this is bbc news. six people missing after a road bridge collapsed into a river in baltimore — are now presumed dead. public satisfaction with the nhs is at a record low according to a new report. the report finds that the ten—month—old baby finley boden murdered by his parents should have been the most protective. thailand has become the first south—east asian country to pass a marriage equality bill — paving the way for same—sex marriage. hello, welcome to the programme. we start this hour in the us city of baltimore. six people still missing after a container ship brought down a key bridge are now presumed dead. the coastguard said it had suspended its search and rescue operation and now will focus

on a recovery mission. these are live pictures from the scene — where it is 7am local time. poor visibility and debris from the bridge in the water are making the recovery efforts extremely challenging. the focus is now turning to the investigation into what went wrong. a team of transportation safety experts is hoping to board the stricken ship and recover its data recorder. the vessel is registered in singapore and the port authority there says it passed two inspections last year. the container vessel lost power after departing from baltimore's port, causing it to crash into the bridge. our correspondent will vernon has more from baltimore. the search for the missing. emergency services worked all day to locate the six construction workers who had been on the bridge

when it collapsed. but the rescue operation was unsuccessful. based on the length of time that we've gone in this search, the extensive search efforts that we've put into it, the water temperature, that, at this point, we do not believe we are going to find any of these individuals still alive. the search area was huge and efforts were hampered by cold weather and wreckage in the water. the search and rescue mission that was going on just behind me has been suspended. next, the recovery operation will begin. now, the focus will turn to the crucial work of the investigators to establish exactly how this tragic accident could have happened. investigators here say they now need to get aboard the stricken ship. they want to analyse the recording device, like a black box found on aircraft. shortly before the collision, the ship had suffered a power issue. warning all traffic on the key bridge.

there's a ship approaching that has just lost their steering. in this recording, police can be heard desperately trying to clear the bridge. the whole bridge just fell down! start, whoever, everybody, the whole bridge hasjust collapsed. the collapse of a local landmark has shaken the city. it's a great shock. i mean, it didn't look real. we saw it on video. some of us thought it was staged, because how could this happen? this is iconic to our community. so, it's a real shock. # this is my song...# shock and sadness in a baltimore church last night, families and friends gathered to pray for the lost. will vernon, bbc news, baltimore. earlier i spoke with jarred hill, a cbs news correspondent who's in baltimore with the latest. yeah, so, the latest on one front here is, as you mention, this is now a recovery mission

and not a rescue mission. you could really hear how difficult it was for the us coast guards to make that determination last night, saying that they believe that it is almost impossible for anyone to have survived in the water for that long at those temperatures. this morning, they are planning on going back into the water to find bodies of those six construction workers presumed to have died. the other aspect is continuing the investigation into just watch what happened. we know this cargo ship crashed into one of the main columns of the key bridge in the baltimore area. it lost power and propulsion in the minutes before hitting that column. but the question still remains exactly why did that happen to begin with? so, the national transportation safety board here in the us will continue looking at things like the black box recorder, any other audio recordings there might be aboard that ship which would give a bit more insight

into what is happening leading up to this crash as well as looking into any potential safety issues with the boat itself. there's also this question, as we are moving forward, regarding what can be done to better secure bridges like these across the country. were there certain safety barriers that were not in place in front of this bridge that potentially could have prevented this? essentially, all the engineers that we have been speaking with say that once that ship of that magnitude and that size hit that concrete pillar like that, there was no chance that any bridge in the country could have survived. and what is the impact now? both the bridge and the port are vital as transport links and supply chain links there. right. yeah, that's right. so, the bridge itself is a pretty significant piece of infrastructure here in the baltimore area. notjust baltimore, but along the eastern coast of the united states talking about washington, dc, the baltimore area carries

