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Comic Relief: Red Nose Day raises £42m in star-studded show - BBC News | 2022-03-18 | Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Matt Lucas and David Walliams featured in the Red Nose Day broadcast. | More than £42.7m has been raised in Comic Relief's latest Red Nose Day broadcast, with a host of stars taking part in sketches and stunts.
The charity show was broadcast from BBC studios in Salford for the first time.
Highlights included Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders visiting The Repair Shop, and Matt Lucas and David Walliams reviving their Rock Profiles sketches.
But stars Zoe Ball, Kylie Minogue and Joel Dommett had to pull out of the show after catching Covid.
At shortly after midnight, Red Nose Day announced it had raised £42,790,147 for good causes in the UK and around the world.
Some of the money will benefit organisations providing aid in Ukraine.
Comic Relief co-founder Richard Curtis thanked the "extraordinary public" for their "outpouring of generosity". He said the charity helped 11 million people last year.
The show's presenters sent their love to Ball, who was due to be one of the hosts, with actor David Tennant saying: "We will miss you tonight Zoe, we are sending you loads of love."
Ball said she would be "watching & supporting from bed".
The Vivienne, Nikki Lily, Roman Kemp, Maya Jama, Lady Leshurr and Snoochie Shy in Glow Up Does Red Nose Day
Minogue told followers she wouldn't be able to take part in a planned sketch with the cast of BBC sitcom Ghosts.
And the event's co-host Dommett said he was "super annoyed" to have caught the virus before Red Nose Day.
Dommett was replaced by Vernon Kay, while Ball said Alesha Dixon would "work the double shift tonight" to fill in for her.
"I owe you lady love," she told her on Twitter.
Covid-19 infections have continued to increase in England, with about one in 20 people in private households estimated to have had the virus in the week to 12 March, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Rob Rinder, Claire Richards, Deborah Meaden and Ricky Hatton in a This Is My House celebrity special
Sir Lenny Henry, Tennant, AJ Odudu and Paddy McGuinness were Comic Relief's other presenters, and were rotated during the broadcast which lasted nearly four hours.
It was announced during the programme that Tom Daley's Hell Of A Homecoming challenge - in which the Olympic diver rowed, swam, cycled and ran for 290 miles over four days from London to his hometown of Plymouth - had raised £1,027,111.
The show also saw comedian Jack Whitehall playing England footballers Declan Rice and Mason Mount in a mini-golf challenge - with Whitehall coming in last place as West Ham midfielder Rice won.
The lifelong Arsenal fan was forced to post a photo on Instagram of himself in a West Ham shirt as a forfeit.
French and Saunders pay a visit to The Repair Shop
Strictly Come Dancing champions Rose Ayling Ellis and Giovanni Pernice performed to a rendition of How Long Will I Love You.
Reviving their Rock Profile comedy sketch show for a one-off special, Lucas and Walliams impersonated stars such as Adele, Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga.
French and Saunders reprised characters from their sketch show - two overacting film extras - as they visited the Repair Shop, asking host Jay Blades and his team of skilled artisans to fix their toaster, "a family heirloom".
The sketch also featured Dame Judi Dench as a character who arrived at the shop to have an old doll from her childhood repaired, only for French and Saunders to smash its head to pieces.
Last year, the annual event raised more than £55m for good causes in the UK and around the world.
Matt Lucas and David Walliams doing a Rock Profile of Miley and Billy Ray Cyrus
Other famous faces to appear during the fundraising show include Tom Holland, Courteney Cox, Lulu, Paul Rudd, Chris Kamara, Vic Reeves, Jeff Goldblum, Clive Myrie, Jamie Dornan and Gordon Ramsay. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60792779 |
Sarah Everard vigil: Met Police appeal against High Court ruling - BBC News | 2022-03-18 | Scotland Yard says the decision to appeal "is important for policing and the public". | Patsy Stevenson says the force "still can't hold themselves accountable"
The Met Police will appeal against a High Court ruling that it breached the rights of the organisers of a vigil for Sarah Everard in south London.
The group had to cancel the event after the Met said it would be illegal to stage it under lockdown restrictions.
However, hundreds of people attended an unofficial gathering to pay their respects to Ms Everard who was murdered by serving Met officer Wayne Couzens.
