a new hate crime law comes into force in scotland, but is it protecting minorities or blocking free speech? and germany decriminalises cannabis. the government tries to tackle the black market trade — we have a special report. hello, i'm luxmy gopal. we start this hour with breaking news out of israel, where the military has confirmed it's completed its operation at gaza's biggest hospital, al—shifa, and has withdrawn its troops from the area. the hospital had been under siege for two weeks. the hamas—run health ministry and palestinian witnesses had earlier reported tanks pulling back from the heavily bombarded hospital complex in gaza city. the hospital and its surrounds have been left in ruins

following the two—week operation. buildings are reduced to rubble — the few remaining are little more than shells. these pictures obtained by newsagency reuters show what is left inside the complex. israel has previously said it was carrying out precise operations against hamas and islamichhad fighters, and had killed 200 of them. meanwhile, hundreds of israeli protesters have spent the night in tents outside parliament injerusalem to press their demand for prime minister benjamin netanyahu to step down. thousands of people rallied in jerusalem for what they're calling the largest anti—government protest since the war in the gaza strip began, nearly six months ago. on sunday, mr netanyahu had surgery for a hernia — his office reporting it had been successful. our middle east correspondent, yolande knell, is injerusalem and has the more on the situation at al shifa hospital. videos are circulating on social

media that show this vast medical complex now as a set of burnt out buildings. many of them heavily damaged, on the verge of collapse. and the area around it, much of that has been razed, apparently, by israeli air strikes over the past couple of weeks. the duration of the raid. of course, the second was carried out by the israeli military on al—shifa hospital, which it has been calling a command and control centre for hamas in the past. it said hamas returned to the site after it earlier withdrew, and it was acting on precise intelligence, they sent forces in there two weeks ago and they say in the course of operations, one of the most successful, they say, of the war, they killed some 200 palestinian armed gunmen, members of hamas and islamichhad. they rounded up several hundred, including, they say, senior members of both of those organisations.

they say they have important intelligence as a result of all of this. for palestinians, though, they say that many innocent lives have been lost in the course of this operation. hamas said doctors and patients were killed. certainly we could see at various points there were large numbers of displaced people, hundreds of them that were caught up in the fighting that went on at close quarters in the hospital and the area around it, before most of those were able to flee. there were residents of the area that were complaining that they were unable to get any water, they were unable to get food, and that was leading to dire conditions in the area around the hospital as well. we have been seeing images of the big anti—government protests, with hundreds of people spending the night in tents outside parliament. how does that compare to some of the anti—government protests we have seen in past months? so, really, there were not for the last six months such

significant anti—government protests as we have seen in the last couple of days. that's really because they were put on hold, these big protests against the government plans to change the judiciary, that we saw throughout most of last year. that was in reaction to the 7th of october attacks, the demand to have the country pull together. but then what we have seen is, in the past few days, anti—government protests coming back, with some of the protests related to the hostage families. combining their efforts, and really calling for new elections and mr netanyahu, the israeli prime minister, to resign. but also for much more to be done to bring home the hostages. there are those that blame mr netanyahu for prioritising, in their eyes, his political survival over a deal to bring the hostages back. speaking of the prime minister, yolande, mr netanyahu has undergone hernia surgery.

how has that affected the chain of command, in the interim? it was really only for a very short time he was out of action. he was taken to hospital after we were told the hernia was discovered during a routine medical checkup a day earlier. he is now said to be in hospital, talking and back in control. prior to his hernia surgery, he did say that he really had a message to those that were protesting against him, and said it was, for him, his heart was breaking over the plight of the hostage families. he blamed hamas, saying it was hardening its position and that is what had made it impossible in recent days to secure a dealfor a truce in gaza, that would also see some of the hostages coming home. in relation to the demand for early elections, he said the first to commend this will be hamas, and that says it all.

yolande knell, in jerusalem. i want to give you some details around anyone controversial hate crime law that has come into effect in scotland. the law creates a new offence of stirring up hatred in relation to personal characteristics, including age, disability, religion and sexual orientation. the government says it'll protect minority groups from prejudice and hatred. but critics argue it will undermine freedom of speech, and police fear the legislation could be weaponised for political purposes. our bbc scotland political correspondent, david wallace lockhart, has more details. this law was actually passed back in 2021, but it's just coming into force today, hence the big publicity campaign going on at the moment, encouraging people to report hate crime. it was already illegal in scotland to stir up racial hatred, but what this new law does is it criminalises threatening or abusive behaviour aimed at stirring up hatred towards more groups