about 30,000 people a day on that bridge. that is now wiped out. people will be able to find alternative routes. this might create some back—ups when it comes to traffic throughout the area but the real concern for locals and officials in this region is the fact that the port of baltimore is now closed and this is one of the largest ports on the east coast. this does a significant amount of commerce, business, in this area. this brings in, or deals with, tens of billions of dollars a year. there are countless people who have jobs that rely on this. that economic impact, that economic activity, is now essentially shut down. they're really working on getting the port of baltimore back open and that won't happen until the debris in the area is cleared up and at least some of the beginning stages of the investigation are wrapped up, as well. that was jarred hill in baltimore and a quick reminder we have a life page “p and a quick reminder we have a life page up and running with the latest from baltimore which you can find on

the bbc news website. how quickly can you see your doctor if you are ill? have you had to wait for an operation? are you happy with your health service? well, here in the uk, public satisfaction with the national health service has hit the lowest level on record according to a long—running survey. let's take a look at a few of the stats. fewer than one in four — 24% — people were satisfied with the health service last year, down five percentage points on the previous year. satisfaction was at 70% as recently as 2010. the main reasons for dissatisfaction are waiting times for gp and hospital appointments followed by staff shortages and the government not spending enough money on the nhs however, support for the founding principles of the nhs remains high, with 91% believing the nhs should be free of charge when people need to use it, 82% agreeing it should be primarily funded through taxes. i spoke to health correspondent nick triggle earlier, and i asked him whether this report showed

a drop in confidence. absolutely. this is the gold standard survey for public attitudes about the health service. it's been running since 1983. as you mentioned, only 24% of the public are satisfied with the nhs. that is a 29—percentage—point drop since 2020. and well below the all—time high recorded in 2010, when 70% of people were satisfied. over the last decade, we've seen waiting times getting longer, the backlog in hospital treatment getting higher, particularly since the start of the pandemic. when patients, people were asked about what the main reasons for dissatisfaction were, they said waiting times, not enough staff, and not enough money was being spent on the nhs. but the fourth major reason for dissatisfaction was money

being wasted by the health service, suggesting, some say, that the government needs to reform the health service as well as spend more money on it. on that point, we talked to the patients' association, who said the politicians need to work together. they also need to tackle the care system as well as the health system. indeed. the social care system also saw record low levels of satisfaction — just 13% of people satisfied with that. when we talk about social care, that's the support people get in their later years, either if they are living in their own homes or they need to be found a place in a care or nursing home. that service is means—tested. people often end up contributing a lot of money towards their care. both parties have talked about reforming that system. but we are yet to get detailed plans

aboutjust how that will be done. it's bound to be a key issue at the forthcoming general election. but the people carrying out this survey say that the nhs perhaps remains among the biggest issues the public are concerned about and the biggest issues the political parties must address at the forthcoming general election. ijust want i just want to bring you ijust want to bring you a line of breaking news from germany, at least five people have died and several others have been injured in a traffic accident. we are told that a coach veered off the road and overturned on a motorway in the leipzig, this leaves are coming from the local police. at the moment they are saying that the cause of the accident are unclear but five people have died and a number have been injured in a traffic accident in

germany. it happened on a motorway near leipzig. we will keep you updated if we get any more details from that in germany. to thailand next. it has become the first south—east asian country to pass a marriage equality bill, paving the way for legalisation of same—sex unions. the lower house of parliament approved a new draft law giving equal marriage rights to all couples, regardless of gender. under the law same—sex couples can have their marriages legally recognised, and will get the same parental rights as anyone else. the law is now almost certain to be enacted before the end of this year. marriage will be described as a partnership between two individuals, instead of between a man and a woman. well, let's get the details from our south east asia correspondentjonathan head. it's the first time in this region that any government has come so close to passing a law giving completely equal rights in marriage. it's something, of course, that lgbtq+ groups have been campaigning forfor a very long time.

