what does that mean?

all that pressure? will there be any action? here in the uk there is growing pressure on the government to halt or suspend its arms sales to israel. it doesn't happen very much but it would send a very powerful signal. the most interesting voice this morning was lord ricketts, a former national security advisor, former national security advisor, former chairman of the joint intelligence committee, a very senior man in the british foreign policy well, he said the time has come for britain to suspend its arms sales to israel, not least to send a message to the americans, who matter in this, and say, look, it is something america should be turning to. g ., , ., ., something america should be turning to. james landale, thank you very much. let's go back tojerusalem now and our correspondent there, yolande knell. we are hearing about all the international criticism. we are hearing about all the international criticism. is all this international criticism likely to alter israel's course of action? we are seeing a lot more pressure on israel to do more to protect aid workers so they can do theirjobs in

gaza more safely, more effectively. at the moment what we are seeing is the israeli military blaming poor communications with world central kitchen for what went wrong. it remains to be seen whether there can be improvements in humanitarian operations on the ground. as for the more general point we are having from the allies of israel, the criticism of its conduct in gaza and those really growing in recent days, the calls for a ceasefire. so far israel has remained impervious to those and it has said it is continuing with its war aim in gaza, which is to dismantle hamas there. and now to the rest of the day's news. and now to the rest of the day's news. at least nine people have been killed and more than 800 injured by an earthquake in taiwain, the country's most powerful for 25 years. the worst hit area was a mountainous region on the east coast,

but tremors were felt more than 60 miles away in the capital taipei, with videos showing buildings shaking violently. tsunami warnings were triggered in neighbouring countries, though they have now been scaled back. rupert wingfield—hayes reports. this is the moment the quake struck a taipei tv station in the middle of their morning news. the shaking was intense and prolonged. buildings across the city swayed violently. cupboards were emptied, furniture toppled. this construction site, this big building behind me here under construction, a massive piece of either construction equipment or steel came off the top of this building this morning during the quake and crashed into the building beside it and then down into this alleyway behind where you can see some workmen now. they closed that road. remarkably, no—one was injured, no—one was on the street there at the time. no—one in the taiwanese capital has

experienced anything like this in a quarter of a century. many young people have neverfelt shaking on this scale. translation: an earthquake hasn't happened in a long time, _ so it felt really terrifying. on the east coast, in the city of hualien, the shaking was much stronger and the damage much more severe. people on their way to work watched in fear and awe as a partially collapsed building was left leaning at a precarious angle across this intersection. translation: whenever our team - moves, the building becomes unstable and they have to find something to hold onto to ensure their safety before pulling people out. but it is the landslides that have unleashed the greatest terror. the east coast of taiwan is a rugged landscape of high mountains and deep valleys. the quake triggered hundreds of landslides that came roaring down into the valleys below. this is where most of the more than

700 injuries must have happened. people would have had little warning, and nowhere to escape. taiwan has done much to strengthen its buildings and infrastructure since another huge quake killed more than 2,000 people back in 1999. this time, few buildings have been brought down and the death toll is so far mercifully small. but there is little that can be done to stop a mountain from falling into the valley below. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in taipei. royal mail has set out proposals to reform its services as it tries to cut costs. it says it wants to maintain delivery of first class post six days a week, but has suggested second—class letters should be delivered every other weekday. the company's boss said it would give the firm a "fighting chance" with the regulator ofgem currently reviewing its future. our business editor simonjack is with me. what more are they proposing, simon?