Police and some protesters clashed at the Clapham Common vigil last March.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Met faced severe criticism over their policing of the event
Activist and co-founder of Reclaim These Streets (RTS) Jamie Klingler urged the Metropolitan Police to "learn the law".
Responding to news of the appeal, Ms Klingler wrote in a tweet: "I'm not going to pretend I am not furious. They want us to give up. They want to exhaust us."
At a two-day hearing at the High Court in January, Ms Klingler and three others argued that decisions made by the force in advance of the planned vigil amounted to a breach of their right to freedom of speech and assembly.
Anna Birley, Jessica Leigh, Henna Shah and Jamie Klingler brought the case against the Met Police
The judgment was described by their solicitor as "a victory for women".
RTS had planned the socially-distanced vigil for the 33-year-old, near to where she went missing in Clapham.
Almost a year to the day on from the 13 March 2021 vigil, two senior judges released their findings that the Met's actions were "not in accordance with the law".
The women cancelled the vigil after being told by the force they would face fines of £10,000 each and possible prosecution if it went ahead, the court heard.
The spontaneous vigil that took place instead led to the force being heavily criticised for its actions - although it went on to be cleared by the police watchdog.
Couzens, 49, was given a whole life sentence at the Old Bailey in September after admitting murder.
Follow BBC London on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hellobbclondon@bbc.co.uk
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60801815 |
Ukraine: Elegant Odesa is transformed by efforts to deter Russians - BBC News | 2022-03-18 | As Russian warships circle off the coast, Odesans face a difficult decision on whether to leave. | While Russian advances across Ukraine have slowed in recent days, people in the strategic port city of Odesa are preparing for an expected and imminent Russian attack.
Decision-time is fast approaching in Odesa. As Russian warships circle off the coast, air-raid sirens wail over the cobbled streets, and Russian ground forces seek to advance west along the shores of the Black Sea, civilians in this historic, famously cosmopolitan port city are facing the same hard and urgent choices that millions of other Ukrainians have already confronted.
Some residents have left Odesa, heading west towards the nearby border with Moldova or taking a crowded train north to Lviv. The city's elegant boulevards, with their cafes, trams, and theatres, now stand mostly empty and littered with tank traps, while protective sandbags crowd around some of the most famous monuments.
But like many Odesans, Valentin Kartashova is staying put - for now. She runs a state orphanage, looking after 90 children, including both newborns and 18 others with severe disabilities.
"These children are dependent on oxygen, on respiratory support to keep them alive. I've had many offers of help from abroad. But they want to meet us at the border. I can't take these children by train or car. How can I move them from here? Must I leave them? Must I abandon them? And only take the healthy ones?" asks Kartashova, shaking her head.
Children at the city's state-run orphanage will remain in the city, unless they come under direct fire
She's prepared a cellar in the orphanage compound, with supplies to last a week or more, and has decided the children will be safer staying in Odesa, unless they come under direct fire.
A few miles closer to the city centre, Olga Pavlova has also reached a similar decision.
"I'm afraid - and not only me. I think other people are just as afraid of the situation. But we'll stay here. We love our city and we'll stay. I've become a volunteer. Who else will feed the animals?" says Pavlova, a veterinarian scientist who works at Odesa's municipal zoo.
Hundreds of families have already left pets at the zoo before fleeing, but almost all the staff have decided to remain at work.
"We've decided it is better to stay put. The animals are our responsibility. We'll win this war soon, I believe. People will return and we need to make sure the zoo is still here, and the theatres, the libraries. We need to guard all that - to protect our culture," says the zoo's director, Igor Beliakov. He explains that some of the more nervous animals - a 43-year-old African elephant known as Daisy, several bears, and zebras - are being kept inside in case the sound of explosions makes them panic.
Playing their regular game of chess in a park near the city's Russian Orthodox cathedral, in sub-zero temperatures, two ethnic Russian pensioners, Alexander Nikrasov and Nikolai Ivanov, describe the invasion as "worse than the Nazis", who occupied Odesa during World War Two.
"At least the Germans didn't destroy the city when they left Odesa, but now there's every chance it will be destroyed," says Ivanov.
"Mykolaiv [a city under Russian attack, to the east] is already suffering for defending us. Of course, the war will come here. People are dying in their thousands and for what? Because Putin wants to take something from us?" asks Nikrasov, brandishing a walking stick which he calls, "my only weapon."