they've come close to it before. it's been years and years of campaigning. i mean, thailand has a very open and accepting climate or attitude towards same—sex marriage, to lgbtqi communities, but the law has always been the hardest thing to get over. now, we believe the law has now passed by 399—10 and that leaves only the upper house, the appointed senate, to approve it, which we believe is, essentially, a formality. then the king's approval, then the law is likely to be enacted by the end of the year. i mean, for people living in same—sex relationships, this is enormously important. it's notjust having formal, official recognition of their partnerships, of their marriages, but also it has legal implications for inheritance of property, for, you know, power of attorney when your partner may be incapacitated, for marital tax benefits and, in particular, for children. it gives them the right to be... parents as legally and as

recognised as anybody else. there are still some details to be hammered out, we believe, on the issue of adoption. and there are also issues, inevitably, involved with things like surrogacy, which tend to get... be issues related to same—sex marriages. but, broadly, as we understand it, the law has now passed. same—gender partnerships will now be viewed as, essentially, the same as any other partnership under thai law. and i think a lot of other countries in the region and people living in those countries will now look to thailand, hoping that it inspires changes in their own countries. same—sex intimacy is actually criminalised in a number of southeast asian countries and thailand itself hopes to benefit from this, that it will now become a very attractive destination for lgbtqi people and same—sex couples to come here on holiday or even to settle down and live. that was jonathan head that wasjonathan head reporting. around the world and across the uk.

this is bbc news.

around the world and across the uk, you are with bbc news. to the israel—gaza war next. the israeli defence minister, yoav gallant, has sought to cool tensions with washington on his visit there. he stressed the importance of us—israeli ties during talks with his counterpart lloyd austin. but, in some of his strongest comments so far, lloyd austin said the humanitarian catastrophe in gaza was intensifying and civilian deaths were far too high. gaza's health ministry says at least 32,490 palestinians have been killed and more than 711,000 have been injured in israel's military offensive on gaza since oct the 7th. let's listen to what mr austin said. in gaza today, the number of civilian casualties is far too high and the amount of humanitarian aid is far too low. gaza is suffering a humanitarian

catastrophe and the situation is getting even worse. we need immediate increases in assistance to avert famine. our work to open a temporary humanitarian corridor by sea will help. but the key is still expanding aid deliveries by land. meanwhile has been a x has launched dozens of rockets in a town israel. 0ur middle east correspondent, yolande knell, has more. after a lull in recent weeks, this week what we have seen is an intensification in the violence across the border in the north of israel and the south of lebanon. and we had reports that seven people had been killed in an israeli strike in southern lebanon with the israeli military saying that it had targeted a "significant terrorist" there, in its words. now, there seems to have been a retaliation for that with the powerful lebanese armed

group, hezbollah, saying that it has fired dozens of rockets and there is a report that one israeli, a factory worker, in qiryat shemona has been killed. and if we can turn to israel itself, family members of the hostages were protesting last night, weren't they? they were and there's just a real desperation on their part, as this news came through that indirect talks in qatar had broken up without a deal. they had been going on for about ten days as israel and hamas, through mediators, were trying to reach a dealfor a truce. what was on the table was a0 days of a truce and would see some a0 hostages being held by hamas in gaza released, some of the remaining 130 there in exchange for palestinian prisoners in israeli jails. also a big surge in aid going into gaza, as well. now, really, about 300 people turned out outside the israeli military headquarters in tel aviv, with placards saying things like,

"a deal at any price." here in the uk a 10—month—old baby who was murdered by his parents just weeks after being placed back into their care "should have been one of the most protected children". that's according to a safeguarding review that's just been published. derbyshire safeguarding children partnership — had been looking into the finley boden�*s s murder at the hands of his parents. he died 39 days after a family court ruled he could be returned to the care of stephen boden and shannon marsden — he was then attacked and died on christmas day in 2020. his parents were ordered to serve a minimum of 29 and 27 years respectively for finley�*s murder. derby and derbyshite safeguarding children partnership independent chair and scrutineer — steve atkinson — gave a press conference a short time ago. let's take a listen: there were significant mitigating

circumstances in the period leading up circumstances in the period leading up to finlay's death. the covid lock downs and the very restricted access, unfamiliar working circumstances and remote meetings and parental direct dishonesty and disengagement. however, these are not excuses. as the report says, finlay should have been one of the most protected children in the local authority area. more could have and should have been done to keep finlay safe. 0ur correspondent sean dilley has been reading the report. he gave me the background to the horrific case. the report said there should have been a pre—parenting plan in advance, that is one of the criticisms it has made of the local authority. social services actually acted very, very quickly to remove the child from the care of the parents on a few grounds very, very shortly after the birth. they were... the couple had a long history of drug use and domestic violence. and the conditions were unsanitary, there was faeces on the floor and there were unhygienic conditions.

