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Isle of Wight e-scooter complaints exceed 1,000 - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Complaints include riding on the pavement, anti-social behaviour and underage use. | It remains illegal to use an e-scooter on the road, outside of government-approved trials
More than 1,000 incidents of misuse of e-scooters have been reported during a trial on the Isle of Wight, it has emerged.
A council pilot hire scheme has been operating on the island for 15 months.
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request revealed complaints had been filed over anti-social behaviour, dangerous and underage riding, as well as riding on the pavement.
Operator Beryl said misuse of its vehicles were "highly disruptive".
The FOI by an island resident, and released by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, showed that in the 12 months following the start of the scheme in November 2020, 1,004 misuse reports were filed with Isle of Wight Council.
They included 87 for anti-social behaviour, 178 for dangerous driving on the road and 235 for riding with a passenger.
Underaged riding prompted 141 complaints and there were 262 for riding on a pavement.
Last week, Hampshire Constabulary's roads unit issued 14 warning letters during an operation targeting riders of both private and hired e-scooters in Ryde and Newport.
Beryl said: "Riders can expect a warning in the first instance, and to be blocked on a second occurrence.
"Misuse is highly disruptive and potentially dangerous to other road users."
Trials of e-scooter hire schemes are being carried out around the country, with evidence gathered due to be evaluated by the Department for Transport as it considers whether to legalise them.
Currently, privately-owned e-scooters are banned in the UK anywhere except on private land.
Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-60806459 |
Murder arrest over Sabita Thanwani Clerkenwell death - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Maher Maaroufe has been arrested on suspicion of murder over the death of Sabita Thanwani, 19. | Police have named the 19-year-old victim as British student Sabita Thanwani
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a 19-year-old woman who died in student accommodation in central London.
Student Sabita Thanwani was found with neck injuries in the halls of residence in Sebastian Street, Clerkenwell.
Police and medics went to Arbour House at about 05:10 GMT on Saturday but she died at the scene.
Maher Maaroufe, understood to have been in a relationship with Ms Thanwani, has been arrested, police said.
The 22-year-old was also arrested on suspicion of assault on police. He remains in custody.
Mr Maaroufe was arrested by officers in Clerkenwell area after a police appeal to trace him.
Ms Thanwani attended City, University of London, which is near to the student accommodation where she died.
Arbour House, near City, University of London, is owned by Unite Students and houses 188 students
Det Ch Insp Linda Bradley said Ms Thanwani's family were being supported by officers.
She said: "Our deepest condolences are with them.
"I would ask everyone to respect their privacy at this indescribably devastating time for them as they come to terms with Sabita's murder."
A post-mortem examination has also been arranged.
Ch Insp Adam Instone, of the Met Police, said he understood the student community and local people would be concerned.
He said: "I share their sadness and their concerns. And I can assure them that a thorough homicide investigation is under way, led by skilled and experienced detectives who will work tirelessly to identify and arrest whoever is responsible."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60815255 |
Climate change: 'Madness' to turn to fossil fuels because of Ukraine war - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | UN Secretary General says climate goals are in danger if countries turn to coal because of Ukraine. | The UN Secretary General says the rush to use fossil fuels because of the war in Ukraine is "madness" and threatens global climate targets.
The invasion of Ukraine has seen rapid rises in the prices of coal, oil and gas as countries scramble to replace Russian sources.
But Antonio Guterres warns that these short-term measures might "close the window" on the Paris climate goals.
He also calls on countries, including China, to fully phase out coal by 2040.
In his first major speech on climate and energy since COP26, Mr Guterres makes no bones about the fact that the limited progress achieved in Glasgow is insufficient to ward off dangerous climate change.
Mr Guterres says that the rush to find alternatives to Russian fuels is a threat to climate goals
Scientists believe that keeping the rise in global temperatures under 1.5C this century is crucial to limiting the scale of damage from global warming.
To keep that threshold alive, carbon output needs to be cut in half by the end of this decade. Instead, as Mr Guterres points out, emissions are set to rise by 14%.
"The problem was not solved in Glasgow," Mr Guterres says, in a speech delivered at the Economist Sustainability Summit.
"In fact, the problem is getting worse."
The war in Ukraine threatens to make that situation even more problematic, he says.
Europe and the UK and other countries are looking to cut their reliance on Russian oil and gas this year. Many are turning to coal or imports of liquefied natural gas as alternative sources.
But Mr Guterres warns this short-term approach heralds great danger for the climate.
"Countries could become so consumed by the immediate fossil fuel supply gap that they neglect or knee-cap policies to cut fossil fuel use," Mr Guterres said.
Mining for coal may get a boost in the short term as countries seek alternative energy sources
"This is madness. Addiction to fossil fuels is mutually assured destruction."
Countries must "accelerate the phase out of coal and all fossil fuels," and implement a rapid and sustainable energy transition.
It is "the only true pathway to energy security."
Mr Guterres says the solutions to the climate crisis mostly lie in the hands of the G20 group of richest nations, which produce around 80% of global emissions.
While many of these countries have taken great steps to slash emissions by 2030, there are a "handful of holdouts, such as Australia."
Coal must be banished, Mr Guterres says, with a full phase-out for richer nations by 2030, and 2040 for all others, including China.
Coal "is a stupid investment," according to the Secretary General, "leading to billions in stranded assets."
Europe relies heavily on Russia for natural gas supplies and is seeking replacements
He says the way forward is to build coalitions to help major emerging economies to move rapidly away from fossil fuels.
He highlights the case of South Africa. During COP26 several countries including the UK, US and others agreed to an $8.5bn financing programme to end South Africa's reliance on coal.
Mr Guterres says the pieces are coming together for similar coalitions in Indonesia, Vietnam and elsewhere.
Money is one of the key problems in addressing the climate issue and Mr Guterres has called for a major ramping up in finance to help countries adapt to rising temperatures.
He points out that right now, one person in three globally is not covered by early warning systems for disasters - in Africa six in ten people are not protected.
In 2022, he argues, richer countries must finally make good on their well-worn promise to provide a $100bn a year to the developing world. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60815547 |
Prince Andrew plans to attend Prince Philip service - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Duke of York to make first appearance at a public event since his court case settlement. | Prince Andrew will make his first appearance in public since settling the court case
The Duke of York will attend next week's thanksgiving service for Prince Philip, says his spokesperson.
It will be Prince Andrew's first public appearance since the settlement of the civil sex assault case brought against him in the US by Virginia Giuffre.
The service at Westminster Abbey will celebrate the life of his father, Prince Philip, who died last year.
Prince Philip's grandson, Prince Harry, who lives in the US, has already said he will not be attending.
The Queen would be expected to attend next Tuesday's service honouring the memory of her husband.
But there have been concerns about her mobility and last week she was unable to go to the Commonwealth Service held in Westminster Abbey.
Other members of the Royal Family will take part in the service remembering Prince Philip's life and legacy - although Prince Harry has already confirmed he will not be travelling from the US.
Prince Harry has been involved in a legal dispute over the provision of security when he visits the UK.
In the fall out from his high-profile court case, Prince Andrew lost the use of the title His Royal Highness and stepped back from public life, but his representative says he will attend the service commemorating his father.
This will be the first time he will have been seen at an event in public since agreeing to make payments to Ms Giuffre and her victims' rights charity in a settlement that ended the civil court case.
Prince Andrew rejected any claims of wrongdoing, and the formal closure of the case earlier this month ended the prospect of a trial in New York.
But there have been questions about the prince's reputational damage and his future role in royal events. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60826073 |
Child Q: Hackney march over strip-searched girl - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The 15-year-old schoolgirl was taken out of an exam and strip-searched by two female Met officers. | Patrick Vernon, who helped organise the rally, addressing hundreds of people outside Hackney Town Hall
Hundreds of protesters have marched through north London in support of a black pupil strip-searched at school after being wrongly suspected of carrying drugs.
A report released this month found the search of the 15-year-old girl, known as Child Q, was unjustified and racism was "likely" to have been a factor.
Activists marched chanting "power to black girl Child Q" and carried banners saying "protect black kids".
The girl's family is suing her school and the force, which said its officers' actions "should never have happened".
Speaking via her lawyers, the girl said she wanted "cast-iron commitments to ensure this never happens again" and thanked supporters.
Protesters marched from Stoke Newington Police Station to Hackney Town Hall with placards saying "no to racist police" and "hands off our children", while chanting "love for Child Q".
Jacqueline Courteney, who helped set up the rally, said: "I set it up because I'm a mother and I had that gut instinct a black child out there had been caused such harm, and that could have been my kids, or nieces and nephews.
"That's just not on, and there needs to be a way that we can demand change that is clear and obvious."
Ngozi Fulani said the officers involved should be sacked
Ngozi Fulani, founder of charity Sistah Space which supports black heritage abuse victims, said she was "disgusted" by the incident.
"There's something in our system that doesn't see the humanity in black people, much less black children," she said.
"The police involved should be sacked."
A two-minute silence was also held in support of the girl.
A two-minute silence was held in support of the schoolgirl
Protesters chanted "love for Child Q" through the streets of north London
During the incident in 2020, the girl was taken out of an exam to the school's medical room and strip-searched while on her period by two female Met police officers searching for cannabis, while teachers remained outside.
The girl's mother told the safeguarding review - by City of London and Hackney Safeguarding Children Partnership - that after the strip-search, her daughter had been "asked to go back into the exam" she had been sitting, with no teacher asking about her welfare.
Her family said the girl had changed from "top of the class" to "a shell of her former bubbly self", and she was now self-harming and required therapy.
The Met apologised and admitted the incident should not have happened
The Independent Office of Police Conduct (IOPC) said its investigation was complete and its report was being "finalised".
It added three police constables had been served with notices last year advising them they were under investigation for misconduct, "over their roles in either carrying out the strip-search or involvement in supervising it".
Scotland Yard said the officers' actions were "truly regrettable" and it "should never have happened".
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60807681 |
P&O: Stena Line to help retailers with extra ferries - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Stena Line will put on additional ferry services from Scotland to Northern Ireland on Tuesday. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Stena Line will put on two extra ferry services from Scotland to Northern Ireland from tomorrow, the UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said.
He told the Commons it would be of help to some retailers including Asda and Marks and Spencers.
He said the company had already "stepped up" following the suspension of P&O routes last week.
Up to 50 staff from Northern Ireland will be directly impacted by P&O's move to fire 800 workers last week.
Mr Shapps said if it was confirmed that relative notice periods and consultations were not conducted before P&O staff were fired, then it would be a "a matter for criminal prosecution and unlimited fines".
The Economy Minister Gordon Lyons has accused the firm of "ripping up the employment rule book".
Mr Lyons said he did not believe P&O had acted within either the "spirit or letter" of employment law, a matter devolved to Northern Ireland.
Officials are investigating potential remedies for breaches of the law.
On Thursday, the company fired about 800 of its workers, with about a quarter of the staff hearing the news via a pre-recorded video message.
A private security firm was sent on board the vessel in Larne, County Antrim, which remains docked at the port, to remove staff.
On Monday, P&O said its services, including the crossing from Larne to Cairnryan in Scotland, would be "unable to run for the next few days".
"For essential travel, customers are advised to seek alternatives themselves," the firm continued.
It had been suggested at the time of the workforce announcement that it could be a week before the ferry service could resume.
A protest was held against P&O's decision at the Port of Larne on Friday
Finance Minister Conor Murphy said he raised the P&O situation during discussions with his counterparts in Scotland and Wales and the chief secretary to the treasury on Monday.
He said there should be support for the workers who needed to be treated "fairly".
"We can't just be subject to the whim of company who decide to cut their costs and behave in an appalling manner to do that," Mr Murphy added.
This Twitter post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Twitter The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip twitter post by P&O Ferries Updates This article contains content provided by Twitter. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Twitter’s cookie policy, external and privacy policy, external before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
"P&O might want to hide behind the small print of maritime law... but the court of public opinion will not be so sympathetic," Mr Lyons told assembly members (MLAs) on Monday.
"We must send a strong message to all companies that might think of getting involved in a practice in this way."
On Sunday, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said P&O's move had been "awful" and "wrong" and the government would examine the legality of its actions.
Some of the dismissed workers and trade unions held a protest at Larne port on Friday.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
P&O has said its decision to fire workers was to secure the future viability of the business.
It explained that required "swift and significant changes now".
The company said it would update its Twitter account regularly to inform people of the operational situation.
On Monday, Northern Ireland's Consumer Council said that following talks with P&O, travellers affected by the disruption could re-book their crossing with Stena Line and claim expenses from P&O.
The council's head of transport, Richard Williams, said people could also claim for additional expenditure, such as some hotel or mileage costs.
"Originally that wasn't going to be the case but they've accepted that because they can't provide the re-rerouting they normally would that people really have to book with Stena," he said.
Mr Williams said it was common for mechanical issues to cause delays to ferry services but the P&O situation was one that was "going on and on".
"It is certainly an unusual situation which is causing real problems for passengers," he added.
Mr Williams said the biggest issue was the employee situation but he warned the company faced "financial repercussions" to resolve customer issues also.
Geraldine Sinclair, who was due to travel with P&O on Thursday to a family event in Scotland said she would never use the company again because of how they treated customers and staff,
She told BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster she needed to re-arrange transport and was told she would receive a refund.
"I don't think much of them but to be honest, it's the staff I feel sorry for. We've all been there with redundancies but certainly not like that," she said.
Geraldine's husband Jim said he would avoid the company unless there was "no viable alternative".
P&O has said its decision to fire workers was to secure the future viability of the business.
It explained that required "swift and significant changes now". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60819923 |
Free-range eggs no longer available in UK due to bird flu - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | They will be relabelled "barn eggs" because hens have been kept inside for weeks to tackle bird flu. | People can no longer buy free-range eggs in the UK due to the length of time hens have been kept indoors following outbreaks of bird flu.
The eggs in shops will be labelled as "barn eggs" due to birds being kept inside for more than 16 weeks.
The country is experiencing its largest ever outbreak of avian influenza and measures are in place to prevent the virus from spreading.
About 55% of all eggs produced in the UK are free-range, says the RSPCA.
It means they come from birds that, during the daytime, enjoy unlimited access to outdoor pastures.
Signs will be put in supermarkets to inform shoppers of the change from Monday, and free-range labelling will only return when hens are permitted to go outside again.
Aimee Mahony, chief poultry adviser at the National Farmers' Union, said the government's advice was that there was "still a high level of risk" to birds of catching flu.
"This is an incredibly difficult time for all bird owners and vigilance remains vital," she added.
Ms Mahony said farmers were following "stringent biosecurity measures" and adapting hen houses to make birds more comfortable.
Avian flu is spread by close contact with an infected bird, whether it is dead or alive
Both "barn" and "free range" eggs meet the RSPCA's welfare standards, because the hens that lay them have freedom and space to move around, along with perches for roosting and nest boxes.
The difference is that for barn hens, this all happens inside, whereas free-range hens can access to the outside through "popholes" - although bird flu restrictions have put a stop to this.
The RSPCA says consumers buy more boxes of free range and barn eggs than those from caged hens.
However, the charity says a large proportion of eggs used as ingredients in products like mayonnaise, cakes and sandwiches are still from hens kept in cages.
It says such cages provide less than the size of an A4 piece of paper of space per bird and have limited facilities for perching, nesting and scratching and do not meet its welfare standards.
The charity says about 35% of egg-laying hens are still kept in cages.
Case numbers of the H5N1 strain of bird flu began rising in November last year. The virus - which is highly contagious and can destroy poultry flocks - was first discovered in North Yorkshire.
It poses an extremely low risk to humans, according to the NHS, although several people have been infected around the world and a number have died.
The outbreaks have resulted in the government enforcing an Avian Influenza Prevention Zone which made it a legal requirement for all bird keepers across the UK - whether they have pet birds, commercial flocks or just a few birds in a backyard flock - to keep them indoors and follow strict biosecurity measures.
Under such restrictions egg farmers have a 16-week "grace period" to maintain their free-range status, but this ended on Monday.
Andrea Martinez-Inchausti, assistant director of food at the British Retail Consortium, said shops and supermarkets would "continue to support British farmers".
In a statement the government said it would work with farmers and retailers to implement the branding changings.
A spokesman added: "We are experiencing our largest ever outbreak of avian flu and housing measures remain in force to protect poultry and other birds from this highly infectious and unpleasant disease." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60820595 |
Six killed after car drives into crowd in Belgium - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Dozens more are injured in the crash, which the mayor of the town says is a "national catastrophe". | The incident happened early on Sunday, as dozens of people were preparing for a traditional parade
At least six people have been killed after a car drove into a crowd of carnival-goers in southern Belgium.
The incident happened in the small town of Strépy-Bracquegnies, about 30 miles (50km) south of the capital Brussels.
The car drove at high-speed into dozens of people who were preparing to take part in a traditional parade on Sunday morning.
Around 40 people were injured and several are in a serious condition, the town's mayor said.
"There were about 150-200 people who were following the parade and [the] car arrived from behind and drove into the crowd," Jacques Gobert said.
"It continued for another 100m (328ft)," he added. "It should be considered a national catastrophe."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Witnesses describe horrific scenes as the car drove into the crowd
The exact circumstances of the attack are being investigated, but police said a terror attack had been ruled out.
"It is an accident, a tragic one. The car hit the group and tried to carry on but it was quickly stopped by the police," police spokeswoman Cristina Ianoco told the BBC.
"The driver and the other people in the car have been detained," she added. They have not been identified.
Police denied earlier reports in some Belgian media that the crash, which happened at around 05:00 local time (04:00 GMT), followed a high-speed police chase.
"A community gathering to celebrate has been hit in the heart," Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said
"Deepest condolences to the families and friends of those killed and injured in the incident this morning," Belgian Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden wrote on Twitter.
"What was supposed to be a great party turned into a tragedy," she added.
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who is expected to visit the scene later on Sunday, said it was "horrible news".
"A community gathering to celebrate has been hit in the heart," he said.
Belgian towns and villages host traditional street carnivals around the period of Lent. The event in Strépy-Bracquegnies, like many others, features a parade with participants dressed up comical figures. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60811591 |
Logan Mwangi: Boy, five, could have survived for hours - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Logan Mwangi suffered 56 injuries - including extensive bruising, grazes and scratches on his body. | Logan was found dead in the River Ogmore in Sarn, Bridgend county, last July
A five-year-old boy may have survived for "up to several hours" after receiving severe injuries to his abdomen, a court has heard.
The body of Logan Mwangi was found in the River Ogmore in Sarn, Bridgend county, last July with 56 injuries.
These included a liver tear and part of his small bowel torn from his pancreas.
Logan's mother Angharad Williamson, 31, his stepfather John Cole, 40, and a 14-year-old boy deny murder at Cardiff Crown Court.
Details of injuries were given to jurors on Monday.
Forensic pathologist Dr John Williams outlined 56 external injuries, including extensive bruising and some grazes and scratches across the boy's head, chest, back, arms and legs.
Dr Williams described the injuries to Logan's bowel as "rare" in children, with possible causes a motor vehicle crash, a bicycle accident, or non-accidental injury.
Logan's body was found in the River Ogmore on 31 July 2021
In the absence of a "high velocity accident", they were likely to have been caused by blows, kicks or "impacts with a weapon", he added.
Dr Williams said duodenal injures (part of the small bowel) are "commonly recorded" in abused children.
He told the jury there was evidence of changes to some of the abdominal injuries, suggesting the "healing process had started" which "indicated a period of survival that may have potentially been up to several hours".
During cross-examination, Dr Williams accepted that it could have been the case that Logan survived for a much shorter period of time and clarified by saying: "The features would dictate that death has not occurred immediately and that the injuries have not been sustained following death."
Angharad Williamson and John Cole are both charged with Logan Mwangi's murder
Dr Williams said there was also evidence of "extensive deep scalp bruising over the back of the head" which was "consistent with blunt force injuries".
A cause of death was given as "blunt force abdominal injury and cerebral injury including brain swelling and traumatic brain injury".
Despite the fact Logan was found in a river, pathologists found no evidence he had drowned.
Later on Monday, Dr George Lammie, a neuropathologist who examined Logan's brain and spinal cord, told the trial the boy's brain was "significantly swollen" and there was "evidence of recent traumatic damage and evidence of damage due to a lack of oxygen".
He said there was evidence of "axonal injury" which was generally caused by "rapid acceleration or deceleration of a moving brain".
He explained that to be able to detect that kind of injury, as well as some of the deterioration of cells, a certain time period had to have passed between injury and death.
Dr Lammie added it was possible Logan could have suffered more than one head injury and survived for "several hours" after being injured, but could not say for sure whether swelling from the brain or blood loss from abdominal injuries was the immediate cause of death.
All three defendants deny murder and are also accused of perverting the course of justice.
Ms Williamson and the youth have pleaded not guilty to perverting the course of justice, while Mr Cole admitted the charge. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60821471 |
As it happened: Ukraine war latest: Resilience making Russia assess reality, negotiator says - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Mykhaylo Podolyak, an aide to President Zelensky, says the change has helped encourage a dialogue between the nations. | Pavel has been taking pictures in bomb shelters Image caption: Pavel has been taking pictures in bomb shelters
Pavel Gomzyakov usually photographs the happiest days of people’s lives. He is an award-winning wedding photographer from Mariupol, southern Ukraine.
But, recently, he has been documenting life in the city as it has come under heavy Russian attack.
“Before the start of the war, Mariupol was a peaceful Ukrainian city, a city in which 95% of people were Russian speaking, like me. My daughter used to study at a Russian school,” he tells BBC Panorama.
At the end of last week, he escaped, along with his wife and nine-year-old son. His elderly parents stayed behind and he hasn’t been able to contact them for days, as electricity has been cut.
He is now trying work out how he can unite with his eldest daughter, 17, who is alone in Germany. She was in the north-eastern Ukrainian city Kharkiv at ballet school when the war started.
Pavel says it is if they have all woken up to a new, terrible reality.
More on Panorama Ukraine's Resistance: Standing Up to Putin on BBC One at 20:00 GMT | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60802572 |
Woman accused of murder after body find appears in court - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Fiona Beal is accused of killing Nicholas Billingham between 30 October and 10 November. | Forensic teams attended a house in Moore Street, Northampton at the weekend
A primary school teacher has appeared in court accused of murdering a man whose body was found buried in a back garden.
Nicholas Billingham, 42, was found at a house in Moore Street, in the Kingsley area of Northampton, on Saturday.
Fiona Beal, 48, who was arrested at a hotel in Cumbria on Wednesday, did not enter a plea at Northampton Magistrates' Court.
She is accused of killing him between 30 October and 10 November last year.
Wearing a grey tracksuit, Ms Beal, a teacher at Eastfield Academy primary school in Northampton, spoke quietly only to give her date of birth and her address, which is Moore Street.
Nicholas Billingham's remains have been taken to Leicester for examination
Mr Billingham's remains have been taken to Leicester for a forensic examination by a Home Office pathologist.
They were discovered following a three-day search involving forensic officers, a specialist search team and a cadaver dog, used to locate bodies.
Magistrates committed the case to Northampton Crown Court for a hearing on Tuesday.
Ms Beal nodded when asked if she had understood the proceedings.
A spokesperson for Eastfield Academy said the school had been "shocked and saddened" to learn Ms Beal had been charged.
They added: "We are particularly mindful of the impact this news will have on the children, and will be doing everything we can to support both pupils and staff as we work through this difficult time together.
"This is an appalling tragedy that will shake our school community to its roots and it's at times like this that we must rally around each other, support each other, and be kind to each other."
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The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-60822329 |
Ukraine war: Russian soldiers fire on Kherson protesters - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Protesters in Kherson scattered as explosions are heard and shots were fired by Russian soldiers. | Russian soldiers in the Ukrainian city of Kherson dispersed a protest against their occupation by firing shots at protesters.
Footage shared on social media, verified by the BBC, also showed explosions which were reported to be stun grenades.
People are reported to have been injured in the incident. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60827106 |
UK blames Russia for hoax calls to cabinet ministers - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Downing Street has also revealed that Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries was unsuccessfully targeted. | Ben Wallace and Priti Patel have revealed they were targeted by hoax callers last week
The UK government has publicly blamed Russia for hoax calls about the conflict in Ukraine made to British cabinet ministers.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel said they had been contacted by imposters last week.
Downing Street has now revealed an unsuccessful attempt was also made to contact Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.
A No 10 spokesman added that further hoax calls to ministers are expected.
There is understood to be concern in government that doctored recordings of the calls may be made public to reinforce Russian claims about the war.
On Friday, Mr Wallace blamed "Russian disinformation, distortion and dirty tricks" for a man calling him pretending to be Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal.
Home Secretary Priti Patel then revealed shortly afterwards that she had received a similar call earlier in the week.
On Monday, Boris Johnson's spokesman told reporters that "the Russian state was responsible for the hoax telephone calls made to UK ministers last week".
The spokesman did not give further details, but added: "This is standard practice for Russian information operations.
"Disinformation is a tactic straight from the Kremlin playbook to try to distract from their illegal activities in Ukraine and the human rights abuses being committed there.
"We are seeing a string of distraction stories and outright lies from the Kremlin, reflecting Putin's desperation as he seeks to hide the scale of the conflict and Russia's failings on the battlefield."
Nadine Dorries entered the cabinet in September when she was made culture secretary
It is understood that Mr Wallace was put through to a Microsoft Teams video call which lasted about 10 minutes.
The video call was set up after an email, purportedly from an aide at the Ukrainian embassy in London, was sent to a government department and then forwarded to the Ministry of Defence.
Mr Wallace was apparently asked about whether the UK would send warships to the Black Sea, and if Ukraine should get nuclear weapons.
The defence secretary was also apparently asked about the prospect of Ukraine dropping its ambition to join Nato and becoming a "neutral" state.
A cross-department government inquiry into how the call happened is ongoing.
Asked whether defences against hoax calls were strong enough, the No 10 spokesman said there was guidance on how such calls should be handled.
It is not the first time that cabinet ministers have been targeted with hoax calls.
In 2018, UK diplomatic sources said they believed the Kremlin was behind a Russian prank caller targeting Mr Johnson, then foreign secretary, and pretending to be the prime minister of Armenia.
Meanwhile, Russia's defence attache in the UK was summoned to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for a second time on Monday for a dressing down over Russian armed forces' tactics in Ukraine.
The department said senior official Laurence Lee "protested in the strongest terms" against the "persistent and unjustified acts of violence being committed against innocent civilians by Russian forces".
"Mr Lee emphasised that schools, theatres and hospitals are not legitimate military targets," the MoD added.
"He warned the UK will be collecting evidence of war crimes and repeated the UK's demand for the Russian Federation to withdraw its forces immediately". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60824956 |
Ukraine conflict: Russian shelling blamed for corrosive gas leak - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The ammonia leak has been contained but prompted a warning residents should stay indoors. | A Ukrainian soldier walks near a destroyed bridge in the Sumy region, which has been under regular attack
Russian shells hit a chemical plant near the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, causing an ammonia leak, officials say.
Residents of Novoselytsya, near Sumy, were told to stay indoors but the region's governor, Dmytro Zhyvytskyy, later said the leak had been contained.
A 50-ton tank of the poison gas was damaged by the attack, local officials said, creating an ammonia cloud.
Ammonia is largely used to make fertiliser and is corrosive.
The Sumykhimprom chemical plant was attended by emergency crews, and the cloud affected an area of about 2.5km (1.5 miles), Dmytro Zhyvytsky said.
He said one injury was reported - a worker at the plant. Residents of Novoselytsya were advised to shelter because of the wind direction.
Ammonia is a common chemical that has several commercial uses, and the Sumykhimprom plant says its production is for making chemical fertiliser. It is a waste product of the human body and usually dealt with by the liver, but is toxic in large amounts.
In the air, it is invisible but has a distinct unpleasant smell, and in high concentrations is both and irritant and corrosive. It can cause pain and burns to the airway and injuries to the eyes. However, it is lighter than air, so does not remain on the ground as long as some other dangerous gases do.
Russia has previously alleged, without any evidence, that Ukraine was planning to use chemical weapons in the ongoing war, pointing to the creation of industrial chemicals such as ammonia.
Earlier this month, Russia's defence ministry alleged that Ukraine was plotting a "false flag" operation to blame Russia for using chemical weapons.
Yet Ukraine and its Western allies, including the US, have ridiculed such claims, and expressed their own concerns that Russia was setting the stage for its own false flag chemical weapons attack, which it would attempt to pin on Ukraine.
Ammonia is not well-known as a chemical weapon, since the human body has ways of processing it and it disperses, being lighter than air.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Civilians flee Sumy, which is close to the Russian border and frontline | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60818488 |
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says freedom should have happened six years ago - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The British-Iranian woman tells of the "very emotional moment" she was reunited with her husband and daughter. | Morad 'should've come home with us'
Nazanin says there were many moments when her hopes were dashed while awaiting her release from prison. "I felt like I was left behind," she says, adding that she fully understands what Morad Tahbaz is going through at the moment. "You can easily lose faith in everything" she says, and she herself had been through it at least twice over the course of six years. "It should not have happened to Morad" she says - or the other dual nationals still being held. "He should have come home with us." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-60819859 |
Ukraine war: Holocaust survivor killed by Russian shelling in Kharkiv - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Boris Romantschenko was killed in Kharkiv 77 years after surviving the Buchenwald concentration camp. | Boris Romantschenko survived detention in four separate concentration camps between 1942 and 1945
A Ukrainian man who survived the Nazi Holocaust during World War Two has been killed during a Russian attack on the eastern city of Kharkiv.
Boris Romantschenko, 96, died during Russian shelling of his apartment block on Friday, relatives said.
Russian forces have been relentlessly shelling Kharkiv, which lies just 30 miles (50km) from the border, for over three weeks.
At least 500 civilians have now been killed there, Ukrainian officials say.
Police said one of the victims has been identified as a nine-year old boy.
The Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation said it was "deeply disturbed" by Romantschenko's death.
The organisation, of which Romantschenko was vice-president, announced the news after being informed by his family and said he had "worked intensely on the memory of Nazi crimes".
"We mourn the loss of a close friend. We wish his son and granddaughter, who brought us the sad news, a lot of strength in these difficult times," the foundation's statement added.
Romantschenko's death comes more than three weeks after President Vladimir Putin sought to justify his invasion to the Russian people by telling them his goal is to"de-Nazify Ukraine".
Western leaders have condemned these claims and pointed out that Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish.
Romantschenko was born in the north-eastern city of Bondari on 20 January 1926.
He was rounded up by Nazi troops at the age of 16 after the invasion of the Soviet Union and deported to Germany in 1942, where he was forced to do hard labour, the foundation said.
After a failed escape attempt in 1943, he was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp, where some 56,545 people were murdered before its liberation in 1945 by the allies.
He also spent time in the subcamp of Mittelbau-Dora, as well as the infamous Bergen Belsen and Peenemünde camps.
Boris Romantschenko reading at the memorial in 2012
Romantschenko, who was not Jewish, returned to Buchenwald in 2012 to celebrate the 67th anniversary of the liberation of the camp by US troops, where he recited the pledge made by survivors to create "a new world where peace and freedom reign".
The Nazi regime murdered over six million Jewish people across occupied Europe between 1941 and 1945. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60826303 |
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says she's missed holding her seven-year-old daughter - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says she has missed holding her seven-year-old, and brushing her hair. | Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said she's been spending time catching up with her daughter, in her first media appearance after being held in Iran for six years.
She said it has been "lovely" to catch up with seven-year-old Gabriella, and added she's missed holding her, and braiding her hair.
Asked about a return to Iran, she said she would be "cautious". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60821935 |
Multiple Apple services suffer outages - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Several Apple services were down on Monday, including the App Store. The company says the outages have now been resolved. | A number of Apple services experienced outages on Monday, Apple's support page has confirmed.
The areas affected included the App Store, iMessage, Maps, Apple Arcade, the iTunes store, podcasts and Apple TV+.
Apple's system status page now shows that all of its services are back up and running.
Some of Apple's network was down for three hours.
A number of iCloud services had been affected, including calendar and mail.
Apple confirmed to the BBC its systems had faced outages but has not commented on the reason for the issue.
According to outage tracking website Downdetector.com, more than 4,000 users had reported issues with accessing Apple Music, while nearly 4,000 reported problems with iCloud.
Apple iMessage was also down for a short period. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60787301 |
Woman stranded on Newquay cliffs rescued - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Emergency services renew warnings to stay safe in the water and check tide times. | Coastal safety warnings have been renewed after a woman who was stranded 10ft (3m) up a cliff face in Cornwall had to be rescued.
The woman, who was on holiday at the time, was winched to safety by a coastguard helicopter at the weekend in Newquay.
High tide was just two hours away and waves were crashing against the rocks when she called 999. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-60824505 |
War in Ukraine: Backlash in Russia against anti-war musicians - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Banned from radio stations and rumoured black lists, artists against the war face a difficult moment. | A few days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, one of Russia's largest media companies, Russian Media Group (RMG), released a statement explaining why it would no longer be playing certain artists on its popular radio stations or music TV channel.
"The reason for this decision was the harsh statements these musicians made towards Russia in the context of the difficult situation between Russia and Ukraine," the statement read.
It explained that respect for its listeners was the company's top priority, and the "arrogant and contemptuous attitude of the musicians towards Russian listeners" left it no choice but to terminate its contract with the artists.
The list included several Ukrainian musicians and three Russian acts, including legendary rock group Aquarium, whose lead singer, Boris Grebenshchikov, had called the war "madness" in a post on Instagram. He is no stranger to political pressure.
"I've spent half my life under some sort of ban", Mr Grebenshchikov told the BBC. "There were bans in the 70s, bans in the 80s - there's nothing unusual about it. Then the same people who ban you give you prizes."
The pressure on dissenting voices in the music industry marks a stark contrast to those artists who are loyal to the Kremlin, some of whom performed last week at a glitzy, made-for-TV stadium concert which featured Vladimir Putin as the headline act.
Tens of thousands of people waved Russian flags and chanted pro-Russian slogans at the event celebrating the eighth anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine. Many of them told the BBC they had been pressured to be there.
Oleg Gazmanov performed at a pro-Kremlin rally to celebrate the annexation of Crimea
On the first day of the war, Ukrainian singer Ivan Dorn published a video on Instagram calling for Russians to "end this catastrophe" and "not to participate in this murderous war".
Days later he found himself on the list of acts banned by the Russian Media Group, and his name appeared on another "black list" leaked to Russian media, demanding that certain musicians are banned from performing because of their anti-war views. The list was reportedly circulated to music venues and promoters in Russia.
But Mr Dorn told the BBC that being blacklisted in Russia made no difference to him.
"Any cooperation with Russia was impossible even before the announcement of any list," he said.
"Does anyone within the organs of the Russian state really think we want to work with the aggressors who are exterminating the Ukrainian nation, murdering thousands of innocent people, building a totalitarian regime and putting their own people in jail for dissent?"
Ukrainian singer Ivan Dorn called on Russians to "stop this catastrophe"
It isn't clear who created the "black list" or where it originated, and the BBC cannot confirm its authenticity, but music industry insiders say such documents are not uncommon.
"It's never indicated where they come from - no name, phone number, email, official stamp. It can look like a fake - just a printed list with the names of musicians, writers or comedians," music manager Elena Saveleva told the BBC. Her client, rapper Noize MC, is on the list.
According to Ms Saveleva, pressure on promoters usually comes from regional security services, with officials turning up at concert halls and threatening them with closures and fines.
The art director of Moscow's oldest club, 16 Tons, believes the document could be fake.
"I haven't seen it and no officials have come to see me, even though usually we are the first club they visit," Pavel Kamakin told the BBC.
The ambiguity surrounding the list's origin makes it difficult for promoters, musicians and venue owners to know how seriously to take it.
Whatever its origins, the list reflects the increasingly unpredictable environment for people in Russia who disagree with the war.
For some musicians, that means the only option is to perform abroad.
Russian rapper Oxxxymiron, whose name appears on the "black list" circulated by Russian media, cancelled his upcoming tour in Russia and has instead organised charity concerts abroad - known as "Russians Against War" - to raise money for Ukrainian refugees.
He raised over $30,000 (£22,760) at a performance in Istanbul, and will appear in London later this week.
Announcing the postponement of his Russian tour, Oxxxymiron explained that he could not "entertain people while Russian rockets fall on Ukraine, while residents of Kyiv are forced to hide in their basements and the metro, and while people are dying". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60814306 |
The lonely funeral of a young soldier in Ukraine - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | As Dmytro Kotenko was laid to rest, his parents were 600 miles away, trapped under Russian bombs. | Dmytro Kotenko died near the southern city of Kherson and was buried in Lviv, safe for now from falling bombs
There was no family around Dmytro Kotenko when they put him in the ground. His parents did not hear the gunshots that rang out over his grave. They did not hear the sound of the ribbon tied to the wooden cross above him as it fluttered in the wind. They did not see the rough earth that first landed on his coffin and they did not lay a flower over him when he was completely covered by the earth.
Most likely, Kotenko's parents did not know their son was being buried that day in the Lychakiv Cemetery in Lviv. They were 600 miles away, with his two younger brothers, near the eastern city of Sumy, which was being so heavily shelled by Russian forces that it was cut off from the outside world.
Kotenko's parents did know that their son was dead. He died on 26 February, the third day of the Russian invasion, near to the southern city of Kherson. It was his first military operation. He was 21. Two days after his death, his parents received a call from his childhood friend Vadym Yarovenko, an artillery soldier, who broke the news.
Dmytro Kotenko died on the third day of the Russian invasion. He was 21.
It had taken Yarovenko all night to work up the courage to make the call — a long and restless night on his army bunk in Lviv, alone with the knowledge that Kotenko was gone. They were just boys when they met, all of 15 years old, with fresh haircuts and new uniforms for their first day at military school. When they discovered they were from adjacent villages, it was the beginning of a friendship that might have lasted for a lifetime.