Speaking by phone from Italy, one of Odesa's most renowned Russian-speaking poets, Boris Khersonsky, says he is "not a refugee", but left the city a few days earlier after receiving a literary invitation.
"It's a really difficult decision. What do you have to keep you in Odesa? What is waiting for you abroad?" says Khersonsky, adding that he plans to return imminently, assuming the city remains under Ukrainian control.
"If the city is under Putin's rule, I won't return. If Putin succeeds in capturing Mykolaiv then he has a straight path to Odesa. It's always been a volatile city with a big cultural heritage. Over the years, many writers - who are the glory of Odesa - have left. Odesa can give birth to talent, but very often it doesn't take care of it," he says.
As in so much of Ukraine, many people are volunteering to join the local defence forces.
"I love my country. I want to live in a free country. Russian is my language, but now Russia is the enemy. Maybe it's a surprise, but maybe it was expected," says Ruslan Prihodka, who usually works in a chemist, but is now learning to assemble an AK47 in a classroom near the city centre.
"I don't know how to fight yet. But we'll have to do our best. Maybe there's something wrong in Putin's head," says Dima, a construction worker, standing nearby.
During one air raid, volunteers working at a food-collection centre near the city's grand old opera house rushed to the basement, where a local singer brought out a guitar to play Ukrainian folk songs.
"Having watched how Russian forces have already destroyed other historic towns like Kharkiv, I have no hope that our Russian heritage will spare us from their bombs," says Alexei Kostrzhitski, an IT expert now serving as a captain in a local defence group.
"Mariupol and Kharkiv are very pro-Russian cities," adds a young city councillor, Petro Obukhov. "Most citizens here speak in Russian not Ukrainian. And still Putin bombs them. It makes no sense but still I hope he will not bomb us." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60785791 |
Mariupol theatre: 'We knew something terrible would happen' - BBC News | 2022-03-18 | 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 |
UK City of Culture 2025 shortlist revealed - BBC News | 2022-03-18 | Bradford, County Durham, Southampton and Wrexham are in the running to succeed Coventry. | Coventry is the current UK City of Culture
Bradford, County Durham, Southampton and Wrexham have made the shortlist to be named UK City of Culture for 2025.
A different location is given the title every four years.
The winning place will be announced in May and will be the fourth holder, after Derry-Londonderry, Hull and the current City of Culture, Coventry.
The title has brought £172m to Coventry, according to the government, as well as events like BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend and the Turner Prize.
"We have seen a huge positive impact in this year's host city, Coventry, with millions of pounds in investment and thousands of visitors," said Arts Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay.
The government said the finalists would have to show how they would use culture "to transform a place through social, cultural and economic regeneration" and recover from the Covid pandemic.
For the first time, groups of towns, areas and counties have been able to bid, as well as single urban areas.
The four locations that missed out on progressing from the longlist were Cornwall, Derby, Stirling and a bid covering Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon.
The city with the youngest population in the UK, Bradford says winning would "leave a lasting legacy of increased visitor numbers and a more vibrant, sustainable cultural sector".
It would also increase opportunities for local people and "bring greater community engagement across the district and celebrate our diverse communities", the bid says.
Bradford 2025 organisers have already backed a string of events in West Yorkshire that they say give a glimpse of what to expect, such as a new public artwork programme, a light festival visited by more than 20,000 people in November, and mentoring network FilmMakers 2025.
County Durham includes the towns of Bishop Auckland and Barnard Castle as well as Durham. It says being UK City of Culture would attract 15 million visitors, spending £700m and creating 2,500 jobs in the creative industries and 1,800 in tourism.
It would also "empower residents and help to improve community well-being" and "strengthen our reputation nationally and internationally as a place to live, work, visit and invest", organisers promise.
The year would include spectacular opening and closing events, the bicentenary of the world's first public steam railway, a travelling fair asking "big questions" about the local economy, and a 12-month space programme.
The south-coast city is "uniquely positioned, facing outwards to the world", it boasts.
Its bid organisers say the contest is "a real chance to put our city on the map - to change perceptions, showcase our diversity and give a voice to every part of our community".