as the time passed on, and the child was subject to being in, essentially, local authority care, the parents were showing social services that they were making improvements by sending photographs to them. remember, 2020, viewers will be aware, was when the pandemic lockdown took place. so, social workers weren't routinely visiting houses, for obvious reasons. as the time progressed, social workers, and others, believed that the parents had been making positive steps forward. this is something also that was supported by an independently appointed guardian, who reported the same to the court. in fact, the report was also quite critical that there was an overreliance on parents�* assessment as opposed to anybody else. moving on to november, the middle of november, was when the court ruled that finley boden should be returned to his parents. there was some concern, in fact, there was a great deal of concern, by social services in particular. at that point, they said, "well,

look, if you are going to do this, "they said there should be a two—month implementation transition period." his guardian said that period should be shorter and indeed the court ordered a shorter period and returned finley to their care 39 days before his eventual death, when paramedics were called in the early hours of christmas morning 2020. they found a very, very badly injured baby, ten—month—old boy in finley, in a cot that had traces of faeces, saliva, and blood. this report, that is out this morning, what does it say? the report is deeply complex but some of the key points we have run over. 0ne criticism it did make is that it said the local authority wasn't effective enough in communicating information up to managers. they said the local authority should have been better at sharing information with external agencies. this is a familiar echo among many

safeguarding reports, because you have multi agencies involved in those actions, then reviewed after the fact. but the key points they made in relation to social services is that, at one point, there were two social workers involved in the case, one of whom was new to thatjob, not fully qualified. indeed, the second social worker, at that point, had no previous experience of statutory child services. i want to take you back to baltimore which is where that peerage collapsed yesterday to devastating, you can see the bridge crumpled there. we are just hearing from the national transport safety board agency chief that divers have recovered the data recorder from that ship. we had heard earlier that that ship. we had heard earlier that that was what they were hoping to do

today but we have now had confirmation that the data recorder from that ship has been recovered. the chief of the national transportation safety board has been giving an interview on us media and has said that the agency will examine if dirty fuel played a role in the ship's crash. that a never new line that the national transportation safety board say they are looking at, whether dirty fuel may have played a role in the crash, where the ship lost power before it ploughed into that bridge in baltimore. there are two lines that we are getting, one is that the data recorder on board the ship that crashed into the bridge in baltimore has been recovered and that the national transportation safety board is looking at whether dirty fuel played a role in the crash. new figures show a big increase in sewage spills in england. spills from storm overflows increased 54% in 2023 compared

to the previous year, according to the environment agency. the agency says there has been investment from the water sector, but that sewage is a complex issue that won't be solved overnight. let's speak to giles bristow, ceo of surfers against sewage. a marine conservation charity. i know that your organisation has been campaigning for decades over this issue and i wonder if i can get your reaction to today's report? . irate reaction to today's report? . we collect let _ reaction to today's report? . we collect let out _ reaction to today's report? . - collect let out a collective grasp about the news an hour ago, that we were shocked, this is a huge increase, 5a%, 100% increase in the number of hours, the duration if you like of the discharges that are happening into our rivers, into our seas, affecting bathing waters where people love to go and swim and serve