of people, that is based on age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, transgender identity or somebody being intersex. it is all based on what a reasonable person would consider stirring up hatred. there are staunch critics on a number of fronts, one is that biological sex is not included, so concerns that women are not offered enough protection. the scottish government says it will bring forward separate legislation on that front. big concerns about freedom of speech, some very prominent and famous critics of the legislation include elon musk, who owns the social media platform x, and jk rowling, the author of the harry potter books. the scottish government says that free speech protections are built into the bill, people are allowed to say things that are shocking or offensive, they say that has not changed. there are also concerns for what this means for the police in scotland, the force is stretched

and they have committed themselves to investigating every allegation of hate crime under this new law. but it's at a time when the police are not investigating every low—level crime in scotland. that's proving quite controversial. the scottish government saying police do have the resources and they do have the training to oversee the new law. i suppose that is the question, how feasible it is, with limited resources. what about the volume of social media posts that could come into question as a result of the law? yes, that has been a key part of this debate, as we have been preparing for the legislation to take effect. people being concerned that, as of today, a flood of complaints could come to the police about social media posts that people think contravene this law, but defenders of the bill think that those concerns are not really justified, because it's all based on the idea of what a reasonable person would regard to be stirring up hatred, threatening and abusive behaviour

towards these protected groups. they think it is a high criminal bar to reach and it is not going to lead to much more police action in this area. but where the police�*s time and resources can be taken up as investigating complaints. we know so much of the debates and quite controversial issues takes place online these days, and that is where a lot of the complaints could come from. let's turn to events in turkey now — president erdogan has been dealt a major political blow, in local elections there. his ak party suffered its biggest defeat in municipal elections across the country. correspondents say voters appear to be punishing his party for the spiralling cost of living. the main opposition chp achieved its largest victory in 45 years. it won six of turkey's eight largest urban centres — including the country's biggest city istanbul.

and for the first time in 25 years, they won more municipalities than the governing ak party. president erdogan described his party's worst defeat as "not an end, but a turning point" translation: we will not disrespect the nation's decision in any way, - we will avoid being stubborn, acting against the national will and questioning the judgment of our nation, as we have done so far. we will take the necessary steps by analysing the messages given by the nation at the ballot box, most accurately and objectively within the reason and in our inner conscience. opposition supporters say although these are local elections, victories in big cities are a significant show of force against erdogan�*s governing ak party. this was the scene in istanbul, where thousands publicly celebrated the opposition party's win. the city's incumbent mayor, ekrem imamoglu, declared victory after securing more than 50% of the vote — well ahead of his nearest rival. mr imamoglu became istanbul's first opposition mayor in 2019.

he's now seen as the best placed opposition candidate before the next presidential vote in 2028. he told supporters the result signalled a �*very important message' to the world. translation: in this world unfortunately democracies i were weakening, while these democracies were weakening authoritarian regimes came to power, many articles around the world asked we were coming at the end of democratic regimes. 31st of march 2024 is the day when democratic erosion and turkey ended and democracy is rising again. bbc monitoring's turkey specialist william armstrong in istanbul has been telling me what's behind this unexpected result. well, there were a number of factors at play in this election,

and a number of pundits are pointing to those factors as being crucial in affecting the result. as you say, this has been a really strong result for the main opposition party, the chp, and that was really unexpected, actually. there were a lot of predictions before the election that, with fragmentation in the opposition, they would really struggle to even measure up to the previous performance in 2019 local elections, but they actually surpassed it very much, and there are a number of factors at play there. a lot of people have pointed to the economy. turkey headed to these elections with inflation at 67%, calculated in february, and the interest rates are at 50% at the moment, so people for a long time have been really struggling, and that's caused a lot of disillusionment in government voters, and i think we saw a bit of that lack of enthusiasm yesterday. that was also reflected, i think,

in the turnout, which fell. it was still quite high. i think it was calculated at over 75%, but that's actually quite low for turkey, where turnout is always very, very high. in the presidential elections last year, i think it was over 88% in the first round. so that was a really significant drop of over ten percentage points in turnout, and thatjust reflects this disillusionment among some voters who perhaps previously voted for the government but this time didn't vote for them, and that's opened the door for a really new picture to emerge in the electoral map. another couple of factors i would just mention as well are the strong performance from the new welfare party, which is basically this upstart islamist party, quite a hard line party that has really sort of rallied support both on economic discontent but also won a number of social issues, and particularly with the war in gaza at the moment, they have really tried to rally

support, saying that the government is not doing enough on that issue. erdogan is making strong statements, but turkey isn't taking steps on that issue, and that has, i think, resonated with a portion of the government's voters. so those kind of things are playing into this result, and i think that's at least partly why we saw the results emerge as they did last night. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.

from today, people in germany can legally smoke cannabis — in public. hundreds of people filled berlin's brandenburg gate at midnight for a "smoke—in" as the new law came into effect. the part—decriminalisation follows decades of contentious debate. the rules around medical marijuana are also being relaxed. our berlin correspondent, jessica parker, reports from dresden. it's out in the open.

