to ferry people across the channel, it is about getting after the money of these people smugglers and it is about working hard both on the uk border and across europe. that is what driven this 36% reduction. at the same time, is that you re seeing an 80% increase. we are a positive outlier because of the actions that we have taken. so this is not about the weather, this is about the work the home office officials have been doing both domestically and with their counterparts across europe. opposition labour party says ministers are manipulating the figures. here s the shadow home secretary yvette cooper. rishi sunak s claim to have cured the asylum backlog isjust totally false. in fact, the figures are nearly 100,000 cases and they haven t even fully cleared the bit of the backlog they were targeting. our political correspondent nick eardley has been working with the bbc verify team and looking at the claims. the big claim from the government today is that it s got rid of the
over the last couple of hours in the middle east. middle east hamas says its deputy leader has been killed in an explosion in lebanon. hezbollah says his kidding will not go unanswered . saleh al arouri was deputy chairman of hamas s political bureau but is also known to have been deeply involved in its military affairs. hamas is designated a terrorist organisation by many western governments. this is the aftermath of the explosion thought to be hamas office in beirut. reports six people killed. local media have described this as an israeli drone attack. the bbc hasn t verified that. the israeli military has told the bbc that it will not comment on reports in the foreign media. the un has described the beirut strike as extremely worrying . a spokesperson for the un secretary general. we know that the secretary general urges all parties to exercise maximum restraint and take urgent steps to de escalate tensions in the region. i mean, he was very clear in mentioning that th
hello, i m lewis vaughanjones. you re watching the context on bbc news. hamas says its deputy leader has been killed in lebanon. we ll look at that claim and what it could mean for the conflict. also on the programme. the passengers and crew managed to escape from this. but five people were killed in the other plane involved in the crash injapan. in the uk. the government is claiming success on processing asylum claims. we ll have a look at the numbers. on tonight s panel mary anne marsh political analyst and democratic party strategist. and sebastian payne, the director on onward a centre right think tank, and formerjournalist. will get to the panel in a moment but first of our developing story
should be clear this attack was not one on the lebanese state but as he put it, a surgical strike against the hamas leadership. we reached out, as you say, to the idf, who said they would not comment on reports from foreign media, but we have been getting condemnation from hamas. saleh al arouri is one of the most senior officials on the political side and also the military side. he has been leading on both fronts. he is one of the people who established izz ad din al-qassam brigades early on and has been involved early on in the construction of it, in the hierarchy of it, in the very close details of it as well. let s bring in the panel now: mary anne marsh political analyst and democratic party strategist. and sebastian payne, the director on onward a centre right think tank, and formerjournalist.
think it is something like half £1 million. he is already one around £100,000. so he s been in the 2018 finals champion there rob cross so he moves into the final. a 16 year old. first time there and this time in 2a hours time, this time tomorrow, he will be in the finals seeing if he can go all the way. remarkable achievement for the 16 year old, luke littler. let s go back to our panel now. and she will over the claim and counterclaim over the asylum. on tonight s panel mary anne marsh political analyst and democratic party strategist. and sebastian payne, the director on onward a centre right think tank, and formerjournalist. sebastian, what have you made about the claim and counterclaim here? obviously the government is trying to get obviously the government is trying to get a obviously the government is trying to get a good story out of this