Kotenko's father was a truck driver. His mother worked on a local farm. "To join the army meant to come up in the world," Yarovenko said, "I think this was part of the reason Dmytro signed up." The Kotenkos were a poor family, two parents and three sons, with a modest house in a small village on the Russian border in eastern Ukraine — the very people the Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed he was rescuing from the yoke of Ukrainian oppression.
Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the grinding war that followed in Donbas in eastern Ukraine, was another reason the boys signed up, Yarovenko said. "We knew that something like this could happen," he said, "and we would have to go and defend our land." When people from the village asked them why they wanted to join the army in wartime, Kotenko would say, "If not me, then who?"
Kotenko's coffin is carried into the military church in Lviv. Three men were buried that day
Yarovenko's father also drove a truck, and at the military school in Sumy the boys bonded over their love of cars. Yarovenko, an only child, had found something like a brother in Kotenko. "Neither of us liked the city-like entertainment, clubs etc," Yarovenko said. "We loved spending time in nature — fishing, hunting, picnics. We loved to go to the river with friends."
They worked together on an old car — a Red Zhyguli — that Kotenko was fixing up on his family plot. They repaired motorbikes and drove them on the rural roads around home. They got to know each other's families.
"Dmytro's parents loved him and he loved them," Yarovenko said, wiping tears from his eyes. "Dmytro would always help them with repairs, he was good at that. Even at school or at the academy he would always help. He was very good to his parents. I never heard them argue."
Yarovenko wanted to join an artillery unit but Kotenko's dream was to be a paratrooper. After two years at the academy they were separated — Yarovenko to the western city of Lviv to train for artillery and Kotenko to the southern city of Odesa to train to be a paratrooper.
"We messaged each other every day," Yarovenko said. "We talked about everything. Regular things — how are you? What is happening where you are? We were close friends, we just talked."
Dmytro Kotenko's coffin at the Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church, Lviv. The church now holds funerals every day.
For a while last year, from July to October, the boys were reunited when Kotenko was stationed in Lviv. They went running together on the weekends and trained together. It was a happy time. On 31 December, their families got together in the village to ring in the new year, and a month or so later Kotenko came to Lviv to visit Yarovenko, before he was due to deploy south on an operation. They stayed up late talking. Along Ukraine's borders, Russia's forces were massed, waiting for orders to invade, but in Lviv life was normal and that night the war felt like a distant thing.
The next morning, Kotenko and Yarovenko said their goodbyes and Kotenko went south. They continued messaging every day. On 24 February, the long-awaited invasion came. On 26 February, Kotenko stopped responding to messages, and Yarovenko feared the worst. Eventually he reached the commander of Kotenko's unit, who told him over the phone that his friend had been killed by a mortar shell.
"I don't have all the details yet," Yarovenko said. "There was shelling, there was an explosion, Dmytro died."
Kotenko was buried alongside Kyrylo Moroz, who also could not be taken home
When Yarovenko dialled the number for Kotenko's parents, there was still a phone connection, and in a short conversation he told them that their son was gone. When he tried to call later about the funeral, the aerial bombardment of Sumy had worsened and the line would not connect. He kept trying but the line stayed dead. So Kotenko's body was brought to Lviv to be buried there without them, because the city was safe from falling shells.
At the heart of Lviv lies the Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church, which has a long affiliation with Ukraine's armed forces. Along the sides of the church's nave, there are boards mounted with pictures of Ukraine's war dead. The first pictures were put up by the chaplains in 2014, to honour the fallen soldiers who had been members of the church. Then, bereaved parents from around Lviv saw the pictures and wanted their sons and daughters to be there, and gradually the collection of portraits grew.
"They bring us photographs because they know we pray every day for those who died in war," said Father Vsevolod, one of the chaplains. "We are part of this city's mission to bury army men and women with honours, so their acts of bravery are never forgotten."
Father Vsevolod stands in front of the portraits of the dead. "We will be honouring the fallen all our lives," he said
Before the invasion, the church held a funeral for a soldier once or twice a month, Father Vsevolod said. Now it was burying two or three men a day. None of the recent dead had yet been added to the wall of portraits. Kotenko was not there. But the pictures would be put up, Father Vsevolod said, and if a family was cut off and did not know their son was being buried in Lviv, the church would add it for them, he said.
On the day of Kotenko's funeral, Yarovenko travelled alone from his base to the church and he stood alone on one side of the nave, next to the portraits of the dead, under the vaulted ceiling painted with saints, as smoke from burning incense drifted over the priests and the mourners.
There were three coffins in the church that day. One of the men was from a village near Lviv, and the church was filled with his family and friends. After the service, they took him home. The two other coffins went quietly to the Lychakiv Cemetery, with a small group of soldiers from a local unit who help to commemorate the dead.
The gravediggers at the Lychakiv Cemetery cover Kotenko's coffin with earth
Kotenko was buried alongside Kyrylo Moroz, 25, a paratrooper from his unit, who could also not be taken home. They were laid to rest in a far corner of the cemetery, among the dead from the first and second world wars and the war with Russian-backed forces in Donbas.
Kotenko and Moroz were the fourth and fifth men killed in this invasion to be buried at the Lychakiv. Their graves were almost bare, but for a bunch of roses and a bunch of asters laid by the church and marked with the designation of their unit. The three other graves, for soldiers from Lviv, were festooned with flowers and lanterns.
The following day, the gravediggers at the Lychakiv buried two more men. The day after, three. Eventually, the wooden crosses bearing their names will be replaced by headstones that will hold their memory here for good.
"Thank God we do not have fighting yet here in Lviv," said the groundsman, "so we can bury the soldiers who are defending our home."
Vadym Yarovenko travelled alone to see his friend buried. He is waiting for his turn to be called up
Yarovenko is still trying to reach Kotenko's parents, but the line is dead. They are likely still trapped in Sumy. The invasion has robbed them first of their son, and then of one of the few things that might have ameliorated their grief — the right to be by his side when he went into the ground.
As Kotenko's coffin was lowered, Yarovenko stood to one side, behind the honour guard that fired the guns. It was the saddest thing he had ever experienced. "I watched my friend being buried far from his home," he said. Afterwards, he stood silently, looking at the grave, the sole mourner left, alone with the gravediggers as they cleared away their tools.
"We never got the chance to meet at the front," he said. All that was left was the hope of speaking to Kotenko's parents soon, and the memory of their son, which he will carry with him as he waits for his turn to fight and carry with him to the frontline when he goes. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60801586 |
A young soldier's funeral and a city facing starvation - Ukraine war daily round-up - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Fears that Russia wants to starve Mariupol into surrender, and a young soldier isolated from his family is buried. | Shelling by Russian forces has prevented civilians from being able to evacuate the besieged port city
There seems to be no let-up to the horrors facing the southern city of Mariupol.
Ukrainian MP Dmytro Gurin has accused Russian forces of trying to starve the besieged port into submission.
Around 300,000 people are believed to be trapped there with supplies running out and aid blocked from entering.
Residents have endured weeks of Russian bombardment with no power or running water.
But Mr Gurin said there was no question of Mariupol surrendering, and a Monday morning deadline set by the Russians for the city to lay down its arms came and went.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner gives four reasons why taking Mariupol is so important for Russia.
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In the capital Kyiv, eight people were reported dead after a shopping centre and a number of houses were shelled in the Podilskyi district.
Witnesses says the blast at the shopping centre shook the whole city.
Firefighters were seen trying to rescue people stranded beneath the rubble.
The Retroville mall was opened just before the Covid-19 pandemic and boasted 250 shops, a multiplex cinema and a 3,000-space car park.
Kyiv Mayor Vitaly Klitschko announced a curfew in the city from 2000 local time on Monday to 0700 local time on Wednesday.
The city of Kherson has been under Russian control since the beginning of March. It is the largest city to be occupied by the invading forces since the offensive began.
But it has seen daily anti-Russian protests by local residents, and media reports on Monday said several people had been injured after troops opened fire to disperse protesters.
Footage shared on social media, verified by the BBC, also showed explosions which were reported to be stun grenades.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Russian forces open fire on protesters in the city of Kherson
Dmytro Kotenko died near the southern city of Kherson and was buried in Lviv, safe for now from falling bombs
The BBC's Joel Gunter uncovered the story of a young Ukrainian soldier killed in the early days of the invasion.
Dmytro Kotenko, 21, was buried hundreds of miles from his family, who are stuck in the northern city of Sumy, cut off from the outside world.
Kotenko's childhood friend Vadym Yarovenko was the one who broke the news to Kotenko's parents - it took him all night to work up the courage to make the call to tell them he had died.
When he tried to call later about the funeral, the aerial bombardment of Sumy had worsened and the line would not connect. He kept trying but the line stayed dead.
The sole mourner at his funeral, Yarovenko said it was the saddest thing he had ever experienced.
"I watched my friend being buried far from his home," he said.
He hopes he can speak to Kotenko's parents again. And he says his will carry the memory of his friend as he waits for his own turn to fight on the frontline.
Russia's stock market has partially resumed trading after a nearly month-long suspension because of the war.
Only bonds issued by the Russian government can be traded as part of a phased re-opening of the market.
Andrei Braginsky, a spokesman for the Moscow Exchange, said he hoped that trading in stocks would be able to start again soon.
The invasion and sanctions imposed by Western governments are taking a toll on the Russian economy.
Some supermarkets are rationing sales of basic goods such as salt and cooking oil.
Reports from across the country suggest sugar and other staples are being restricted.
However, deputy industry and trade minister Viktor Yevtukhov insists "there is no problem with sugar".
Boris Romantschenko survived detention in four separate concentration camps between 1942 and 1945
Boris Romantschenko survived the Nazi Holocaust, spending time in Buchenwald and several other camps.
But at the age of 96 he was killed by Russian shelling of his apartment block in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Friday.
The Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, of which he was vice-president, announced the death on Monday, saying it was "deeply disturbed" by Mr Romantschenko's death.
It said he had "worked intensely on the memory of Nazi crimes".
"We mourn the loss of a close friend. We wish his son and granddaughter, who brought us the sad news, a lot of strength in these difficult times," the foundation's statement added.
Russian forces have been relentlessly shelling Kharkiv, which lies just 30 miles (50km) from the border, for over three weeks. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60825630 |
Sabita Thanwani killing: Family pay tribute to 'irreplaceable angel' - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Relatives of Sabita Thanwani say she was "ripped away from those who loved her so very dearly". | Sabita Thanwani, 19, was studying psychology at university to "help everyone", her family say
The family of a 19-year-old woman found dead in student accommodation have paid tribute to their "beautiful, irreplaceable angel".
Student Sabita Thanwani was found with neck injuries in the halls of residence in Sebastian Street, Clerkenwell.
Police and medics went to Arbour House at about 05:10 GMT on Saturday but she died at the scene.
Police have arrested Maher Maaroufe, 22, on suspicion of murdering Ms Thanwani. He remains in police custody.
In a statement, Ms Thanwani's family said: "Sabita was our daughter. Our angel.
"Her life, that we hoped would be long, was cut tragically short. She was ripped away from those who loved her so very dearly; her mum, dad, brother, grandparents, extended family and friends.
"We can only pray that lessons will be learnt and that somehow, there will come a day when girls and women are safe.
"Sabita was the most caring and loving person we have ever known. She inspired us every day of her precious 19 years of life. Her mission was to help everyone.
"Her whole life was ahead of her, a life where her radiant smile and incredible heart could only spread warmth and kindness.
"In her short life, she helped so many. Sabita was pure and did not see bad in anyone, because there was no badness in her own awesome heart.
"We will never ever stop loving or missing our beautiful, irreplaceable Sabita. The girl that was an angel upon the earth is now an angel in heaven.
"We will never be able to thank the Metropolitan Police enough for their dedication and tireless work in finding justice for our Sabita. From our hearts, we thank everyone for their love and support."
Arbour House, near City, University of London, is owned by Unite Students and houses 188 students
Ms Thanwani was studying psychology at City, University of London, which is near to the student accommodation where she died.
Mr Maaroufe was arrested by officers in Clerkenwell area after a police appeal to trace him.
He had been in a relationship with Ms Thanwani at the time of her death, police said.
A post-mortem examination has also been arranged.
Note 5 April 2022: This article was amended to include more details from the family statement.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60821179 |
In Mariupol, children bear the brunt of Vladimir Putin's war - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | At a children's hospital near the besieged city, the true impact of Russia's tactics are on display. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Survivors from the bombardment of Mariupol are receiving treatment nearby in the city of Zaporizhzhia
In his hospital bed, little Artem stares into space. He clutches a small yellow toy tractor but says nothing as specialist nurses monitor his condition. The Russian shell that blasted shrapnel into his belly also badly wounded his parents and grandparents as they tried to flee Mariupol. A victim of Putin's war and he's not yet three years old.
In the next bed to Artem lies 15-year-old Masha, also from near Mariupol. Her right leg was amputated after it was torn apart by the blast from a Russian shell last Tuesday.
The very worst of Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine and what the relentless Russian bombardment has done to the people trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol, can be seen at the Regional Children's Hospital in the nearby city of Zaporizhzhia.
Masha is among the hundreds of Ukrainian civilians injured in Russian shelling over the past three weeks
Hundreds of people have been evacuated here. Their physical wounds are obvious and may, to an extent, heal. The psychological trauma will live with them forever.
Doctors here and the children's surviving relatives, asked us to tell their stories, among them Dr Yuri Borzenko, head of the Children's Hospital. He can't hide his contempt for what Russia has done.
"I hate Russia," says Dr Borzenko, without a flicker of emotion on his face. "The girl who lost her leg (Masha) was so traumatised she wouldn't eat or drink for days. She couldn't mentally handle what had happened. We had to feed her intravenously."
"Another boy," says the doctor, "a six-year-old, with shrapnel in his skull described - without any tears or emotion - watching his mother burn to death in their car after it was hit. Two days later he said 'dad buy me a new mum, I need someone to walk me to school'."
What is happening in Mariupol is a humanitarian disaster, even - perhaps - a war crime. An estimated 90% of the city's buildings have been damaged or destroyed. After last week's destruction of a theatre where more than 1,000 people were sheltering, reports today that an arts school, with 400 people inside, has also been attacked.
Dr Yuri Borzenko has found himself leading a children's hospital at a time of war
Those who've been able to escape Mariupol talk of unimaginable horrors. First-hand accounts of bodies lying in the streets, of homes destroyed. Carrying those memories they put as much physical distance as they can between themselves and what they went through.
In a café in the central city of Dnipro, which itself has come under Russian fire, we met Oksana Gusak. With her husband Andrii, and her parents, Oksana fled Mariupol last week through mined roads and a dozen hostile Russian army checkpoints.
Just drinking a glass of water now feels like a luxury for Oksana, after they had run out of everything in Mariupol. They all politely turn down our offer of coffee, saying it would be an insult to the family members they left behind in parts of Mariupol from where it was impossible to flee.
Her husband, Andrii, told me there was no water supply in the city, no power, no heating and no communications so they had no choice but to go.
Oksana Gusak and her family are among the 35,000 people who have been forced to flee from Mariupol
"Absolutely we were taking a risk but at that point I didn't care whether I'd die in Mariupol or die trying to get out," says Oksana.
"We knew there was a chance, we'd be targeted and we realised we had to take that chance. If we would have stayed, the chances of surviving would be zero."
Andrii and Oksana are fortunate to have escaped unharmed and with each other. They know that.
At Zaporizhzhia's Children's Hospital, I came across one grief-stricken, inconsolable father whose family had been completely torn apart.
His daughter Natasha, who was 26, and his 4-year-old granddaughter Dominica, were killed when a Russian shell landed near the shelter where the whole family was seeking refugee from the bombardment of Mariupol.
"I looked at the ground and there lay my little granddaughter with her head completely torn to pieces," says Vladimir. "She lay there without a single breath and right next to her was my daughter with her legs fractured, open fractures."
Vladimir with his family before the war
Dominica - whose pictures her grandfather almost caresses on his phone - was killed instantly. Her mother died from her injuries the next day.
As broken as he is, Vladimir is trying to stay strong for his second daughter, Diana. She was also critically wounded in the blast and was about to undergo emergency surgery.
But he could not hide his pain. "God, why would you bring all this upon me? I was not supposed to bury my children, my lovely girls, I failed to protect you." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60814913 |
Ukraine war: Putin has redrawn the world - but not the way he wanted - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Because of his miscalculations, there's a new iron curtain at the Russian leader’s door - writes Allan Little | "Russia does not start wars, it ends them" reads a poster of Vladimir Putin in Simferopol, Crimea, 10 March
Vladimir's Putin's invasion of Ukraine has changed the world. We are living in new and more dangerous times - the post-Cold War era that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall is over.
It is a rare thing to live through a moment of huge historical consequence and understand in real time that is what it is.
In November 1989, I stood on a snow-flecked Wenceslas Square in Prague, the capital of what was then Czechoslovakia, and watched a new world being born.
The peoples of Communist Eastern Europe had risen in defiance of their dictatorships. The Berlin Wall had been torn down. A divided Europe was being made whole again.
In Prague, the dissident playwright Vaclav Havel addressed a crowd of 400,000 from a second-floor balcony. It was an exhilarating moment, dizzying in its pace. That evening, the Communist regime collapsed and within weeks Havel was president of a new democratic state. I sensed, even at the time, that I had watched the world pivot - that it was one of those rare moments when you know the world is remaking itself before your eyes.
How many such moments had there been in the history of Europe since the French Revolution? Probably, I thought then, about five. This, 1989, was the sixth.
But that world - born in those dramatic popular revolutions - came to an end when Putin ordered Russian forces into Ukraine.
The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called this moment a zeitenwende - a turning point - while UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said it was a "paradigm shift". The age of complacency, she said, was over.
Quentin Sommerville, one of the BBC's most experienced war reporters walked through the wreckage in Kharkiv recently and said of the Russian bombardment: "If these tactics are unfamiliar to you, then you haven't been paying attention."
He should know, he spent enough time under Russian rockets in Syria to be paying very close attention. But the governments of the democratic world - how much attention have they been paying to the nature of the Putin regime?
The evidence has been building for years.
Two decades have passed since he sent troops into Georgia claiming he was supporting breakaway regions.
Later, he sent spies into British cities armed with nerve agents to murder exiled Russians.
In 2014, he invaded Eastern Ukraine and annexed Crimea.
Despite all this, Germany, and much of the EU, were locking themselves into an unhealthy dependence on Russian gas. A year after the annexation of Crimea, they approved the building of a new pipeline, Nord Stream 2, to boost supplies.
The "complacency" Liz Truss refers to also indicts her own country. London has been a safe haven for Russian money since John Major was prime minister. Russian oligarchs have parked billions here, laundered their money, bought up the most prestigious private homes in the capital, socialised with politicians and donated to their campaign funds. Few questions were asked about where their vast wealth, acquired so suddenly, had come from.
So, no. The Western democracies have not been "paying attention" to the nature of the menace that has been incubating on their eastern frontier.
But Putin, too, has seemed complacent.
Receiving station for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, near Lubmin, Germany
First, he believed the West was in chronic decline, weakened by internal division and ideological rancour. The election of Donald Trump and Brexit he saw as proof of this. The rise of right-wing authoritarian governments in Poland and Hungary was further evidence of the disintegration of liberal values and institutions. The US's humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan was proof of a waning power withdrawing from the world stage.
Second, he misread what was happening on his borders. He refused to believe that a series of democratic uprisings in former Soviet Republics - Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004-5) and Kyrgyzstan (2005) - could possibly be authentic expressions of the popular will. Because each was aimed at removing corrupt and unpopular pro-Moscow governments, it seemed self-evident to the Kremlin that these were the work of foreign intelligence agencies, the Americans and the British in particular - Western imperialism's forward march into territory that was rightfully and historically Russia's.
Third, he has failed to understand his own armed forces. It is clear now that he expected this "special military operation" to be over in a few days.
Russia's military incompetence has astonished many Western security experts. It brings echoes for me of a smaller, more containable, but nonetheless devastating war, in former Yugoslavia.
In 1992, Serb nationalists launched a war to strangle the newly independent state of Bosnia at birth. They argued that Bosnian identity was bogus, that Bosnian statehood had no historical legitimacy, that it was really part of Serbia. It is exactly Putin's view of Ukraine.
A Bosnian special forces soldier and civilians come under fire from Serbian snipers, Sarajevo, 6 April 1992
Like Russia today, Serb forces enjoyed overwhelming firepower superiority. But they often stalled wherever local non-Serbs put up resistance. They seemed unable to seize towns or cities - unwilling to fight street-by-street on foot. The Bosnian defenders were initially very poorly equipped - I remember boys in tennis shoes in the trenches of Sarajevo with one AK-47 between three of them. But they defended their capital for nearly four years. There is a similar resolve in the young men volunteering to defend Kyiv.
So instead of taking the cities and towns, the Serbs laid siege to them - surrounding them, bombarding them, cutting off water, gas and electricity. It is already happening in Mariupol. Besiege a city and cut off its water supply, and within 24 hours, every toilet is a public health hazard. Citizens have to go out into the streets to find water standpipes and fill up receptacles just to flush their loos. Cut off the electricity and you freeze in your own home. Soon the food runs out. Is that what the Russians intend for Mariupol, for Kharkiv, for Kyiv? To starve them into submission?
But nearly four years of this cruelty gave Bosnian nationhood a founding narrative of resistance, suffering and heroic struggle. Ukraine's identity, too, will be strengthened further by the way Ukrainians have fought. Ukraine's Russian speakers have not felt "liberated" by the invasion. The evidence is that they, too, believe in Ukraine as a sovereign state. Putin's war, aimed at reunifying what he sees as two parts of the Russian nation, is already having the opposite effect - strengthening the will of most Ukrainians to seek a destiny free from Russian domination.
Scrambling for rationed food during the siege of Sarajevo, 1992
In 1994, while the war in the Balkans was still raging, the rest of Eastern Europe was looking to the future - each nation eager to take what it saw as its natural place in a Europe of independent sovereign states at peace with each other. But it was still far from certain that any of them would be allowed to join Nato.
There was a debate, back then, about whether a third security block should be formed by the newly-liberated East European nations, to act as a buffer between Nato and Russia. Russia was weak in the 1990s, and the nations that had endured Soviet occupation for 40 years did not trust it to stay weak for long. In the end, they wanted nothing short of Nato membership.
Under President Bill Clinton, the US pressed ahead with Nato expansion. The Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who saw himself as a loyal ally of Clinton's, was said to be furious when he found out - at a press conference - that Nato was planning to admit new members without consulting Moscow.
And the tearing down of the Iron Curtain had raised a new question in geopolitics - how far east does the Western world extend? I was commissioned by the BBC to take a road trip through Poland, Belarus and Ukraine to address the question, "Where is the eastern edge of the Western world now?"
I went to the hunting lodge in Belarus where, in late 1991, the President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, had met his counterparts from Ukraine and Belarus. Here, they agreed to recognise each other's Soviet Republics as independent nation-states. They then rang the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and informed him that the country of which he was head of state - the Soviet Union - no longer existed.
It was a moment fraught with both danger and opportunity. For Belarus and Ukraine, it was the chance to liberate themselves from Moscow rule - domination by Russian imperialism in both its Tsarist and Soviet forms.
For Yeltsin, it represented the chance to liberate Russia too - from its historic role as an imperial power. The UK and France had both ceased to be imperial powers after World War Two - as Austria had done after WW1. In Turkey, Kemal Ataturk had built a modern European secular republic - a Turkish nation-state - after the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire had been defeated and dismembered in 1918.
US President George HW Bush with Boris Yeltsin in Maryland, 1992
Could Boris Yeltsin do the same thing - build a modern Russian nation-state, at peace with its sovereign neighbours, on the ruins of the Soviet Empire? In the early 1990s, he began his Westernising experiment, to try to turn an imperial power into a democratic state.
But the rush - encouraged by the Western democracies eager for investment opportunities - to turn a sclerotic, state-owned command economy into a free-market system was disastrous. It created gangster capitalism. A tiny elite became fabulously rich by plundering the assets of the major industries - especially oil and gas.
The wheels finally came off the experiment in 1998. The economy collapsed, the rouble lost two-thirds of its value in a month and inflation hit 80%.
I stood with a middle-aged couple in a queue at a Moscow bank. They wanted to take their money out in dollars or pounds - anything other than roubles. The queue was long and slow-moving and, every few minutes, a bank employee changed the displayed exchange rate, as the rouble plunged further. People could see their life savings dropping in value by the minute. The couple got close to the head of the queue when suddenly the shutters came down - there was no cash left.
I went to a former coal-mining region near the Ukraine border, where the mines were barely functioning. I met a graduate mining engineer who had lost his job - a man in his 30s with a young family. He took me to his dacha outside the city, which had about an acre of land. "About 80% of what my family eat in the year," he said. "I grow on this patch of land. The rest, like coffee and sugar, I barter for. I haven't used or even seen cash in about 18 months." Nothing spoke more powerfully about Yeltsin's failure to transform Russia than the sight of this highly educated man digging for his own dinner.
"Stalin turned a nation of peasants into an industrial superpower in a generation. Yeltsin is doing the same thing in reverse," he told me.
Ordinary Russians felt robbed. The great westernising experiment had been a con trick that had enriched a criminalised elite and impoverished everyone else. Many of the reports we filed from Russia at that time boiled down to a single question: "What are the political consequences of the profound disenchantment that Russians now feel?"
The answer was that Russia, eventually, would revert to type - a retreat from democracy and a return to authoritarian rule. A retreat from nation-statehood and return to a more assertive imperial attitude to its "near abroad" - the countries that had previously been part of the Soviet Union.
The former US National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski famously said that Russia could be a democracy or an empire, but it could not be both. The Russian emblem, the double-headed eagle, looks both east and west. History has pulled Russia in opposing directions - democratic nation statehood in one direction, domineering imperial power in the other.
Go to St Petersburg and you will see another aspect of this dual character. It is the country's beautiful bay window on the Gulf of Finland. It is an 18th Century city, facing west. It is the European Enlightenment in architectural form. Under the Tsars it was the imperial capital.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks moved the capital back to Moscow and power retreated behind the high, crenellated walls of the Kremlin. It is the architecture of defensiveness, of suspicion, even fear. When Russian leaders look west from here, they see flat open countryside rolling away to the south and west for hundreds of miles. There are no natural frontiers.
The crenellated red walls of the Kremlin in Moscow
When I was the BBC's Moscow correspondent in the late 1990s, there was a driver who could remember, as a boy, seeing German troops on the outskirts of Moscow in the 1940s. Every time he took us to Sheremetyevo Airport, we would pass a monument designed to look like metal anti-tank defences - so-called Czech hedgehogs - and he would say: "This is how close they came, the Germans."
Napoleon's army had gone further the previous century. That experience - that chronic sense of an insecure western frontier - informs the way Russian leaders have thought about their "near abroad".
In another conversation about the "near abroad", a friend recited a rhyming couplet to me. In Russian it rhymes nicely, but in English it goes: "A chicken's not really a bird; and Poland's not really abroad." Russia's sense of what it is entitled to in the lands to its west penetrates popular consciousness, too.
I will borrow an anecdote from another friend in Moscow at the time. The same driver picked her up from the airport and asked her where she had been. "I've been for a weekend in Prague," she said. "Oh Prague," came the reply. "That's good. That's ours."
But it wasn't. The Berlin Wall had come down nine years earlier and the nations of Eastern Europe had ceased being "ours".
Except Ukraine. Putin regards it not as a neighbouring country, but as the frontier land of Russia itself - and he wants it brought back into the Russian fold.
What would it take to do that? How can a nation that has put up so unified a resistance be subdued? Almost certainly he has overreached himself. Several factors must now be alarming him.
The first is the state of his own armed forces.
The second is the resilience of the Ukrainian defence. Did Putin really expect the Russian-speaking people of Ukraine to welcome his troops as liberators? Did he really believe that the uprising of 2014 - which replaced the pro-Moscow government with one oriented to the West - was all a Western plot? If he did, then it reveals how little the Kremlin understands about its "near abroad".
But his biggest miscalculation has been to underestimate the resolve of the West. And this is what makes 2022 one of those pivotal years - the zeitenwende, in the words of Chancellor Scholz.
Almost overnight, Germany has transformed its attitude to its role in the world. Traditionally reluctant - for sound historical reasons - to throw its weight around, it had preferred the exercise of soft power to hard. Not now. It has announced a doubling of defence spending, and is sending lethal weapons to Ukraine. Gone, too, is the ostpolitik - the decades-old German policy of seeking peace through engagement, especially trade.
Germany, along with the rest of the democratic world, will now move to end its dependence on Russian gas. The Nord Stream 2 project is suspended - though not yet scrapped. We are seeing a root-and-branch redrawing of the map of global energy distribution, aimed at cutting Russia out of it.
Russia is highly integrated into the global economy. But now it has been expelled from the system the world uses to exchange payment for goods and services. Its industries, including oil and gas, depend on imported goods and components. Soon production will grind to a halt. Employers will have to lay off their workers. Unemployment will rise.
No-one expected the West to sanction the Russian Central Bank. Already, the rouble has collapsed and interest rates have doubled. No other major economy has ever been subjected to a package of sanctions this punitive. It amounts to the expulsion of Russia from the global economy. More workers will be laid off. Major industries will find it hard to carry on. Unemployment will rise further. Soaring inflation will erode life savings.
We will all be affected. Potentially, this is the rolling back of the globalised economy that emerged after the end of the Cold War.
The US and the EU have, in effect, divided the world up. Those states and companies that continue to trade with Russia will find themselves punished - also frozen out of trade with the rich world.
It amounts to a new economic iron curtain separating Russia from the West.
Much will depend on how China negotiates this new landscape. China and Russia are bonded by their shared antipathy to American power, and their conviction that the greatest threat is from a resurgent, more unified democratic world.
China does not want Putin weakened, or the West strengthened. Yet that is exactly what the effect the war in Ukraine has had.
Some China watchers believe Beijing will try to challenge the dominance of the dollar as a reserve currency by carving out a distinct yuan zone as an alternative space in the global economy that can be protected from any future attempt by the US to sanction China. Putin's war, therefore, could redraw the international financial map.
But above all, this is a war that pits the world's democracies against the world's authoritarian regimes.
It is also a war between two conflicting conceptions of the rules by which international relations should function.
The Oxford scholar Timothy Garton Ash says these two world views can be expressed in short form by two words - Helsinki versus Yalta.
At Yalta in 1945, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill carved post-war Europe into "spheres of influence" - most of Eastern Europe to Russia, the West to the trans-Atlantic alliance that would set about rebuilding Europe's democracies.
"Helsinki", by contrast, describes a Europe of independent sovereign states, each of which is free to choose its own alliances. This grew out of the Helsinki Final Act of 1975 and gradually evolved into the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Ukraine's defenders are fighting for Helsinki. Putin has sent his troops in to impose a modern version of Yalta - which would kill off Ukraine's independence and leave it under Russian domination.
Garton Ash argues that the West has been too half-hearted in defending the values of Helsinki - that it has formally acknowledged Ukraine's right to join Nato at some unspecified date in the future without ever intending to make it happen.
But Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has signalled a readiness to compromise on Helsinki principles, by agreeing to abandon Ukraine's ambition to become a Nato member. With all the risks that entails, it may yet be the price Ukraine pays for the survival of its statehood.
My generation grew up with the existential terror of the threat of nuclear annihilation. The conflict has brought that fear back to public consciousness. Putin has threatened to use Russia's nuclear arsenal.
That makes this the most dangerous moment since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Then, the Soviet Union shipped nuclear missiles to its ally Cuba. The US assembled a fleet to blockade (or "quarantine") Cuba and was considering an attack on the island by air and/or sea.
What the Americans did not know is that the Soviets didn't only have long-range strategic missiles. They also had smaller, tactical nuclear missiles - so-called battlefield nuclear weapons. And that Soviet military doctrine delegated first-use decision making to commanders on the ground.
Had the threatened invasion gone ahead, it would have triggered a nuclear exchange.
The then American Defence Secretary Robert McNamara only found out about this when the Soviet archives opened in 1991. Only then, did he understand how close the world had come to catastrophe.
In a remarkable film called Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert McNamara, he explained how the world had avoided destroying itself. Was it skilled diplomacy? Wise leadership? No.
"Luck," he said. "We lucked out."
That experience, now fading from memory, should focus minds.
Correction: This article previously referred to Zbigniew Brzezinski as a former US secretary of state, rather than former national security adviser | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60767454 |
New P&O crew on less than £2 an hour, union claims - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The RMT union says Indian seafarers recruited to work in Dover are on rock bottom rates. | The RMT union has not offered proof of the hourly rate and P&O will not comment on agency workers' pay
Indian agency workers hired to replace P&O Ferries crews in Dover are being paid £1.81 an hour, a union claims.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said the low pay was a "shocking exploitation" and "a betrayal of those who have been sacked".
P&O said the figure was inaccurate but said it could not comment on how much agencies pay workers on ferries.
Some of P&O's ferries are registered in Cyprus, meaning they do not have to pay the minimum wage required by UK law.
Firms using UK ports often register ships in other countries, allowing them to pay lower wages.
The minimum wage in the UK for people aged 23 and above is £8.91 per hour.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told Parliament: "Maritime employees have not, in this country, indeed throughout much of the world, received some of the same benefits and protections that exist otherwise for workers and this is simply not good enough and it's a practice we have been seeking to end."
He said ships in UK waters operated under international law governed by treaties, so UK law did not always apply.
"These complications allow for employers to take advantage in a way that we've seen I think with P&O Ferries," Mr Shapps added.
Mr Shapps told MPs that he first found out about the prospect of P&O redundancies at 20:30 GMT the evening before the workers were being sacked, but he said it wasn't until he was at the despatch box the next day that he was made fully aware of the scale.
Previously, officials at the Department of Transport had told the BBC that Mr Shapps and the maritime minister Robert Courts had not been informed until Thursday.
Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said government ministers had "completely failed to act" and the reported rates of pay were "nothing short of a betrayal of the workers who protected this country's supply chain during the pandemic".
A spokesman for P&O said safety was the utmost priority and the new crewing management model was used by many competitors.
"They have recruited high-quality experienced seafarers, who will now familiarise themselves with the ships, going through all mandatory training requirements set out by our regulators," he said.
Mr Shapps said the government was reviewing all of its contracts with P&O Ferries.
He had asked the insolvency service whether P&O had followed rules for redundancies - and if they had not, "that would be a matter for criminal prosecution and unlimited fines".
Mr Shapps also told MPs P&O Ferries should remove British references from their ships if they replace sacked workers with non-UK staff.
The Spirit of Britain, Pride of Canterbury and Pride of Hull are among the names used for the operator's ferries.
The Transport Secretary told MPs it would be "completely inappropriate" for the company to "attach themselves to this country" without having British workers.
Protests took place close to Parliament and also outside the London offices of P&O owners, DP World on Monday.
John, a former seafarer with P&O Ferries based in Dover said the redundancies were "a catastrophe" for all crew involved and he wants the company's chief executive to resign.
"A company who had built up its reputation over 180 years just to be trashed in one single morning of madness by those responsible.
"It's not just a job, it's a home and to be kicked off the ship in the most unceremonious way...it's a catastrophe for all our lives," John, who did not want to give his surname, added.
He expects to lose his severance pay for speaking out to media, but said he "knew the difference between right and wrong".
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said P&O staff were "being replaced by exploited workers, vulnerable workers from overseas".
"We have no beef with those people. We want those people to be paid the wages that we've negotiated for in this country," he said.
The union has called for a boycott of P&O services and is urging the government to look at legal options to reinstate the sacked workers.
Ferries between Liverpool and Dublin have restarted and other routes are expected to follow by the end of the week.
Protests have taken place over the sackings
Services were stopped on Thursday after P&O announced in a video call that 800 staff were being sacked with immediate effect.
The M20 in Kent will close between junctions 8 and 9 from 20:00 GMT while a barrier system is put in place to manage any disruption caused by P&O freight, National Highways said.
The motorway is expected to reopen at 06:00 GMT on Tuesday when lorries heading for the Port of Dover or the Eurotunnel will use the coastbound carriageway on the M20, where they will be queued if necessary.
All other traffic - including local freight and car drivers headed for the continent - should follow the signs and cross over to enter the contraflow on the M20 London bound carriageway, National Highways said. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60821266 |
Nottingham Forest 0-1 Liverpool: Jurgen Klopp's side set up semi-final date against Man City after edging past hosts - BBC Sport | 2022-03-21 | Liverpool will play Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley after they edge past Nottingham Forest in a pulsating quarter-final at the City Ground. | Last updated on .From the section FA Cup
Liverpool will play Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley after edging past Nottingham Forest in a pulsating encounter at the City Ground.
Diogo Jota scored the only goal of the game for the visitors, prodding in Konstantinos Tsimikas' cross from the left with 12 minutes remaining.
Jurgen Klopp's quadruple-chasing side dominated possession but were made to work for their victory by their relentless Championship opponents.
Steve Cooper's side saw a late penalty appeal turned down by VAR when midfielder Ryan Yates fell after a challenge with Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson.
The hosts also regarded Philip Zinckernagel's miss as decisive to the outcome, the Danish winger side-footing wide from six yards from Brennan Johnson's inviting cross just a couple of minutes before Jota's goal.
"I think the game was decided on a defining two minutes - we had a good chance that we didn't take and they created one and did," said Cooper.
While Forest had already beaten both Arsenal and Leicester in this season's competition, they found themselves taking a significant step up in class against Liverpool despite Klopp making seven changes to his starting XI.
And while they were galvanised by the electric atmosphere in what was the first meeting between the clubs in the FA Cup since the rescheduled 1989 semi-final that followed the Hillsborough disaster, they spent long periods of the game under severe pressure.
Yates also had a chance to head a late equaliser, but Liverpool, who also carved open several excellent opportunities of their own, deservedly advanced to the last four.
While Forest made an encouraging start despite the absence of three first-choice defenders, Liverpool's Premier League pedigree quickly became evident.