adults in germany can now possess up to 25 grams of cannabis in public — enough to make dozens ofjoints — and grow up to three plants at home. while people like marcel are planning newly permitted cannabis social clubs. not for tourists, though — just german residents. and every gram of cannabis which goes from the cannabis social club is one gram that's not on the black market. what do you say to people who say, look, cannabis is addictive and it is harmful, especially to young people? everything have dark sides. and you have to know about the dark sides and only when it's not illegal, you can freely talk about these dark sides. but these cannabis clubs in cities like dresden won't pop up overnight, and come with their own rules — exacerbating fears that demand will quickly outstrip legal supply.

translation: we assume that the black market - will be strengthened, particularly at the beginning in the chaos phase, when demand would be great because of the signal this law sends. the black market and criminal networks will adapt and they will also infiltrate the social clubs. into the highly secure halls of a medical cannabis grower, who are also seeing some deregulation. cannabis will not be a narcotic any more in germany. it will be just as any other pharmaceutical product, which makes it much more easier for patients to get it from a doctor and to get it from the pharmacy. they keep this room at around 23 degrees, but it's also really quite humid. now, there are 650—ish plants in this room and they are almost ready to be harvested. and the psychoactive substances... the benefits of medical cannabis are debated,

while the relaxation around recreational use has been contentious. this is an argument in germany that likely hasn't yet reached full maturity. jessica parker, bbc news, in dresden. proposals to criminalise rough sleeping in the uk are facing criticism, and the bbc understands the prime minister is in talks with conservative rebels over the plans. the bill would give police the powers to fine, move on, orjail homeless people deemed to be a �*nuisance'. our political correspondent georgia roberts has been taking a closer look at the bill, and told us more about how exactly it could work. this is a broad ranging bill. we are talking about the criminaljustice bill. it was first introduced by the former home secretary suella braverman. it was part of government efforts to project a message being tough on crime, of the general election. you might recall around the time when this was being

introduced, the former home secretary landed herself in a bit of hot water with some of her language around homelessness. she described homelessness as a lifestyle choice. what these proposals would do in this bill is gift police and local authorities the power to move on, fine, potentially in the region of thousands of pounds, and sometimes jail rough sleepers who are deemed to be a nuisance in england and wales. there is concern about the punishing element of this. conservative mps, concerned that potentially rough sleepers who have no choice but to sleep on the streets could land themselves in trouble, or thosejust streets could land themselves in trouble, or those just deemed to be perhaps looking as if they could intend to sleep on the streets too. conservative mps, being led by the long—time homelessness campaigner bob blackman looking at this, looking to strip these powers away from the criminaljustice bill. we

understand that bob blackman is being supported in those efforts by the former conservative party leader iain duncan smith. one backer of these changes to the bill told the bbc that negotiations with the government are ongoing, and there has been nothing concrete from them yet. speaking to number 10 this morning, they say that negotiations and talks are happening in the usual way when bills such as this go through the process of going through parliament. but certainly a rebellion within his party would be damaging for rishi sunak. this comes, of course, at a time when chatter of unhappiness about his leadership of the party does not seem to be going away. given what appears to be quite widespread discontent surrounding the plans proposed in this bill around homelessness, so movement perhaps from number 10 would be inevitable, if they want to avoid looking weak in the face of their own mps. let's get some of the

day's other news now. salvage crews at the us port of baltimore have removed the first section of the bridge that collapsed when it was hit by a container ship six days ago. the accident brought maritime traffic to a standstill on what is a major trading route. a statement from the coastguard said a first section of the francis scott key bridge, weighing 200 tonnes, had been cut free. it's being transferred onto a barge, which will take it ashore. in ecuador, at least eight people were killed and eight others injured when gunmen opened fire in the port city of guayaquil. it is the second mass killing ecuador has suffered in two days. russian artists in buenos aires who tried to paint a large portrait of the late russian opposition figure alexei navalny were stopped by local police shortly before finishing it. dozens of supporters chanted "navalny" and put flowers beside the mural. the kremlin critic died on the 16th of february in an arctic penal colony where he was serving a 19—year sentence.