the problem is that royal mail, the people who actually deliver stuff you drop at the post office or pop in the letterbox, lost {190 million last year. the number of letters that businesses and individuals are sending has plummeted from over 20 billion a day to 7 billion a day. at the same time it has a universal service obligation which means from anywhere in the uk it is the same price and it gets delivered six days a week. there were proposals to cut that to five or even three. what royal mail has come up with in its submission is they propose keeping the first class day a week delivery, but cutting setting class deliveries to every other week day. that will allow it to save around £300 million which will address some of that big shortfall. remember, stamps went up iop yesterday from £1 25 to £1 35

for first class and 75 to 85p for second class. these measures they hope will be agreed by ofcom to give them a fighting chance to get back into the black rather than into the red, which they are in at the moment. the time is 13.15. our top story this afternoon. tributes to the three britons killed in an air strike in gaza as israel faces growing international scruitiny of it's military operations. coming up. how a rowing club in suffolk is aiming to protect its local river from sewage pollution. coming up on bbc news. manchester united's raphael varane says his body has been damaged by the effects of heading and football during his career, and told his seven—year—old son not to do it. motherhood and a career in football were, until recently, considered incompatible — with many players retiring early

in order to start a family. but now, there's a growing number of mothers returning to the women s super league. attitudes are changing and support is increasing — but there are still challenges, as our sports correspondent katie gornall reports. you may know carla ward as aston villa women's manager. whl history! but she has another, more importantjob. what did you do at school today? did you? mum to four year old hartley. okay, are you going to sing to me? wednesday's are special for ward. it's the only day she makes it home to sheffield in time for the school run. you are getting an incredible mum. thank you so much. i feel honoured. what does hartley think of yourjob? she's very proud. she loves myjob. yeah. she loves telling everyone that i'm a football manager.

ward co—parents hartley with her former partner. butjuggling the demands of motherhood and management is a struggle. it was just before christmas, hartley said to me, why do we never have a day off together? because naturally i work on the weekends. it's mum guilt. it's tough, you know. you miss parents' evening. you miss shows that she's doing. and that's when you start to question, what are you doing? why are you doing it? and is there longevity in it? it's a heavy heart, constant pulling battle. there's not many female managers at the top of the game. but do you think the struggle of balancing football and family life is a factor in all of that? 100%. ward says she feels supported at villa. she is, though, one of only two mums managing in the top flight. herfriend emma hayes is the other, but the chelsea boss will soon leave for the usajob. a better work life balance was part of the appeal, while mothers in management are a rarity, more top players are choosing to have children during their careers. west ham's katrina

gorry is one of them. a mum to two—year—old harper. for as long as i knew, i kind of thought, you know, i'd have to hang up the boots before i started a family. it's all i thought about. i dreamt about it. i just knew that there was something missing. and i went to an ivf clinic and four weeks later i was pregnant. and then after i had her, all i thought about is getting back to the game. ifelt like i loved it more than i ever had before. and having harper on the sideline, just it made me become more proud. she was back playing three months after giving birth and last summer walked out for australia at the world cup. she was one of the players of the tournament, but life's not been without its challenges. the amount of things you have to do before you got out of the house just to get to training was insane. you just didn't think that you'd be able to get through it. and i was breastfeeding her until she was about a —year—old, so that was hard trying to juggle that as well. but i had no doubt in my body that definitely wasn't a challenge for me. i knew i could, you know,

i went through birth so i knew i could do anything. now that clubs are more supportive, football and family are coming together. it's taken baby steps, but the sport is changing. katy gornall, bbc news. the biggest challenge facing our railways is climate change — so says network rail, which owns and manages the country's tracks and major stations. in its new five year plan, it says it will spend £3 billion over that period to try to deal with the impact of extreme weather — such as heavy rain which causes landslips, forcing lines to be shut. more details from our transport correspondent katy austin. flooding, heat waves, landslips. they can all be the result of extreme weather, which is becoming more common. that can spell major disruption with damaged equipment and closed lines leaving passengers facing delays and cancellations. network rail is funded by government grants, charges to train companies and commercial sources

like property. it expects to have just over £115 billion to spend over the coming five years. but it thinks the impact of recent inflation will mean the money doesn't go as far and will in real terms be less than the previous five year period. and it's aiming to cut costs by £3.9 billion by 2029. however, it will be spending nearly £3 billion on measures to try and combat the effects of climate change. that's nearly a billion more than before. winters getting wetter, summers getting hotter. and we need to adapt the network. so lots of money spent improving drainage, employing literally hundreds of extra people to maintain drains. we're strengthening embankments and also lots of telemetry and technology to monitor the network in real time. the organisation says funding pressures mean difficult decisions, for example, prioritising busy routes when it comes to replacing equipment or structures.