The visitors' slick movement repeatedly caused problems as did the hosts' own attempts to play out from the back.
And had Roberto Firmino not fluffed a golden chance to open the scoring, Klopp's side would have headed into the interval with a deserved advantage and possibly having laid the platform for a more convincing performance.
Instead the Brazilian's attempted dink was well saved by Forest goalkeeper Ethan Horvath, who bailed out his team after Jack Colback's glaring mistake.
"It was the game we expected, especially if you don't use your chances," said Klopp.
"We could have played better, but we should have scored in the first half. If we scored earlier it would be a completely different game. Everything was prepared to give us a knock as well but because we were prepared for a fight we came through."
Reinforcements were summoned just after the hour mark with Jordan Henderson, Thiago, Takumi Minamino and Luis Diaz all introduced to try and turn the contest in Liverpool's favour.
But having survived a scare at one end of the pitch it was Jota who made the difference with his 19th goal of the campaign - his best ever return in front of goal in a single season.
And it ensured that Liverpool reached the semi-final of the competition for the first time under Klopp and maintained their superb domestic form which has seen them win 13 consecutive games plus the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea after a penalty shootout.
Forest were bottom of the Championship when Cooper took charge in September and the former England Under-17s boss has since overseen a significant upturn in fortunes.
This was only Forest's second defeat since the turn of the year and, while they will take heart from pushing one of Europe's elite clubs so close, they can now focus all of their attention on trying to join Liverpool in the Premier League next term.
Forest are three points off the Championship play-off positions with games in hand on all the sides around them in the table.
And if the likes of Joe Worrall, Joe Garner and Keinan Davis continue to perform in the same vein as they did here, they appear to have the spine of a team capable of reaching the top flight for the first time since 1999.
• None Attempt missed. Diogo Jota (Liverpool) right footed shot from the right side of the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Takumi Minamino.
• None Offside, Liverpool. Jordan Henderson tries a through ball, but Roberto Firmino is caught offside.
• None Attempt missed. Cafú (Nottingham Forest) right footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses the top right corner. Assisted by Tobias Figueiredo with a through ball.
• None Attempt saved. Ryan Yates (Nottingham Forest) header from the centre of the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by Brennan Johnson with a cross.
• None Brennan Johnson (Nottingham Forest) wins a free kick on the right wing.
• None Goal! Nottingham Forest 0, Liverpool 1. Diogo Jota (Liverpool) right footed shot from very close range to the top right corner. Assisted by Konstantinos Tsimikas with a cross.
• None Attempt missed. Philip Zinckernagel (Nottingham Forest) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Brennan Johnson with a cross following a fast break.
• None Attempt blocked. Takumi Minamino (Liverpool) right footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60698123 |
Unite union 'refused to exempt special schools from strike' - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Members of Unite are taking action over a local government pay offer of 1.75%. | Unite workers are on strike in a dispute over pay
The Unite union refused requests to exempt special school services from strike action, the Education Authority has claimed.
The authority said the union declined requests it made on Wednesday 16 March and Monday 21 March.
The Unite union has been contacted by BBC News NI for a response.
Members of Unite are taking action over a local government pay offer of 1.75%, which the union has called a "real terms pay cut".
Unite is one of the largest public sector unions.
The union said its members in councils, the Education Authority and the Housing Executive expressed overwhelming support for the industrial action in ballots.
Gareth Scott, from Unite, told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster the offer was "totally inadequate".
"These local authority workers have seen their pay cut in real terms by 22% in last 12 years," he added.
"Over the last two years, during the pandemic, they have been essential workers and now we have the cost of living crisis - the response from employers was to offer a meagre 1.75% increase."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. We're not being offered a living wage'
When asked if the union had considered making an exception for special schools, he said the problem lay with the employers.
"This could have been avoided by the employers making a fair and reasonable pay offer - something that goes a lot closer to meeting the cost of living," he said.
"Our members do not want to be on strike. But they have got to the point where they feel they have no alternative."
Some school transport, meals, council bin collections, leisure services and Housing Executive maintenance will be disrupted by the week-long action by over 2,000 Unite members.
Some special schools are expected to be particularly affected by the unavailability of Education Authority transport as they rely heavily on the so-called yellow buses.
Some classroom assistants in special schools who are members of Unite may also be on strike.
But only one of 39 special schools - Glenveagh in Belfast - has said it cannot offer pupils face-to-face teaching "due to lack of staffing".
The Education Authority, though, said it had asked on Wednesday 16 March for classroom assistants at Glenveagh to be exempt from the strike.
It had also asked for yellow bus drivers in greater Belfast who transport wheelchair-using pupils to be allowed to continue to work.
The strikes may cause some disruption to school meals
The authority said that on Monday it had gone further and asked Unite to exempt all special school staff and bus drivers from the strike action.
The Education Authority's director of human resources Clare Duffield told BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra that Unite had been asked to "protect" special schools.
"It is very disappointing that children with special educational needs are having their normal routine disrupted," she said.
"And it's really disappointing that those requests have been rejected at this stage."
"We have made the requests on a number of occasions and will continue to escalate those requests so that we can attempt to minimise the disruption throughout the week."
"We absolutely respect the right of a trade union and their members to take lawful industrial action but it's very disappointing when that impact son the most vulnerable children and young people."
Ms Duffield said that around 100 out of over 2,000 EA bus routes had been affected by strike action on Monday but that pupils from special schools has been most affected. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60816376 |
War in Ukraine: Kyiv shopping centre hit by Russian missile - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | A nearby camera captured the moment the shopping centre in Kyiv was struck by a missile. | Video released by Ukraine's State Emergency Service captured the moment when a shopping centre in Kyiv was hit by a Russian missile.
Authorities say at least eight people were killed when the Podilskyi district of Kyiv was struck.
Firefighters were seen trying to rescue people stranded beneath the rubble. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60819030 |
Covid hospital numbers in Scotland reach new peak - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | A record 2,128 patients in Scotland have Covid-19, the highest number since the start of the pandemic. | The number of patients in hospital with Covid is higher than it has ever been
The number of patients in Scottish hospitals with Covid has reached the highest level seen during the pandemic.
Latest figures reveal 2,128 patients recently tested positive for the virus, higher than the previous peak in January 2021.
The number requiring ICU treatment, however, remains relatively low as fewer patients become seriously ill.
The latest Covid surge is thought to be driven by a more transmissible sub-variant of Omicron.
The latest daily figures revealed that a further 9,533 new cases were reported on Monday. No new deaths were reported but register offices are generally closed at weekends.
The number of people with Covid in hospital has risen by 78 since Friday but only 31 of the 2,128 Covid-positive patients were so ill that they required intensive care.
Hospital Covid numbers have risen far higher than during the most recent Omicron peak in January.
On Friday, data from the Office for National Statistics suggested that one in 14 Scots, a total of 376,300 people, had Covid in the week ending 12 March. Most cases are thought to involve the more transmissible BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron.
Omicron infections tend to be milder and with a large proportion of people vaccinated, the risks of becoming seriously unwell with this variant are relatively low.
Despite this, Prof Linda Bauld, an expert in public health at the University of Edinburgh who also advises the government, told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme the NHS was still under real pressure.
Prof Bauld said Covid-positive patients required more protocols which take more time, even if they were originally admitted to hospital for other ailments.
Waiting lists and staff absences have also been affected by outbreaks, she added.
She advised people should take up the offer of vaccines and expect future vaccines to protect against multiple variants.
Many health boards say they are seeing more Covid patients in hospital now than at any point in the pandemic.
Yet there is no clamour from medics and health officials for more restrictions - that's because Covid itself is less of a direct threat than it once was.
The vast majority of Covid patients do not need to be admitted to intensive care and are recovering more quickly. That's down to high vaccination rates and better treatments.
Instead Covid is causing a different sort of pressure on hospitals.
Patients need to be kept separate to limit infection spread, limiting bed capacity in some wards. You may need to pull nursing staff from places like outpatients or day surgery to cover gaps caused by staff absences. And shortages in social care mean it's harder to get people out of hospital.
It all leads to less capacity, people waiting too long in emergency departments and ever-growing waiting lists.
These are the sort of pressures that the NHS is going to have to deal with for a long time to come.
Most of the remaining legal Covid restrictions in Scotland have now officially come to an end.
Businesses are no longer required to retain customers' contact details - although the legal requirement to wear face coverings in shops, hospitality venues and public transport remains in place.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said the rule will stay for "a further short period" because of the surge in cases.
The measure will be reviewed again before the Scottish Parliament's Easter recess on 2 April, and is expected to become guidance shortly afterwards.
Vaccine boosters have already been offered to the most vulnerable people and public health experts expect them to be rolled out to people in their 50s and 60s in the autumn.
Asymptomatic people will still be advised to test regularly until 18 April - with tests free of charge - and people with symptoms should continue to get a PCR test until the end of that month.
However, the population-wide testing and contact tracing system will come to a close at the end of April - a move criticised by public health expert Prof Devi Sridhar.
She told BBC Scotland's The Nine: "We won't be able to pick up if there's a new variant spreading, if that's causing higher hospitalisation rates. People won't know if they're infectious to others.
"I think there's a real risk that we lose sight of this virus in surveillance so I think giving up testing is a huge mistake. Giving up testing will cost us not just in terms of the infection spreading but in the people it finds and kills."
People with symptoms should continue to get a PCR test until the end of April
Some public health experts have questioned whether face coverings will have any effect on the jump in case numbers.
Christine Tait-Burkard, from The Roslin Institute, has told BBC Scotland the impact that mask-wearing makes without many of the other restrictions in place "is small, or is smaller than it ever was before".
But she backed the extended retention of the legal requirement as "last reminder" of the need for caution.
The first minister has said a sharp rise in infections was putting "significant pressure on hospital capacity", but that vaccines were still giving people good protection.
Ms Sturgeon, giving an update on the government's strategic framework for managing the virus last week, said she needed to "ask everyone to be patient for a little while longer on face coverings".
The Scottish Conservatives have described the retention of the mask rules as "a blow for households and businesses".
Scottish Labour's finance spokesman Daniel Johnson said the challenges facing Scotland's economy "didn't start with Covid and they won't end today".
He added: "Businesses across Scotland will breathe a sigh of relief as restrictions are lifted - but there is no room for complacency.
"The cost of living crisis will pile added pressure on to businesses, but the SNP and the Tory governments are failing to get to grips with the challenge."
A Scottish government spokesperson said its economic plan included "a ruthless focus on working with business and industry to deliver the changes we want to see". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-60806381 |
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's family 'relieved' by Iran release - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | After years of campaigning, a relative says Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's return is "mind-blowing". | Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, husband Richard and daughter Gabriella shared a hug after she landed at RAF Brize Norton
A relative of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe says news of her return to the UK is "absolutely mind-blowing" after six years of being detained in Iran.
The 43-year-old and another detainee, Anoosheh Ashoori, were met at RAF Brize Norton in the early hours.
Alex Loftus, cousin of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband, said she did not think it had "sunk in properly yet".
Mrs Loftus, from Warwickshire, added it had been "so moving" seeing the images of her being reunited with family.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori, 67, left Tehran on Wednesday after their release was secured following months of negotiations.
Alex Loftus said she was "absolutely over the moon" after years of campaigning over Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's release
It marked the end of an ordeal that saw the British-Iranian national detained, after being accused in 2016 of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government.
She was sentenced to a further year in prison in April last year and a one-year travel ban on charges of propaganda against the government.
Both Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Mr Ashoori have consistently and vigorously denied allegations.
Their release came after the UK settled a debt to Iran of almost £400m dating from the 1970s.
Mrs Loftus, who lives near Southam, said a couple of years ago Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe "made the very brave decision of sending" her now seven-year-old daughter, Gabriella, back home.
The girl rushed to hug her mother after she touched down at Brize Norton.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were released after the UK settled a near £400m debt to Iran
Mrs Loftus added: "She could then start having a normal sort of, well the British life that she was meant to have in the first place and go to school, be with her dad.
"Thankfully we now have Skype... [but] things like... giving Gabriella a kiss goodnight, walking her to school, things like that... she just missed out on."
The cousin said 3.7 million people had signed a Change.org petition and that there had been regular family meetings.
"We've been there so many times, that there's been hope," she said.
"I don't think any us were ever going to believe it until actually Naz was on that plane out of Iranian airspace.
"We'll have our time to see them, but at the moment it just needs to be the three of them."
Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-coventry-warwickshire-60782380 |
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: I should have been freed six years ago - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The British-Iranian was speaking publicly for the first time since her release from Iran last week. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has said it should never have taken the government so long to secure her release from prison in Iran.
She told a news conference she had been overwhelmed with emotion to be reunited with her husband and daughter, describing the reunion as precious.
But she said "what's happened now should have happened six years ago".
The British-Iranian was speaking for the first time since her dramatic return to the UK last week.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested on spying charges while visiting her parents in Iran, with her then two-year-old daughter Gabriella, in April 2016. Last week, she was freed after spending six years in detention.
Her release came after the UK government paid a £400m debt to Iran dating back to the 1970s, although both governments have said the two issues should not be linked.
Speaking to the media in Westminster, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe thanked all those who had worked to get her released, paying tribute to her "amazing, wonderful" husband, Richard Ratcliffe, who she said had campaigned tirelessly. She also thanked her daughter "for being very, very patient with mummy".
But she took issue with the credit her husband had granted Foreign Secretary Liz Truss for her release, saying: "I have seen five foreign secretaries change over the course of six years. How many foreign secretaries does it take for someone to come home?"
She added: "We all know… how I came home. It should have happened exactly six years ago."
Describing her arrival back in the UK, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe recalled the "precious" and "glorious" feeling of stepping off the plane and seeing her daughter again.
"I had been waiting for that moment for such a long time," she said.
"It was lovely to get to hold her, to braid her hair and to brush her hair. That was a moment that I really, really missed."
She said she was looking forward to getting to know Gabriella better again and doing everyday things like taking her to school.
Also speaking at the news conference, Mr Ratcliffe joked that it was "nice to be retiring" from his role as a campaigner, and thanked everyone for "making us whole again".
"I'm so pleased she's back home, that she came home to us. We're still negotiating whether daddy's allowed in the same bed as Gabriella and Nazanin. We'll get there."
Mr Ratcliffe continued: "I think we'll do this and then we will disappear off and heal a bit."
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe declined to speak about her ordeal, saying it would always haunt her.
But she added: "I always felt like I was holding this black hole in my heart all these years... I am going to leave that black hole on the plane."
While in Iran in September 2016, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, was accused of plotting to overthrow the Iranian government and was given a five-year sentence.
Then, in April 2021, she was sentenced for another year on charges of propaganda against the government.
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe has always denied those allegations and said that she was only in Iran to visit her family.
Speaking on Monday, she said she had been told by Iranian authorities shortly after her arrest that they wanted "something off the Brits", and that they would not let her go until they had got it.
"And they did keep their promise," she said.
Earlier during her visit to Westminster, Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe met Speaker of the House Sir Lindsay Hoyle in his parliamentary rooms.
Sir Lindsay gave Gabriella a Speaker Bear fluffy toy, which she decided to call Speechless
The Speaker told her "the whole nation rejoiced" when she returned to the UK.
He added: "You have achieved something that many others before you have not - in uniting the House in their efforts and hope to get you home."
Another British-Iranian national, Anoosheh Ashoori, was released at the same time as Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
But Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe also used the event to draw attention to the plight of other dual nationals still detained in Iran.
Morad Tahbaz, who has British, Iranian, and American citizenship, remains in detention, and there are numerous people from other countries who are being held on various allegations of working to undermine the Iranian regime.
Mr Tahbaz's daughter, Roxanne, also appeared at the conference, and said her family felt her father had been "abandoned and left behind" in Iran.
She said they had been told by the Foreign Office that Mr Tahbaz would be included in any deal to release hostages in Iran, and called on the prime minister and the foreign secretary to continue to work for his release.
"I believe that the meaning of freedom is never going to be complete until such time that all of us who are unjustly detained in Iran are reunited with our families," Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe said.
"There are so many other people - we don't know their names - who have been suffering in prison."
Tulip Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, has called on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee to investigate why the debt the UK had with Iran took "so long" to be paid.
Ms Siddiq - who represents Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe's constituency and has called herself the "Nazanin MP" - said she had written to the chair of the committee, Tom Tugendhat.
Mr Ratcliffe welcomed the investigation and said it would be "really valuable for Parliament to take up that challenge and to talk it through". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60819018 |
Sheffield boy steals Covid van then crashes it into car - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The boy was arrested and the driver of the car was treated by paramedics and taken to hospital. | A child stole a Covid testing van and crashed it into a car before fleeing on foot, police have said.
South Yorkshire Police said staff at a business on Weedon Street called officers at 04:15 GMT to report the van stolen.
Police spotted the van on Bramall Lane at 06:30 and it stopped on Queens Road after colliding with a silver Ford Ka.
The driver, a 13-year-old boy from Sheffield, was found nearby and detained, police said.
They said he had been arrested on suspicion of burglary/theft of a motor vehicle.
The driver of the car, a man in his 50s, was treated at the scene by Yorkshire Ambulance Service before being taken to hospital
The driver of the Ford KA, a man in his 50s, was treated by paramedics and taken to hospital.
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service also attended to help make the scene safe, and Queens Road was closed at the junction with Duchess Road for a time but has since reopened.
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The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-60813757 |
Video clip of hoax call with UK minister Ben Wallace published - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The UK blames Russia for the call targeted at Ben Wallace during a visit to Poland last week. | Ben Wallace, shown here at the Conservative spring conference, revealed he was targeted last week
Two prominent Russian hoaxers have published footage from a call they made to the UK defence secretary.
In a recording posted online, Ben Wallace can be heard speaking to a man in a video call, made while Mr Wallace was visiting Poland on Friday.
Mr Wallace revealed the hoax last week, saying he had been targeted by an "imposter" posing as the Ukrainian PM.
The UK government has blamed Russia for targeting British ministers with fake calls about the conflict in Ukraine.
Home Secretary Priti Patel revealed she had received a hoax call last week, whilst No 10 said Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has also been targeted.
The recording of the video call to Mr Wallace was posted online by Vladimir "Vovan" Kuznetsov and Alexei "Lexus" Stolyarov.
The pair have targeted a number of politicians and public figures in the past. They were credited with a hoax call to then-foreign secretary Boris Johnson in 2018, in which he was targeted by a caller pretending to be the prime minister of Armenia.
Previous recordings of their alleged conversations have been aired on Russian TV.
In the published footage, which lasts around a minute, Mr Wallace, shown in a car, is asked questions about an alleged nuclear weapons programme for Ukraine.
A defence source told the BBC the clip had been "doctored".
After the video was published, Mr Wallace said: "Things must be going so badly for the Kremlin that they are now resorting to pranks and video fakes."
Earlier, Boris Johnson's spokesman told reporters that "the Russian state was responsible for the hoax telephone calls made to UK ministers last week".
The spokesman did not give further details, but added: "This is standard practice for Russian information operations.
"Disinformation is a tactic straight from the Kremlin playbook to try to distract from their illegal activities in Ukraine and the human rights abuses being committed there."
It is understood that Mr Wallace was put through to a Microsoft Teams video call which lasted about 10 minutes.
The video call was set up after an email, purportedly from an aide at the Ukrainian embassy in London, was sent to a UK government department and then forwarded to the Ministry of Defence.
A cross-department government inquiry into how the call happened is ongoing.
Asked whether defences against hoax calls were strong enough, the No 10 spokesman said there was guidance on how such calls should be handled.
The Russian duo have also claimed to have interviewed politicians including Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and US Senator John McCain. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60829542 |
Mariupol: Why Mariupol is so important to Russia's plan - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The most bombarded city in Ukraine’s war with Russia is key to Moscow’s military campaign. | Mariupol has become the most heavily bombed and damaged city in Ukraine's war with Russia - having suffered the brunt of sustained Russian attacks. It is key to Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine. But why?
There are four main reasons why taking the port city would be such a strategic win for Russia - and a major blow for Ukraine.
Geographically, the city of Mariupol occupies only a tiny area on the map but it now stands obstinately in the way of Russian forces who have burst out of the Crimean peninsula.
They are pushing north-east to try to link up with their comrades and Ukrainian-separatist allies in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
General Sir Richard Barrons - former commander of UK Joint Forces Command - says capturing Mariupol is vital to Russia's war effort.
"When the Russians feel they have successfully concluded that battle, they will have completed a land bridge from Russia to Crimea and they will see this as a major strategic success."
If Mariupol was seized, Russia would also end up with full control of more than 80% of Ukraine's Black Sea coastline - cutting-off its maritime trade and further isolating it from the world.
By holding out against advancing forces for the past three weeks, the defending Ukrainians have managed to preoccupy a large number of Russian troops. But that failure by Russia to secure a rapid capture of the city, has prompted Russian commanders to resort to a 21st Century version of mediaeval siege tactics.
They have pummelled Mariupol with artillery, rockets and missiles - damaging or destroying over 90% of the city. They have also cut off access to electricity, heating, fresh water, food and medical supplies - creating a man-made humanitarian catastrophe which Moscow now blames on Ukraine for refusing to surrender by an 05:00 deadline on Monday. A Ukrainian MP has accused Russia of "trying to starve Mariupol into surrender".
Ukraine has vowed to defend the city down to the last soldier. It may well come to that. Russian troops are slowly pushing into the centre and, in the absence of any kind of workable peace deal, Russia is now likely to intensify its bombardment - drawing little if any distinction between its armed defenders and the beleaguered civilian population which still numbers over 200,000.
If, and when, Russia takes full control of Mariupol this will free up close to 6,000 of its troops - organised into 1,000-strong battalion tactical groups - to then go and reinforce other Russian fronts around Ukraine.
There are a number of possibilities as to where they could be redeployed:
Mariupol has long-been a strategically important port on the Sea of Azov, part of the Black Sea.
With its deep berths, it is the biggest port in the Azov Sea region and home to a major iron and steel works. In normal times, Mariupol is a key export hub for Ukraine's steel, coal and corn going to customers in the Middle East and beyond.
For eight years now, since Moscow's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, the city has been sandwiched uncomfortably between Russian forces on that peninsula and the pro-Kremlin separatists in the breakaway self-declared republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Losing Mariupol would be a major blow to what is left of Ukraine's economy.
Mariupol is home to a Ukrainian militia unit called the Azov Brigade, named after the Sea of Azov which links Mariupol to the rest of the Black Sea. The Azov Brigade contains far-right extremists, historically including neo-Nazis.
Although they form only the tiniest fraction of Ukraine's fighting forces, this has been a useful propaganda tool for Moscow, giving it a pretext for telling Russia's population that the young men it has sent to fight in Ukraine are there to rid their neighbour of neo-Nazis.
Azov Battalion training camp at a former holiday resort near Mariupol, February 2019
If Russia manages to capture alive significant numbers of Azov Brigade fighters it is likely they will be paraded on Russian state-controlled media as part of the ongoing information war to discredit Ukraine and its government.
The capture of Mariupol by Russia, if it happens, will be psychologically significant for both sides in this war.
A Russian victory in Mariupol would enable the Kremlin to show its population - through state-controlled media - that Russia was achieving its aims and making progress.
For President Putin, for whom this war appears to be personal, there is a historical significance to all this. He sees Ukraine's Black Sea coastline as belonging to something called Novorossiya (New Russia) - Russian lands that date back to the 18th Century empire.
Putin wants to revive that concept, "rescuing Russians from the tyranny of a pro-western government in Kyiv" as he sees it. Mariupol currently stands in the way of him achieving that aim.
But to Ukrainians, the loss of Mariupol would be a major blow - not just militarily and economically - but also to the minds of the men and women fighting on the ground, defending their country. Mariupol would be the first major city to fall to the Russians after Kherson, a strategically much less important city that was barely defended.
There is another morale aspect here and that is of deterrence.
Digging graves by the roadside in Mariupol, 20 March
Mariupol has put up fierce resistance - but look at the cost. The city is decimated, it lies largely in ruins. It will go down in history alongside Grozny and Aleppo, places that Russia eventually bombed and shelled into submission, reducing them to rubble. The message to other Ukrainian cities is stark - if you choose to resist like Mariupol did then you can expect the same fate.
"The Russians couldn't walk into Mariupol," says Gen Sir Richard Barrons, "they couldn't drive in with their tanks, so they've pounded it to rubble. And that's what we should expect to see anywhere else that really matters to them."
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Ukraine war: Western agents seek to get inside Putin's head - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine shook the West. Now its leaders are trying to predict his next move. | Russia's leader Vladimir Putin is trapped in a closed world of his own making, Western spies believe. And that worries them.
For years they have sought to get inside Mr Putin's mind, to better understand his intentions.
With Russian troops seemingly bogged down in Ukraine, the need to do so has become all the more necessary as they try to work out how he will react under pressure.
Understanding his state of mind will be vital to avoid escalating the crisis into even more dangerous territory.
There has been speculation that Russia's leader was ill, but many analysts believe he has actually become isolated and closed off to any alternative views.
His isolation has been evident in pictures of his meetings, such as when he met President Emmanuel Macron, the pair at far ends of a long table. It was also evident in Mr Putin's meeting with his own national security team on the eve of war.
Mr Putin's initial military plan looked like something devised by a KGB officer, one Western intelligence official explains.
It had been created, they say, by a tight "conspiratorial cabal" with an emphasis on secrecy. But the result was chaos. Russian military commanders were not ready and some soldiers went over the border without knowing what they were doing.
Western spies, through sources they will not discuss, knew more about those plans than many inside Russia's leadership. But now they face a new challenge - understanding what Russia's leader will do next. And that is not easy.
"The challenge of understanding the Kremlin's moves is that Putin is the single decision-maker in Moscow," explains John Sipher, who formerly ran the CIA's Russia operations. And even though his views are often made clear through public statements, knowing how he will act on them is difficult intelligence challenge.
"It is extremely hard in a system as well protected as Russia to have good intelligence on what's happening inside the head of the leader especially when so many of his own people do not know what is going on," Sir John Sawers, a former head of Britain's MI6, told the BBC.
Mr Putin, intelligence officials say, is isolated in a bubble of his own making, which very little outside information penetrates, particularly any which might challenge what he thinks.
"He is a victim of his own propaganda in the sense that he only listens to a certain number of people and blocks out everything else. This gives him a strange view of the world," says Adrian Furnham, a professor of psychology and co-author of a forthcoming book The Psychology of Spies and Spying. The risk is what is called "group think" in which everyone reinforces his view. "If he's a victim of group think we need to know who the group is," says Prof Furnham.
The circle of those Mr Putin talks to has never been large but when it came to the decision to invade Ukraine, it had narrowed to just a handful of people, Western intelligence officials believe, all of those "true believers" who share Mr Putin's mindset and obsessions.
The sense of how small his inner circle has become was emphasised when he publicly dressed down the head of his own Foreign Intelligence Service at the national security meeting just before the invasion - a move which seemed to humiliate the official. His speech hours later also revealed a man angry and obsessed with Ukraine and the West.
Those who have observed him say the Russian leader is driven by a desire to overcome the perceived humiliation of Russia in the 1990s along with a conviction that the West is determined to keep Russia down and drive him from power. One person who met Mr Putin remembers his obsession with watching videos of Libya's Col Gaddafi being killed after he was driven from power in 2011.
When the director of the CIA, William Burns, was asked to assess Mr Putin's mental state, he said he had "been stewing in a combustible combination of grievance and ambition for many years" and described his views as having "hardened" and that he was "far more insulated" from other points of view.
Is the Russian president crazy? That is a question many in the West have asked. But few experts consider it helpful. One psychologist with expertise in the area said a mistake was to assume because we cannot understand a decision like invading Ukraine we frame the person who made it as "mad".
The CIA has a team which carries out "leadership analysis" on foreign decision makers, drawing on a tradition dating back to attempts to understand Hitler. They study background, relationships and health, drawing on secret intelligence.
Another source are read-outs from the those who have had direct contact, such as other leaders. In 2014, Angela Merkel reportedly told President Obama that Mr Putin was living "in another world". President Macron meanwhile when he sat down with Mr Putin recently, was reported to have found the Russian leader "more rigid, more isolated" compared with previous encounters.
Did something change? Some speculate, without much evidence, about possible ill-health or the impact of medication. Others point to psychological factors such as a sense of his own time running out for him to fulfil what he sees as his destiny in protecting Russia or restoring its greatness. The Russian leader has visibly isolated himself from others during the Covid pandemic and this also may have had a psychological impact.
"Putin is likely not mentally ill, nor he has changed, although he is in more of a hurry, and likely more isolated in recent years," says Ken Dekleva, a former US government physician and diplomat, and currently a senior fellow at the George HW Bush Foundation for US-China Relations.
But a concern now is that reliable information is still not finding its way into Mr Putin's closed loop. His intelligence services may have been reluctant before the invasion to tell him anything he did not want to hear, offering rosy estimates of how an invasion would go and how Russian troops would be received before the war. And this week one Western official said Mr Putin may still not have the insight into how badly things are going for his own troops that Western intelligence has. That leads to concern about how he might react when confronted with a worsening situation for Russia.
Mr Putin himself tells the story of chasing a rat when he was a boy. When he had driven it into a corner, the rat reacted by attacking him, forcing a young Vladimir to become the one who fled. The question Western policymakers are asking is what if Mr Putin feels cornered now?
"The question really is whether or not he doubles down with greater brutality and escalates in terms of the weapon systems that he's prepared to use," said one western official. There have been concerns he could use chemical weapons or even a tactical nuclear weapon.
"The worry is that he does something unbelievably rash in a vicious press-the button way," says Adrian Furnham.
Mr Putin himself may play up the sense that he is dangerous or even irrational - this is a well-known tactic (often called the "madman" theory) in which someone with access to nuclear weapons tries to get his adversary to back down by convincing them that he may well be crazy enough to use them despite the potential for everyone to perish.
For Western spies and policymakers understanding Mr Putin's intentions and mindset today could not be more important. Predicting his response is pivotal in working out how far they can push him without triggering a dangerous reaction.
"Putin's self concept does not allow for failure or weakness. He despises such things" says Ken Dekleva. "A cornered, weakened Putin is a more dangerous Putin. It's sometimes better to let the bear run out of the cage and back to the forest." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60807134 |
China Eastern: Plane carrying 132 people crashes in Guangxi hills - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The Boeing 737 crashed into a hillside in southern China and there are fears no-one survived. | A Chinese passenger plane with 132 people on board has crashed in a forested hillside in southern China.
The China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou when it plunged to earth in Guangxi province and caught fire.
The number of casualties and reason for the crash are not yet known. Rescuers have seen no signs of survivors.
Chinese airlines generally have a good safety record - the last major accident took place 12 years ago.
The crash has caused shock in China, where President Xi Jinping has ordered an immediate investigation to determine the cause. China Eastern Airlines has grounded all its 737-800s.
Flight tracking data suggested the plane lost height rapidly from its cruising altitude before plummeting to the ground.
More than 600 emergency responders are said to be at the crash site. Firefighters reached the scene first and managed to extinguish a blaze in the hills caused by the crash.
Footage taken by local villagers and shared on Chinese social media - and by state broadcasters - showed fire and smoke from the crash, with plane debris on the ground.
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Air safety and aviation standards in China have improved vastly in recent decades, following a series of accidents in the 1990s, and crashes such as this are now very rare.
The country's last major plane accident was in August 2010, when a flight from Harbin crashed in north-east Yichun during foggy weather, killing 42 people.
China Eastern has set up a hotline for people seeking information about those on board. It expressed "its deep condolences for the passengers and crew members who died".
Earlier, it greyed out its logo on its Weibo account and also changed its website to black and white in an apparent sign of mourning.
As a precaution, China Eastern's entire fleet of Boeing 737-800 jets has been grounded.
It took just two and a half minutes for an apparently normal flight to turn into a tragedy.
The aircraft was a 737-800, a well-proven design first produced in the late 1990s. It is a workhorse of the aviation world, with thousands still in service.
It has a strong safety record. Fatigue cracks have been found in some older planes, but this one was not quite seven years old.
There is no connection here with the 737 MAX, a newer version of the 737, which was grounded for more than a year and a half after a design flaw triggered two major accidents.
Investigators will be looking at many possible causes - among them deliberate action, such as terrorism, technical issues such as structural failure, or a mid-air collision.
They will look at communications from the pilots, examine the state of the wreckage - and search for the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.
Those recorders should contain the information needed to confirm exactly what happened during those minutes and why.
Staff at Guangzhou airport are directing worried relatives to a separate zone set up to receive them.
One woman waiting for news there told local media she had booked a seat on the flight, but ended up switching to an earlier plane.
"I feel very sad," she said. Her sister and four friends were on the crashed plane, AFP news agency reports.
State-owned China Eastern is one of China's big three airlines, along with China Southern and Air China.
Flight MU5735 left Kunming at 13:11 local time (05:11 GMT) and was scheduled to arrive in Guangzhou at 15:05.
A file photo from 2015 of the China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737-800 which crashed
Flight tracking sites report the plane was in the air for just over an hour and was nearing its destination when it went down in Wuzhou, a verdant, hilly area prone to mixed weather at this time of year as China enters its annual flood season.
The weather was cloudy, but visibility was reported to have been good at the time of the crash.
Footage said to be of Flight MU5735 plummeting vertically from the sky has been circulating on social media.
The plane dropped thousands of metres in three minutes, flight tracker data showed.
According to FlightRadar24 data, the plane was cruising at 29,100ft, but two minutes and 15 seconds later it was recorded at 9,075ft. The last sourced information on the flight showed it ended at 14:22 local time, at an altitude of 3,225ft.
"Usually the plane is on autopilot during cruise stage. So it is very hard to fathom what happened," Li Xiaojin, a Chinese aviation expert, told Reuters news agency.
Another expert, Wang Ya'nan, chief editor of Beijing-based Aerospace Knowledge, told China's Global Times newspaper: "It is very likely that the aircraft lost power at cruising altitude, resulting in the pilot losing control of the aircraft.
"This is a very serious technical failure in which the plane inevitably enters a high-speed descent."
The Boeing 737-800 plane was nearly seven years old, according to tracker websites. It is the predecessor model to the Boeing 737 Max line, which were the planes involved in deadly crashes in Indonesia in 2018 and Ethiopia in 2019.
China banned that model after those crashes.
Boeing issued a statement on the crash of MU5735, saying: "We are aware of the initial media reports and are working to gather more information."
China's Civil Aviation Administration said it had dispatched its investigators to the scene. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-60819760 |
Ukraine war: Drone footage shows level of devastation in Mariupol - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Video shows destroyed blocks of flats and a shopping mall in the besieged Ukrainian port city. | Blocks of flats and a shopping mall have been completely destroyed in Mariupol, Ukraine.
The besieged port city has faced constant shelling since the war started three weeks ago.
The Mayor of Mariupol Vadym Boichenko told the BBC that fighting has reached the city centre.
Read more on the attack on Mariupol here.
This video has no sound | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60800581 |
William and Kate dance and taste chocolate during day two of Belize tour - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | "They were shaking their waists like nobody's business," said a local woman who danced with the duke. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge show off their dance moves in Belize
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been dancing with locals and sampling chocolate at a cocoa farm as they explored Belize.
"They were shaking their waists like nobody's business," said Laura Cacho, a local festival organiser who danced with William.
On the second day of their Caribbean tour, the royals visited the Che 'il chocolate farm
They ground cacao nibs, before the future king jokingly asked for a job.
The duke and duchess were rewarded with a taste of the products at the family-run cocoa farm in the village of Maya Center in southern Belize, with Catherine admitting their children would be "jealous".
The duke and duchess later showed off their moves on the dancefloor as they experienced the culture of the Garifuna community in the coastal village of Hopkins.
Ms Cacho, 57, said it was a "pleasure" to dance with William.
"He shook his waist to the music. He had beautiful rhythm. It was a pleasure for me.
"Kate was excellent as well and definitely has Garifuna culture in her."
The duchess also had a shimmy to the delight of the Belize crowds
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge got stuck in to grind cacao nibs on a visit to a family-run chocolate farm in southern Belize
Earlier, during the trip to the cocoa farm, the royal couple learnt first-hand about the work that goes into producing the chocolate.
William, 39, who had been pounding away with a mortar and pestle made from volcanic rock, quipped about swapping his royal day job for one on the farm, asking the owner, Julio Saqui: "Do you take apprentices?
"Can I come and work for you? It's my kind of thing."
The duke and duchess were shown cocoa trees laden with fruit, with Catherine, 40, asking the owner's brother, Narcisio, how often they are harvested.
As they took a break from the blistering sun under a marquee, the royal couple heard from Narcisio about the importance of the cocoa bean.
The future king joked about swapping his royal day job for an apprenticeship on the farm
William and Catherine tasted the farm's fruit as they learnt about the importance of the cocoa bean
The Saqui family are part of Belize's Maya community, where the cocoa bean is sacred and has been a key part of their culture for thousands of years.
The cocoa bean was once considered more valuable than gold to the Maya people, who served it to royalty and continue to offer it to important guests.
The duke expressed his surprise after using a club to break open a cocoa pod - which was filled with white sticky seeds that have to be fermented, dried, roasted and ground to make chocolate - exclaiming: "That's not what I expected at all."
The couple later got to taste some of the farm's goods as they dipped tortilla chips into chocolate fountains, and tried hot chocolate made from organic products.
The duchess admitted the couple's three children - Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, six, and Prince Louis, three - would be "very jealous".
William and Catherine later met conservationists on the Hopkins' beach to learn about the area's marine environment and efforts to preserve Belize's barrier reef.
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William and Catherine's tour of the Che 'il chocolate farm came after a planned trip to a similar producer had to be axed after reported opposition from local residents.
The Cambridges' visit to the Akte 'il Ha cacao farm in Indian Creek village was cancelled amid a reported dispute between villagers and Fauna and Flora International (FFI), which has William as patron, over land owned by the conservation organisation.
Residents are also reported to have raised concerns saying they were not consulted about plans for the couple's helicopter to land on a local football pitch.