energy prices in england, wales and scotland have fallen to their lowest level for two years today, as the regulator's new quarterly price cap comes into force. a household using a typical amount of energy will see their bills fall by £238 compared to the previous cap. the price drop will affect 29 million households. standing charges — that's a fixed daily charge covering the costs of connecting to a supply — have risen to 60 pence a day for electricity and 31 pence a day for gas, but charities say customers still owe billions of pounds to suppliers. with more, here's our cost of living correspondent, kevin peachey. spring has arrived in the gardens of this east kent community centre, promising warmer months ahead. i love the daffodils. but locals are still feeling the chilling impact winter bills had on their finances and lifestyle. it's been quite a harsh winter and i haven't been able to afford

to have the central heating on. so it's been rather challenging. and so i've been using hot water bottles. i invested in a battery—operated vest. inside the centre we find caz, who's found ways to stay warm, too. wrap up in a blanket or one of those big snoods that you get now, and big fluffy slippers. and how paying the bills has been a juggling act. some months you rob peter to pay paul, and that'sjust the way it is. and as long as you let people know that you're struggling and that... we're not — i'm not the only person who's struggling. there's thousands and thousands. quite a few of my friends are struggling, as well, you know? but hopefully, fingers crossed, things are going to start coming down now, which is going to make it a lot more manageable with everything. manageable because today the cost of each unit of gas and electricity

in the home has come down. energy prices are now at their lowest level for two years, but at the same time, some government support is being wound down, and other bills — water, council tax, phone and broadband — are on the way up. financial pressures aren't over — theyjust look a bit different. that will pay for itself on the energy saving. that's why this former mining community is part of a project sharing good habits to save energy and money. if you use more energy, you pay more. so sarah, who leads the discussion, says simple tips are best even at this time of year. three tips would be... one, your hot—water setting. if it's too hot to wash your hands with, your boiler�*s too high. two — your draughts — from your chimney to your windows and your doors — manage those draughts. and three, your showers. you need to stick to four minutes. find a four—minute song — less bohemian rhapsody — in the shower. and again, that's £70 a year just on water and energy that you could save. one water charity has even compiled

a four—minute song playlist, keeping people here and around the country to time, and their finances on song. kevin peachey, bbc news. let's recap on our top story this hour, which comes from gaza. the israeli military has confirmed it has completed its operation at gaza's biggest hospital, al—shifa, and has withdrawn its troops from the area. these are images from the hospital in central gaza after that troop withdrawal. the hospital and its surrounds have been left in ruins following the two—week operation. buildings are reduced to rubble. the few remaining are little more than shells. stay with us here on bbc news. hello again. the weather this week remains fairly unsettled. it will be wet and windy at times. but it is going to turn that a bit milder. you can see how we have the yellows and then the ambers across much of the country. still the blues across the north of scotland, until we get

to the end of the week, then you can see the yellows and the ambers pushing that bit further north as it turns a little bit warmer. what we have today across the central swathe of the country is a lot of cloud and some rain, slowly edging northwards. to the south of that, some sunshine. but some showers, some of them heavy and thundery. the dry and sunniest conditions will be across the far north and north—west of scotland. feeling cooler in the breeze, coming in from the north sea. top temperatures today up to about 15 degrees. through this evening and overnight, that band of rain continues to push northwards across scotland. cloudy and damp for northern ireland. for england and wales we have some clear skies, some mist and fog patches forming and breezy with showers, moving across the english channel. temperatures falling away under the clear skies to one or two across northern and eastern parts of england, as well as wales. into tomorrow, we start off with this rain across scotland, brisk winds here. variable amounts of cloud tomorrow, with one or two showers and some sunny skies. we also have the next batch of rain coming in from the south—west,

where the wind will also pick up. temperatures six to 15 degrees, north to south. as we head to the middle of the week, we've got low pressure pushing eastwards, dragging rain with it. as we push further north, we are looking at a fair bit of cloud. rain on and off and snow in the mountains. come south, there will be some brighter skies, but also some showers and temperatures five to about 1k degrees. heading into thursday, quite a messy picture. for scotland, the cloud and rain will be on and off. for england, wales and northern ireland we're looking at cloudy conditions, with some rain or, indeed, some showers. temperature—wise, five in the north, 16 in the south. slowly, temperatures are starting to rise. as we head into friday, it looks very much like its going to be wet and also very windy, and the forecast beyond that does remain unsettled, but slightly

warmer than it has been.

this is bbc news, the headlines: after two weeks of heavy bombardment, israel says its military operation at gaza's al—shifa hospital is complete and all troops are withdrawn from the area.

a new hate crime law comes into force in scotland, but is it protecting minorities or blocking free speech? and a lower energy price cap comes into force — taking bills in england, wales and scotland to their lowest level in two years. this is the time of year that the cost of living takes a hike as providers of many services raise their prices. the average annual water and sewerage bill will rise by 6% in england and wales, up £27 to £473. council tax rises vary, most will go up 3 or 5%. exceptions are financially troubled birmingham where council tax will go up 21% over two years and scotland where its mainly frozen. most broadband and mobile phone providers are currently introducing mid—contract price rises of up to 8.8%.