Evening Briefing Thursday 21st November

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The warrants issued by the International Criminal Court are for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Nogurtana Polsky is a freelance reporter in Israel. This means that neither of them, neither the sitting Prime Minister of Israel, nor his former, his now fired Defense Minister,

can travel abroad. Basically, the only western country they can travel to now is the United States. France and the Netherlands have already said that if either of them land on their territory, they will be arrested. The warrant has also been issued for Hamas commander Ibrahim al-Mazri, who is believed to have been killed in an airstrike. Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies war crimes in Gaza.

There's uncertainty tonight over whether a weapon fired by Russia into Ukraine was an intercontinental ballistic missile. Downing Street says the reports are deeply concerning. President Vladimir Zelensky says the speed and altitudes suggest it was an ICBM, but several Western officials dispute keeps claim. Jim Townsend is a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO policy.

He's told Times Radio we have to take this seriously from President Putin. Well, I think it's very significant, but it's something that is meant to send a message to Donald Trump as well as to the West and to NATO. The release of Storm Shadow of the Attackums, he's upset by that. And it's something that he is putting his finger in the chest of the West saying, I'm really upset about this. Don't start crossing me.

A British lawyer has died after apparently being poisoned by a drink contaminated with methanol while on holiday in Laos. Simone White from Upington in Kent is the fifth holiday maker to have died after becoming ill last week. At least seven others, including other British holiday makers, were taken to hospital after the incident in Van Vien.

John Prescott has been remembered as a titan of British politics who inspired working class boys and girls. The former Labour Deputy Prime Minister has died at the age of 86. Ticquier Starmer described him as a one-off and a true giant of the labour movement, and former Downing Street Director of Communications, Alistair Campbell told us he was a very clever man with sharp political instincts.

And he was passionate about what he did. I thought it was really interesting today that one of the first tributes, obviously Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, lots of the other obvious big figures in the Labour Party paying tribute to him. But right out there at the start was Al Gore, the former US Vice President, because John was such a big part of the climate change debate, particularly around the Kyoto Treaty.

The second named storm of the season is forecast to bring snow, rain and strong winds to parts of the UK this weekend. Storm Bert has been named by the Met Office. Nazanine Gaffer is a climate and weather reporter. It's bringing through very strong winds. We've got tightly packed eyes of ours where we're likely to see wind gusts of around 40 to 60 miles per hour that could cause some disruption to travel and locally up to 70 miles per hour is possible around an exposed coast of the west and southwest.

But as well as that, there's heavy rain coming through. Now that could cause some flooding issues. And don't forget, you can follow the Times News Briefing on Spotify and you can listen live to Times Radio online.

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