Kensington Palace and the Belize government confirmed the schedule change, while a spokesman for FFI said the charity would "support the livelihoods, educational opportunities and the customary rights of local people" as part of its project in the area.
On landing at Belize City's Philip S. W. Goldson International Airport on Sunday, the duke and duchess were greeted by Belize's governor general and a guard of honour from the Belize Defence Force.
They royal couple later met Prime Minister Johnny Briceno and his wife Rossana, with Mr Briceno telling them: "We're so happy you're here."
The Cambridges landed at Belize City's airport on Sunday
The royal couple will also visit Jamaica and the Bahamas as part of their eight-day tour, with highlights set to include a sailing regatta in the Bahamas in honour of the Queen's 70-year reign, and a celebration of Jamaica's musical and sporting heritage. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60814541 |
Jonathan Van-Tam granted freedom of Boston in ceremony - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | England's deputy medical officer can now drive sheep across a bridge in his home town of Boston. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
England's deputy chief medical officer has been granted the freedom of Boston.
In a ceremony held at the ground of Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam's beloved Boston United, he was made a freeman of the borough in recognition of his role during the Covid-19 pandemic response.
The 58-year-old came to public prominence during the daily government coronavirus briefings where he won fans with his frequent football analogies.
He said it was a "tremendous honour" and he was "very humbled by it all".
Prof Van-Tam described the honour as 'unbelievable' and spoke fondly of picking vegetables in local fields while growing up
Prof Van-Tam was knighted in the New Year Honours list along with England's chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty, who attended a Boston United fixture with him on Saturday.
In mid-January, it was announced he would be leaving his role at the end of this month and will become pro-vice chancellor at the University of Nottingham's faculty of medicine and health sciences.
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Speaking at the ceremony organised by Boston Borough Council, which now allows him to drive sheep over the Town Bridge and into the Market Place, Prof Van-Tam said: "What a superb accolade to be recognised by your home town and by the people you grew up with.
"I connect to my home town these days through my really happy memories, through people I still know in the town and of course through the football club."
Speaking about growing up, Prof Van-Tam said his childhood memories "live with you for a lifetime" and reminisced about growing up in the outskirts of Boston and picking vegetables.
Deputy chief medical officer for England since 2017, he often appeared alongside Prime Minister Boris Johnson at televised news briefings, where he caught the public's attention by the way he described coronavirus.
He said his formative years in the town had aided him in giving the briefings, saying: "It's really helped me think about my audience. When I get deeply complex scientific questions, I think back to my audience and think: 'Well, what would they want to know?'."
He told BBC Radio Lincolnshire the pandemic had been "really difficult" for people, and in addressing his high profile during the response, he said: "It's something you have to face if you're in a national role, but I'd rather be Mr Ordinary."
Prof Van-Tam, who previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry and for the UK Health Protection Agency, also volunteered as a vaccinator to help distribute Covid-19 jabs.
On receiving his honour, he wanted to stress the team effort of the last two years, saying: "There are thousands upon thousands of people in this country who have done every bit as much as I have in their own roles either locally or regionally, and they all to deserve recognition and thanks."
The ceremonial plaque confirming Prof Van-Tam is now an honorary freeman
Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-60826339 |
Kaden Reddick: Topshop and Arcadia guilty of safety breaches - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Kaden Reddick suffered a fatal head injury at the store in Reading during a family shopping trip. | Kaden Reddick was fatally injured at Topshop in Reading's Oracle shopping centre
Topshop and its former owners have been found guilty of health and safety breaches after a 10-year-old boy died when a queue barrier toppled on him.
Kaden Reddick suffered a fatal head injury at the Reading store during a family shopping trip in 2017.
Following a two-month trial, Arcadia Group and Topshop/Topman were convicted of failing to discharge a health and safety duty.
A jury found barrier manufacturer Realm Projects not guilty of the same charge.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. CCTV video showed the barrier at the Reading store "wobble" as people leaned on it
Stoneforce Ltd, which was contracted to fit the barriers, had earlier pleaded guilty to failing to discharge a health and safety duty.
During the trial, Reading Crown Court heard the barrier was installed between 2013 and 2014, during a major store refit.
The plinth supporting the barrier at the store in Reading's Oracle shopping centre had only been fixed to the floor with two narrow screws and the "wobbly" barrier fell on Kaden, prosecutors said.
Arcadia, Topshop/Topman and Stoneforce Ltd will be sentenced at a later date.
The jury was shown a picture of the barrier around the time it was installed
Follow BBC South on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-60826883 |
Covid: Spring booster jab launches for over-75s and high risk in England - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Experts say it will help keep the most vulnerable protected against severe illness amid rising infections. | People aged 75 and over, residents in care homes and those with weakened immune systems can now book an extra booster jab against Covid in England.
It comes as official figures show infection rates are rising in all age groups - including the over-70s.
The rollout follows recommendations from the UK's vaccine advisers who say additional jabs will help boost protection for the most vulnerable.
Spring boosters are already being rolled out in Wales and Scotland.
A wider booster programme - involving more people - is expected this autumn.
It comes as the UK is seeing rising cases of Covid, with an estimated one in every 20 people infected, according to latest figures.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said that people with symptoms of the virus should "behave sensibly" but he said that it would be down to the individual to decide whether or not to take a test.
"I think we need to step back and think about how we learn to live with Covid and focus on our very best form of defence and that's the vaccination programme," he said.
While vaccines have been shown to provide good protection against severe disease, protection wanes over time.
And as many of the oldest received their last jab in autumn 2021, their immunity may now be declining, experts say.
Now, a second booster - to be administered six months after the previous dose, or sooner if deemed appropriate - will be offered to:
Over seven million people in the UK will be eligible to have the extra booster jab - with the first 600,000 people in England to be invited from this week.
Dr Nikki Kanani, GP and deputy lead for the NHS's vaccination programme, urged everyone eligible to book their boosters as soon as possible.
She said: "With infections rising this is a really important opportunity for people who are eligible to come forward and get booked and get their spring booster."
The extra jabs will be given around six months after the last dose of vaccine.
Across the UK more than two-thirds of people aged over 12 have had two Covid vaccines plus a single booster jab.
A first booster dose is currently available for everyone aged 16 and over, and at-risk children aged 12 to 15.
But up until now only people with severely weakened immune systems had been eligible for a fourth dose - three doses plus a booster.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has suggested further boosters will be offered to a wider group of people in autumn.
Experts believe winter is likely to be the season when the threat from Covid is greatest - for individuals, the NHS and care homes.
Recent research from the UK Health Security Agency has shown that the NHS booster programme has helped prevent around 157,000 hospitalisations since mid-December.
Despite this NHS hospitals have treated more than 100,000 patient with Covid since the start of the Omicron wave.
• None How to get a Covid booster - NHS The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60795121 |
P&O Ferries' sackings were appalling, says Sunak - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The government is examining the legality of the ferry firm's actions, the chancellor confirms. | P&O Ferries' sacking of 800 staff without warning last week was "awful" and "wrong", Chancellor Rishi Sunak has told the BBC.
The government is examining the legality of the firm's actions, the chancellor confirmed.
However, the Sunday Times reports that ministers knew of the plan to sack crew beforehand, but failed to challenge it.
The Department for Transport said "full details" were not available at that stage.
A memo sent to ministers by a senior Whitehall official - and seen by the Sunday Times - outlined P&O Ferries' strategy before the sackings took place, the newspaper said.
According to the Sunday Times, the note said the sackings were designed to ensure P&O remained "a key player in the UK market for years to come through restructuring".
The memo, as reported in the newspaper, said: "We understand that P&O Ferries have an intention to try and re-employ many staff on new terms and conditions or use agency staff to restart routes; they estimate disruption to services lasting 10 days."
It was circulated before Thursday's announcement, made over Zoom, telling 800 P&O staff that they were losing their jobs with immediate effect.
The news was met with outrage from trades unions representing crew and ministers responded with strong criticism, announcing they would review all government contracts with the firm.
Mr Sunak, speaking to Sophie Raworth on the BBC's Sunday Morning programme, said P&O's approach was "appalling in the way that they've treated their workers".
The government does not appear to have voiced concerns directly to P&O before the sackings.
The Department for Transport (DfT) said it was standard practice for officials to outline what they had been told by a private firm in an internal memo.
"This was sent before ministers were advised of the full details and as soon as they were informed, they made clear their outrage at the way in which P&O staff had been dismissed," a DfT spokesperson said.
The DfT said the memo made clear that the department's priority was to "work with unions to ensure workers' rights continue to be protected".
The transport secretary had urged the company to "sit down with workers and reconsider this action", the DfT added. Grant Shapps has said he was "deeply concerned" at the move.
Protests have taken place outside the P&O head office near Dover
Louise Haigh MP, Labour's shadow transport secretary, said: "This bombshell letter proves that the government was not only aware of P&O ferries' scandalous action - but complicit in it.
"They knew people's livelihoods were on the line and they knew P&O was attempting to use exploitative fire and rehire practices. But they sat back and did nothing."
In a statement, P&O Ferries said: "We took this difficult decision as a last resort and only after full consideration of all other options but, ultimately, we concluded that the business wouldn't survive without fundamentally changed crewing arrangements, which in turn would inevitably result in redundancies."
Chris Parker, a director at DFDS, one of P&O's competitors, told the BBC that his company is prepared to hire some of those sacked by P&O Ferries.
"We reduced the capacity of vessels quite sharply during the pandemic because of social distancing. We're increasing that back up again now and we're looking for some staff to come in and help us with that," he said.
P&O Ferries is owned by Dubai logistics giant DP World which is, in turn, controlled by the Dubai sovereign wealth fund.
Last year, DP World's revenue soared by more than a fifth to over £3.7bn ($4.9bn) as the global economy began to pick up after coronavirus lockdowns. The company received support of around £10m during the pandemic to furlough 1,100 workers. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60812328 |
Anonymous: How hackers are trying to undermine Putin - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The BBC speaks to hacktivists about past and future attacks in their "cyber war" against Vladimir Putin. | The Anonymous hacktivist collective has been bombarding Russia with cyber-attacks since declaring "cyber war" on President Vladimir Putin in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. Several people operating under its banner spoke to the BBC about their motives, tactics and plans.
Of all the cyber-attacks carried out since the Ukraine conflict started, an Anonymous hack on Russian TV networks stands out.
The hack was captured in a short video clip which shows normal programming interrupted with images of bombs exploding in Ukraine and soldiers talking about the horrors of the conflict.
The video began circulating on the 26 February and was shared by Anonymous social media accounts with millions of followers. "JUST IN: #Russian state TV channels have been hacked by #Anonymous to broadcast the truth about what happens in #Ukraine," one post read.
It quickly racked up millions of views.
The video was sent to a woman in the US, Eliza, by her father in Russia
The stunt has all the hallmarks of an Anonymous hack - dramatic, impactful and easy to share online. Like many of the group's other cyber-attacks it was also extremely hard to verify.
But one of the smaller groups of Anonymous hackers said that they were responsible, and that they took over TV services for 12 minutes.
The first person to post the video was also able to verify it was real. Eliza lives in the US but her father is Russian and called her when his TV shows were interrupted. "My father called me when it happened and said, 'Oh my God, they're showing the truth!' So I got him to record it and I posted the clip online. He says one of his friends saw it happen too."
Rostelecom, the Russian company that runs the hacked services did not respond to requests for comment.
The hackers justified their actions saying innocent Ukrainians were being massacred. "We will intensify the attacks on the Kremlin, if nothing is done to restore peace in Ukraine," they added.
Anonymous says it has also taken down Russian websites and stolen government data, but Lisa Forte, a partner at cyber-security company Red Goat says most of these attacks have so far been "quite basic".
Hackers have mostly been using DDoS attacks, where a server is overwhelmed by a flood of requests, she said. These are relatively simple to carry out and only take websites offline temporarily.
"But the TV hack is incredibly creative," she said, "and I would think quite difficult to pull off."
Anonymous hackers have also defaced Russian websites. Forte says this involves gaining control of a website to change the content displayed.
So far, the attacks have caused disruption and embarrassment, but cyber-experts have become increasingly concerned by the explosion of hacktivism since the invasion.
They are worried that a hacker might accidentally knock out a hospital's computer network or interrupt critical communication links.
"I've never seen anything like this," says Emily Taylor from the Cyber Policy Journal.
"These attacks do carry risks. [They] could lead to escalation, or someone could accidentally cause real damage to a critical part of civilian life."
Anonymous has not been this active in years. Roman, a Ukrainian tech entrepreneur who heads a group of hackers called Stand for Ukraine, had no links with the organisation until Russia invaded his country.
But he told me that when he and his team briefly defaced the website of the Russian state news agency, Tass, with an anti-Putin poster, they included an Anonymous logo.
Roman works from his apartment in Kyiv, co-ordinating his team as they create websites, Android apps and Telegram bots to help Ukraine's war effort, and hack Russian targets.
"I am ready to go and pick up a rifle for Ukraine, but at the moment my skills are better used at the computer. So I'm here in my home with my two laptops, co-ordinating this IT resistance."
Roman at work: "Sometimes I see rockets in my sky"
He says his group took a Russian regional train ticket service offline for a number of hours, although the BBC has not been able to verify this.
He defends his actions saying: "These things are illegal and wrong until there is a threat to you or your relative."
Another group that has merged with Anonymous is a Polish hacking team called Squad 303, named after a famous Polish fighter squadron in World War Two.
"We work together with Anonymous all the time and I now consider myself a member of the Anonymous movement," says one of the group, who uses the name of WW2 pilot Jan Zumbach as his moniker.
He didn't want his photograph published but another member of his team, a Ukrainian, sent a picture of himself in a helmet and mask. He described his situation as "on the barricade with a rifle during the day and hacking with the Squad/Anonymous at night".
Squad 303 has built a website allowing members of the public to send text messages to random Russian phone numbers, telling them the truth about the war. They claim to have facilitated more than 20 million SMS and WhatsApp messages.
Two Anonymous groups I spoke to cited this as the most impactful thing the collective has done so far for Ukraine.
Asked how he justified the Squad's illegal activity, Jan Zumbach said they did not steal or share any private information and were only trying to speak to Russians, with the aim of winning the information war.
However he also said they were planning a more impactful hack in the coming days.
Vigilante groups in Russia are also carrying out attacks on Ukraine, but seemingly on a smaller scale.
There have been three major waves of co-ordinated DDoS attacks against Ukraine since January, plus three incidents of more serious "wiper" attacks that deleted data on a small number of Ukrainian computer systems.
On Wednesday a manipulated video of President Zelensky appeared on the Ukraine 24 TV channel website after an apparent hack.
In the current environment, though, it's hard to know exactly who is behind any given cyber-attack.
"The Achilles heel of Anonymous is that anyone can claim to be Anonymous, including state actors operating against what we're fighting for," says long-standing Anonymous hacker Anon2World.
"With our current rise in popularity, it's (almost) a given that there will be obvious repercussions from a government entity. As for adding to the chaos, we're used to chaos, especially online."
• None The return of the Anonymous hacker collective | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60784526 |
Anger and grief as crowds rally to support Child Q - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Hundreds of people marched through north London. Their message? Let black girls be black girls. | Let black girls be girls. That was the message that hundreds of people wanted to express when they gathered for a rally in north London on Sunday.
Crowds marched in support of Child Q - a black 15-year-old girl who was strip-searched at school after being wrongly suspected of carrying drugs.
The incident happened in 2020 and the girl's family is suing her school and the force. The family said the girl had become "a shell of her former bubbly self".
But it has reignited concerns over the treatment of black people by the Metropolitan Police. The Met has apologised for what happened but people at the rally say they want assurances that what happened to Child Q won't be repeated.
Holding banners and chanting, people demanded justice. One placard read "protect our black children".
But aside from the anger and outrage, the sense of grief and trauma was palpable. Many shed tears in the midst of chanting for change.
Omega Douglas said she felt sick when she heard what happened to Child Q. She came along to the rally with her mother and daughter. Like many, she believes the Met has failed black people several times.
"I'm old enough to have lived through the Brixton riots," she said, citing the "multiple abuses of power by the police in this country". She added: "I am appalled."
Omega came along to the rally with her mother and daughter
Jacqui Courtenay set up the rally after hearing about the case of Child Q a few days ago.
She said she had a strong urge to act because "a child out there has been caused such harm, a black child, and that could have been my kids... that could be [my] nieces and nephews".
Jacqui and several others say they felt particularly traumatised after hearing how the 15-year-old was strip searched by two female police officers, and made to take off her sanitary towel. The teenager was on her period at the time.
The ordeal took place at Child Q's school, with no appropriate adult present.
It's the first time that Jacqui, a city worker, has set up an event of this kind. She reached out to Patrick Vernon, a Windrush campaigner who helped organise the rally with the support of other human rights activists like Marai Larasi.
Jacqui said she was overwhelmed by the response of the hundreds of people who came to the rally in solidarity with Child Q.
"I feel like it's an out of body experience... It's been so long since we've seen such an outpouring of love for a black person, let alone a black girl."
Jacqui Courtenay was one of the organisers of Sunday's event
Many people told the BBC of their anger at the "adultification bias" which the safeguarding review said was highly likely to have been a factor in the case. Adultification is a form of racial prejudice that causes adults to perceive black children as being older than they are.
"They are seen as troublemakers" said Izzy, a youth worker at the rally. "They're seen as aggressive or loud, a threat. I get them telling me about that quite a lot."
Speaking through her tears, Holly Adamoh said that the school involved should have looked after Child Q.
"You should not have to feel racially profiled within a school, and you shouldn't have to ever feel threatened," she said. "You should be listened to and looked after." Frustrated, Holly said she believed the police showed a lack of empathy towards Child Q.
Holly and Izzy were among the hundreds of people at the rally
Former Met Police superintendent Leroy Logan was also at the rally. He retired in 2013 but spent some of his career in Hackney, where the incident took place.
He told the BBC that the false accusation made about Child Q smelling of cannabis did not give the police the authority to carry out the strip search.
The Met Police has apologised, with Scotland Yard saying its officers' actions were "regrettable" and "it should never have happened". Last month, a senior Met officer told the BBC that racism remains a problem in the force - but he denied the Met was a racist organisation.
Logan added that many people are disgusted by the case and "know their child could be next".
"This is not a time just to say we regret," he said. "There has to be action." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60816934 |
Bahrain Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc wins as both Red Bulls retire - BBC Sport | 2022-03-21 | Charles Leclerc wins a close battle with Red Bull's Max Verstappen before taking a classy victory in a dramatic season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. | Last updated on .From the section Formula 1
Charles Leclerc won a close battle with Red Bull's Max Verstappen before taking a classy victory as Ferrari took a one-two in a dramatic season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.
Leclerc and Verstappen staged a thrilling wheel-to-wheel dice after their first pit stops, swapping places five times in two laps before Leclerc moved ahead.
The closing laps were packed with drama, with a safety car period and then reliability problems forcing Verstappen's retirement promoting Carlos Sainz to second.
And then the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez suffered a failure at the first corner of the final lap leaving Lewis Hamilton to take the final podium place for Mercedes.
Hamilton had looked set for fifth place as Mercedes' pace problems became ever clearer during the race but Red Bull's nightmare provided the seven-time champion an unexpected boost.
The irony that Hamilton gained from Red Bull's misfortune in the first race after he lost the world title in the controversial climax to last season will be lost on few.
Leclerc's victory was out of the top drawer and underlined his quality as one of the leading lights of the new generation.
And if Ferrari can stay competitive throughout this long, 23-race season, he will be a serious contender for the championship.
It was clean getaway for every car at the start
Verstappen should have taken second place but he suffered as Red Bull's day imploded in the final three laps.
The Dutchman tried his best, fighting vigorously with Leclerc after their first pit stops but ultimately losing out in the fight, and was looking set for a frustrated second place before his race unravelled.
He had already started to complain about heavy steering, and then a lap into the final sprint after the safety car he asked what was happening with the battery. He slowed and pulled into the pits with three laps to go.
Sainz moved into second and Perez was left holding off Hamilton for third place.
The Mexican was also suffering problems but was managing to keep Hamilton just at bay when he spun at the start of the final lap as the engine suddenly stopped and Red Bull went from second and fourth to nothing in a few moments.
Team principal Christian Horner said he did not yet know what had gone wrong but it "looks like an issue in the fuel system" for both cars.
Verstappen said: "It looked like there was no fuel coming to the engine and everything just turned off so I just rolled into the pit lane."
After snatching pole position from Verstappen with the very final lap of qualifying, Leclerc held off the Dutchman's charge at the first corner and consolidated his lead through the first stint.
The Monegasque was 3.7 seconds in front by the time Verstappen made his first pit stop, but when Leclerc stopped the next time around, the Red Bull was right on the Ferrari's tail.
The defining period of the race followed.
Verstappen tracked Leclerc for a lap before diving down the inside into the lead into Turn One at the start of lap 17.
Leclerc repassed Verstappen around the outside into Turn Four, cutting across Verstappen as he edged ahead, but remained under threat.
Verstappen passed again at Turn One the next time around, and again Leclerc re-took the lead into Turn Four, this time diving to the inside.
Verstappen tried again into Turn One for a third time the next time around, but locked his front tyre, and slid straight on, allowing Leclerc to retake the lead.
From there, the Ferrari driver eked out his advantage again, building a lead of close to five seconds.
The last few crazy laps
After that, the Ferrari driver had just that bit too much pace for Verstappen.
Realising they had nothing to lose, Red Bull threw the dice with just over 10 laps to go, fitting soft tyres to Verstappen's and Perez's cars for a final sprint to the flag.
Ferrari chose not to follow Verstappen in with Leclerc but the new dynamic had no time to play out as Pierre Gasly pulled off with his Alpha Tauri in flames and the safety car was deployed.
Leclerc judged the restart beautifully, while Verstappen's attempt to harry Leclerc before he bolted from the last corner backfired and he came under pressure from Sainz.
He held him off, only for his race to unravel.
George Russell took fourth for Mercedes ahead of the revived Haas of Kevin Magnussen and Valtteri Bottas' Alfa Romeo, a strong drive from the Finn after a dreadful start dropped him right down the field from his sixth place on the grid.
The new rules introduced this year with the aim of closing up the field and making overtaking easier have certainly shuffled the pack, with Mercedes and McLaren the biggest losers and Ferrari and Haas gaining most.
But the race did not provide sufficient evidence for a definitive conclusion to be drawn as to whether their prime intentions have succeeded.
What happens next?
The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix next weekend - last year's maiden race on the fast Jeddah street circuit was dramatic. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/60815376 |
Morad Tahbaz: British-US national detained in Iran on hunger strike - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The family of Morad Tahbaz, who has cancer, says it is distraught that Iran has not yet freed him. | Morad Tahbaz and fellow conservationists were using cameras to track endangered species when they were arrested
The family of a British-US national who they expected to be freed by Iran last week as part of a deal with the UK has gone on hunger strike, they say.
Morad Tahbaz, 66, who also has Iranian citizenship, has been confined to a hotel, the Foreign Office has said.
His sister Taraneh told the BBC his family was "absolutely distraught" and feared he would be forgotten about.
The Foreign Office says it is continuing to lobby Iran at the highest levels for Mr Tahbaz to be released.
Hopes had been raised that Mr Tahbaz would be freed when Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were released and flew back to the UK on Thursday, but he was returned to Evin prison on Friday.
The Foreign Office said it had been informed by the Iranians this move was in order for Mr Tahbaz to have an electronic ankle bracelet fitted. On Sunday, the Foreign Office said he had been moved to a hotel in Tehran.
Appearing alongside Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe at a news conference on Monday, Mr Tahbaz's daughter, Roxanne, said the family had been led to believe her father would be released with the other dual nationals.
"From the outset, we were always assured by the [UK government] that my father would be included in any deal that was made to release all of the hostages.
"So we're truly devastated, knowing now that this was not the case."
Roxanne Tahbaz said the family "just want them [the UK government] to do whatever they have to do" to bring her father and mother, who is also subject to a travel ban inside Iran, back home.
Speaking on the Today programme earlier, Taraneh Tahbaz said Mr Tahbaz had gone on hunger strike.
"He continues to be used as a pawn on a chessboard and it's very distressing," she said. " We're agonised and we're absolutely distraught and we don't know what the next moves are."
Mr Tahbaz was doing conservation work when he was held in Iran in January 2018.
Family photo of Morad Tahbaz, as a younger man, with his family
He and seven other conservationists were accused of collecting classified information about Iran's strategic areas under the pretext of carrying out environmental and scientific projects.
The conservationists - members of Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation - had been using cameras to track endangered species including the Asiatic cheetah and Persian leopard, according to Amnesty International.
All eight denied the charges and Amnesty International said there was evidence that they had been subjected to torture in order to extract forced "confessions".
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with his colleagues on vague charges of spying for the US and undermining Iran's security.
Last year, UN human rights experts warned that Mr Tahbaz, who has cancer and has twice had Covid, had been denied access to proper treatment in prison despite his health condition deteriorating. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60816960 |
Covid: Spring booster rollout begins and most Scotland's legal curbs end - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday morning. | Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Monday morning.
People eligible for an additional Covid jab as part of the spring booster rollout can now book an appointment. Those aged 75 and over, residents in care homes and with weakened immune systems in England are being urged to do so as infections continue to rise across the UK. Read more here.
Most legal restrictions relating to Covid bar wearing face coverings have ended in Scotland. The change means businesses, for example, are no longer required to retain customers' contact details. Face coverings remain due to a surge in cases but the rules will be reviewed in April.
While most countries are trying to live with coronavirus, China and Hong Kong have been trying to eliminate it. But they are currently seeing the worst outbreak in more than two years which has raised questions about the zero-Covid strategy. So how long can China hold on to this goal? Find out here.
Post-primary school pupils in Northern Ireland no longer need to wear face coverings in classrooms. The rule introduced during the pandemic has been dropped, bringing Northern Ireland into line with the rest of the UK and the Irish Republic.
Councillor Jennifer Burke-Davies says remote council meetings introduced during the pandemic meant she could attend and watch her children. She believes this change has been helpful with childcare. And one academic says this surge in virtual meetings could boost the number of women in local government. Here's the full story.
Here are the full details about who will be offered a Covid booster this spring.
You can find more information, advice and guides on our coronavirus page.
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Sir David Amess MP murder trial hears accused targeted Michael Gove - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | A trial hears the man accused of killing Sir David Amess also carried out research on Michael Gove. | Sir David Amess was fatally stabbed during a constituency surgery in October
An "Islamist terrorist" accused of murdering Sir David Amess MP carried out reconnaissance on other potential targets including cabinet minister Michael Gove, his trial heard.
Sir David, MP for Southend West, was stabbed during a constituency surgery in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, on 15 October.
Ali Harbi Ali stabbed Sir David repeatedly in an "assassination for terrorist purposes", the jury heard.
The 26-year-old from London denies murder and preparing acts of terrorism.
Opening the trial at the Old Bailey in London, prosecutor Tom Little QC described the defendant as a "radicalised Islamist terrorist" and called it a "murder carried out because of a warped and twisted and violent ideology".
"This was nothing less than an assassination for terrorist purposes," he said.
"It is a crime to which, we say, he has no defence."
Moments before the stabbing the defendant's phone made a sound and he said "sorry" before repeatedly stabbing the MP, the prosecution said.
A post-mortem examination showed Sir David suffered 21 stab wounds to his face, arms, legs and torso, as well as injuries to both hands that were consistent with defending himself.
Ali Harbi Ali "had for a number of years been determined to carry out an act of domestic terrorism", the Old Bailey heard
The court heard Mr Ali had requested an appointment with Sir David under the pretence he was moving to the area and he provided a postcode to verify this.
Mr Little told jurors that Mr Ali appeared "relaxed and chatty" as he walked over to Sir David just before he "brutally" stabbed him in a "vicious and frenzied attack" shortly after midday on 15 October.
Two people arriving for the next appointment heard cries for help from the MP's aides while Mr Ali continued to wave a bloody knife shouting "I killed him, I killed him", the court was told.
Mr Little said the defendant then shouted to those in the church: "I want him dead. I want every Parliament Minister [sic] who signed up for the bombing of Syria who agreed to the Iraqi war to die."
Ali Harbi Ali sat impassively in the dock of Court Two at the Old Bailey as the jury heard how he had given a clear account at the scene of the attack, why he had allegedly done it and how he would then wait for armed police to arrive and shoot him dead.
But this wasn't central London, but quiet suburban Leigh-on-Sea.
So instead, the first responders were two local officers - PCs Scott James and Ryan Curtis - and the jury watched transfixed by the body-worn video of what happened next.
Witnesses warned the officers they would be attacked if they entered. But with a Taser team still minutes away and firearms even further behind, PCs James and Curtis decide to risk their own lives in the hope of saving Sir David's.
Carrying just their batons and incapacitating spray, they enter the church, see the assailant - and then scream at him, with some choice expletives, to drop the knife.
The attacker suddenly does so and a split second later he is rushed to the ground and pinned down, cuffed and his rights are read.
There was nothing the officers could do to save Sir David.
The defendant was then heard on the phone saying: "I've done it because of Syria. I've done it because of the innocent people. I've done it because of the bombing. He deserved to die."
During a confrontation he refused to drop his knife and said he wanted to be shot and "I want to die; I want to be a hero".
Mr Little said that around the time of the attack, the defendant sent a long message to friends and family with a video relating to Raqqa in Syria.
Instead of firearms officers Mr Ali was initially confronted by two plain clothes Essex Police officers, the court heard.
Mr Little said the pair "bravely decided" to enter the building armed only with a baton and incapacitant spray.
He added: "The defendant hoped that he would be shot, killed, a martyr for the terrorist cause.
"However, this was not outside the Houses of Parliament, central London, but Leigh-on-Sea and the first police attenders were not firearms officers but PC Scott James and PC Ryan Curtis."
In his police interview Mr Ali allegedly told officers how he remembered stabbing Sir David "a few times in the places where I stabbed him" adding: "You don't send off a bunch of messages saying that you're committing a terror attack if you don't actually commit a terrorist attack."
Sir David was pronounced dead at the scene in Leigh-on-Sea in his Southend West constituency in Essex
Sir David, first elected as a Conservative MP in Basildon in Essex in 1983, was pronounced dead at the scene, where Mr Ali was arrested by police.
Mr Little said: "This is a case involving a cold and calculated murder, a murder carried out in a place of worship.
"It was a murder carried out by that young man [Mr Ali] who for many years had been planning just such an attack and who was, and is, a committed, fanatical, radicalised Islamist terrorist."
Mr Little said the attack was "no spur-of-the-moment decision", and said Mr Ali bought the knife used to attack Sir David five years earlier.
He said: "He had for a number of years been determined to carry out an act of domestic terrorism."
Mr Little said the defendant had researched a list of "523 MPs who carried out a vote to carry out airstrikes in Syria", using the website theyworkforus.com.
He carried out reconnaissance trips including six different visits to Michael Gove's address in west London in 2021.
Evidence recovered from his phone suggested he had been on the road where the secretary of state for communities and levelling up lived, the prosecution said.
A note entitled "plans" from 2019, examined possible ways to attack Mr Gove including bumping into him while the MP for Surrey Heath was out jogging.
Data from the defendant's mobile phone also placed him in the proximity of the Houses of Parliament seven times between July and September 2021, the court was told.
Mr Little told the jury: "Being blunt about it, he's not a tourist... looking at Big Ben and taking some photographs.
Trips to a constituency surgery of the Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green in London, Mike Freer, had also been carried out by Mr Ali a month before Sir David was stabbed, the court heard.
Mr Ali had also researched Justice Secretary Dominic Raab and Labour leader Keir Starmer QC in September 2021, said Mr Little.
The jury heard he then researched Southend-on-Sea and Sir David Amess in September before looking for train companies for a journey from Barking to Leigh-on-Sea on 14 October, the day before Sir David was stabbed.
The preparing acts of terrorism charge relates to activity alleged to have been carried out between 1 May 2019 and 28 September 2021.
Mr Ali, of Kentish Town, north London, appeared in the dock wearing a black robe and black-rimmed glasses.
The jury were told by the prosecution that Mr Ali's mental health did not form any part of his defence.
The trial was adjourned until Tuesday.
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Ukraine: What have been Russia's military mistakes? - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Senior Western defence and intelligence experts outline the battlefield errors made by Moscow. | Russia has one of the largest and most powerful armed forces in the world, but that has not been apparent in its initial invasion of Ukraine. Many military analysts in the West have been surprised by its performance on the battlefield so far, with one describing it as "dismal".
Its military advances appear to have largely stalled and some now question whether it can recover from the losses it has suffered. This week, a senior Nato military official told the BBC, "the Russians clearly have not achieved their goals and probably will not at the end of the day". So what has gone wrong? I have spoken to senior Western military officers and intelligence officials, about the mistakes Russia has made.
Russia's first mistake was to underestimate the strength of resistance and the capabilities of Ukraine's own smaller armed forces. Russia has an annual defence budget of more than $60bn, compared with Ukraine's spending of just over $4bn.
At the same time, Russia, and many others, appear to have overestimated its own military strengths. President Putin had embarked on an ambitious modernisation programme for his military and he too may have believed his own hype.
A senior British military official said much of Russia's investment had been spent on its vast nuclear arsenal and experimentation, that included developing new weapons such as hypersonic missiles. Russia is supposed to have built the world's most advanced tank - the T-14 Armata. But while it has been seen on Moscow's Victory Day Parade on Red Square, it has been missing in battle. Most of what Russia has fielded are older T-72 tanks, armoured personnel carriers, artillery and rocket launchers.
At the start of the invasion Russia had a clear advantage in the air, with the combat aircraft it had moved near the border outnumbering Ukraine's air force by more than three to one. Most military analysts assumed the invading force would quickly gain superiority in the air, but it has not. Ukraine's air defences are still proving effective, limiting Russia's ability to manoeuvre.
Moscow may have also assumed its special forces would play an important role, helping deliver a quick, decisive blow.
A senior Western intelligence official told the BBC that Russia thought it could deploy lighter, spearhead units like the Spetsnatz and VDV paratroopers, "to eliminate a small number of defenders and that would be it". But in the first few days their helicopter assault on Hostomel Airport, just outside Kyiv, was repelled, denying Russia an airbridge to bring in troops, equipment and supplies.
On the parade ground but not the battleground - Russia's T-14 Armata tank
Instead, Russia has had to transport its supplies mostly by road. This has created traffic jams and choke points which are easy targets for Ukrainian forces to ambush. Some heavy armour has gone off road, only to get stuck in mud, reinforcing an image of an army that has become "bogged down".
Meanwhile, Russia's long armoured column from the north that was captured by satellites has still failed to encircle Kyiv. The most significant advances have come from the south, where it has been able to use rail lines to resupply its forces. The UK Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, told the BBC that President Putin's forces "have lost the momentum".
"They're stuck and they are slowly but surely taking significant casualties."
Russia had amassed a force of around 190,000 troops for this invasion and most of those have already been committed to the battle. But they have already lost about 10% of that force. There are no reliable figures for the scale of either Russian or Ukrainian losses. Ukraine claims to have killed 14,000 Russian troops, though the US estimates it is probably half that number.
Western officials say there is also evidence of dwindling morale among Russian fighters, with one saying it was "very, very, low". Another said the troops were "cold, tired and hungry" as they had already been waiting in the snow for weeks in Belarus and Russia before they were given the order to invade.
Russia has already been forced to look for more troops to make up for its losses, including moving in reserve units from as far afield as the east of the country and Armenia. Western officials believe it is also "highly likely" that foreign troops from Syria will soon join the fight, along with mercenaries from its secretive Wagner group. A senior Nato military official said this was a sign it was "scratching the bottom of the barrel".
Russia has struggled with the basics. There is an old military saying that amateurs talk tactics while professionals study logistics. There is evidence that Russia has not given it enough consideration. Armoured columns have run out of fuel, food and ammunition. Vehicles have broken down and been left abandoned, then towed away by Ukrainian tractors.
Western officials also believe Russia may be running low on some munitions. It has already fired between 850 and 900 long-range precision munitions, including cruise missiles, which are harder to replace than unguided weapons. US officials have warned Russia has approached China to help address some of its shortages.
Defence support announced by the US is expected to include the Switchblade "kamikaze" drone
In contrast, there has been a steady flow of Western-supplied weapons going into Ukraine, which has been a boost for its morale. The US has just announced it will be providing an additional $800m in defence support. As well as more anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, it is expected to include Switchblade, which is a small, US-developed, "kamikaze" drone that can be carried in a backpack before being launched to deliver a small explosive at targets on the ground.
Western officials still warn that President Putin could "double down with greater brutality". They say he still has enough firepower to bombard Ukrainian cities for a "considerable period of time".
Despite the setbacks, one intelligence official said President Putin was, "unlikely to be deterred and may instead escalate. He likely remains confident that Russia can militarily defeat Ukraine". And while the Ukrainian forces have shown fierce resistance, that same official warned that without significant resupplies they too could "eventually be spent in terms of ammunition and numbers". The odds may be better than when the war first started, but they still seem stacked against Ukraine. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-60798352 |
Murder charge after body found buried in Northampton garden - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Fiona Beal has been charged with murder after being arrested at a hotel in Cumbria. | Forensic teams have been at a house in Northampton
A woman has been charged with murder after a body was found buried in a garden.
The body was found in the garden of a house in Moore Street, Kingsley in Northampton, on Saturday.
Fiona Beal, 48, was charged with murder just after midnight after being arrested at a hotel in Cumbria on Wednesday.
The body is believed to be that of a 42-year-old missing man.
Ms Beal, of Moore Street, is due to appear at Northampton Magistrates' Court on Monday.
Northamptonshire police said they began searching the property after being called to the house on Wednesday.
The remains are expected be taken to Leicester for examination
Forensic officers and specialist search teams, including a cadaver dog, were deployed and the body found on Saturday afternoon, the force said.
The remains are expected be taken to Leicester where they will be forensically examined by a Home Office pathologist.