problems between reading and london paddington recently showed what can happen when infrastructure breaks. at one point, passengers were left stranded for hours. network rail has since announced an improvement plan. what passengers want is a reliable railway and the way you get that is to invest in it so that the system basically works. and it's not, it's not clapped out. where we are is pretty much the same place we have been for the last several decades, which is kind of playing catch up. network rail�*s boss has acknowledged today that train performance has suffered of late, saying the industry needs to improve this and deal with climate change. katie austin, bbc news. police investigating the stabbing of an iranianjournalist in london say three suspects left the uk within hours of the attack. pouria zeraati, who works for the uk based persian language tv channel iran international, was attacked last week outside his home. our home affairs correspondent tom symonds is here.

what does the police saying? they established that he was attacked outside his home close by in daylight in a residential street by two men and we understand one of them grabbed him from behind and pinned his arms and the other stabbed him in the lower body. i spoke to one eyewitness who saw the men running off wearing hooded tops and black tracksuit tops and one had and black tracksuit tops and one had a beard and they seemed very calm. they got into a car that appeared to have been waiting and they drove off straightaway with a third man in the car. police then tracked the car probably using the number plate which the eyewitness gave them, automatic number plate recognition cameras and cctv to about three or four miles away in new maldon where they found the car dumped and then they found the car dumped and then they tracked the men to heathrow airport where they left the country. so that tells us that they will have some kind of passport details. or otherwise for these three suspects in the second thing is they know

which country they have flown too. the police are not saying which country they're dealing with at the moment. clearly the concern is that this was a planned attack against a very high profile journalist, this was a planned attack against a very high profilejournalist, of the channel which has criticised the iranian regime. and of course the police are not saying at this stage whether they think that this was some kind of terror attacks or politically motivated attack. but they say they are keeping an open mind. ., . ~' they say they are keeping an open mind. ., ., ~ i. the issue of sewage in our rivers is in the spotlight again after rowers in the oxford university team said pollution in the thames made them ill during their annual boat race against cambridge. so what can and should be done to clean up the uk's waterways? our correspondent tim muffet has been to a rowing club in suffolk which is trying to get bathing water status for its local river. go! tuesday night training at sudbury rowing club in suffolk.

coach tony mole has trained crews here for a0 years. staying on your side. it's a massively healthy sport, notjust for physical health, but mental health as well. out in the countryside with good air. the problem is lots of people with vomiting and sickness and diarrhoea, you know, through the water quality. the club trains on the river stour, but often races on the thames, where on saturday, cambridge beat oxford in the annual university boat race. afterwards, the oxford men's captain said illness hadn't helped. we've had a few guys go down pretty badly with the e.coli strain. so i mean, this morning i was throwing up. it would have been ideal not to have so much poo in the water. but, you know, that's not to take away from cambridge. members of sudbury rowing club say the stour is much cleaner than the thames, but even so there are problems here. when they empty the sewage

in the storm drains, it gets pretty fouled up and it's full of all sorts of nasties. and what's that like to be rowing through? well, it's pretty disgusting, really. afterwards, you've got to wash your boat down, clean all the faeces off the blades. and also you've got to really clean your kit out afterwards. is it getting worse? yes, most definitely. the number of raw sewage spills into england's rivers and seas more than doubled last year compared to the year before, according to the environment agency. in 2022, there were 1.75 million hours of spills. in 2023, there were 3.6 million. the effects of sewage pollution are twofold. one, on wildlife. phosphates and nitrates, which are effectively nutrients, can cause algal blooms that can devastate rivers like the wye and the thames. and secondly, e.coli and other pathogens present in rivers from sewage pollution can be very