and enjoy themselves. the people love to go and swim and serve and enjoy themselves.— and en'oy themselves. the industry itself and enjoy themselves. the industry itself sa s and enjoy themselves. the industry itself says that _ and enjoy themselves. the industry itself says that is _ and enjoy themselves. the industry itself says that is unacceptable - and enjoy themselves. the industry itself says that is unacceptable but | itself says that is unacceptable but they say the record levels are down to heavy rain. this they say the record levels are down to heavy rain-— to heavy rain. this is true. it was a very wet _ to heavy rain. this is true. it was a very wet year— to heavy rain. this is true. it was a very wet year last _ to heavy rain. this is true. it was a very wet year last year - to heavy rain. this is true. it was a very wet year last year but - to heavy rain. this is true. it was a very wet year last year but this| a very wet year last year but this is a climate change, it is happening, we know it is happening, we should have been modelling for this. we should have been preparing for this. this. we should have been preparing forthis. but this. we should have been preparing for this. but this isjust this. we should have been preparing for this. but this is just one factor, there is increased urbanisation, new developments, urbanisation, new developments, urban run—off, this is an industry that has underinvested the whole time so it's not reallyjust because it is a wetter year, they would have been increases anyway because of underinvestment. that is what injury has to sort out. just underinvestment. that is what in'ury has to sort out.�* has to sort out. just on a personal level, has to sort out. just on a personal level. what _ has to sort out. just on a personal level, what have _ has to sort out. just on a personal level, what have you _ has to sort out. just on a personal level, what have you had - has to sort out. just on a personal level, what have you had to - has to sort out. just on a personal level, what have you had to face l level, what have you had to face swimming when this has happened? absolutely. there are days where that app pins and gives us and lead to not to go into the sea and swim, which is an absolute shame. swimming

and surfing is great excitement, people find solace and a connection to nature, but if you had not seen that alert and you go into the sea and get a very unpleasant experience. i've had rashes, sore throats and illnesses just from surfing and it is utterly unacceptable in 202a. surfing and it is utterly unacceptable in 2024. surfing and it is utterly unacce table in 2024. ., , , unacceptable in 2024. ceo of surfers auainst unacceptable in 2024. ceo of surfers against sewage. _ unacceptable in 2024. ceo of surfers against sewage, thank _ unacceptable in 2024. ceo of surfers against sewage, thank you _ unacceptable in 2024. ceo of surfers against sewage, thank you very - unacceptable in 2024. ceo of surfers| against sewage, thank you very much forjoining us and you can get more on that story and indeed the rest of the days news on the bbc website, stay with us on bbc news. hello. it's been pretty miserable for the morning rush with driving rain, hill snow across the north, and even a dusting of snow in the heavier downpours further south, as well. this is exmoor earlier. so, it is slightly windier today, as this area of low pressure to the west of us continues to deepen. so, there are more isobars around, particularly in the south and the north, where we'll have gale force winds to accompany this rain and this hill snow. so, a pretty cold day here.

after the heavy rain moves away from northern ireland, heavy showers will follow, those heavy showers pushing their way across england and wales as well, after some sunshine first thing. the sunshine does return, but with it, some heavier showers, hail and thunder mixed in. and so the strength of the wind as well will temper the feel, even though we'll get to perhaps 9—12 celsius. 0vernight, the rain breaks up in the north, the showers follow. we've got more rain and hill snow to come in southern areas, hill snow for the moors, into the welsh mountains, the peaks as well, because it's going to be a chilly three or four, perhaps a touchof frost in the north. but, by and large, there's more wind overnight to prevent a frost, particularly in the south. this deepening area of low pressure has been named storm nelson by the spanish met service. it will have big impacts further south, and it will have impacts for ourselves tomorrow, because not only have we got the rain and the hill snow, but gale force winds. so, gusts of perhaps 60mph buffeting southern and western coasts in particular. but the winds will pick up further north, driving those bands of rain

and hill snow as well northwards. and, again, only 9—12 degrees celsius. so, feeling chilly despite some march sunshine between those showers. now, on balance, we should see more of that march sunshine on good friday, but that low pressure is still with us to the west. but, just gradually, the shower activity and the winds are easing down. so it will feel a little bit more springlike, 12—14 degrees celsius. and bear in mind, of course, we're into the tree pollen season now. so, if you're struggling a little, that's the reason why. into saturday, this low pressure brushes close to the south and the east, and we've got a succession of low pressures to move in from the south and east, as well. so the concern is how far into the uk they'll bring their rain. there's a lot of uncertainty at the moment, so please do stay tuned to the forecast, more of which you can find on the website as well as all the warnings.

counting the cost, how the baltimore bridge collapse could impact supply chains. flight of fantasy or transport of delight? the flying car that's been sold to a firm in china.