Det Ch Insp Adam Pendlebury said: "Regrettably, I can confirm that a body has been found in the rear garden of the address.
A police scene remains in place at the house on Moore Street
"We believe it to be that of a missing 42-year-old male, but formal identification has yet to take place."
He asked anyone with information to come forward.
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Climate change: IPCC scientists to examine carbon removal in key report - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | There's likely to be a new emphasis on technology to suck CO2 from the air in IPCC report on mitigation. | UN scientists are likely to weigh up technology to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, as they gather to finalise a key report.
This idea will be one of many solutions considered over the next two weeks by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Also in attendance will be government officials from all over the world, who will need to approve every line in the summary report.
It is due to be published on 4 April.
This new study will be the third of three important reports from the IPCC issued over the past eight months. The previous two have looked at the causes and impacts of climate change, but this one will focus on mitigation - or what we can do to stop it.
This essentially means that researchers will look at how we can reduce the amount of warming gases that are emitted from human activities.
Carbon removal technology, such as at this installation in Iceland, will be examined
However, the IPCC co-chair says this mitigation report will look more closely at ways of removing CO2 that's already in the atmosphere.
"We have a lot more material, this time on carbon dioxide removal. That is, not putting carbon into the atmosphere, but getting it out again," said Prof Jim Skea, from Imperial College, London.
"The report was scoped out to cover the full spectrum of carbon dioxide removal approaches, which vary absolutely hugely, and the carbon dioxide that is removed can end up in very different stores and in very different places. So it was within the scope of the report to cover the whole lot, basically."
The kind of carbon removal approaches the report will consider will likely include tree planting and agriculture, as well as the more advanced technological approaches that use large machines to remove the carbon from the air.
They will also look at combined approaches, where land is used to grow crops which can be burned for energy while the carbon is captured and buried.
The use of these types of technology is controversial. Campaigners express doubts that they can be made to work economically and there are also concerns that technology could be seen as an excuse not to make the major changes in energy production that are needed.
Scientists though say that the situation is now so serious that carbon dioxide removal will be needed in addition to massive cuts in emissions and not as a substitute for them.
What ultimately emerges in the short summary for policymakers that will be published in two weeks, will depend on delicate negotiations with government representatives from 195 countries.
Researchers and officials will work through the summary line by line to agree the final text.
Prof Jim Skea is one of the co-chairs of the latest IPCC report
There are some concerns that the war in Ukraine might have an impact on the meeting, with representatives from both Russia and Ukraine due to take part.
"We have been running some informal meetings with governments to brief them ahead of the actual approval session," said Prof Skea.
"I would be optimistic that we would get full participation."
The new report, part of a regular review of the science dating back to 1990, will also have a new focus on the social aspects of cutting carbon.
"This chapter looks at the social science perspective of demand, and what motivates individual consumers, communities, businesses, to make responsible consumption, reduction, design and investment choices," said Dr Joyashree Roy, from Jadavpur University and the lead author of this part of the report.
"Responsible production and consumption are also within the scope of this chapter, and we have also been asked to look into what are the drivers of behaviour change."
There will be much focus on short term actions that governments can take in the remaining years of this decade to keep the rise in global temperatures under 1.5C this century.
This was assessed in 2018 as needing emissions to be cut in half by 2030 - but after the pandemic and with the likely ramping up of fossil fuel use in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine, the scale of emissions cuts may need revising upwards.
Despite this, the report will likely emphasise that there is hope that the worst impacts of climate change can be avoided, if urgent action is taken.
Solutions such as planting mangroves or trees to absorb carbon will be considered
Prof Skea says the summary will not be "unremitting doom and gloom."
"What I think we have to convey in our report is that the activities of humans have caused climate change, but human beings also have the agency to do something about it."
"And that I think is a really big part of the messaging for the report." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60798220 |
UK government mulls move to take over Gazprom unit - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The BBC understands the UK division of Russian gas giant Gazprom could be placed into administration. | Many English councils have already said they intend to end their deals with the Russian energy giant
The UK arm of Russian gas giant Gazprom could be placed into administration in the coming days, the BBC understands.
Bloomberg reported the government is preparing to step in and temporarily run Gazprom Marketing & Trading Retail Ltd, which supplies thousands of organisations across the UK.
It is understood the government is looking at all options and monitoring the situation closely.
One possibility could be to put the company into special administration, where it is temporarily run on behalf of the government.
Last November, the UK energy company Bulb was placed into special administration, with £1.7bn in government funds set aside to keep it trading.
The company's UK retail operation does not sell gas from its parent company in Russia, but a number of companies and councils are thought to be trying to end their contracts with the company in protest at Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Gazprom itself has also been sanctioned by the UK government.
Earlier this month, a number of councils in England told the BBC they were looking to end their Gazprom contracts as soon as possible.
According to the public services data firm Tussell, UK public sector contracts amounted to £107m in total between 2016 and 2021.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid also urged NHS trusts to stop using energy supplied by Gazprom.
A government spokesperson would not be drawn on its plans for Gazprom's UK unit but said the UK "was in no way" dependent on Russian gas.
"Our highly diverse sources of gas supply and a diverse electricity mix ensures that households, businesses, and heavy industry get the energy they need," they said.
"We are aware that Gazprom Energy has a large presence in the non-domestic energy retail market.
"Gazprom's retail business continues to trade in the UK and customers should exercise their own commercial judgement with regards to energy supply contracts they have in place at the moment."
Gazprom has been approached for comment.
A spokesperson for McDonald's said it was trying to exit its deal "at the earliest opportunity" while Siemens UK said it was looking at the terms of cancelling supply contracts with Gazprom Marketing & Trading Retail.
"We support the severe and broad sanctions applied by western governments and are ensuring that we act in compliance with them," it said. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60825804 |
Grenfell tragedy: Government is failing to act on inquiry report, says London mayor - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Delay puts lives at risk, says Sadiq Khan as he says London Fire Brigade have made changes asked of them. | The mayor of London says the government has "failed to complete" any of the 12 recommendations directed at them during phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower inquiry.
Labour's Sadiq Khan said it was "vital the government act now" and pointed out London Fire Brigade has made 26 of the 29 requested of it in 2019 report.
A government spokesman called the claim "unfounded" and said progress was being made on implementing their response.
Seventy-two people died in the fire in a west London tower block in June 2017.
The initial report into the Grenfell Tower fire was published on 30 October 2019, following the conclusion of phase 1 of the inquiry - which looked at the events of the night of the fire, focusing on the fire itself, how it started and spread, and the emergency response to it.
The mayor said London Fire Brigade (LFB) had carried out all but three of the 29 recommendations directed at them - alongside other fire and rescue services - in the report three years ago.
Among the changes made by LFB in response to the report was the introduction of smoke hoods - to aid in the rescue of people in smoke-filled environments - and the deployment of 32m and 64m ladders to help tackle fires in high-rise buildings .
It has also rolled out an extensive training programme as it establishes new guidance for how the brigade responds to high-rise fires, including when the "stay put" guidance is no longer viable and a mass evacuation should be carried out, said the mayor.
The LFB was criticised in the report for its failure to revoke the "stay put" advice - in which residents were told to remain in their individual homes as the fire raged through the 24-storey tower block.
Speaking on Sunday, Mr Khan said London Fire Brigade had made "significant changes" and appeared committed to putting the recommendations in place "as swiftly as possible".
"However, I am extremely concerned the government has failed to complete a single recommendation from the first phase of the inquiry," he added.
"It is vital that the government and the housing and building industries act now and do not wait for the inquiry's next report to take action on such an important issue."
"Without faster action, the government is failing the Grenfell community, putting lives at risk and leaving residents feeling unsafe in their homes.
"The government, housing and building industries must not wait to implement the wholesale reforms that are needed to fix a broken system," said the mayor, adding no dates had been put forward by government.
Grenfell Tower marked the greatest loss of life in a residential fire since the Second World War
"This claim is unfounded," said a spokesperson for the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, in response to Mr Khan.
"The government is making progress towards implementing the Grenfell Tower Inquiry's Phase 1 recommendations.
"We're introducing the biggest improvements in building safety for a generation- with tougher regulations that will give more rights and protections for residents and make homes safer.
The statement pointed out that a newly-established building safety regulator will enforce tighter rules on high-rise residential buildings.
In the report, inquiry chairman and retired judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick included 12 recommendations aimed primarily at the government. These recommendations include vital changes to legislation and national guidelines on building regulations, including those that relate to fire safety.
The government accepted in principle all the recommendations, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson promising at the time of publication "not to allow the lessons of this tragedy to fall through the cracks" adding that Westminster would "legislate accordingly".
It was created to examine the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the fire at Grenfell Tower on the night of 14 June 2017.
The investigation has been separated into two phases: Phase 1 focused on the factual narrative of the events, and concluded on 12 December 2018.
Phase 2 is examining the causes of these events, including how Grenfell Tower came to be in a condition which allowed the fire to spread in the way identified by Phase 1. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60816108 |
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: Why has she been freed now? - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | London-Tehran relations are better, and Iran no longer feels it needs Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe as leverage. | It is almost six years since Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was first detained by the Iranian authorities in April 2016.
Since then there were repeated attempts to secure her release - all failed. So why has she now come home?
The basic answer is London-Tehran relations are better than they have been.
The International Revolutionary Guard and Iran's judiciary no longer feel they need Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe for leverage in relations with the UK.
She was a diplomatic pawn held hostage by the Iranian authorities to put pressure on London.
If Tehran wanted to make nice, they would treat her well, give her access to medical help, perhaps increase the frequency of visits, possibly even allow her a temporary furlough from jail.
If Tehran wanted to exert pressure on London, then her conditions might worsen and privileges might be withdrawn.
The UK paying the historic £400m debt for tanks sold but not delivered will have made a huge difference.
For years, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) claimed the two issues were not connected. But in practice, the Iranians made them one and the same issue.
Some in the FCDO had wanted to pay the debt but were prevented initially by reluctance within the Treasury and the United States, fearing it would reward hostage-taking and even fund terrorism.
There were also fears the US would penalise any British financial institution that paid the money to the Iranian defence ministry in breach of international sanctions.
There is also the sheer relentlessness of the families' campaigning and the UK's diplomacy.
At first there were mistakes, such as Boris Johnson's false claim that Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been training journalists in Iran, a claim that prompted Iran to level fresh charges.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (right), pictured with her husband Richard and daughter Gabriella, who is now seven, was first detained by Iranian authorities in April 2016.
But the tireless campaigning by Nazanin's husband, Richard Ratcliffe, and others kept up the pressure on the UK government.
And that was reflected by the work of British diplomats behind the scenes, refusing to let Iran forget about the case.
There was almost a deal to release the detainees last year. It fell through. But since then British diplomats have visited Iran several times to try to reach a fresh agreement.
Iranian officials at their Ministry of Foreign Affairs were frequently frustrated that this dispute got in the way of the rest of the UK-Iran relationship.
Mr Ratcliffe campaigned for his wife's release, including by going on hunger strike outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office last October.
But the Iranian diplomats were not in charge - the IRGC and the judges were.
Eventually, enough people with the Iranian government seemed to have realised that a permanently hostile relationship with the UK was not in Tehran's best interests.
That might apply directly to the talks taking place in Vienna, designed to revive the agreement under which Iran limited its nuclear activities in return for seeing economic sanctions lifted.
Iran's economy has been suffering, Iran clearly wants to agree a new deal, better relations with the UK might make that happen.
The deal has still not been agreed but diplomats say agreement is getting close.
And in recent weeks, during the Ukraine conflict, Britain and Iran's interests have also come closer together.
If sanctions can be lifted and Iran can start selling its oil again, that could help reduce global energy prices.
That is in the interests of both the UK and Iran. In that context, both sides might want to clear the diplomatic decks and make a deal more likely. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60768437 |
Ukraine war: 'Tanks in streets' as fighting hits Mariupol centre - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | Street fighting hampers efforts to rescue civilians trapped in a bombed theatre, the mayor says. | Russian attacks have damaged or destroyed 80% of Mariupol's residential buildings, the mayor says
Efforts to rescue hundreds of people trapped in the basement of a bombed theatre in the besieged city of Mariupol are being hampered by intense battles in the area, the mayor says.
Vadym Boychenko told the BBC teams were only able to clear the rubble of the building during lulls in the fighting.
Ukrainian officials say Russia attacked the site, which was clearly marked as a civilian shelter. Moscow denies it.
Russian forces have encircled the city, which has no electricity, water or gas.
About 300,000 people are trapped inside, as food and medical supplies run out and Russia blocks the entry of humanitarian aid. Russian attacks have hit a hospital, a church and countless apartment blocks, with local officials estimating that about 80% of residential buildings are either damaged or destroyed, a third of them beyond repair.
Mariupol has seen some of the fiercest battles since Russia invaded Ukraine, three weeks ago. The location of the port city, on the Sea of Azov, is strategic for Russia, as it would help it create a land corridor between the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, controlled by Russian-backed separatists, and Crimea, the peninsula it invaded and annexed in 2014.
"[There is] street fighting in the city centre," Mr Boychenko said, confirming a claim made by Russia on Friday, when it said it was "tightening the noose" around the city.
"There are tanks... and artillery shelling, and all kinds of weapons fired in the area," the mayor said. "Our forces are doing everything they can to hold their positions in the city but the forces of the enemy are larger than ours, unfortunately."
Communication with the city is difficult, with the phone network said to be operational only a few hours a day. Amid unrelenting Russian attacks, residents spend most of their days in shelters and basements, rarely coming outside.
Mr Boychenko said, in a previous interview, that there was no city centre left. "There isn't a small piece of land in the city that doesn't have signs of war," he said.
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The intense fighting means it is too dangerous for teams to clear the rubble of the destroyed theatre and rescue people from the basement, which withstood Wednesday's attack. "There's no opportunity to do that," Mr Boychenko said. "When it gets quiet for a bit, rubble is being cleared and people get out."
He said he could not provide an update on how many had already left the site. A day earlier, the country's human rights ombudsman said 130 people had been rescued, and that about 1,300 remained trapped.
Satellite images showed the Russian word for "children" had been emblazoned on the ground in two locations outside the imposing Soviet-era building, indicating the place was being used as a civilian shelter. Most of those inside are elderly people, women and children, who are living squeezed in dark rooms and corridors.
In a video address released on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said some of the people rescued were "seriously wounded" but that, at the moment, there was no information of deaths.
A picture of the theatre in Mariupol before the bombing, with the word "children" in Russian clearly visible
President Zelensky also accused Russia of a "war crime" for blocking the access of humanitarian aid to the besieged cities. "This is a totally deliberate tactic," he said. "They [Russian forces] have a clear order to do absolutely everything to make the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities an 'argument' for Ukrainians to co-operate with the occupiers."
The authorities in Mariupol say at least 2,500 people have been killed in the city since the start of the war, although they acknowledge that is an underestimate. Some of the dead are being left on streets, as it is too risky to collect them. Many end up being buried in mass graves.
Mr Boychenko, the Mariupol mayor, said 40,000 people had managed to leave the city in the last five days, and that 20,000 others were waiting to be evacuated. Residents are fleeing in private vehicles, he said, as attempts to create official humanitarian corridors have broken down, with Ukraine accusing Russia of attacking the city despite agreeing to ceasefires.
• None 'We knew something terrible was coming' | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60806973 |
Ukraine war: Boris Johnson sparks fury after comparison to Brexit - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | But chancellor Rishi Sunak says it was "general observations about freedom", not a direct comparison. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Boris Johnson has been criticised for comparing the struggle of Ukrainians fighting Russia's invasion to people in Britain voting for Brexit.
In a speech he said Britons, like Ukrainians, had the instinct "to choose freedom" and cited the 2016 vote to leave the EU as a "recent example".
The comments have caused anger among politicians both in the UK and Europe.
Donald Tusk, the former president of the European Council, called the comments offensive.
Conservative peer Lord Barwell said voting in a referendum was not "in any way comparable with risking your life" in a war, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said it was an "insult" to Ukrainians.
The row comes as the prime minister strongly urged China to condemn the Russian invasion in an interview with the Sunday Times. He suggested Beijing was having "second thoughts" about its neutral stance.
Mr Johnson likened the Ukrainians' fight to Brexit in a speech to the Conservative Party's spring conference in Blackpool on Saturday.
He said: "I know that it's the instinct of the people of this country, like the people of Ukraine, to choose freedom, every time. I can give you a couple of famous recent examples.
"When the British people voted for Brexit in such large, large numbers, I don't believe it was because they were remotely hostile to foreigners.
"It's because they wanted to be free to do things differently and for this country to be able to run itself."
Mr Johnson also cited as an example British people choosing to get vaccinated against coronavirus because they "wanted to get on with their lives" and "were fed up with being told what to do by people like me".
But his remarks, intended to rally the Tory faithful, attracted criticism from political figures in the UK and Europe.
Mr Tusk tweeted "Boris, your words offend Ukrainians, the British and common sense", while Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister and the European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator, said the comparison was "insane".
Asked about Mr Johnson linking the plight of Ukraine to Brexit, Chancellor Rishi Sunak told the BBC's Sunday Morning programme: "I don't think the prime minister was making a direct comparison between these two things - clearly they're not directly analogous."
"He was making some general observations about people's desire for freedom," he added.
Mr Sunak said the prime minister had been galvanising global opinion to send a strong message to Vladimir Putin, and "that's the thing we should be focused on".
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves called for the prime minister to withdraw his comments and apologise.
She told the BBC: "The people of Ukraine, who are fighting for their lives - in any way to draw a parallel to voting to leave the European Union, it is shameless."
She pointed out that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wanted to join the EU - and that "he clearly sees no such parallel".
Lord Barwell, who served as Theresa May's chief of staff in No 10, said: "Apart from the bit where voting in a free and fair referendum isn't in any way comparable with risking your life to defend your country against invasion, and the awkward fact the Ukrainians are fighting for the freedom to join the EU, this comparison is bang on."
Ukraine applied for fast-track membership of the European Union last month, shortly after the Russian invasion.
Mr Zelensky said on Friday he had spoken to the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and expected progress to be made on its application in the coming months.
Others who criticised Mr Johnson's comments included Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, chair of the defence select committee, who tweeted: "Comparing the Ukrainian people's fight against Putin's tyranny to the British people voting for Brexit damages the standard of statecraft we were beginning to exhibit."
The Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed called the prime minister a "national embarrassment", adding: "To compare a referendum to women and children fleeing Putin's bombs is an insult to every Ukrainian. He is no Churchill: he is Basil Fawlty."
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said Mr Johnson's comments were "crass and distasteful".
Meanwhile in his interview with the Times, Mr Johnson has urged China to join in the global condemnation of Vladimir Putin's invasion.
He warned Beijing that supporting Russia was akin to choosing the wrong side in World War Two, describing it as a battle between good and evil.
Mr Johnson told the paper that he believed some in Xi Jinping's administration were having "second thoughts" about the neutral stance adopted by Beijing.
It comes just a few days after the US warned China that it would face consequences if it helped Russia evade sanctions.
"As time goes on, and as the number of Russian atrocities mounts up, I think it becomes steadily more difficult and politically embarrassing for people either actively or passively to condone Putin's invasion," Mr Johnson said.
"There are considerable dilemmas now for people who thought they could sit this one out, who thought they could sit on the fence."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Boris Johnson says he has told Volodymyr Zelensky he will do more to help Ukraine in its war with Russia | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60809454 |
Police send over 100 questionnaires on No 10 parties - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | The Met says officers have begun interviewing people about the lockdown gatherings in Downing Street. | The government has faced intense pressure over gatherings held in and around Downing Street during Covid lockdowns. A police investigation into several of the events has now concluded, with more than 100 fines having been issued to attendees. Here is what we know about the gatherings and the restrictions in place at the time:
A photo from May 2020 showed the prime minister and his staff with bottles of wine and a cheeseboard in the Downing Street garden. When asked about it, Boris Johnson said "those people were at work talking about work". Boris Johnson was pictured with his wife Carrie as well as Downing Street staff Legal restrictions at the time said you could not leave your house without a reasonable excuse and government guidance was that you could meet one person outside of your household in an outdoor setting while exercising. This event was not investigated by the police. About 100 people were invited by email to "socially distanced drinks in the No 10 garden this evening". Witnesses told the BBC the PM and his wife were among about 30 people who attended. Boris Johnson apologised to MPs for attending the event, saying he spent 25 minutes thanking staff, before returning to his office. The police investigation determined that this event did breach the rules in place at the time. A gathering took place in the Cabinet Office to mark the departure of a No 10 private secretary. The police investigation determined that this event did breach the rules in place at the time. We know at least one fine has been issued after the government's former head of ethics admitted receiving one and apologised for attending the event. On Boris Johnson’s birthday, up to 30 people gathered in the Cabinet Room at No 10 to present the prime minister with a birthday cake and sing Happy Birthday, according to a report by ITV News. No 10 said staff had "gathered briefly" to "wish the prime minister a happy birthday", adding that he had been there "for less than 10 minutes". Restrictions at the time banned most indoor gatherings involving more than two people. The police investigation determined that this event did breach the rules in place at the time. We know at least three attendees have received fines from the police, with the PM, his wife Carrie Symonds and Chancellor Rishi Sunak all confirming they have paid fixed penalty notices. Two gatherings are understood to have taken place in Downing Street on this date: one to mark the departure of a special adviser and one in the Downing Street flat. According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, the gathering in the flat where Mr Johnson and his wife live was to celebrate the departure of Dominic Cummings, the PM's former senior adviser. A spokesman for Mrs Johnson denies the party took place. Boris Johnson pictured at a party, according to ITV News Eight days earlier Boris Johnson had announced a new lockdown in England. Indoor gatherings with other households were banned, unless they were for work purposes. The police investigation determined that an event on this date did breach the rules in place at the time but they have not confirmed whether it was one or both of the events. A leaving event was held for No 10 aide, Cleo Watson, where people were drinking, and Mr Johnson made a speech, according to sources. This event was not investigated by the police. The Department for Education has confirmed it had an office gathering to thank staff for their work during the pandemic. It says drinks and snacks were brought by those who attended and no outside guests or support staff were invited. Eight days earlier, London had been placed in restrictions which banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless "reasonably necessary" for work purposes. This event was not investigated by the police. The Conservative Party has admitted that an "unauthorised gathering" took place at its HQ in Westminster. It was held by the team of the party's London-mayoral candidate, Shaun Bailey, who has since stepped down as chair of the London Assembly police and crime committee. In December, police said they would be contacting two people who attended the party. The gathering at the Conservative Party headquarters was described as ‘raucous’ This event was not included in Sue Gray's report. Multiple sources have told the BBC there was a Christmas quiz for No 10 staff last year. A photo - published by the Sunday Mirror - shows Boris Johnson taking part and sitting between two colleagues in No 10. Mr Johnson has denied any wrongdoing. Mr Johnson was pictured in the No 10 library under a portrait of Margaret Thatcher The rules: At this time, the rules in London banned two or more people from different households from meeting indoors, unless "reasonably necessary" for work purposes. This event was not investigated by the police. The Department for Transport has apologised after confirming reports of a party in its offices, calling it "inappropriate" and an "error of judgment" by staff. This event was not included in Sue Gray's report. A leaving party was held at the Cabinet Office for the outgoing head of the civil service Covid taskforce - the team responsible for drawing up coronavirus restrictions. Kate Josephs, now chief executive of Sheffield City Council, apologised for the event, saying she was "truly sorry that I did this and for the anger that people will feel as a result". A second gathering was held in the Cabinet Office to hold an online Christmas quiz for the Cabinet Secretary’s private office. A third gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of a No 10 official The police investigation determined that an event on this date did breach the rules in place at the time but they have not confirmed whether it was one or all of the events. Downing Street originally denied a report by the Daily Mirror that a party took place in Downing Street on this date. However, a video obtained by ITV News showed the prime minister's then-press secretary Allegra Stratton joking about reports of the event, saying: "This fictional party was a business meeting and it was not socially distanced." The police investigation determined that this event did breach the rules in place at the time. A gathering was held in No 10 Downing Street to mark the departure of two private secretaries. The police investigation determined that this event did breach the rules in place at the time. Two parties were held by Downing Street staff at No 10, the night before Prince Philip's funeral. One of the events was a leaving party for the PM's then director of communications James Slack, who has apologised for the event and acknowledged it "should not have happened at the time that it did". Boris Johnson was not at either party. The rules had been eased in England on 12 April, but working from home continued to be recommended and socialising indoors with people from other households was not allowed. Meeting others outdoors was limited to groups of six people or two households. The police investigation determined that an event on this date did breach the rules in place at the time but they have not confirmed whether it was one or both of the events. We know fines have been issued to some people who attended Mr Slack’s leaving party, but we do not know who they were issued to. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60827451 |
Mariupol theatre: 'We knew something terrible would happen' - BBC News | 2022-03-21 | A woman who left Mariupol's theatre a day before the bombing says Russia had been targeting the area. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Civilians are said to be emerging alive from the ruins of a theatre that, according to Ukrainian authorities, was bombed by Russia in the city of Mariupol. Despite pictures of devastation at the scene, many who were sheltering there are thought to have survived in a basement that withstood Wednesday's attack.
For 10 days, that basement was a refuge for Kate, a 38-year-old Mariupol native, and her son, who is 17. Their own home, like many others in the besieged city, had been destroyed by Russian attacks, and they thought the Donetsk Regional Theatre of Drama was a place where they would be relatively safe.
Mother and son squeezed in the building's dark rooms, corridors and halls with dozens of other families. Some women, Kate said, carried babies that were just four or five months old.
"In the beginning, it was really tough, because we didn't have a well-organised food supply. So on the first two days, adults didn't have any food," Kate, who used to work at the city's zoo shop and did not want to give her full name, said. "We gave food only to the children."
They slept on improvised beds made with soft parts of auditorium seats which had been put together on the floor. The seats made of wood, she said, were cut in parts and used as firewood for them to cook. "Around the theatre there wasn't enough trees we could use, and it was too dangerous to go outside".
For almost three weeks, Mariupol has been under constant shelling by Russian forces, which have completely surrounded the city. About 300,000 people are trapped, with no electricity, gas or running water. Food and medicine are running low, as Russia has prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Four days after she arrived, Kate said, Ukrainian forces managed to send some food supplies and a field kitchen to the theatre, and "we [started] cooking something". They would have soup, and sometimes oatmeal, for lunch, and tea with biscuits for dinner.
The imposing Soviet-era building in Mariupol's city centre, next to the Sea of Azov waterfront, had been designated as a shelter for civilians. Sergei Orlov, the city's deputy mayor, said up to 1,200 people had been there. Human Rights Watch, citing interviews with evacuees, put that number at between 500 and 800.
As Russia's relentless assault continued, Kate said the buildings around the theatre had been either damaged or destroyed. "We knew we had to run away because something terrible would happen soon," she said.
A day before the attack, Kate and her son left the site. "We jumped in a car while the theatre and the area were being shelled," she said. They shared the vehicle with a family of four, who had brought four dogs and a cat.
"We asked to go with them, because we didn't have our own [car]," she said. They were part of convoy of about 2,000 cars that escaped Mariupol on Tuesday.
Mariupol city council said a Russian plane dropped a bomb on the theatre, calling the attack "deliberate and cynical". Russia denied it had targeted the site but, in Mariupol alone, its attacks had already hit several civilian buildings including a hospital, a church and countless apartment blocks.
Satellite images released by the US company Maxar taken on Monday showed that the Russian word for "children" had been marked on the ground in large letters in two locations outside the building, to warn Russian jets away.
A convoy of cars carrying evacuees from Mariupol arrives in the city of Zaporizhzhia
Video of the aftermath showed smoke billowing from the building's collapsed façade. But with communications with the city almost completely cut off, the numbers of survivors or possible casualties were still not clear, almost 20 hours later.
Dmytro Gurin, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and originally from Mariupol, said the shelter in the basement of the building withstood the attack, and that teams were trying to clear the rubble which covered the entrance to the site. "It looks like most of them have survived and are OK," he said.
But the rescue efforts were tricky, he said, as Russia had continued to attack the area. "Shelling never stops and artillery never stops and airplanes are dropping bombs," he said, "so it's really difficult".
The city council estimates about 80% to 90% of the city's buildings have either been damaged or destroyed by Russia, which has attacked the city almost non-stop since it invaded Ukraine, three weeks ago. Entire neighbourhoods have been turned into wasteland.
Local authorities say at least 2,400 people have been killed in Mariupol, although they acknowledge this is likely to be an underestimate. Many of the dead are being buried in mass graves.
After leaving Mariupol, Kate was headed to the city of Lviv, in western Ukraine, a region that has been largely spared of attacks. "The first day after we managed to get out, I couldn't talk. We all just cried", she said. "But now it feels like there are no tears left. I don't think this pain will ever disappear."
Are you or your family in Ukraine? Please share your experience if it is safe to do so by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:
If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60776929 |
Pushchair passed over heads in desperate train station scenes - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The BBC's Fergal Keane is in the city of Lviv where refugees are waiting for a train out of Ukraine. | The BBC's Fergal Keane is at Lviv train station, where refugees are waiting for a train to take them out of Ukraine into Poland.
In the background, a pushchair can be seen being passed over the heads of people queuing to get onto the station platform. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60563045 |
Car reverses into Birmingham jewellery shop during ram-raid - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | An onlooker films the moment the pick-up smashes into the store, before passers-by are threatened. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Masked men armed with axes have ram-raided a jewellery shop and threatened onlookers as they made their escape.
The robbery happened in Ladypool Road, Birmingham, and West Midlands Police said three vehicles had since been recovered.
Jawad Rana, who owns a travel agents next to the jewellers, said everyone had backed off when one of the men had started swearing and threatening to attack people with his axe.
Nobody was hurt in the raid.
Jawad Rana said he had felt the building shake when the pick-up was reversed into the neighbouring jewellery store
Mr Rana said he had felt the building shake when the men reversed their vehicle in to the jewellery shop.
"You do sort of panic, you know, what can you do? I was frozen and I just picked up this bag and sort of threw the bag at the vehicle," he added.
"This guy with an axe suddenly comes running past and sort of started swearing and said 'nobody get involved or try to help or I'm coming at you with this axe'."
Mr Rana added it was "very shocking and it's not something you'd expect in broad daylight".
West Midlands Police has asked for people with CCTV, dashcam, or mobile footage of the raid to get in touch.
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The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-60610950 |
Ukrainian city of Mariupol 'near to humanitarian catastrophe' after bombardment - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The deputy mayor of Mariupol says he believes hundreds of people have died in the Russian onslaught. | Emergency services in the aftermath of a strike on a TV tower in Kyiv on Tuesday that killed five
The key Ukrainian port city of Mariupol was "near to a humanitarian catastrophe" on Wednesday after more than 15 hours of continuous bombardment by Russian forces, the city's deputy mayor told the BBC.
"The Russian army is working through all their weapons here - artillery, multiple rocket launch systems, airplanes, tactical rockets. They are trying to destroy the city," Serhiy Orlov said.
Mr Orlov said Russian forces were several kilometres from the city on all sides and had launched strikes on key infrastructure, cutting water and power supplies to parts of the city. One densely populated residential district on the city's left bank had been "nearly totally destroyed", he said.
"We cannot count the number of victims there, but we believe at least hundreds of people are dead. We cannot go in to retrieve the bodies. My father lives there, I cannot reach him, I don't know if he is alive or dead."
Russian forces had targeted strikes against pump stations and electrical transformers, Mr Orlov said, and there were food shortages in parts of the city - raising fears of an approaching humanitarian crisis.
Mariupol is a key strategic target for Russia because seizing it would allow Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine to join forces with troops in Crimea, the southern peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. Ukraine's army has resisted Russian forces so far in key parts of the country but the increased aerial bombardment of cities has raised fears Russia is shifting tactics.
"The Ukrainian army is very brave and they will continue to defend the city but the style of the Russian army is like pirates - they do not fight with their army, they just destroy entire districts," Mr Orlov said.
"We believe in our Ukrainian army, but we are in a terrible situation."
Russia's invasion of Ukraine took a heavy toll on civilians on Wednesday as residential neighbourhoods in several large cities were bombed. Ukraine's emergency services said more than 2,000 civilians had been killed so far during the Russian invasion, though the BBC was not able to independently verify the figure. The UN said on Tuesday that at least 136 civilians had been killed, but it estimated that the actual number was higher.
There were fears on Wednesday that the death toll would rise dramatically as Russian troops appeared to surround the country's second-largest city, Kharkiv, and the port city of Kherson.
Ukrainian forces said Russian paratroopers had landed near Kharkiv on Wednesday, leading to street fighting on the outskirts of the city. Local officials said a cruise missile hit a city council meeting, blowing off the top of the building and wounding three. At least 18 people have been reported killed in the city in the past day.
A fire at the a Kharkiv university building after it was hit by a Russian missile on Wednesday
Residents in Kharkiv told the BBC they were experiencing heavy aerial bombardment. "It is exhausting and terrifying living under this pressure," said Iryna Ruzhynska, 40, who was sheltering with her family in her second-floor apartment on Wednesday.
"We have put Scotch tape on the windows and pillows by the window stills," Ms Ruzhynska said. "We don't turn on the lights, only the torches on our phones. We managed to go to the store yesterday, but we queued for four hours and there was virtually no food left."
The Russian defence ministry claimed its forces were in control of Kherson, a city of nearly 250,000 people just north of Crimea, but local authorities said the city was still under Ukrainian control, despite being surrounded. Video footage verified by the BBC appeared to show Russian troops in the centre of Kherson.
Larysa Pavlovska, a 58-year-old paramedic in Kherson, told the BBC her part of the city was quiet on Wednesday but other parts were smouldering after intense overnight shelling, adding that some residential districts had been "bombed out".
"Local residents say Russian armoured vehicles can be seen moving in the city, people say about 50 units," she said. "They have been spotted by the state regional administration building."
Inesa Chamlai, the deputy head of the emergency aid centre in Kherson, said Russian troops had prevented them taking a wounded 55-year-old man to hospital. The man had stepped on a mine and lost his leg, Mr Chamlai said.
"Our ambulance team was dispatched but was then prevented by Russian troops from taking the man to hospital," he said. "The soldiers ordered to bring him back to his house where he will definitely die."
There were also growing fears in the capital, Kyiv, over a 40-mile long convoy of Russian military vehicles just 15 miles north of the city, though US officials said on Wednesday the column was barely moving.
In Irpin, close to Kyiv, residential buildings have been destroyed
Russia's air force struck a television mast in the capital on Tuesday, killing five people at the site of a Nazi massacre which killed more than 33,000, mostly Jews, while a missile strike west of Kyiv, in the city of Zhytomyr, killed four people including a child, a Ukrainian official said.
In a video message on Wednesday, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky, who is Jewish, condemned the strike at the site of the massacre, accusing the Russians of trying to "erase" Ukrainians.
"They know nothing about our capital. About our history. But they have an order to erase our history. Erase our country. Erase us all," he said.
A UK government spokesperson said Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to Mr Zelensky on Wednesday "to condemn the abhorrent attacks on Ukraine in the recent hours and days".
In an address on Tuesday, the US president Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "dictator" and promised "robust action to make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted at Russia's economy".
Nearly a week after invading, Russia is facing increasing economic turmoil at home as it is hit by increasing sanctions. The Moscow Stock Exchange remained closed for the third day in a row on Wednesday as authorities tried to limit the impact of the sanctions.
"The Russian economy has suffered a serious blow," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, insisting that it was "still standing".
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If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60585603 |
Which companies are pulling out of Russia? - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Reputational risk and practical difficulties means the exodus of firms is growing but some remain. | Thirty years ago when communism collapsed in the Soviet Union, Western firms stepped up their presence in Russia.
The arrival of big Western companies symbolised the start of a new era with Russians becoming eager consumers of brands ranging from fast-food chain McDonalds to Levi jeans and luxury goods.
Now, in the wake of President Putin's invasion of Ukraine, a growing number of firms have suspended activities in Russia.
So which firms, in which sectors, are exiting and why have others held back?
McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Heineken are the latest companies to announce they are halting business in Russia after mounting pressure to act.
McDonald's said it was temporarily closing its roughly 850 restaurants in Russia, while Starbucks also said its 100 coffee shops would shut.
The firms were initially remained tight lipped over the conflict, but took action because shareholders "wouldn't stand" for the continued generation of profits from Russia, says Anna MacDonald, a fund manager at Amati Global Investors.
"It was affecting their share prices and the feeling was that it was just utterly inappropriate to continue to do so," she told the BBC.
Pepsi, which has a much larger presence in Russia than rival Coca-Cola, said it was halting the production and sale of Pepsi and other global brands in Russia, but the company, which employs 20,000 people there, said it would continue to offer other products.
Food companies Nestle, Mondelez, Procter & Gamble and Unilever have halted investment in Russia, but said they would continue providing essentials.
British American Tobacco has announced it plans to sell its business in Russia due to it being "no longer sustainable in the current environment".
The world's biggest cosmetics firm L'Oreal and rival Estee Lauder are both closing shops and ceasing online sales. Estee Lauder, whose brands include Michael Kors, DKNY, Clinique and Bobbi Brown, has had a presence in the country for about 30 years and Russia was where it had some of its strongest sales.
In fact, Russia was the fifth largest European retail market globally last year, valued at £337.2bn. So some brands may not want to burn their bridges, if there's a chance of returning at a later date.
That is why many firms, including other luxury retailers like Burberry and Chanel, simply say they are "suspending" sales and temporarily shutting stores rather than withdrawing altogether, says Chris Weafer, chief executive of consulting firm Macro-advisory Limited.
With sanctions limiting forms of payment and huge uncertainty over future prices and consumer appetite, the business climate is "extremely challenging" he adds, making the decision to hit pause easier.
The world's biggest fashion retailers H&M and Zara-owner Inditex, which has 502 stores in the country, for example have already suspended sales in Russia, citing "tragic developments" in Ukraine. Other brands like Nike have simply said they can't currently guarantee delivery of goods to customers in Russia.