detrimental to human health. the regional water company anglian water says the situation in the river stour improved last year. it said that despite the record rainfall in 2023, the five storm overflows near sudbury spilled significantly less than in 2022 and were inactive over 99% of the year. there might also be other grounds for optimism for this rowing club. we've taken part in a project to get designated bathing water status for our reach of the river. that will oblige environment agency to monitor the quality of the water and potentially provide anglian water with the reason that they need in order to invest in the sewage plant. with the olympics approaching, rowing will be in the spotlight this summer, but concerns over water cleanliness seem unlikely to go away. tim muffett, bbc news.

the us actor kirsten dunst says her new film about a conflict in present—day america is a warning about what could happen. the film, called civil war, features a president who rips up the constitution and serves for a third term in office. our arts correspondent charlotte gallagher has been speaking to kirsten dunst and the writer and director alex garland about the film's messages — and about men being paid more than women in hollywood. 19 states have seceded... an america divided, engulfed by civil war. citizens of america... led by a president who's refusing to leave the white house. kirsten dunst plays a war photographer traumatised by her work. i think the movie is very much so a warning. and i think it leaves people with so much to think about. and ifeel like if you're in the theatre and you really take

it in, i think it's a very moving piece about journalists. and you don't really get, you don't really get that look inside in the way that alex filmed this movie and kind of felt very, very realistic while watching the film. every time i survived the war zone, i thought i was sending a warning home. don't do this. but here we are. the film is set in america. but really, this film is about two things. it's aboutjournalists, and it's about polarisation, populist politics and polarisation, which leads to extremism and extremist thinking. and that's happening in america, but it's happening here in this country, and it's been happening here for a long time, and it's happening across europe. i could list the countries, or you could list the countries where that would be true. he saved my life twice and i've never even seen his face. kirsten has been acting since she was a child,

and as a teenager starred in some of the biggest films of the era. ever been to a cheerleading competition? she had stardom, but she didn't have pay equality. i definitely grew up in a time with major pay disparity between the lead actor and myself, even though i had been in bring it on and he hadn't. did you feel in that time you were in a position that you couldn't say, "hang on a second, why is this person being paid more than me?" i was very young and it just felt like the time. what do you when you're... and it was how it all worked. it is. it sort of, it wasn't questioned. and i was 17. i'm still learning. you know, when you're at that age, i'm still learning my taste in film. i didn't, i didn't even think to ask. nobody questioned it. yeah. male executives didn't question. that's right. these were all inherited opinions, they weren't thought about. you represent the future. all eyes will be on you. marie antoinette was one of kirsten�*s lavish, big budget films. it's not too much, is it? but it wasn't welcomed by the critics. the people that were watching

that movie were my age. they weren't movie reviewers. movie reviewers were old men. so to me, the people that enjoy marie antoinette have now grown up and they're like, "we loved this movie." but they weren't the people that were writing reviews. we grow up in a world where it's mankind, man—made, man this, man that. that's how we grew up. i think that, you know, times have changed, don't you? imean... i hope so. i hope so, too. i mean, hopefully, the way i carve my path will help other actresses. charlotte gallagher, bbc news. let's return to our top story now — and tributes are being paid to the three british men killed in an israeli air strike in gaza. john chapman, james henderson and james kirby were security workers for a charity.

james kirby's family says he was a hero. he was completely selfless. which explains why he went to gaza. his experiences in the british army, when he served in bosnia and afghanistan, he knew the dangers, he was no fool. and people were telling him this could be very dangerous for you. but he knew the dangers, he was selfless in that regard, and hejust wanted to help people. the family of james the family ofjames kirby, one of seven people killed in the gaza strip. time for a look at the weather. here's darren bett. the satellite picture tells a story of the next couple of days. all the

weather moving up from the south—west and this is