More brands are likely to follow suit, according to Maureen Hinton of retail consultancy GlobalData. Boohoo, Swedish furniture giant Ikea and Japanese clothing retailer Uniqlo which initially kept its 49 Russian stores open, saying clothes were a "necessity of life", are some of the other names to have now cut ties.
Even Levi's, the jeans brand that became a symbol of post-Soviet business in Russia, has closed its shops. The all-American jeans firm said about 4% of its total net sales came from Eastern Europe and Russia last year, but "any business considerations are clearly secondary to the human suffering experienced by so many".
Samsung, the leading supplier of smartphones in Russia, has said it will suspend shipments to the country but has not said whether its shops will close.
Japan's Sony and Nintendo suspended deliveries of gaming consoles, and Sony suspended the launch of racing game "Gran Turismo 7".
Apple has also halted all of its product sales in Russia, and limited other services such as Apple Pay and Apple Maps. Its shops have closed too.
All shops under the Re:store in Moscow have been shut as Apple halts all product sales in Russia
For a firm like Apple selling imported items, that's a relatively straightforward decision to take, suggests Macro-advisory's Chris Weafer.
"Companies do not want to be associated with the Russian regime and what's happening in Ukraine," he says. Their Russian business may be profitable, but "the rest of the world is more important" when it comes to reputational risk.
Some tech companies, flooded by misinformation, are also restricting Kremlin-linked media outlets posting on their platforms. Facebook was blocked in Russia after it said it had refused to stop fact-checking and labelling content from state-owned news organisations.
Meanwhile, TikTok has blocked all non-Russian content in Russia and suspended live streaming, although it is allowing historical content uploaded by domestic accounts to stay online, including videos by state-backed media services.
Large consultancy and law firms were some of the first to set up a presence in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union but they mostly operate out of the spotlight.
All of the Big Four accounting groups - Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) - have said they will no longer have a member firm in Russia because of the invasion. Top-tier law firm Freshfields says it will no longer work with any clients linked to the Russian state either.
Others say they are reviewing their client base and Russian links.
A senior executive for consultancy firm McKinsey, for example, wrote online that the company would "no longer serve" any government or state-owned entities in Russia. According to McKinsey's website, it serves 21 of the 30 biggest Russian companies.
When the conflict in Ukraine broke out, energy firms came under immediate pressure. And that is set to intensify now the UK, US and UK have announced bans or curbs on Russian oil and gas.
BP owns a large stake in Russian energy giant Rosneft, but within days of the war starting it had announced the operation would be hived off.
That was closely followed by pledges from Shell, ExxonMobil and Equinor to cut their Russian investments following pressure from shareholders, as well as from governments and the public.
A Rosneft oil rig drilling the first exploration well in the Khatanga Bay, Russia
Firms want to be seen to be doing the "right thing", says Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.
Meanwhile, Total Energies, another big player in Russia, has said it won't fund new projects in the country, but unlike its peers does not plan to sell existing investments.
It is still far from clear what will happen to those investments - whether they can eventually be sold, recouping some of their value, or if they will simply be written off at great cost.
Film fans in Russia wanting to go and see Warner Bros' new blockbuster The Batman won't be able to after the company suspended new film releases in the country.
The US movie-maker was joined by Disney and Sony, with premieres of animation Turning Red and Marvel adaptation Morbius also being withdrawn. Disney has also paused its TV channels.
Netflix, a fairly new entrant in Russia, has suspended its service in the country and put all "future projects" on pause.
Pixar's new animated film Turning Red won't be released in Russia
All companies said their decisions were based on the "humanitarian crisis" in Ukraine, rather than as a result of sanctions that have been imposed.
All three of the world's major record labels - Sony, Warner and Universal - have closed their offices in Russia, and Spotify has announced it is cancelling its subscription service, although the free, ad-funded version will still work.
Payment giants Visa, Mastercard, American Express and PayPal are pulling out of the Russian market in protest.
Russian banks have, however, already downplayed the impact of the announcements on their clients.
Sberbank, for example, said that Visa and Mastercard-branded cards would continue to work on Russian territory because all payments in Russia are made through a national system.
However, domestically issued cards won't work abroad, and foreign-issued ones won't work inside the country.
US investment bank Goldman Sachs was the first Wall Street bank to say it was winding down its Russian business. The bank, soon followed by JPMorgan, said it was doing so in compliance with regulatory and licensing requirements.
German lender Deutsche Bank, which had faced criticism for defending plans not to withdraw, has also said it was taking steps to exit, pledging "there won't be any new business in Russia".
Jaguar Land Rover, General Motors, Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce are among the car-makers that have halted deliveries of vehicles to Russia due to the conflict, while construction equipment manufacturer JCB has paused all operations.
Jaguar Land Rover said sales were paused due to "trading challenges"
Cars are the biggest UK export to Russia, but still only 1% of UK cars went to Russia last year.
So any decision to stop exporting won't be particularly costly, and will have been made easier by nagging concerns over whether or not payments will arrive, says investment analyst Russ Mould.
Transporting cars to Russia could prove difficult anyway, with the world's two largest cargo shipping companies, MSC and Maersk, suspending routes to and from Russia, except for food, medical and humanitarian supply deliveries.
While the flood of announcements from companies stepping back goes on, there are calls for more to join them.
Attention has turned to big food firms like Burger King who have condemned Russia's actions and have pledged support for Ukraine, but are yet to pull out.
Some firms will also find it much harder to extricate themselves, even if pressure mounts in the coming days and weeks.
In retaliation against sanctions introduced by Western countries, Moscow has banned the sale of Russian assets. So firms that, in recent years, have been encouraged to establish a presence in Russia are "locked in" with local businesses, staff and supply chains.
Marks & Spencer, for example, has 48 shops in Russia but they are operated by a Turkish franchise company called FiBA. M&S has said it is suspending shipments of its goods to FiBA's Russian business, but the shops in the country remain open.
Restaurant Brands International, which owns Burger King, told the BBC its Russian outlets were operated by franchisees with which it had "long-standing legal agreements" that were not easy to change.
Yum Brands, which owns KFC and Pizza Hut, said it was suspending operations in the Russian KFC restaurants it owns, and finalising an agreement with its main franchisee to temporarily halt Pizza Hut operations.
Mr Weafer predicts it is likely that some large consumer brands may express concerns over the military conflict, but try to "ride it out". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60571133 |
Ukraine invasion: Crowd surround car with Russian markings - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Watch as a crowd in the north-eastern city of Kupiansk try to stop the vehicle from leaving. | This video has no sound.
Watch the moment a crowd of people in the city of Kupiansk surround what's believed to be a Russian vehicle.
Kupiansk is in north-eastern Ukraine near the Russian border.
Video shows locals running towards the car and trying to stop it from leaving, with one person climbing on to the bonnet. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60584602 |
Ukraine: How a week of war has transformed lives - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Our chief international correspondent on the seven days that sparked a burning patriotic resolve in Ukraine. | Living in the basement - Rustam, Liana, Vera, and Tyson the cat
Seven days which sparked a burning patriotic resolve in Ukraine, which propelled people the world over, from presidents and prime ministers, bankers and business leaders, football stars to figure skaters, artists and activists, to stand up and be counted to condemn Russia's aggression.
The Russian rouble collapsed, the UN General Assembly called on Moscow to pull out; Russian leaders denounced this "Russiaphobic frenzy". And, on the ground, swathes of Europe's second-largest country were reduced to smoking ruins, a harrowing echo of Russia's blistering campaigns in Grozny and Aleppo.
In the days before Russia invaded Ukraine, Kyiv was a European city of golden-domed cathedrals gleaming in the night, brightly-lit restaurants serving steaming bowls of borsch, corner kiosks pouring coffee behind frosty winter windows.
And the world was a place where many thought a blitzkrieg across a border was only history's business. At the Munich Security Conference, many a government minister quietly told me "I just don't think it will happen". And, of course, not against the capital.
But in her home in Kyiv, 37-year-old Liana was ready with bags packed, including some books; clothes ironed, enough money from an ATM to last a while. Her mother Vera refused to do the same. Her friends poked fun at her. But Liana's son Rustam, a bespectacled 13-year-old wired to his smartphone, was ready too.
In the dead of night on Thursday 24 February, in a city which couldn't sleep, rumours and reports electrified social media and exploded in chat groups.
This snippet "Russian action will begin at 4am" shot through cyberspace with the kind of chilling precision Western intelligence reports had used for weeks to warn of "an imminent invasion" by nearly 200,000 Russian troops and heavy weaponry now massed along the borders.
Local flights kept cancelling, parents wondered if they should take their children to school in the morning, journalists started asking each other if they were staying.
By 05:00, posts cascaded across the internet - "hearing thuds" in Kyiv, Kramatorsk, Melitopol, Chernobyl, Odessa. The list was long.
At 05:58, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted "Putin has launched a full-scale invasion". Hours earlier, President Vladimir Putin had announced the start of a "special military operation" in eastern Ukraine.
At 06:00 Liana called her mother. "I told you so. Are you packed?"
By nightfall, roads out of Kyiv were gridlocked. Homes were emptied of energy as a city went underground, to basements and bomb shelters, to subway stations with marble stairways and magnificent mosaics built deep below in the 1960s to also double as Cold War bunkers.
It was a day which ended the tidy life of Liana, who runs a small office supply company, and terrified her mammoth Maine Coon cat, who found he couldn't live up to his namesake - the US professional boxer Mike Tyson known as Iron Mike.
I met them all in a cavernous basement in the city centre, two floors below ground, where our BBC team also took shelter. A tight-knit family, including mother Vera with a shock of red hair and an even warmer smile, took up residence on thin mats on the hard floor next to ours.
"It was a difficult night," declared champion boxer-turned-mayor Vitali Klitschko as the day dawned on Saturday with news that Russian forces were now advancing on Ukrainian cities from the north, east, and south. "Russian troops are not in our city," he reassured "Kyivians" who woke - if they slept at all - asking that very question.
His rallying cry was amplified hours later, on that day, and every day after, by the comedian-turned-president-in-a-suit-turned-wartime-leader-in-olive-green-attire. "We won't lay down our arms,' President Volodmyr Zelensky declared, rebuffing "fake news" that he'd done the opposite.
"Are you worried?" I asked Liana. "I can't be sad, I must be hopeful to support our president," she exclaimed in her own act of resistance underground. Tyson, however, was hiding upstairs, under a bed. And Liana worried about her father living north of the capital, in a village close to Chernobyl, now occupied by Russian forces. He'd crept out of his home last night, crawling through fields under cover of darkness, to see Russian troops throwing tarpaulin over heavy weaponry to hide them from view.
In Kyiv, air raid sirens were now blaring day and night, a chilling soundtrack of the city. A weekend curfew came in force. We discreetly rigged up a smartphone to broadcast from the basement where at least five dogs, including Kurt a puffy white Pomeranian named after the American singer-songwriter, and Andrew, a trembling Yorkshire terrier, never seemed to bark.
On Sunday, Liana and Vera rushed pell-mell toward me. "What happened?" I asked, trying to suppress a note of worry. "Thank you, thank you!" they shouted excitedly, words tumbling over the other. Their friends in the US, Britain, and the UAE had sent them screenshots of our BBC broadcast.
There they were, in the corner of the screen, quietly sitting along the wall. "Now they know we're safe!" they gushed, reflecting that surge of anxiety worldwide in the large Ukrainian diaspora as the invasion intensified.
But news from Liana's father was ominous. He could hear Russian tanks rumbling past, heading south towards Kyiv. His electricity was now cut; he cooked potato soup outside, on an open fire in sub-zero temperatures, all the while trying to hide the flame.
By Monday, when the weekend curfew lifted, satellite images shared by Maxar technology revealed a massive Russian armoured column, stretching along 40 miles (64km) of road, stopped just 20 miles from Kyiv. The plight of other cities was even more foreboding. Residential areas of Kharkiv, the second largest city to the west, were being pounded - so was Chernihiv to the north.
Thin mats have been replaced by mattresses in this new subterranean world - Ukraine beds down and digs in. All through the night, smartphones glow under covers. Liana, like everyone else, connects incessantly with friends and family across Ukraine and beyond.
A Russian missile has slammed into her father's vegetable garden, smashing his sustenance for the long run. Rustam, intense at the best of times, is now an extension of his phone saturated by everything Ukraine. Sometimes Tyson the cat emerges from under his bed above ground for a comforting cuddle.
Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has vowed to continue the offensive until "its goals are achieved".
It's been a week of war. Unparalleled sanctions imposed on Russia are being described as economic war. A war crimes investigation has already been launched, and everyone everywhere is taking a stand. Even the International Feline Federation (FIFe) has banned the import of any Russian breeds of cats.
The southern city of Kherson has fallen. Mariupol is encircled by Russian forces, without electricity, running water, or enough food. The armoured convoy north of Kyiv still hasn't made its move.
And Liana is in a flood of tears. "Eight Russian soldiers barged into my father's house last night looking for cigarettes, and they've taken over his house," she wails. She hears a story about a family who tried to flee and was shot dead on the spot. They're looking for young men able to fight. She says her elderly father sits in a chair and doesn't dare move.
In some areas, whole neighbourhoods have been obliterated by Russian firepower or seem to be under its sway.
Now it's the second week. More than a million Ukrainians have fled. Many are staying to pick up guns to fight. "We are the nation that broke the plans of the enemy in the first week," boasts President Zelensky in his latest video message, still dressed in olive-green.
President Putin announces his "special military operation is going according to plan", vowing to "destroy this anti-Russia created by the West".
Last night Kyiv was rocked by explosions, coming ever closer to city centre, which painted the sky orange. When the night curfew lifts, Liana and her mother Vera make a dash to the shops to check for supplies - including cat food - on fast-emptying shelves. Then she settles in to try to read the tome she packed for what could be a long and anxious haul. It's a Russian-language version of Homer's the Iliad, a rare book given two centuries ago to Russia's Catherine the Great, the empress known for bringing Russia into Europe's cultural and political life. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60604787 |
Met officer Adnan Arib jailed for seeking relationship with teenage girls - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Adnan Arib contacted two girls, aged 15 and 16, after meeting them while on duty. | The judge told Arib he was trying to gain the girls' trust to pursue some sort of sexual relationship
A Met officer who used his position to try to start a sexual relationship with "vulnerable" teenagers has been jailed for two years.
PC Adnan Arib, 45, contacted two girls, aged 15 and 16, after meeting them while on duty.
He met the 15-year-old in a park and sent the older girl dozens of text messages saying she was "very pretty".
The married officer had previously been found guilty of two counts of misconduct in a public office.
Jurors at Southwark Crown Court heard he continued contact with the 15-year-old after first being called to the girl's flat by her mother, who had accused her of stealing £10, in July 2019.
During a conversation in the teenager's bedroom, Arib asked the girl to write her phone number, name and other details on a piece of paper, the court was told.
He then met the girl alone in a park and asked her if she had a boyfriend. He suggested taking her out for a drink, which made the 15-year-old feel "uncomfortable", the jury heard.
In a victim statement, the girl's mother said Arib's actions meant "we don't feel secure in our own home".
Arib was based at Bethnal Green police station at the time of the offences
He also asked the 16-year-old girl for her phone number and if she was in a relationship, prosecutors said.
The girl first came into contact with Arib after being reported as a missing person, the court was told.
Arib invited her out after she had been brought into Bethnal Green police station in east London.
Officers later found 47 text messages had been sent between them on a phone he initially tried to deny was his.
He told jurors he had been "naive and foolish" but said he believed offering careers guidance to the two girls was part of his wider policing duties.
Judge Deborah Taylor said: "What is clear from the evidence in this case is that there was a sexual undertone to your behaviour.
"Once the jury had rejected your explanation, the only inference is you were trying to gain their trust to pursue some sort of sexual relationship.
"They were both vulnerable, and in your treatment of them you abused the public's trust in you as a police officer."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60605687 |
Ukraine: Estonian cargo ship sinks after blast in Black Sea - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | All six-crew members of the Helt have been saved after an explosion near Ukraine's port of Odesa. | The ship was said to be without cargo when it sank
An Estonian cargo ship has sunk off the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa after an explosion, the ship's owners say.
All six crew members of the Helt were able to abandon ship and Ukrainian officials said they were later rescued.
The vessel had been anchored off the coast after leaving port several days ago.
Ukrainian media say the Russian navy had been using the Helt as a shield to hide from Ukrainian weaponry as Russian forces advance towards Odesa.
The Panama-flagged ship is owned by Estonia-based company Vista Shipping Agency. Baltic state Estonia is a member of Nato and has a border with Russia.
Ukraine's military says that Russia is sending amphibious landing vessels to capture Odesa, a city of a million people and a major seaport, as it continues its advance across southern Ukraine.
Russia describes the invasion as a "special military operation" to demilitarise the country.
A Ukrainian official told Lloyd's List the ship was evacuated after sustaining damage below the waterline and listing by 70 degrees.
Captain Igor Ilves, managing director of Vista Shipping Agency, told the BBC there was an explosion on or near the ship but that it was not thought to be a mine.
Capt Ilves, who was not on the ship at the time, said it was not carrying any cargo.
He expressed concern for the fate of the crew, some of whom were initially reported missing.
They comprised four Ukrainians, one Russian and one Belarusian, Capt Ilves added.
Ukraine's infrastructure ministry later reported on its Telegram channel that they had been rescued.
Viktor Vyshniov, deputy head of Ukraine's Maritime Administration, told Reuters they were taken to hospital in the nearby town of Chornomorsk.
Hours earlier, a Bangladeshi-owned ship was hit by an explosion in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Olvia, killing one crew member.
Efforts were being made to rescue the remaining 28 crew of the Banglar Samriddhi, the ship's owner told Reuters.
The Nato Shipping Centre has warned commercial vessels in the northern part of the Black Sea to "exercise caution and stay away from areas where military operations are taking place". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60606515 |
Ukraine: How might the war end? Five scenarios - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | What are some of the possible scenarios that politicians and military planners are examining? | Amid the fog of war, it can be hard to see the way forward. The news from the battlefield, the diplomatic noises off, the emotion of the grieving and displaced; all of this can be overwhelming. So let us step back for a moment and consider how the conflict in Ukraine might play out. What are some of the possible scenarios that politicians and military planners are examining? Few can predict the future with confidence, but here are some potential outcomes. Most are bleak.
Under this scenario, Russia escalates its military operations. There are more indiscriminate artillery and rocket strikes across Ukraine. The Russian air force - which has played a low-key role so far - launches devastating airstrikes. Massive cyber-attacks sweep across Ukraine, targeting key national infrastructure. Energy supplies and communications networks are cut off. Thousands of civilians die. Despite brave resistance, Kyiv falls within days. The government is replaced with a pro-Moscow puppet regime. President Zelensky is either assassinated or flees, to western Ukraine or even overseas, to set up a government in exile. President Putin declares victory and withdraws some forces, leaving enough behind to maintain some control. Thousands of refugees continue to flee west. Ukraine joins Belarus as a client state of Moscow.
This outcome is by no means impossible but would depend on several factors changing: Russian forces performing better, more of those forces being deployed, and Ukraine's extraordinary fighting spirit fading. Mr Putin might achieve regime change in Kyiv and the end of Ukraine's western integration. But any pro-Russian government would be illegitimate and vulnerable to insurgency. Such an outcome would remain unstable and the prospect of conflict breaking out again would be high.
Perhaps more likely is that this develops into a protracted war. Maybe Russian forces get bogged down, hampered by low morale, poor logistics and inept leadership. Maybe it takes longer for Russian forces to secure cities like Kyiv whose defenders fight from street to street. A long siege ensues. The fighting has echoes of Russia's long and brutal struggle in the 1990s to seize and largely destroy Grozny, the capital of Chechnya.
Chechens during the Russian occupation of Grozny
And even once Russian forces have achieved some presence in Ukraine's cities, perhaps they struggle to maintain control. Maybe Russia cannot provide enough troops to cover such a vast country. Ukraine's defensive forces transform into an effective insurgency, well-motivated and supported by local populations. The West continues to provide weapons and ammunition. And then, perhaps after many years, with maybe new leadership in Moscow, Russian forces eventually leave Ukraine, bowed and bloodied, just as their predecessors left Afghanistan in 1989 after a decade fighting Islamist insurgents.
Might it be possible this war could spill outside Ukraine's borders? President Putin could seek to regain more parts of Russia's former empire by sending troops into ex-Soviet republics like Moldova and Georgia, that are not part of Nato. Or there could just be miscalculation and escalation. Mr Putin could declare Western arms supplies to Ukrainian forces are an act of aggression that warrant retaliation. He could threaten to send troops into the Baltic states - which are members of Nato - such as Lithuania, to establish a land corridor with the Russian coastal exclave of Kaliningrad.
The square outside Kharkiv's city hall has been destroyed by Russian troop shelling
This would be hugely dangerous and risk war with Nato. Under Article 5 of the military alliance's charter, an attack on one member is an attack on all. But Mr Putin might take the risk if he felt it was the only way of saving his leadership. If he was, perhaps, facing defeat in Ukraine, he might be tempted to escalate further. We now know the Russian leader is willing to break long-standing international norms. This same logic can be applied to the use of nuclear weapons. This week, Mr Putin put his nuclear forces on a higher level of alert. Most analysts doubt this means their use is likely or imminent. But it was a reminder that Russian doctrine allows for the possible use of tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield.
Might there, despite everything, still be a possible diplomatic solution?
"The guns are talking now, but the path of dialogue must always remain open," said UN Secretary General António Guterres. Certainly dialogue continues. President Macron of France has spoken to President Putin on the phone. Diplomats say feelers are being stretched out to Moscow. And, surprisingly, Russian and Ukrainian officials have met for talks on the border with Belarus. They might not have made much progress. But, by agreeing to the talks, Putin seems to at least have accepted the possibility of a negotiated ceasefire.
The key question is whether the West can offer what diplomats refer to as an "off ramp", an American term for an exit off a major highway. Diplomats say it is important the Russian leader knows what it would take for Western sanctions to lift so a face-saving deal is at least possible.
Consider this scenario. The war goes badly for Russia. Sanctions begin to unsettle Moscow. Opposition grows as body bags return home. Mr Putin wonders if he has bitten off more than he can chew. He judges that continuing the war may be a greater threat to his leadership than the humiliation of ending it. China intervenes, putting pressure on Moscow to compromise, warning that it will not buy Russian oil and gas unless it de-escalates. So Mr Putin starts to look for a way out. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian authorities see the continuing destruction of their country and conclude that political compromise might be better than such devastating loss of life. So diplomats engage and a deal is done. Ukraine, say, accepts Russian sovereignty over Crimea and parts of the Donbas. In turn, Putin accepts Ukrainian independence and its right to deepen ties with Europe. This may not seem likely. But it is not beyond the realms of plausibility that such a scenario could emerge from the wreckage of a bloody conflict.
And what of Vladimir Putin himself? When he launched his invasion, he declared: "We are ready for any outcome."
But what if that outcome was him losing power? It might seem unthinkable. Yet the world has changed in recent days and such things are now thought about. Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at Kings College, London, wrote this week: "It is now as likely that there will be regime change in Moscow as in Kyiv."
A man is detained by police officers during a protest in Moscow against Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Why might he say this? Well, perhaps Mr Putin pursues a disastrous war. Thousands of Russian soldiers die. The economic sanctions bite. Mr Putin loses popular support. Perhaps there is the threat of popular revolution. He uses Russia's internal security forces to suppress that opposition. But this turns sour and enough members of Russia's military, political and economic elite turn against him. The West makes clear that if Putin goes and is replaced by a more moderate leader, then Russia will see the lifting of some sanctions and a restoration of normal diplomatic relations. There is a bloody palace coup and Putin is out. Again, this may not seem likely right now. But it may not be implausible if the people who have benefited from Mr Putin no longer believe he can defend their interests.
These scenarios are not mutually exclusive - some of each could combine to produce different outcomes. But however this conflict plays out, the world has changed. It will not return to the status quo ante. Russia's relationship with the outside world will be different. European attitudes to security will be transformed. And the liberal, international rules-based order might just have rediscovered what it was for in the first place. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60602936 |
‘Every child deserves to live in a free country’ - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Polish people in Northern Ireland are among those collecting supplies for people fleeing Ukraine. | Kinga Orkisz is part of a group of Polish people in Northern Ireland collecting supplies for refugees fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.
A lorry will takes these supplies to the Ukrainian border later this week.
Collections like this are being replicated across Northern Ireland.
The UN says more than half a million people have fled their homes as heavy fighting continues across the country.
Many Ukrainians have fled to neighbouring countries, including Poland. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60580390 |
Gender recognition reform bill tabled at Holyrood - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The government says changes are needed to make it easier for trans people to change their legal gender. | The Scottish government has tabled legislation at Holyrood to make it easier for people to change their legally recognised gender.
Ministers say the current process takes too long and is too invasive, causing distress to a vulnerable minority.
However campaigners have raised concerns about the changes potentially having an impact on women's rights.
Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison insisted the plans would not create new rights or change those women have now.
And with four out of the five parties at Holyrood backing reform in their election manifestos last year, the changes are likely to be approved by parliament in some form.
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill would make changes to the process by which people can obtain a gender recognition certificate (GRC) - the legal recognition of a trans person's "acquired" gender.
At present, people apply to a UK gender recognition panel and must provide a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria - a mismatch between the biological sex they were born with and the way they see and describe their gender - as well as evidence they have lived in their acquired gender for at least two years.
The Scottish government wants to change this so that applications are handled by the Registrar General for Scotland, with no need for medical reports and the waiting time reduced to a total of six months.
The age at which people can apply would be reduced from 18 to 16.
However, applicants would still need to swear that they intend to remain in their acquired gender for life, with a false declaration to be a criminal offence.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What reforms are being proposed and why have they proved so controversial?
Some groups have voiced concerns that the proposals could erode women's sex-based rights, and access to women-only spaces and services including hospital wards and refuges.
And the Equality and Human Rights Commission has urged the government to pause the reforms for more detailed consideration, saying the current GRC system "provides the correct balanced legal framework that protects everyone".
But Ms Robison told MSPs that "trans people in Scotland risk inequality, harassment and abuse simply for living their lives - they are amongst the most marginalised in our society".
She said the existing gender recognition system was "intrusive and invasive, overly complex and demeaning", saying that many trans people did not even apply due to this.
And she stressed that the new bill "does not introduce new rights or remove rights", or change public policy on single-sex services or access to toilets and changing rooms.
She said: "We are not introducing new rights for trans people, and importantly we are not removing or changing any for women and girls."
Opponents of the reforms have protested outside the Scottish parliament
Having been repeatedly delayed in previous years, the legislation now looks set to pass with the SNP-Green government holding a majority of seats at Holyrood.
And while some SNP politicians have previously questioned the plans, Labour and the Lib Dems are also in favour of a more streamlined system.
Both parties back removing the need for medical reports from the process, and say the plans should go further by also recognising non-binary people who identify as neither men nor women.
The Scottish Conservatives are the only party which did not specifically support reform in their 2021 election manifesto, and have called for women's rights to be "paramount" in the debate over gender reform.
MSP Meghan Gallacher said improvements to the system "would be beneficial for trans people", but said the proposals as drafted "do not protect women's rights".
She said: "They do not offer enough protection for women's safety. The concerns of women are legitimate. They are reasonable, they are honestly and sincerely held. The cabinet secretary should listen again to the valid concerns of women who feel their rights are under threat."
Ms Robison said MSPs should look at the evidence from countries which have passed similar reforms, saying that "all of the evidence shows that the threat to women's and girls safety comes from predatory and abusive men, not the trans community".
The legislation will first go to Holyrood's equalities committee for consideration - a process which may take several months before any votes are held in the chamber.
Both Ms Robison and Presiding Officer Alison Johnstone urged MSPs to be respectful in the debate of the bill.
This was echoed by Labour's Pam Duncan-Glancy, who said the discussion around trans rights had become "toxic for everyone involved".
She said more should be done to prevent "hateful and abusive rhetoric" from dominating. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-60589578 |
Russian oligarch's super yacht seized - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | French authorities implement sanctions but the UK faces criticism over delays. | French authorities have seized a super yacht owned by an oligarch as part of the sanctions against Russia.
A yacht owned by Igor Sechin, boss of Russian state energy company Rosneft, was grabbed by French customs officers near Marseille.
However, German authorities denied a report that they had seized a $600m vessel owned by Russian metal tycoon Alisher Usmanov in Hamburg.
On Thursday, Mr Usmanov was one of two more Russians sanctioned by the UK.
The BBC understands that some oligarchs sanctioned by the European Union are "shocked" to find their debit cards no longer function, and they are now relying on using cash from safes.
The French acted quickly on Wednesday when customs officers noticed that Mr Sechin's 88-metre "Amore Vero" - which translates as "true love" - was "taking steps to sail off urgently".
It arrived in in the Mediterranean port of La Ciotat in January and had been due to stay there while being repaired until 1 April.
It has also been reported that yachts belonging to five other Russian billionaires were heading to the Maldives, regarded as a safe home because it does not have an extradition treaty with the US.
The move by France came as the Prime Minister's official spokesman rejected claims that the UK has been slower at introducing sanctions than the EU or that legal hold-ups are preventing sanctions on Russian oligarchs.
He reiterated the UK's position that it was better to prioritise the measures that had the biggest economic impact, rather than targeting individuals just because they were well known.
Some oligarchs have been sanctioned by the government, which means their UK bank accounts are frozen and access to funds denied.
But others are taking advantage of any delay in adding them to its list.
A lawyer told the BBC that wealthy Russians were looking to move their money out of the UK before being hit by sanctions.
"The government has softened the blow by giving [wealthy Russians] time to move their money out," lawyer Nigel Kushner of W Legal told the BBC.
Speaking to the Today programme, he said: "Clients have been asking: 'Can I move my money out before I'm on the list?' I will say yes, that's perfectly legitimate."
The government's list of Russians sanctioned includes 195 individuals, but most predate the invasion of Ukraine.
Since the start of the war just 15 Russians have been added to the sanctions list, including President Vladimir Putin.
Security Minister Damian Hinds told the BBC that the wealth of Russian oligarchs with British investments would not prevent the UK Government from "going after" them.
"There will be more individuals (who) can be sanctioned," he told BBC Breakfast. "We will be going after people as needed."
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said legal threats would not prevent the UK government sanctioning Russian oligarchs.
In an interview in Lithuania, she said: "We have to make sure we have the right evidence to put in place those sanctions.
"We will continue to work through our list, we will continue to sanction oligarchs and there is nowhere for any of Putin's cronies to hide."
Meanwhile, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) has suspended the shares of 28 Russian-linked companies because of sanctions introduced following the invasion of Ukraine.
They include green energy and metals company En+ Group run by US-sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska, which is chaired by Conservative peer and former energy minister Greg Barker.
The decision to suspend the listings "has been based on sanctions and the ability to run an orderly market," said LSE chief executive David Schwimmer.
"If we see any other securities affected by sanctions then similar actions will take place."
Last week, a subsidiary of Russia's second largest bank, VTB, was suspended on the LSE as a result of sanctions.
However, a number of Russian companies, including Roman Abramovich-backed Evraz, continue to trade on the stock market despite criticism from politicians.
New economic sanctions have also been announced to stop Russian aviation and space companies getting access to the UK insurance market.
The move will limit the benefits Russian businesses can receive from their access to the global insurance and reinsurance market through Lloyd's, the world's biggest insurance market. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60604206 |
Northern Ireland's 'hidden homeless' living life in limbo - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | For thousands like Donald Dick, living in temporary accommodation is an ongoing struggle. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Donald Dick spent three years sleeping in cars and friends' sofas.
A man who spent three years sleeping in cars and on settees says having his own place to live is the "best feeling in the world".
Donald Dick was part of Northern Ireland's so-called hidden homeless - people who only have temporary accommodation.
While there is no official data, it is believed there are thousands of people like Donald in Northern Ireland.
He moved out of his parents' house because there wasn't enough room.
But he didn't have anywhere to go.
Donald said his experiences had been "rough".
"I was staying between my parents' home, which is overcrowded, and my mate's house," he said.
"I was sleeping in their car or some nights we would go and sleep in the studio, or sometimes I could go and sleep with my brother at his house.
"I slept in the car maybe once or twice a week. But sleeping in the car, there's no sleep at all, it's so rough."
Donald first went to the Housing Executive in 2015, but said there was no available accommodation.
"The Housing Executive made me fill in an application form and put me in the waiting list to start getting points, but the first two years the points were just the same," he explained.
"I was still going there, I'm still homeless, I'm not getting sorted or even to be put in accommodation. I just wasn't getting anywhere."
Three years later, in 2018, Donald moved to a hostel provided by homeless charity the Simon Community. In 2019, he got his own home.
Donald said he felt he was going nowhere with housing applications
"Without it, my life would be a mess, I would still be going in circles, going to my friend's house, sleeping in the street.
"If you keep living in that environment, it will just keep on getting worse."
There are no official statistics on hidden homelessness in Northern Ireland.
That's partly because people living at a friend or relatives' house are not always going to reach out for help.
Prof Ann-Marie Gray from Ulster University has worked on a report with the Simon Community.
"The only people that are counted as homeless in Northern Ireland are the people who meet the criteria for statutory homelessness. That's quite a tight criteria," she explained.
"If you're seen to have made yourself intentionally homeless then you're not counted in those figures and you don't receive help."
Prof Gray said when people present as homeless, the authorities should ask much more about their circumstances.
Prof Ann-Marie Gray said more help was needed at point of contact
"They should be obliged to do much more in terms of providing some support to stop those people from spiralling into homelessness which can sometimes last for years," she added.
Family fall-outs are not the only reason for people to come under the 'hidden homeless' umbrella.
The rising cost of living, low income, an increase in fuel prices or a hike in rent for those living in the private rented sector can all contribute to people not being able to afford their own home.
A long-term shortage in social housing also exacerbates the problem.
Prof Gray said: "With the housing crisis in Northern Ireland, particularly around affordability, there's no reason to expect that this problem will become any less - the opposite in fact.
"We know that there isn't sufficient housing supply in Northern Ireland, particularly of public sector housing.
"So people have to go to the private rented sector, and there are no rent controls currently on the private rented sector.
"We know from research that people are paying quite often considerably higher than what they get in housing benefit towards the cost of their housing."
The Simon Community, the organisation which helped Donald find his home, said there needs to be a better understanding of what hidden homelessness means.
Karen McAlister said there could be 100,000 'hidden homeless' people in NI
"There are estimations that up to 100,000 people are experiencing hidden homelessness," said Karen McAlister, head of research and development at the Simon Community.
"Northern Ireland is a very close knit society, we're always offering help and support, which actually means that people sleeping on sofas remain invisible."
Ms McAlister said it was crucial that people felt comfortable coming forward and that help was offered when they needed it most.
"I do believe we are in a housing and homelessness crisis," she added.
"If you look at the number of people in housing distress, in temporary accommodation and if today we're talking about up to 100,000 people in Northern Ireland experiencing hidden homelessness, yes I do call that a crisis." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60576166 |
RT: Russian-backed TV news channel disappears from UK screens - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The TV news network disappears as a result of sanctions imposed by the European Union. | RT has been removed from the airwaves in the UK and across the EU
Russian-backed news channel RT has disappeared from all broadcast platforms in the UK.
UK access to the TV network, formerly called Russia Today, has been affected by a ban imposed by the European Union.
Although the UK is no longer in the EU, the bloc applied sanctions to satellite companies in Luxembourg and France, which provided the RT feed to Sky, Freesat and Freeview.
RT said "the facade of free press in Europe has finally crumbled".
UK Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, who has described the channel as "Putin's polluting propaganda machine", said she hoped it would not return to UK screens.
"As part of a concerted effort and discussions, Russia Today is no longer streamed into British homes, either by TV, Sky, Freesat or Freeview," she told the House of Commons on Thursday.
"And we have contacted both [Facebook owner] Meta and TikTok to implore them to stop streaming Russia Today via their own online platforms.
"It is my absolute position that we will not stop until we have persuaded every organisation, based in the UK or not, that is the wrong thing to do to stream Russian propaganda into British homes."
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UK media regulator Ofcom is currently investigating RT for 27 potential breaches of its broadcasting code. The watchdog has the power to revoke a broadcast licence, but any action is likely to take weeks.
Ms Dorries added: "I am hoping that they expedite those investigations and that those investigations result in the removal of Russia Today's licence so that they're never again able or have the platform to broadcast their propaganda into the UK."
She also said: "Of course, politicians have absolutely no influence over the free press and nor should they. That is the responsibility of the regulator Ofcom. And the very first thing I did was wrote to Ofcom to urge them to review the output of Russia Today."
The culture secretary became emotional as she offered her "heartfelt thanks and admiration" to journalists working for the BBC, ITV and other news outlets "who are risking their lives to bring us unbiased and accurate news from a live war zone".
YouTube, which is owned by Google, has ramped up its sanctions on RT content
The EU said it was preventing RT and Sputnik, both state-owned broadcasters, from being received across Europe until the aggression towards Ukraine ends.
In a statement, the EU said RT and Sputnik promoted "systematic information manipulation and disinformation by the Kremlin".
In response to the channel's removal, RT deputy editor-in-chief Anna Belkina said: "Media regulation should be divorced from geopolitics, led by independent bodies and expert regulators, ensuring diversity in news and information sources is protected.
"Today, politicians in the EU have demonstrated their willingness to delegitimise independent regulators."
RT says it is an "autonomous" operation financed by the Russian Federation.
The removal of RT from the airwaves comes after YouTube blocked channels linked to RT and Sputnik across Europe.
"Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we're blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately," a statement from Google Europe said earlier this week.
Facebook has also blocked access to RT and Sputnik in Europe.
Sir Nick Clegg, the former UK deputy prime minister, is now vice president of global affairs at Facebook's parent company, Meta. He tweeted on Monday: "We have received requests from a number of governments and the EU to take further steps in relation to Russian state-controlled media.
"Given the exceptional nature of the current situation, we will be restricting access to RT and Sputnik across the EU at this time."
The BBC has set up shortwave radio frequencies to provide news to Ukraine's citizens
Meanwhile, the BBC has halted all content licensing with its Russian customers. The corporation's commercial arm BBC Studios said: "In common with other media organisations, we have been monitoring events closely.
"The BBC's executive team were meeting [on Wednesday] and they have decided to stop all content licensing to Russian customers."
That means Russian viewers will be prevented from watching shows including Dancing With The Stars and The Green Planet.
The BBC has also confirmed it has launched two new shortwave radio frequencies to make sure its news was available in parts of Ukraine and Russia after a TV tower in Kyiv was bombed and internet services restricted.
The shortwave services are broadcasting four hours of World Service English news per day. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60584092 |
Ukraine conflict: Mum in Poland takes in fleeing families - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Joanna is opening her home in Poland to Ukraine refugees seeking shelter after reaching the border. | The United Nations says more than a million people have left Ukraine since the Russian invasion began.
Most of the tens of thousands crossing into Poland stay with relatives or move on to other countries, but others have nowhere to go.
Some people living near the border are opening their homes to those who need shelter. The BBC's Mark Lowen met Joanna, a mother of three, as she welcomed Anna and her five-year-old daughter, Milena, after they had fled from Kyiv. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60593201 |
Martin O'Hagan: Police 'did not act' on journalist murder tip-off - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | No one was arrested immediately after the killing of Martin O'Hagan, despite individuals being named, BBC finds. | Martin O'Hagan was killed as he walked home from a pub with his wife
Police were given names of people said to have been involved in the killing of journalist Martin O'Hagan within 48 hours of his murder, but did not act on the information, security sources have told a BBC investigation.
Mr O'Hagan was shot dead in Lurgan in September 2001, by the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).
An insider, known as Witness A, met two detectives soon after, BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight programme has learned.
It is understood he said he had been contacted and asked to go to a yard in Lurgan to help, as the murder gang got rid of the getaway car and other items.
And he named individuals he claimed were involved.
But no one was arrested and the yard was not searched.
This new information has emerged amid fresh claims by the O'Hagan family that state informers had a role in the murder and have been protected from prosecution.
The O'Hagan's lawyer, Niall Murphy, said it was inconceivable that police in 2001 were given names, addresses and roles played, "and nothing was done".
Security sources have also said this was "inexplicable".
The murder was deemed an attack on the freedom of the press and the authorities vowed no stone would be left unturned to bring the killers to justice.
It is understood the detective leading the initial murder investigation has said he was not told about Witness A in 2001.
The O'Hagan family is now asking why, it appears, someone in the police did not pass Witness A's information on to the murder inquiry.
Witness A came forward, again, to a new team of detectives in 2007. It is believed this is when it was discovered that he had provided his information to police six years earlier.
On the basis of his claims, five men were arrested and charged in connection with the murder in 2008.
The Public Prosecution Service (PPS) later had issues with Witness A's reliability because he had past convictions, including for deception.
But police investigators were confident in Witness A's information.
One of the men he named, Neil Hyde, from Lurgan, confessed to possession of the murder weapon, on the night of the killing.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has said it would be inappropriate to comment on Witness A or other issues raised in Tuesday's Spotlight programme because the Police Ombudsman is investigating the case, and there are ongoing legal proceedings. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60564766 |
‘Terror against Ukraine’: Residents flee as rockets rain down on Kharkiv - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | As Russia pounds Ukraine's second largest city with artillery, residents flee or hunker underground. | Alexandra Markevitch rests in a makeshift refugee shelter in Lviv, Ukraine. "I have never felt so much love for my homeland," she said.
Alexandra Markevitch fled Kharkiv on Sunday, as Russian shells rained down on her neighbourhood and gunfire rattled her city.
She ran with her son Pasha to the station, with only a few documents, family photographs, and warm clothes in hand, and they made it on to a train headed west. When a pressure wave from a rocket strike hit the train, Markevitch feared it would be derailed, she said. When the train made it past the outskirts of the city and the sounds of the blasts, she tried to comfort her son. It was his 11th birthday.
Russia has bombarded Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, since it invaded the country on Thursday, shelling residential areas and later the cultural heart of the city. On Tuesday, Kharkiv's opera house, concert hall and government offices were hit in a series of strikes, killing at least 10 people and injuring many more.
The city's mayor said a separate rocket strike on a residential neighbourhood had destroyed a hospital, killing several and injuring many. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the strikes on Kharkiv a "terror attack against Ukraine".
Many thousands are now fleeing the city, leaving behind homes, families and jobs. Many have made it by train as far as the city of Lviv in the west of Ukraine, some to a makeshift refugee shelter in an old theatre on a cobbled street, where people can stay for a few days before they have to move on. Markevitch, 29, sat alone there on Tuesday, on a mattress on the stage. She was a stylist in Kharkiv, she said, until she sold her business last year to help fund her grandmother's Covid care. As her son Pasha played, she turned over a necklace pendant her grandmother left her when she died.
Markevitch's family and friends are still in Kharkiv. Many residents there cannot flee. Just days ago she was with them, hiding in a shelter under a neighbouring apartment building, where it was cold and damp, with no electricity, no heat and no real food and she was sick with worry for Pasha. Above ground they could hear "every sound of the war", she said. "Shelling, bombing, grad rockets, fighter jets. Nobody sleeps because there is bombing all day and all night."
Three days and nights after the invasion began, and "full of fear I would lose my son," Markevitch made her choice. "Either you face death there or you face death on the road," she said. "At least on the road you have a chance of getting somewhere safe."
She is in contact with her family and they are still OK. "Physically, they are alive," she said. "Spiritually, life has become very hard in Kharkiv".
Men sheltering in an underground station in Kharkiv. Thousands have hidden undergound as Russian forces shell the city.
Just 30 miles from the border and largely Russian speaking, Kharkiv has long been considered an obvious target for this invasion. Russian troops have engaged in street combat there with Ukrainian soldiers defending the city, and the city has been heavily bombarded from the air, killing scores of civilians at least.
Residents who spoke to the BBC on Tuesday described spending long nights in cramped bomb shelters or, for those with no access underground, in the hallways of their apartments, away from windows.
Iryna Ruzhynska, 40, was sheltering on Tuesday in the hallway of her second-floor apartment in a 16-floor building, with her two sons, daughter-in-law and grandchild. Ruzhynska's mother, who is 75, was trapped in her own 11th-floor apartment because the building's lift was out of order.
"We have put scotch tape on the windows and pillows by the window stills," Ruzhynska said. "We don't turn on the lights, only the torches on our phones. We managed to go to the store yesterday, but we queued for four hours and there was virtually no food left."
A street nearby Ruzhynska's apartment was shelled on Monday, she said - a thumping blast that left body parts strewn around the street. When she opens her window she can hear gunfire and bombing.
"It is exhausting and terrifying living under this pressure," she said. "And I am angry, because this is a big, beautiful city, my city, and they want to wipe it from the face of the Earth."
Late last night, while the rest of the family was asleep in the hallway, Ruzhynska put in her earphones and danced alone in the dark, "to try and release my emotions", she said. "Then I cried silently for a long time." It was a Russian singer she was listening to, she said. "Because we are people of peace. It does not matter to us."
Yehor Konovalov, 23, fled Kharkiv after the bombardment began with his parents and two siblings, and headed to a family business property in a village close to Donetsk. On Tuesday the family of five was sheltering in a cold 2m by 2m cellar while explosions could be heard in the distance.
"When the shelling started my eight-year-old sister woke me up at 4am and said, 'Yehor they are firing, they are firing bombs at Kharkiv'.
"I couldn't believe it. Then we heard the bombings and saw the ash cloud rising above the horizon."
Konovalov said the family was now cut off from buying food and other provisions because the Ukrainian army had blown the bridge near the village. The family had only three bottles of water and a few days' worth of food left for five people.
"We need to get to Western Ukraine, to get my mother and sisters safe and me and my father can join territorial defence troops," he said. "We are not afraid to die to kill those who invaded our soil."
Andrey Akonenko, a 22-year-old web designer who fled Kharkiv on Tuesday with his girlfriend and spoke to the BBC from Poltava, 150km away, also said he would sign up to defend Ukraine.
"They are shelling our residential areas, our apartment buildings - there are no military sites there where they are bombing," he said. "They are trying to destroy Ukrainian people."
Akonenko was hoping to reach Lviv, he said, where Markevitch was waiting on Tuesday to move on from the refugee shelter with her son Pasha, ideally to Poland.
"The main goal is simply to leave Ukraine for somewhere we won't be in a war anymore," she said.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has tried to claim he is liberating eastern cities and districts like Kharkiv from an oppressive Ukrainian government, but over eight years of war he appears now to have only reinforced in many a deep patriotism for Ukraine and a turning from Russia.
"I have never felt so much love for my homeland and for my city," Markevitch said. "I hope the war will end and I can bring my son back home to Kharkiv as soon as possible."
Before then, she said, she was only focused on making it to Poland, and finding Pasha a birthday cake.
Valeriia Ratynskianska and Daria Sipigina contributed to this report. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60579439 |
Journalist wins 'kleptocrat' book High Court libel case - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The High Court dismisses a post-Soviet mining firm's claim an author's book about dirty money was libellous. | Mr Burgis said he was delighted the court action had failed
A libel claim brought by a post-Soviet mining giant against a journalist's book about dirty money and corruption has been dismissed by a High Court.
But judge Mr Justice Nicklin stopped the case after finding the claim against the author to be wholly flawed.
Mr Burgis' publisher said the case had been an attempt to use legal and financial firepower to silence public interest journalism.
In the book, Mr Burgis - a Financial Times journalist - charts how he says dirty money is linked to corruption and is now "flooding the global economy, emboldening dictators [and] poisoning democracies".
Among its stories, the book features Kazakhstan-based Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), a mining company with interests around the world.
Lawyers for ENRC claimed in court that Mr Burgis has defamed the corporation because the real meaning of part of his book was that the company had three men murdered to protect its business interests.
Andrew Caldecott QC, for Mr Burgis and HarperCollins publishers, told the court: "This is not a Private Eye nudge-nudge book.
"It is not a book that pulls its punches at all. The theme is about thieves and their money - masters and their secrecy - and it shows how the thieves are uniting and the terrible human cost."
In a ruling stopping the case, Mr Justice Nicklin said he had read the book for himself before considering the case papers, so he could form a view like any other ordinary reader.
He said that ENRC's claim was not sustainable because every reader would know that only individuals can commit murder, rather than corporations.
That early ruling meant the case could not proceed to a full libel trial - and the judge awarded £50,000 in costs against ENRC, while also refusing it permission to appeal.
Speaking outside court, Mr Burgis said: "I wrote a book about what I believe is the greatest threat to freedom today: the rise of kleptocracy. I'm delighted that this attempt to censor Kleptopia has failed."
He however still faces a second libel action over an article published in the Financial Times relating to his investigation.
A spokesman for HarperCollins described the case as "lawfare" - legal action that poses such massive financial risks to a defendant it has the effect of silencing them or making them withdraw.
"HarperCollins is committed to publishing high quality investigative non-fiction and to defending our authors in the face of legal attacks from those who would seek to use the UK courts to silence them.
"It is grossly unfair that yet again HarperCollins and our author have had to risk substantial legal costs and personal liability defending public interest journalism."
But a spokesman for ENRC said the case had been fairly brought and insisted there had been enormous damage to its reputation because of the book.
"The independence of the British judiciary remains the UK's greatest defence of our democracy and our shared liberal values," said the spokesman.
"It is regretful to have witnessed a growing attempt to mischaracterise our reasonable and proportionate steps to defend our reputation through the courts.
"We have maintained throughout that we fully support the media's right to report fairly and objectively on matters, including on our own business." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60595266 |
Polls close in Birmingham Erdington by-election - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | A total of 12 candidates are standing for the seat, with the result expected on Friday morning. | A total of 12 candidates are standing in the by-election
Voters in Birmingham's Erdington constituency in England have been casting their ballots for a new MP in a parliamentary by-election.
The vote follows the death of Labour's Jack Dromey in January, aged 73.
He had held the seat since 2010 and entered politics through the union movement, as a leading figure in the Transport and General Workers' Union.
A total of 12 candidates are standing. The result is due to be announced on Friday.
Polling stations were open on Thursday from 07:00 to 22:00.
Listed alphabetically, the following 12 candidates are standing for election: | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60597413 |
Ukraine invasion: Videos show locals confronting Russian forces - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Videos from social media show tanks retreating and locals telling soldiers to go back to Russia. | Videos from social media have emerged showing people in Ukraine standing up to Russian troops.
People in different parts of the country have stopped tanks from entering towns and cities, while others have angrily confronted soldiers face to face. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60558621 |
Kim Kardashian declared legally single in divorce with Ye - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The famous couple were married nearly eight years ago and share four children. | The couple have four children together
Kim Kardashian is a single woman once again after nearly eight years married to Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.
In a virtual court hearing on Wednesday, the reality star also officially and legally dropped "West" from her last name.
Kardashian, who filed for divorce from the rapper last year, made the request in December to become legally single.
The former couple must still resolve the division of property and custody of their four children.
Wednesday's ruling - granting Kardashian's request for a "bifurcated divorce" - means that divorce proceedings will be split into two parts - the first settling her legal name and marital status, now resolved, and the second part involving custody and financial assets.
In several sworn statements submitted since December, the 41-year-old beauty and television mogul said she "very much" desired the termination of her marriage.
"I believe that the court terminating our marital status will help Kanye to accept that our marital relationship is over," she wrote in a statement last month.
Ye, 44, who was not present for the hearing, had publicly fought the separation and appealed for Kardashian to return to their marriage.
But Kardashian also wrote that his recent social media activity, in which he posted private text messages and attacked her new boyfriend, comedian Pete Davidson, had caused "emotional distress".
On Wednesday, the rapper posted a video for his new song Eazy, apparently showing an animated version of Davidson being kidnapped and buried.
At the divorce hearing, a lawyer for Ye pushed for an agreement from Kardashian to waive any marital privilege she might have with a subsequent spouse.
Kardashian and her lawyer called the move "unprecedented" and it was denied by the judge.
The former couple began dating in 2012 and married two years later.
Ye is one of the biggest names in rap music, known for global hits like Stronger, Jesus Walks and Gold Digger. He has also found success as a fashion designer.
Kardashian first found fame in 2007 as the star of reality TV show about her family, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, and has since launched fashion and beauty brands. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60595993 |
Essex lorry deaths: Smuggler to pay £6,000 to victims' families - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | A total of 39 Vietnamese people were found dead after a failed people-smuggling operation in 2019. | Haulier Christopher Kennedy captured by CCTV in the cab of his lorry
A lorry driver who was part of a people smuggling ring has been ordered to pay £6,000 to the families of 39 Vietnamese people who died in a failed smuggling operation.
The victims, aged between 15 and 44, were found dead in a trailer in Essex in October 2019.
They had suffocated on their way to Purfleet from Belgium on a ferry.
Christopher Kennedy picked up containers with people inside, but not the one in which 39 Vietnamese died.
The 25-year-old from Keady in County Armagh, is serving seven years for his part in the wider operation.
On Wednesday, the Old Bailey heard he had made £67,050.65 from people smuggling but had just £6,094.18 in his Bank of Ireland account.
Judge Mark Lucraft QC ordered that the available money should be confiscated and used as compensation to the families of the victims.
Kennedy, who was sat in the dock, made no reaction during the hearing.
His trial in December 2020 heard he picked up containers in Essex which arrived from Belgium.
His job was to deliver them to a remote location at Orsett, a 20 minute drive from the port.
Twice he did this in the two weeks before the smuggling operation which went wrong on October 23, which is why he was tried with the other drivers involved.
Kennedy was not charged with manslaughter but was instead charged with conspiracy to assist in unlawful immigration.
He denied the charge and claimed he thought he was transporting cigarettes, but a jury found him guilty. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60594985 |
Ukraine: Putin has already carried out war crimes - Boris Johnson - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Russia's bombing of innocent civilians in Ukraine already amounts to war crimes, prime minister says. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Do Russia's attacks on Ukraine amount to war crimes? Ros Atkins investigates
Boris Johnson has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of committing war crimes in Ukraine.
At Prime Minister's Questions, he said bombing innocent civilians "already fully qualifies as a war crime".
He was responding to the Scottish National Party's Ian Blackford, who called for Mr Putin to be prosecuted.
On Wednesday, International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan said he was now investigating possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
The investigation was launched after 38 nations grouped together to refer the situation to the prosecutor's office, which said "collection of evidence" had started.
The UK government described the referral as the largest in the history of the court, which relies on co-operation with countries worldwide for support, particularly for making arrests.
Following the announcement, Mr Johnson said in a tweet: "We are crystal clear that Putin cannot commit these horrific acts with impunity."
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky has already accused Russia of war crimes after air strikes on the country's second city, Kharkiv.
A week in to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, attacks on key cities have intensified, with fighting raging in the north, east and south.
On Tuesday, Mr Johnson described the tactics used by the Russian military under orders from Mr Putin as "barbaric and indiscriminate".
"With every passing hour, the world is witnessing the horrors of Putin's war in Ukraine," said the SNP's Westminster leader Mr Blackford. He called for Mr Putin to be prosecuted for the "full range" of war crime charges available.
Mr Johnson replied: "What we have seen already from Vladimir Putin's regime in the use of the munitions that they have already been dropping on innocent civilians, in my view, already fully qualifies as a war crime."
Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said the UK was "willing to provide the necessary technical assistance to support successful convictions" and stressed the importance of preserving "all evidence of war crimes".
Asked about Mr Johnson's remarks after PMQs, Downing Street said possible war crimes were occurring daily in Ukraine.
Mr Johnson's official spokesman agreed the Russian attack on the Babyn Yar holocaust memorial in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the targeting of apartment blocks constituted war crimes.
The spokesman said: "Obviously, formally it will be for a criminal court to make that ruling but I think no one can be in any doubt that what we're seeing daily, almost hourly now, are horrific acts that would certainly appear to be war crimes."
Earlier, in a phone call, Mr Johnson and Mr Zelensky agreed sanctions must go further to exert maximum pressure on Russia.
The UK has partnered with Western allies to enact sweeping sanctions on Russia, including against Russian banks, businesses and individuals.
Meanwhile, the United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to demand an immediate end to the invasion of Ukraine.
Just four countries - Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria - joined Russia in opposing a motion calling for the withdrawal of all occupying forces, while 35 nations abstained.
General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding but the move further isolates Russia diplomatically.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch MPs in UK Parliament stand and clap for the Ukrainian ambassador, who was attending Prime Minister's Questions
At the start of PMQs, MPs, many wearing the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag, gave a standing ovation in support of the Ukrainian ambassador, who was watching from the public gallery.
The applause, not usually permitted in Parliament, lasted for almost a minute.
Mr Johnson had opened the session by condemning Mr Putin's "abhorrent assault on a sovereign nation", adding the Russian leader had "gravely miscalculated" the Ukrainian people's resolve to fight and the willingness of the "free world in standing up to his barbarism". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60588031 |
Ukraine: Watching the war on Russian TV - a whole different story - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The war in Ukraine has led to outrage in the West, but in Russia TV viewers see a very different story. | A woman in St Petersburg watching footage of President Putin on TV last week
Never was there a better illustration of the alternative reality presented by Russian state media than at 17:00 GMT on Tuesday. As BBC World TV opened its bulletin with reports of a Russian attack on a TV tower in the capital Kyiv, Russian TV was announcing that Ukraine was responsible for strikes on its own cities.
So what are Russian TV viewers seeing of the war? What messages are they hearing over the airwaves? Below is a snapshot of what ordinary Russians would have picked up, on Tuesday 1 March, while channel-hopping across the country's key TV stations, which are controlled by the Kremlin and its corporate allies.
Good Morning, on state-controlled Channel One, one of Russia's most popular channels, is to the casual observer not unlike the breakfast broadcasting found in many other countries with its mix of news, culture and light entertainment.
On Tuesday the normal running order is interrupted at 05:30 Moscow time [02:30 GMT]. The presenters announce that TV schedules have been changed "due to well known events", and there will be more news and current affairs. The news bulletin suggests that reports about Ukrainian forces destroying Russian military hardware are false, designed to "mislead inexperienced viewers".
"Footage continues to be circulated on the internet which cannot be described as anything but fake," the presenter explains as the viewer is shown photographs of what is described as "unsophisticated virtual manipulations".
Russia's Channel One presenter showed two photos of the same military vehicle - the top photo is captioned "Donbas 2014" and the bottom one "Ukrainian montage". He claims the top photo is of a Ukrainian vehicle destroyed in the conflict zone in 2014 and that the bottom photo is of the same image, manipulated to make it look like newly destroyed Russian hardware. He says a "Z" has been added - a common marking for Russian military equipment.
Later in the morning, at 08:00 Moscow time, we tune in for the morning bulletin from television channel NTV, which is owned by a subsidiary of Gazprom, a Kremlin-controlled firm. It concentrates almost exclusively on events in Donbas, the region in the east of Ukraine where on 24 February, Russia stated it was beginning its "special military operation" to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine.
There is no mention of reports of the ominous miles-long military convoy snaking its way from Belarus in the north to Ukraine's capital Kyiv, which, in the UK, leads the BBC Radio 4 news bulletin half-an-hour later.
"We start with the latest news from Donbas. LNR [Luhansk People's Republic] fighters continue their offensive, having travelled 3km, while DNR [Donetsk People's Republic] units have travelled 16km," the NTV presenter says.
The presenter is referring to the Moscow-backed rebels who have been in control of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics since Russia's intervention in east Ukraine eight years ago.
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On Rossiya 1 and Channel One - Russia's two most popular channels, both state-controlled - Ukrainian forces are accused of war crimes in the Donbas region. The threat to civilians in Ukraine comes not from Russian forces, but from "Ukrainian nationalists", says the Rossiya 1 presenter.
"They use civilians as a human shield, deliberately positioning strike systems in residential areas and stepping up the shelling of cities in Donbas."
Channel One's presenter announces that Ukrainian troops "are preparing to shell residential houses" and bomb warehouses with ammonia, in "acts of provocation against civilians and Russian forces".
Events in Ukraine are not referred to as war. Instead, the offensive is described as a demilitarisation operation targeting military infrastructure or a "special [military] operation to defend the people's republics".
Across state-controlled TV, presenters and correspondents use emotive language and images to draw "historical parallels" between Russia's "special military operation" in Ukraine and the Soviet Union's fight against Nazi Germany.
"The tactics of nationalists who use children to shield themselves have not changed since the Second World War," says the presenter of a morning show on Rossiya 1's sister channel, Rossiya 24.
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"They behave like fascists, in the very sense of this word: neo-Nazis put their hardware not just next to residential houses but where children take shelter in basements," adds the correspondent in a video report captioned "Ukrainian fascism".
The passage echoes the unproven claims made by Vladimir Putin last week that Ukraine was using women, children and the elderly as human shields.
While media in the West has been asking whether Putin's assault has struggled to make quick progress, Russian TV portrays the Russian operations as very successful. Regular updates give numbers of destroyed Ukrainian hardware and weaponry. More than 1,100 Ukrainian military infrastructure facilities have been disabled and hundreds of pieces of hardware have been destroyed, morning news reports say. There is no mention of any Russian casualties.
Russian morning news bulletins barely acknowledge its army's offensives in other parts of Ukraine. State TV correspondents are not reporting on the ground from places like Kyiv and Kharkiv, the two major cities that have seen shelling of people's homes. Instead, they are embedded with troops in Donbas.
But by the afternoon edition of the news, NTV finally mentions the news event that has dominated hours of coverage on the BBC by this stage - the shelling of the city of Kharkiv.
However, it debunks any reports that Russian forces are responsible, calling them "fake".
"Judging by the trajectory of the missile, the strike was delivered from the north-west where there are no Russian forces," the presenter says during the 16:00 Moscow time edition of the news. Four hours later, a bulletin by Rossiya 1 goes further, blaming Ukraine itself for the bombing.
"To strike Kharkiv and say that it was Russia. Ukraine is hitting its own and is lying to the West. But is it possible to deceive the people?" it asks.
During a 17:00 bulletin, the Rossiya 1 presenter outlines what she says is Russia's "main objective" in Ukraine: "The defence of Russia against the threat from the West, which is using the Ukrainian people in its stand-off with Moscow."
To counter what is described as "fake news and rumours" about Ukraine which are circulating online", she announces that the Russian government is launching a new website where "only true information will be published".
TV stations are required by the media watchdog Roskomnadzor to follow the official narrative.
But that is not to say that there was no variety in the tone of Tuesday's reporting. While the news bulletins talked of Ukrainian war crimes, Vyacheslav Nikonov, pro-Kremlin host of Channel One TV's current affairs talk show The Great Game, spoke about his love of Ukraine as he signed off.
"I very much love Ukraine, I love Ukrainians. I have travelled across the country on multiple occasions. It indeed is a brilliant, wonderful country. And I think Russia is, of course, interested in it being a prosperous, friendly country… Our cause is just. We shall be victorious."
Increasing numbers of younger Russians tend to get their news from independent websites or social media, and the longer the war goes on, the more images and videos of dead soldiers and prisoners of war are surfacing. But the authorities are responding to this and turning the screws on independent reporting.
Roskomnadzor has ordered TikTok to remove military and political content in its suggestions to minors, complaining, "in most cases, these materials have a pronounced anti-Russian character". It also demanded that Google remove what it describes as false information about the Russian army's reported losses, and Reuters reports it has re-imposed a slowdown on Twitter's loading speeds over "fake reports" of Moscow's "special military operation", and restricted access to Facebook.
It has instructed media outlets to use information only from official Russian sources when reporting the invasion, demanding that they take down any reports referring to "a declaration of war" or "an invasion". It has threatened them with fines and blocking if they do not take action. The websites of the independent TV channel Dozhd and popular liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy have been blocked for alleged calls for extremism and violence, and "systematic spread of false information about the activities of the Russian military".
• None Twitter confirms it is being restricted in Russia | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60571737 |
Babyn Yar: Anger as Kyiv's Holocaust memorial is damaged - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The attack near Babyn Yar, where thousands of Jews were murdered, is tragically symbolic, Jewish leaders say. | A building that was set to be an on-site museum was pictured on fire
Jewish groups have condemned a missile attack near a Holocaust memorial park in Kyiv, which commemorates the murder of Jews by the Nazis in World War Two.
Babyn Yar was the site of one of the largest mass killings, where Jewish people were lined up and shot.
The various memorials that sit there now are very special to Ukraine and significant landmarks in its capital.
In a country with a large Jewish population and a Jewish president, the Russian attack is significant.
Tuesday afternoon's missile attack, which was targeting a nearby TV tower, killed five civilians.
Staff were initially unable to access the Babyn Yar site to assess the damage. However, it is now known that the most iconic memorials in the park are unscathed. These include a large menorah, newly built synagogue and a monument honouring the Soviet citizens and prisoners of war who died, which is located closest to the TV tower.
A museum building which was not yet in use caught fire, and there is damage across the 140-acre site, such as burnt and uprooted trees, the BBC has been told.
Speaking directly after the missile attack, President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was "beyond humanity" and accused the West of not doing enough to prevent the attacks on his country.
"What is the point of saying 'never again' for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating..." he tweeted.
The menorah monument, one of Babyn Yar's most iconic memorials, is reportedly unscathed
Babyn Yar - also known as Babi Yar - is one of the largest World War Two mass graves in Europe. The massacre at the ravine on the outskirts of Kyiv took place over two days in September 1941.
As Ukraine's Jewish population fled the Nazi advance, a large population still lived in the city. Tens of thousands were told to assemble with spare clothes, on the assumption they would be sent to a labour camp, but they were then forced to undress and walk into the ravine, where they were shot by special killing squads.
According to the Nazis' own records, 33,771 Jews were killed over two days.
As the Holocaust continued, German forces continued to perpetrate horrendous crimes at Babyn Yar, using it as a mass grave to dispose of up to 100,000 bodies, until the Soviets took control of Kyiv again in 1943. As well as Jews, Roma, Ukrainian civilians and Soviet prisoners of war were also murdered there.
Later in the war, the retreating Germans bulldozed the ravine and burned the bodies in huge pyres to try to cover up their crimes.
Babyn Yar is now a place of quiet contemplation, where thousands of people travel to every year to remember those who died. That it could be damaged or destroyed by an aggressive military attack goes against everything it stands for.
But the significance of an attack so close to Babyn Yar goes deeper.
"It is symbolic that [Russian President Vladimir Putin] starts attacking Kyiv by bombing the site of the Babyn Yar, the biggest Nazi massacre," said the chair of Babyn Yar's advisory board, Natan Sharansky.
Last week, Mr Putin called Ukraine's leaders "neo-Nazis" and said his goal was the "denazification" of the country.
Mr Sharansky said the Russian leader had sought "to distort and manipulate the Holocaust to justify an illegal invasion of a sovereign democratic country" in the "utterly abhorrent" move.
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum in Israel, echoed this and called for an end to "abusing and distorting the memory of the Holocaust".
Ukraine's president is himself Jewish and his family suffered greatly under the Nazi regime.
Volodymyr Zelensky has often told his "story of four brothers" - his grandfather and three great-uncles - all of whom fought in the Soviet Army against Nazi Germany. Only his grandfather survived. The president was also closely involved in the creation of the memorial at Babyn Yar, Mr Sharansky said.
"Such a missile strike shows that for many people in Russia, our Kyiv is completely foreign. They know nothing about our capital. About our history," Mr Zelensky said after the attack.
"But they have an order to erase our history. Erase our country. Erase us all."
While official figures put Ukraine's Jewish population at 43,000, the European Jewish Congress believes it numbers at least 360,000.
The Soviets had tried to wipe out Babyn Yar's brutal history time and again, in an effort to suppress any mention of the atrocities committed against Jews, Mr Sharansky told the BBC.
"They physically tried to destroy these graves and delete the history, it's unbelievable how important it was for Soviets to change the nature of the place," he said.
A few years after the Nazis attempted to cover their own tracks, the Soviets tried to flood the ravine with mud. Then in the 1960s, there was anger at plans to build a sports stadium there. Mr Sharansky said the construction of the TV tower directly adjacent to the memorial in the 1970s was another attempt to "destroy the memory of the Holocaust".
"There were so many attempts to erase Babyn Yar and change its nature, finally we turned it into a big memorial, and that is once again overshadowed by Russian aggression," he said.
For decades under Soviet rule, there was little to mark the massacre site, except a simple obelisk that referred to "Soviet" victims, without mentioning the Jews, who were the main victims.
Finally, in the 1990s, a large Menorah monument was erected, when independent Ukraine decided to commemorate the Jewish victims. And last year a synagogue was opened.
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Jewish groups and institutions were quick to condemn the missile strike.
"Rather than being subjected to blatant violence, sacred sites like Babi Yar must be protected," Yad Vashem said in a statement.
Israel's Foreign Minister, Yair Lapid, said on Twitter that his country would help to repair the damage to the site. And the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust in the UK said it was "shocked" and "horrified" to hear of the attack.
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Woman charged with murdering Jim Crossley in west Belfast - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Jim Crossley died after he was stabbed at a house in Filbert Drive on Tuesday night. | Jim Crossley died after being stabbed in west Belfast
A woman has been charged with murder after a man died after being stabbed in west Belfast.
He has been named as 38-year-old Jim Crossley.
Police said they received a report of a stabbing at a property in Filbert Drive, off the Stewartstown Road, at about 23:50 GMT on Tuesday.
Officers went to the scene, along with the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, but Mr Crossley was pronounced dead a short time later.
The 31-year-old woman who has been charged with his murder is due to appear at Lisburn Magistrates' Court via video link on Thursday. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60583850 |
Covid: Half of Nightingale Courts to close within weeks - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Eleven of the temporary courts, set up in hotels and conference suites as Covid hit in 2020, will shut. | Almost half of the temporary Nightingale Courts set up at the start of the pandemic are to close, the Ministry of Justice has announced.
Temporary courts were opened in hotels and conference suites to help manage the massive backlog in cases, which has worsened since Covid hit.
Eleven of the centres will close within weeks, but another 12 in England and Wales will stay open for one more year.
These will mainly focus on reducing waiting times for criminal trials.
There are around 59,000 criminal trials waiting to go before a judge - and recent figures show the average time between reporting an offence and a verdict being given is now longer than ever.
Nightingale Courts opened in 2020 because many centres were too small to ensure safe social distancing between lawyers, witnesses, defendants and staff.
Ministers hope the 12 courts being kept open until March next year will help cut backlogs, mainly in south-east England, London and the Midlands.
Justice minister James Cartlidge said Nightingale Courts were still "a valuable weapon in the fight against the pandemic's unprecedented impact on our courts, providing temporary extra capacity".
He said other measures, such as remote hearings and increased magistrate sentencing powers, meant "we are beginning to see the backlog drop so victims can get the speedier justice they deserve".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The emotional impact of waiting for court cases to be heard can be devastating: Watch Gemma's story
The 11 Nightingale Courts due to be shut at the end of the month are in Middlesbrough, Peterborough, Nottingham, Warwick, Manchester, Liverpool, Bolton, Chester and Winchester.
Others in Maidstone, Chichester, Telford, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Leeds, Swansea, Cirencester and Fleetwood will all stay open until March 2023.
In London, courts set up in Prospero House, Barbican and Croydon will also stay open, while those in Petty France and Monument will close in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, criminal barristers are balloting over a form of industrial action as part of a continuing row with the government over funding.
They warn that so many lawyers are quitting criminal justice, there will not be enough left to help further reduce the backlogs. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60596769 |
Ukraine conflict: UK sanctions Belarus for role in Russian invasion - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The foreign secretary says Belarus "actively aids and abets Russia’s illegal invasion" of Ukraine. | The UK has targeted Belarusian army chiefs as part of its first wave of sanctions against Belarus for its role in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Four defence officials and two military enterprises are included in the package.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko had aided and abetted Russia's invasion.
Mr Lukashenko has hosted Russian forces and allowed them to use Belarus as a staging ground.
A close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr Lukashenko's administration has become increasingly reliant on Russia for economic, political and military support in recent years.
Mr Putin backed Mr Lukashenko after he claimed a disputed election victory in 2020, sparking mass protests that almost ousted him from power.
In January this year, Belarus hosted large joint military drills with Russia as western leaders issued increasingly grave warnings of a possible attack on Ukraine.
The exercises were extended and then Belarus announced that the Russian troops would remain in the country, citing "the aggravation of the situation" in eastern Ukraine.
But on Monday, Mr Lukashenko said Belarus had no plans to join Russia's military operation in Ukraine, according to state news agency Belta.
Mr Lukashenko denied Ukraine's allegations that Russian troops were attacking from Belarus's territory, Belta's report said.
Announcing sanctions on Tuesday, the UK government accused Belarus of "facilitating the invasion from within its borders".
Ms Truss said Belarus "will be made to feel the economic consequences for its support for Putin".
"We are inflicting economic pain on Putin and those closest to him. We will not rest until Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity is restored."
The UK says it has already imposed sanctions on more than 100 people and organisations in response to the "fraudulent elections" and "human rights violations" in Belarus.
Suggesting further sanctions could be imposed on Belarus over the Ukraine invasion, the foreign secretary said "nothing - and no one - is off the table".
Belarusian and Russian forces took part in joint military exercises in Belarus ahead of the invasion of Ukraine
Tuesday's Belarus sanctions came as MPs approved new measures against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
The package includes a full asset freeze for all Russian banks, as well as new powers to limit them from clearing payments in sterling.
A ban has also been enacted on a range of exports critical to Russia's military and strategic interests.
The sanctions are in alignment with the US, European Union and others to collectively cut off much of Russia's high-tech imports, the government said.
The measures were announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who told the House of Commons last week they were "the largest and most severe package of economic sanctions that Russia has ever seen".
Labour and Conservative MPs have called on the government to strengthen the sanctions regime in order to put further pressure on Russia.
Labour shadow foreign minister Stephen Doughty urged ministers to "go even faster and further", warning in some cases the sanctions had been "off the pace" compared with the UK's allies.
Conservative former cabinet minister David Davis said action was needed against the "140 or so oligarchs" identified as having "direct links" with President Putin. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60580294 |
Rod Marsh: Legendary Australia wicketkeeper dies aged 74 after heart attack - BBC Sport | 2022-03-03 | Legendary Australia wicketkeeper Rod Marsh dies aged 74 after suffering a heart attack. | Last updated on .From the section Cricket
Marsh was taken ill last Thursday while travelling to a charity cricket match in Queensland.
He effected 355 dismissals - a world record at the time of his retirement - in 96 Test appearances for Australia from 1970 to 1984.
He also played 92 one-day internationals and served as Australia men's chairman of selectors until 2016.
Marsh is third on Australia's all-time dismissals list behind Adam Gilchrist with 416 and Ian Healy's 395.
Australia Test great Mark Waugh described Marsh as "an absolute icon" of the sport.
Waugh continued: "I had the pleasure of working with Rod for a number of years as a selector and you wouldn't meet a more honest, down to earth, kind-hearted person."
Former Australia one-day international David Hussey paid tribute on Twitter, writing: "Rod will be missed.
"His saying, 'cricket is a simple game made complicated' still resonates with me."
Marsh would go on to form a formidable partnership with fast bowler Dennis Lillee, with the pair combining for a record 95 Test dismissals.
However, he had a difficult start to his Test career and was nicknamed 'Iron Gloves' during his first series against England in 1970-71 after dropping numerous catches.
He came close to a maiden century during that Ashes series, making an unbeaten 92 in Melbourne before captain Bill Lawry declared with Australia nine down.
Marsh did not feel as though he had missed out on a century, saying that he thought Lawry should have declared much earlier.
He later became the first Australian wicketkeeper to score a Test century when he reached triple figures against England in the 1977 Centenary Test.
On the 1981 tour of England, Marsh became the first keeper to claim 100 dismissals in Ashes Tests.
After retiring Marsh commentated on Australian television before taking on a coaching role at the Australian National Academy.
He later took on a similar role with the England and Wales Cricket Board and was a selector for the men's team from 2001 to 2005.
Marsh served as the Australian chairman of selectors from 2014 to 2016, stepping down after Australia were hammered at home by South Africa.
'I thought he was invincible' - cricket pays tribute to Marsh
Australia Test captain Pat Cummins said Marsh's death had left a "massive void" in Australian cricket.
"I, along with countless other people in Australia, grew up hearing the stories of him as a fearless and tough cricketer," Cummins said.
"His swashbuckling batting and his brilliance behind the stumps over more than a decade made him one of the all-time greats of our sport, not just in Australia, but globally."
Former Australia captain Greg Chappell, who played alongside Marsh, described him as "the spiritual leader of the group", while Ian Chappell said "anybody that met him enjoyed his company".
Former Australia keeper Gilchrist said he was "stunned," adding: "I thought he was invincible. He was my absolute idol and hero and inspiration as to why I pursued what I did. The impact he had on my life is profound."
Ex-Australia all-rounder Shane Watson also paid tribute, stating he "wouldn't be the person I am today if it wasn't for Rod and his amazing skill to know how to get the best out of every young cricketer".
Ex-England bowler Chris Tremlett described Marsh as "a great man who helped guide me and many others on the right path in my younger years and taught me what it takes to play international cricket".
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is a keen cricket fan, wrote on Twitter that Marsh would be remembered as "one of Australia's greatest ever Test cricket players".
"As a kid he was my favourite player. He was a fierce competitor and a fine sportsman who valued what the game stood for," Morrison added.
"Rod Marsh was a proud Western Australian and an absolute Aussie legend." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/60508396 |
Jim Crossley: Dunmurry woman, 31, admits killing boyfriend - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Julie-Ann McIlwaine stabbed Jim Crossley at her Dunmurry home on Tuesday. | Jim Crossley died after being stabbed earlier this week
A 31-year-old woman has admitted killing her boyfriend in west Belfast earlier this week.
Julie-Ann McIlwaine, of Filbert Drive in Dunmurry, stabbed Jim Crossley, 38, at her Dunmurry home on Tuesday.
He died less than an hour later at the Royal Victoria Hospital (RVH) in Belfast.
Lisburn Magistrates' Court also heard that Ms McIlwaine had been a victim of domestic violence and had been in a two-year relationship with Mr Crossley.
A detective inspector told the court that Northern Ireland Ambulance Service received a call at 23:47 GMT from the accused who told them that she had stabbed her boyfriend six times in the chest.
When the ambulance crews arrived they were directed upstairs by a neighbour.
He was taken to hospital and suffered a cardiac arrest enroute. He died at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital at 00:40 on Wednesday.
The police officer said that Ms McIlwaine gave an open and honest account of what happened to the police.
Mr Crossley died of five stab wounds to the chest and one large stab wound to the inner thigh.
After being arrested she told police that after Mr Crossley had taken his medication, he had gone to bed, and she then stabbed him.
The court heard that Ms Mcllwaine had been a victim of domestic violence during her relationship with Mr Crossley.
He had told her she had to decide between him or her family, Ms McIlwaine said.
She had three other children from a previous relationship. Their father had full custody of the children.
Ms McIlwaine had a 10 month old baby with Mr Crossley.
He said it was a very unique case that there had been no objection to bail from the police in such a serious crime.
The police had concerns about the women's safety in relation to herself - the court heard that Ms Mcillwaine had tried to take her own life previously.
She was released on bail to stay with her sister.
The prosecution is appealing the bail. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60604142 |
OneWeb: UK satellite firm suspends use of Russian rockets - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The board of London-based OneWeb, part-owned by the UK government, votes to stop using Soyuz rockets. | The OneWeb satellites were due to be launched from the Baikonur spaceport
OneWeb, the satellite company part-owned by the UK government, says it is suspending all launches from the Russian-operated Baikonur spaceport.
The firm had hoped to send up 36 spacecraft on a Soyuz rocket from the Kazakhstan cosmodrome, but the mission has become embroiled in the fall-out over the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia put down demands ahead of the flight that OneWeb could not meet.
These included a guarantee that armed forces wouldn't use the satellites.
Russia also wanted the UK government to divest itself of OneWeb shares, an ultimatum that was firmly rejected by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.
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The board of OneWeb, which is headquartered in west London, voted on Thursday morning to suspend all future launches from Baikonur. It had been planning a series of flights from the cosmodrome this year to complete its broadband internet constellation in the sky.
The firm will now be working with its French partner Arianespace, which organises Soyuz launches around the world, to find alternative rocket rides.
This will be difficult, however. There is a dearth of available vehicles in the class needed by OneWeb.
The company currently has 428 spacecraft in orbit. This is sufficient to provide space-borne internet connections above 50 degrees North (which includes the UK), but close to 650 satellites are required to run a truly global service.
After OneWeb's announcement, Mr Kwarteng, whose department has a seat on the board, followed up with his own comments, tweeting: "In light of Russia's illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, we are reviewing our participation in all further projects involving Russian collaboration."
This would appear to bring an end to the "will it, won't" confusion over whether the Soyuz rocket standing on the pad at Baikonur would actually launch on Friday.
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Mr Rogozin posted a video of pad workers on Wednesday covering up UK, US and Japanese flags
When the vehicle, with 36 OneWeb satellites nestled under its nosecone, was rolled out by cosmodrome workers on Wednesday, it seemed that the flight was "go!".
But then the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dimitry Rogozin, started to make demands before he would give the flight approval. These demands, he said, were a response to western sanctions imposed on Russia because of the war in Ukraine.
First, he wanted assurances that OneWeb's system wouldn't be used for military purposes - an impossible ask given that UK and US forces are very keen to use the internet system. Then he wanted the "hostile" UK government to sell its shares in the company - instantly rebuffed by the business secretary.
Mr Rogozin ended by posting a video of pad workers covering up UK, US and Japanese flags on the rocket's nosecone.
Assuming Friday's planned launch is indeed cancelled, there arises the question of what happens to the 36 satellites.
These remain the property of OneWeb, but it's unclear how they could be returned. There are currently no OneWeb staff in Baikonur to organise a shipment, even if Russia agreed to release the spacecraft.
The company's manufacturing facility is in Florida where the production line can turn out two satellites a day, so they could quickly be replaced if alternative rockets are sourced.
Mr Rogozin has already stated that money received in exchange for Soyuz rockets will not be given back.
"Due to force majeure circumstances that have arisen as a result of the aggressive policy of the West and the sanctions that are applied against Russia, this money will remain in Russia," he said. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60602512 |
Neighbours: TV soap will end this summer, producers confirm - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The Australian TV soap's future has been uncertain since Channel 5 dropped it from its schedules. | The show launched the careers of pop stars Jason Donavan and Kylie Minogue
Long-running Australian TV soap opera Neighbours will come to an end this summer after 37 years.
The announcement follows the news that UK broadcaster Channel 5 was dropping the show from its schedules.
That decision left producers with a funding gap, as the British network was a key broadcast partner in the series.
Writing on the programme's official Twitter account, producers said they were "so sorry" but had "no option but to rest the show".
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"We are so sorry to say that after nearly 37 years and almost 9,000 episodes broadcast we have to confirm that Neighbours will cease production in the summer," they said.
"Following the loss of our key broadcast partner in the UK and despite an extensive search for alternative funding, we simply have no option but to rest the show.
"To our amazing, loyal fans, we know this is a huge disappointment, as it is to all of us on the team. We thank you for all your messages and support and promise to end the show on an incredible high."
Neighbours aired on Channel 5 for more than a decade, and was previously broadcast on the BBC.
When it was announced earlier this year that the show's future was under threat, singer and former Neighbours star Jason Donovan said the soap had "changed the Australian television landscape".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The soap aired a special scene in January 2020 about the bushfires that were devastating Australia at the time
His on-screen partner, Kylie Minogue, reminisced about her time on the programme in a tweet mourning the cancellation.
"I'll be forever grateful for the experience and the friends I made on Neighbours," she wrote.
"We had no idea how big the show would become and how passionately viewers would take it to heart. Pure love!
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Viewers were quick to voice their disappointment about the show's cancellation on Twitter.
"Noooo, Neighbours has been a constant in my life since from the beginning when I was five years old," wrote one. "Can't believe it's the end! It's an escapism from all the [bad] stuff that goes on in the world and unlike every other soap it's not all doom and gloom."
Another said the show was her "30-minute decompression at the end of the workday for over 30 years… often ridiculous but always watchable".
But one fan noted: "I don't think the recent storylines have helped. The new breed of script writer lost their way in my opinion, and forgot what the essence was that made Neighbours great."
Alan Fletcher and Jackie Woodburne as Carl and Susan Kennedy, two of the soap's longest-serving characters
Set and filmed in Melbourne, Neighbours was first broadcast in Australia in 1985 and launched on BBC One a year later.
It became a huge hit in the UK and in Australia, and helped launch the career of numerous stars, including Donovan, Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce and later Margot Robbie.
Channel 5 previously said it knew its decision to axe the show - which attracts more than one million viewers per day in the UK - would disappoint many.
But it added its "current focus is on increasing our investment in original UK drama, which has strong appeal for our UK viewers".
At the time, Donovan, who played Scott Robinson from 1986 to 1989, wrote on Twitter: "It launched many careers over decades including mine.
"Engaged and entertained audiences for generations. Hoping that it will find a new home with another UK broadcaster and continue to provide opportunity and entertainment."
Singer Kylie Minogue was one of the first stars to come out of the programme in the 1980s
The soap has featured many notable Australian actors, actresses and performers over the years, many of whom have gone on to have glittering careers.
Perhaps the most high profile of these stars to make her name on Neighbours is singer Kylie Minogue, who acted in the early years of the soap, playing Charlene between 1986 and 1988.
Russell Crowe briefly featured in the soap opera in 1987
Oscar winner and Gladiator star Russell Crowe also had a brief spell on the Ramsay Street set, while more recently the show featured Suicide Squad star Margot Robbie from 2008 to 2011 and Liam Hemsworth between 2007 and 2008.
Margot Robbie starred in the show before launching her Hollywood career
Other people to have made their names on the show over the years include the singers Natalie Imbruglia, Holly Vallance and Delta Goodrem. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60599579 |
Ukraine crisis: EA removes Russian teams from Fifa 22 game - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The games publisher says it "stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people". | The move follows bans from footballing governing bodies
Games publisher Electronic Arts will remove the Russian national team and all other Russian teams from Fifa 22 and associated games, it has announced.
It was doing so to "stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people", the company tweeted.
It comes as football's governing bodies Fifa and Uefa said Russia's national side and clubs would be banned from all competitions.
Ukraine has asked the video games industry to do more.
The country's Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called on all game-development companies and esport platforms to block Russian and Belarusian accounts, cancel tournaments and ban players
Electronic Arts tweeted: "EA Sports stands in solidarity with the Ukrainian people and like so many voices across the world of football, calls for peace and an end to the invasion of Ukraine.
"In line with our partners at Fifa [the International Federation of Association Football] and Uefa [the Union of European Football Associations], EA Sports has initiated processes to remove the Russian national team and all Russian clubs from EA Sports Fifa products including Fifa 22, Fifa Mobile and Fifa online.
"We're also actively evaluating related changes to other areas of our games."
It has also removed Russian and Belarusian teams from NHL 22 games.
There has not been any response yet from Microsoft and Sony, which own Xbox and Playstation respectively, to Mr Fedorov's tweet asking them to leave the Russian market.
Music streaming app Spotify has announced it has closed its Russian office indefinitely
Earlier this week it removed all content from state media RT and Sputnik on its platform in the European Union, the US and other markets except Russia, following similar steps from Meta and Twitter.
Who you play as is an essential element of Fifa, as people live out their sporting dreams from home.
Being suddenly unable to choose to play as your country or your favourite club will fundamentally alter the experience that many Russian gamers can have with a game they love. A game they've already paid for.
Electronic Arts has also made a similar move with its NHL ice hockey franchise.
Given that gigs, movie releases and sporting events have already been cancelled in Russia, it was only a matter of time before the gaming industry got involved.
We've already seen games companies fundraising, esports events banning Russian teams and messages of solidarity with the people of Ukraine on social media - but this is the first step that will impact millions of gamers in one go.
Whether it goes far enough for Ukraine's deputy prime minister, who called on the gaming industry to take action on Wednesday, we wait and see - but expect this to be the first move from gaming's major players, with more measures likely in the days to come. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60592658 |
In pictures: Ukraine donations pile high across the UK - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Volunteers are working everywhere from salons to car parks - but some have been overwhelmed. | Volunteers in Northampton sort donations before loading them into a lorry destined for Ukraine.
Across the UK, people have been donating clothes, bedding and toiletries to around one million Ukrainians who have fled the country since Russia invaded, as well as those in need in the country. Collection points have been set up everywhere from beauty salons to supermarket car parks.
The generosity has been so great that some organisers have had to limit what they are willing to take in, or refuse them altogether. Some charities are asking for cash donations instead, as it bypasses the need to transport donations hundreds of miles, and cash can reach people quickly to buy what is needed.
In Barton in North Yorkshire, Marta Libera is particularly worried about the women and children who have lost their homes. She told the BBC she has been collecting nappies, wipes and baby formula to send to Poland, her home country.
She's not alone. In Hartlepool, volunteers have been collecting donations from members of the community who want to help.
In a community hub, they are sorted through and categorised by a team of volunteers.
Collection points like these have sprung up everywhere. In Halifax, the furniture in a residential home lounge is barely visible under bags stuffed with warm clothing.
Donations have been collected in car parks like this one outside a supermarket in Northampton.
These hubs look very different across the country. Donations have been collected in car parks like this one. Outside a supermarket in Northampton, volunteers have been loading essential goods and clothing into a van that will be driven to Ukraine.
At Sweetcheeks Beauty Salon in Dawley, Telford, manager Rachel Evans has traded in her day job to help a Ukrainian colleague who wants to get supplies to those who need them.
One lot of donations has already been sent, she told BBC Radio Shropshire - including period products, nappies, clothing and bedding. One man even brought in a tent and gazebo. "It's been phenomenal really, the response we've had," she added.
The quantity has been so great that one location near Leeds visited by the BBC on Thursday had asked people to stop donating altogether.
At the White Eagle club in London, over 100 volunteers have been sorting through masses of bags.
Magda Harvey, one of the organisers, told the BBC people queued for an hour and a half to give donations. "We've got so many offers of free transport, whole trucks. We are loading truck after truck," she said.
The club is working with international charities to keep an updated list of what is needed to avoid unwanted donations. "Ukrainians that have fled the country, they lost everything," Ms Harvey adds. "They left everything behind. I don't want them to lose their dignity by offering them something that they don't want." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60602092 |
Taiwan: Massive power outage affects five million households - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The blackout reportedly happened after an accident at a power plant in southern Taiwan. | The capital Taipei is among the areas affected by the blackout
Major cities across Taiwan including the capital Taipei have seen widespread power failures after a reported accident at a power plant.
The nation's economic affairs minister, Wang Meihua, said an accident had occurred at a power plant in southern Taiwan, according to a report by state-linked Central News Agency.
The ministry would deal with the matter "urgently", she added.
The outage affected some five million households in Taiwan, she said.
State-run power operator Taipower said there had been an incident with a transformer at the Xingda power plant in the southern city of Kaohsiung, and that they were activating backup sources of power.
The power plant reportedly provides around a seventh of Taiwan's power.
Taiwan-based TSMC, the world's largest contract chip maker, said a number of its plants had experienced short "power dips". It added that it was checking if there was any "actual impact", said a Reuters report.
At a press conference on Thursday, Ms Wang apologised for the outage, adding that the northern parts of the island would have their power back by noon and that power would start being restored in the southern parts from midday.
Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen was set to meet the US ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. She said in a Facebook post that a scheduled livestream of her chat with Mr Pompeo had to be temporarily cancelled as a result.
Local media outlet Taiwan News had earlier on Thursday reported chaotic scenes at road junctions as traffic lights failed to function.
Traffic police had been dispatched to direct vehicles and fire trucks deployed across cities to deal with emergencies such as rescuing people trapped in lifts, the news outlet reported.
The island does occasionally experience large power outages. In 2017, a massive blackout hit half of Taiwan, affecting 6.68 million households.
• None Drought hits Taiwan chip supply as US wants more | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-60598234 |
Ukraine conflict: Half a million flee as fighting rages - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Hundreds of casualties are reported as major cities remain under attack from Russian forces. | A temporary camp has been set up in Przemysl, Poland, for some of the hundreds of thousands fleeing Ukraine
More than half a million people have fled their homes to escape the war in Ukraine, the UN says, as heavy fighting continues across the country.
Major cities - including Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv - remain under attack from Russian forces.
A government official said dozens of civilians were killed in Kharkiv as shelling continued into the morning.
On the northern border with Belarus, Ukrainian and Russian officials are meeting for talks for the first time.
Hopes for a breakthrough are slim - but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there was a "small chance to end the war".
The United Nations human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, said millions of civilians were being forced to huddle in makeshift bomb shelters such as underground rail stations to escape explosions.
Since the invasion began on Thursday, her office has recorded 102 civilian deaths, including seven children - and more than 300 injured.
"The real figures are, I fear, considerably higher," she said.
In the capital, Kyiv, the bulk of Russian forces are about 30km (19 miles) outside the north of the city, slowed by fierce Ukrainian resistance, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
But street-level fighting continues in several parts of the city. Despite the danger, a two-day curfew has been lifted, with residents emerging from underground shelters to buy food and gather supplies.
Kasenya, who spent more than 36 hours underground, told the BBC she had managed to get home. "I can't describe how I am feeling, I'm happy to stay alive and safe and just have the possibility to see my splendid and beautiful Kyiv," she said.
"Even underground, everyone is trying to help one another and help our army to be stronger and to spread the world about our situation here."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Liza Grach emotionally describes fleeing Ukraine with her 10-month-old baby, but leaving her husband behind
To the north and north-east, Kharkiv and Chernihiv were also shelled by Russian forces overnight but remain in Ukraine's control. Shells landed near a shopping centre in Kharkiv during the day, while fighting continued in the streets.
Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister, posted to Facebook: ""Kharkiv has just come under massive shelling from Grads [multiple rocket launchers]. Dozens have been killed and hundreds wounded!"
To the south, Russian forces are trying to take control of the key strategic port of Mariupol, near Russia-annexed Crimea. Ukraine denied reports that Zaporizhzhia, home to Europe's largest nuclear power plant, had fallen into Russia hands.
As the curfew lifted at 08:00 on day five of the Russian invasion, small numbers of people began to emerge on to the sunlit streets in Kyiv.
Since the curfew was imposed on Saturday night, there has been a change in the city - more checkpoints, more sandbags and more tension.
We drove past a blue Lada car, stopped in the middle of the road. There were bullet holes along one side, and the driver was slumped - dead - over the wheel. He had been shot in the head.
Suddenly Ukrainian troops - in a concealed position - started shouting at us to go. We don't know the circumstances but it's possible the driver was suspected of being a Russian saboteur. The security forces are hunting for them inside the city.
For some, today was a chance to try to flee. Mid-morning, as an air raid siren wailed, we met a group of about 30 students from India, rushing to the railway station, dragging their cases behind them.
They said they had heard reports that foreign students were being prevented from getting on trains. One medical student told me that in this time of war, they hoped all people would be treated the same. In any case they weren't planning to rely on the train. They had booked their own bus.
As the Ukrainian delegation arrived for talks near the Belarusian border, President Zelensky gave a speech to the nation, saying that 16 children had been killed in the four days since the invasion began.
He implored Russian troops to lay down their weapons and leave the country. And he called on the European Union to make Ukraine a member immediately.
"We are grateful to the partners that they stand with us," he said. "But our goal is to be with all Europeans and, most importantly, to be equal. I'm sure that's fair. I am sure we deserved it."
There is speculation that troops from Belarus could join the fight on the side of Russia, to which it is closely aligned.
Reports in US media, and Ukrainian news outlet the Kyiv Independent, suggest that a troop deployment is possible as soon as Monday.
Belarus has acted as a springboard for Russian troops since the invasion began. Its government voted on Sunday to renounce its non-nuclear status - paving the way for Russia to potentially stage nuclear weapons there.
That coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin putting its deterrence forces, which include nuclear weapons, on "special alert". The announcement does not mean Russia intends to use the weapons, but was widely perceived as a threat.
UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told media the move was to "remind the world that he has a deterrent" and distract people from "what's going wrong in Ukraine".
"We're all talking about it. He is clearly wanting to get peoples' attention distracted from what is going on on the ground."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: The families fleeing a war, but having to leave loved ones behind
Western nations have continued to levy sanctions and co-ordinate non-military action against Russia.
Russia's currency, the rouble, slumped by 30% against the US dollar in early trading on Monday - a record low prompted by Western financial sanctions. Russia's central bank more than doubled its interest rate - bringing it to 20% - in response.
Human rights group Amnesty International also accused Russia of indiscriminate use of weaponry on populated areas, something it said could constitute a war crime.
On Monday, Lithuania's government said it would ask prosecutors at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to investigate "war crimes and crimes against humanity" in Ukraine. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60551688 |
Chelsea: Roman Abramovich says he plans to sell club - BBC Sport | 2022-03-03 | Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich says he plans to sell the Premier League club. | Last updated on .From the section Chelsea
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich says he is planning to sell the club.
In a statement on the Premier League club's website, businessman Abramovich said he had made the "incredibly difficult decision" which "pains" him.
The Russian will not ask "for any loans to be repaid" and said proceeds of the sale would be donated to war victims.
Abramovich had said on Saturday he would give "stewardship and care" of Chelsea to its foundation trustees following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
That led to speculation Abramovich - who has loaned the club more than £1.5bn - would put Chelsea up for sale, and billionaire Hansjorg Wyss told Swiss newspaper Blick on Wednesday that he had been offered the chance to buy the club.
Wyss said Abramovich wanted "to get rid of Chelsea quickly" after the threat of sanctions was raised in Parliament.
Abramovich, 55, is alleged to have strong ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he has denied.
He said "all net proceeds from the sale" would be donated to the "victims of the war in Ukraine".
BBC Sport understands Abramovich has already received offers for Chelsea and that he values the club at as much as £3bn.
In his statement, Abramovich said: "I have always taken decisions with the club's best interest at heart.
"In the current situation, I have therefore taken the decision to sell the club, as I believe this is in the best interest of the club, the fans, the employees, as well as the club's sponsors and partners.
"The sale of the club will not be fast-tracked but will follow due process. I will not be asking for any loans to be repaid.
"I have instructed my team to set up a charitable foundation where all net proceeds from the sale will be donated. The foundation will be for the benefit of all victims of the war in Ukraine."
BBC Sport understands the trustees of Chelsea's charitable foundation, who had not yet agreed to take control of the club, will no longer be asked to. Abramovich was criticised for not referencing Russia's invasion of Ukraine in that original statement on Saturday.
Chelsea's players were not told ahead of time about their owner's new statement, which was released less than a hour before the side's FA Cup fifth-round tie at Luton Town.
After falling behind early on, the Premier League team won 3-2 to reach the quarter-finals.
Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003 for £140m, and in his statement said it had "never been about business nor money, but about pure passion for the game and club".
Since his purchase of the club, Chelsea have been transformed, setting the template for how much finance was needed to compete at the top end of the Premier League.
In total, Abramovich has loaned the club more than £1.5bn, which has helped to bring great success.
Under his ownership, the club have won every major trophy possible - including the Champions League twice, both the Premier League and FA Cup five times, the Europa League twice and the League Cup three times.
In August 2021, they won the Uefa Super Cup and in February won their first Club World Cup.
He has appointed 13 different managers and the club spent more than £2bn in the transfer market under his ownership.
Chelsea's women's team, who became affiliated to Chelsea FC in 2004, have thrived under Abramovich's ownership, winning the Women's Super League four times, the Women's FA Cup, three times and reaching the Champions League final last season.
Their high profile has seen world stars such as Australia's Sam Kerr and Danish forward Pernille Harder move to the club.
Why has Abramovich chosen to sell?
Other Russian billionaires have already been the subject of European Union sanctions where their assets have been frozen.
That has included Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who has commercial links to Everton.
The United Kingdom government is yet to sanction Abramovich or Usmanov, but Labour MP Chris Bryant said in Parliament on Tuesday that Abramovich was "terrified of being sanctioned which is why he is going to sell his home tomorrow [Wednesday], and another flat as well".
On Wednesday, during Prime Minister's Questions, Labour leader Keir Starmer asked why Abramovich was not facing sanctions, with Boris Johnson replying it was "not appropriate to comment on any individual cases at this stage".
A spokesperson denied the Labour leader's claims and said Abramovich had not done anything sanctionable.
Wyss also said: "Abramovich is trying to sell all of his villas in England, he also wants to get rid of Chelsea quickly.
"I and three other people received an offer on Tuesday to buy Chelsea from Abramovich."
A spokesperson for Abramovich declined to comment on those claims.
'One of the most significant, controversial and influential figures in history of English football' - analysis
While this was not an entirely unexpected development after it became apparent during the last 24 hours that Roman Abramovich was looking to sell Chelsea, this dramatic announcement still feels like a seismic moment. Not only for the west London club, but for the wider English game too.
The Russian billionaire's arrival almost two decades ago helped transform the Premier League's competitive balance, profile and spending power, reinforcing its status as a truly global competition.
The oligarch's riches turned Chelsea into a major force in the game, and his ownership seemed to pave the way for subsequent takeovers by overseas billionaires, at clubs like Manchester City for instance.
But there was significant controversy too.
With Abramovich - one of Russia's richest people - almost never commenting in public, he also came to symbolise the detachment of some super-wealthy club owners. Many also found the ruthlessness with which he treated managers questionable.
There was always intrigue surrounding the motives for his ownership, and how he made his fortune. While he has always denied direct links with Putin, the invasion of Ukraine led to calls in parliament for the government to sanction wealthy Russians.
Abramovich vehemently denies that he had done anything to merit sanctions being imposed against him. But as the highest-profile oligarch in the country, and with one MP citing concerns about alleged links to corruption, his ownership was coming under mounting scrutiny.
And with the government facing mounting pressure to seize his assets, and Abramovich criticised over his failure to explicitly condemn Russia's invasion, it is little surprise that he has swiftly announced his decision to sell.
In recent years Abramovich has been an increasingly infrequent visitor to Stamford Bridge, withdrawing his application for a visa in 2018 after relations between the UK and Russia worsened.
But while fans had got used to not seeing Abramovich, the Russian's departure could mean the club is run very differently in future - and perhaps with much more financial constraint - by whoever now buys it.
That may help explain why some at Chelsea will no doubt be sorry to see him go. Many other observers, however, will be pleased, some of whom have always viewed Abramovich's ownership as a classic example of 'sportswashing'.
Having always insisted he was passionate about the club and had its interests at heart, he leaves as one of the most significant, controversial and influential figures in the history of English football.
Chelsea will be a desirable football club for many given its status within the game. It's in London which makes it very attractive to ultra high net-worth individuals.
You have to caution that Chelsea has lost more money than any other club in the history of the Premier League and its stadium is a lot smaller than some of the other stadiums in London.
Speaking to some agents already today, I think the initial asking price is around £3bn. I think that is unlikely to be achieved. But if you are looking for a trophy asset - something to show off to your compatriots, to your friends, then Chelsea has an awful lot of attraction.
They are European and world champions - that does add to its allure.
There are three potential types of bidders we could see.
We could see the individual billionaire looking to add to their portfolio of well-known assets.
It could come for a private equity company based in the US who believes the riches of Premier League are undervalued in traditional markets.
We could see from a sovereign wealth fund as we've seen in relation to Manchester City, Newcastle and Paris St-Germain
This sale has come at a bad time in terms of the market. The share price of Manchester United - a good peer group company for Chelsea - is now trading significantly below its initial listing price in 2012. The market seems to have lost its love-in with football and this could impact on the ultimate price Chelsea is sold for.
25 February: Labour's Chris Bryant tells MPs the UK government should remove Roman Abramovich's ownership of Chelsea and seize his assets, citing concerns about alleged links to corruption.
26 February: Abramovich announces he is handing "stewardship and care" of Chelsea to its charitable foundation.
27 February: Foundation members express concern over whether Charity Commission rules would allow them to run the club. Chelsea beaten 11-10 on penalties by Liverpool in League Cup final at Wembley after game ended 0-0.
28 February: Abramovich asked by Ukraine to help support their attempts to reach a "peaceful resolution" with Russia.
1 March: The Charity Commission says it is "seeking information" from Chelsea after the club was placed under the control of its charitable foundation.
2 March: Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss claims he has been offered the chance to buy Chelsea from Abramovich.
2 March: Abramovich announces he intends to sell the club.
'It can take months or years'
Former Newcastle and England striker Alan Shearer on BBC One: "It's a huge moment for Chelsea. He has brought massive success over his 20 years but it is not simple, selling a football club. It can take months or years.
"But more importantly, there is still no condemnation from Roman or the club about what is happening in Ukraine."
Former Manchester City and England defender Micah Richards on BBC One: "It is a better statement than Saturday, there is a lot more clarity and Roman Abramovich has done the right thing.
"It is so sad we have to talk about this on a football night after all the scenes we have seen. It is heartbreaking. The sooner it happens the better."
• None Our coverage of Chelsea is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment
• None Everything Chelsea - go straight to all the best content | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60585081 |
Ukraine: Dorries gives emotional tribute to UK journalists - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | The UK culture secretary gives her "heartfelt thanks and admiration" to members of the press in Ukraine. | The UK culture secretary has given her "heartfelt thanks and admiration" to all journalists risking their lives to bring "unbiased and accurate news" from Ukraine.
Nadine Dorries appeared emotional as she spoke about their work.
She also pledged to use her powers to make sure President Putin would be "fully ostracised" from the international community. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60602985 |
Mum reunited with daughter in Northern Ireland after fleeing Ukraine - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Svetlana Murphy says it is "overwhelming" to be reunited with her mother Galina in Northern Ireland. | Svetlana said she was overwhelmed to have her mum with her in Northern Ireland
A Ukrainian woman has been reunited with her daughter in Northern Ireland after making an emotional journey from the war-torn country.
Svetlana Murphy, who is originally from Ukraine, has lived in Northern Ireland for years.
She was reunited with her mother Galina Korol at Dublin Airport before travelling to NI on Thursday.
"I just can't believe it, it is just overwhelming and I am so happy she is here now," Svetlana said.
"I have got her, so I'm not going to let her go."
Galina arrived from Lublin in Poland, which she had made her way to from Dnipro in Ukraine after four days of travelling.
The journey was facilitated by a chance conversation between her future son-in-law Mel Campbell and Aneta Gil, a Polish waitress at Gowdy's pub near Lisburn.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Svetlana Murphy and her mother Galina Korol were reunited at Dublin Airport.
Aneta was able to help by getting friends to drive three-and-a-half hours each way to collect Galina from a refugee camp on the Poland-Ukraine border and drive her into Poland.
"Svetlana was sending me the locations of her mum, so I was passing this to my friend, it was all about communication," Aneta said.
Aneta told BBC News NI it was an emotional moment when Svetlana and Galina came into Gowdy's after being reunited.
"When I saw, of course, it made me cry," she said.
"I'm so happy I could help, that I had a chance to help, I'm so happy.
Aneta helped to plan Galina's journey from the Polish border
Mel said they had booked a flight for last Saturday night, hotels for three nights and a flight for Wednesday night for Galina, knowing that the circumstances could change quickly.
"We just booked flights and hotels, that if she got there, she'd have somewhere to go," he said.
"We pre-empted the plan of action and hoped that it would fall into place and with the amazing help of Aneta and her family friends, everything fell into place.
"It was amazing and testament to the Polish people and Aneta's family especially, and the effort that Galina put in.
"She's in her early 60s, you know, that takes a lot of guts to get up and leave your home, to travel with pretty much no possessions and being driven by strangers, crossing your fingers and hoping that things fall into place, that the gods are looking down on you."
Mel Campbell said Galina had shown courage to make the journey
Svetlana revealed that her mother would be there for her wedding to Mel.
"I'm just so happy, I'll have my mum close to me on a special day for us and it's just the best present ever," she said.
She was also asked what her mother wanted to say and translated for her as Galina does not speak fluent English.
"She said: 'I want to say thank you to everyone who helped and my kids, what they did for me - I can see my kids, my grandchildren growing up, I can live, I can breathe'," Svetlana said.
Galina will be able to attend her daughter's wedding
Russia invaded Ukraine eight days ago and the city of Mariupol is now under siege.
Earlier, the port of Kherson became the first major city to be taken by Russian forces.
"She [Galina] knows it's a war and I am not afraid to use that word because loads of people are dying," Svetlana said earlier on Thursday.
"The explosions are really frightening and I just begged her to get away from it, because she has family here and we need her."
On Thursday, the Irish Department of Justice confirmed 450 Ukrainian nationals had arrived into Dublin Airport between 25 February, when visa requirements were removed, and 2 March.
A spokesperson said a temporary protection directive to allow officials to "quickly and humanely respond to the mass displacement of Ukrainian people by Russian aggression" was agreed on Thursday and is expected to be adopted on Friday.
"It will provide an immediate right of access to the labour market, housing, social welfare, healthcare, education, training and other supports," the department said.
All over Northern Ireland, friends and family members of people stuck in Ukraine, are waiting for news from their loved ones.
In Newry, County Down, members of the Ukrainian community are gathering aid to send back to their homeland.
Elena Bushtruk's daughter Anna fled Kyiv and has made it to the Romanian border, but she hopes her daughter will soon join her in Northern Ireland.
Speaking through a translator, Elena said: "Of course I am worried.
Elena Bushtruk says it has been "very hard" waiting on news of her daughter
"I hope that she gets here, and I hope that it's soon."
Mariya Krupska's home has become a hub for the local Ukrainian community.
Her house is fit to burst with donations from people in Newry.
This weekend, she plans to fill a truck with them and drive them to the Polish border with Ukraine.
"I'm not scared because it's a little thing that I can do," she said.
Mariya Krupska is driving aid donations to the Poland-Ukraine border
"People don't have a roof, people don't have food, people have their houses ruined.
"My heart is in pieces - I didn't sleep for maybe four nights at all.
"My family is in the west and they are safe for now but something will happen if this is not stopped.
"I have a lot of friends in Kyiv, in Odesa, in Kharkiv, in Sumy. They are all in big massive danger."
Every morning, Natasha Stokes waits for updates from her friends and family members in Kyiv.
Natasha Stokes has asked people to pray for those in Ukraine
"The messages don't always get through," she said.
She told the BBC: "I feel empty. I'm a very private and reserved person in my ordinary life, but I am a religious person.
"I'm so overwhelmed with grief and worry. I just want to ask people in Northern Ireland, it doesn't matter what beliefs they have, what religion they have.
"Every night when you go to bed, please say a word of prayer for people in Kyiv, for people in Ukraine.
"Please pray they will be alive in the morning."
Russia has for the first time admitted suffering heavy military casualties during its attack on Ukraine, with 498 troops killed and a further 1,597 injured.
However Ukraine says Russian losses run into the thousands.
Ukraine reports that more than 2,000 civilians have died since the invasion began last Thursday.
The conflict has also caused more than a million people to flee Ukraine, according to the UN. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60602652 |
Former education secretary Gavin Williamson to get knighthood - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Boris Johnson sacked the Tory MP from the cabinet last year amid criticism of his performance. | Former defence secretary and education secretary Gavin Williamson is to receive a knighthood.
The Conservative MP for South Staffordshire was sacked from the cabinet in last September's reshuffle.
Mr Williamson faced opposition calls to quit over his handling of disruption to England's schools and exams during the pandemic.
The 45-year-old, whose first career was in manufacturing, previously served as the government's chief whip.
He was given a CBE in 2016 for political and public service, and it is understood that his knighthood is being awarded for the same reasons.
Mr Williamson was first elected to Parliament in 2010 and became chief whip, in charge of Conservative Party discipline, under Prime Minister Theresa May, in 2016.
While in that role he notably kept a pet tarantula called Cronus on his desk.
In 2017, Mrs May made Mr Williamson defence secretary, a role he served in until 2019 when she sacked him, saying she had "lost confidence in his ability to serve".
This followed an inquiry into a leak from a National Security Council meeting on whether the Chinese firm Huawei should be involved in setting up the UK's 5G network. Mrs May said she had "compelling evidence" that Mr Williamson was responsible for the leak, but he denied this.
He returned to the cabinet as education secretary in summer 2019, after Boris Johnson became prime minister.
But his time in the job was marked by severe criticism from opposition parties over his handling of school closures, free school meal provision and GCSE and A-level exams during the Covid pandemic.
Mr Williamson was replaced as education secretary by Nadhim Zahawi in last autumn's reshuffle.
Reacting to the news of his knighthood, Labour's shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: "Gavin Williamson let children to go hungry, created two years of complete chaos over exams and failed to get laptops out to kids struggling to learn during lockdowns. His record is astonishing and disgraceful."
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said head teachers and parents would be "surprised" to learn the news.
He said the pandemic would have been "challenging for any education secretary" but added that Mr Williamson's tenure had been one of "endless muddle" and "inevitable U-turns".
Mr Williamson has not commented so far on his honour. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60609646 |
Ukraine conflict: Kharkiv family desperate to treat daughter's cancer - BBC News | 2022-03-03 | Polina and her family are trying to flee Kharkiv after spending days sheltering in their basement. | Her expensive treatment is running out. Her mother faces a dilemma - should the family stay in their basement for safety, or risk going outside to try and flee Kharkiv and get help for their daughter?
Warning - this video contains distressing footage of an explosion in Freedom Square, Kharkiv. It has been verified by the BBC but the source is unknown. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60596789 |