They say: "If our bid wins, we'll attract visitors, enterprise and trade that will boost our own homegrown businesses and cultural organisations, bring in investment and boost opportunities for young people. We'll get the support we need to tackle the challenges we face, too."
Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds took control of Wrexham AFC in February 2021
Covering Wrexham and the surrounding area, the borough would be the first Welsh UK City of Culture. It says success would allow "communities that don't usually have a platform to share their stories".
If it wins, it says it "will explore how culture can reanimate our public spaces and shopping areas, and work on how we can best upgrade our civic and artistic infrastructure".
It wants to use the bid to become known as the "capital of play for the UK", it pledges "a world-class events programme" and to use culture "as a catalyst for improving health and well-being, local knowledge and pride, and improved educational outcomes".
Claims to fame: Wrexham AFC, owned by Hollywood A-listers Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Focus Wales music festival. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60796693 |
Prince Andrew pays settlement ending sex assault case - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | A US judge has signed off court papers concluding the court case brought by Virginia Giuffre. | Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre have settled the court case
The Duke of York is paying a financial settlement to his accuser Virginia Giuffre - formally ending a civil case brought against him in the US, according to court documents.
A judge in New York signed the court papers on Tuesday, marking the final stage of settling the sex assault case.
The amount being paid by Prince Andrew in the deal agreed last month has not been revealed.
But the court documents say each side will "bear her/his own costs and fees".
There has been speculation about how Prince Andrew might afford the settlement, which could cost millions of dollars.
There have been suggestions he could use funds from selling a ski chalet in Switzerland - but the sale has so far not been completed, according to Prince Andrew's representatives on Tuesday.
A statement from the Treasury, in response to a Freedom of Information request, ruled out any public funding: "No public money has been used to pay legal or settlement fees."
There have been suggestions that the Queen could help to pay, using her private funds, but Buckingham Palace had declined to comment.
The latest "stipulation of dismissal" court papers showed the case being concluded, following the agreement reached between Prince Andrew and Ms Giuffre in February, which stopped the prospect of a courtroom battle in New York.
The signing of the papers by US district court judge Lewis Kaplan marks the end of this high-profile legal claim.
The out-of-court settlement accepted no liability and Prince Andrew has always strongly rejected claims of wrongdoing.
But the prince agreed to pay an unspecified amount to Ms Giuffre and to her charity for victims' rights.
He also said he "never intended to malign Ms Giuffre's character" and he recognised she had "suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks".
The duke also pledged to "demonstrate his regret for his association" with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In the wake of the claims, Prince Andrew lost military titles and royal patronages as well as the use of the title His Royal Highness. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60667111 |
Scans reveal how Covid may change the brain - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Even after a mild infection, the overall size of the brain had shrunk, researchers found. | Catching Covid may cause changes to the brain, a study suggests.
Scientists found significant differences in MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scans before and after infection.
Even after a mild infection, the overall size of the brain had shrunk slightly, with less grey matter in the parts related to smell and memory.
The researchers do not know whether the changes are permanent but stressed the brain could heal.
The study is published in the journal Nature.
Lead author Prof Gwenaelle Douaud, from the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, at the University of Oxford, said: "We were looking at essentially mild infection, so to see that we could really see some differences in their brain and how much their brain had changed compared with those who had not been infected was quite a surprise."
The UK Biobank project has followed the health of 500,000 people for about 15 years and has a database of scans recorded before the pandemic so provided a unique opportunity to study the long-term health impacts of the virus.
But the researchers do not know whether the changes are reversible or truly matter for health and wellbeing.
"We need to bear in mind that the brain is really plastic - by that we mean it can heal itself - so there is a really good chance that, over time, the harmful effects of infection will ease," Prof Douaud said.
The most significant loss of grey matter was in the olfactory areas - but it is unclear whether the virus directly attacks this region or cells simply die off through lack of use after people with Covid lose their sense of smell.
It is also unclear whether all variants of the virus cause this damage.
The scans were performed when the original virus and alpha variant were prevalent and loss of smell and taste a primary symptom.
But the number of people infected with the more recent Omicron variant reporting this symptom has fallen dramatically.
'Your mind is what is being exercised'
Paula Totaro lost her sense of smell when she caught Covid, in March 2020.
"When it was gone, it was like living in a bubble or a vacuum - I found it really isolating," she told BBC News.
But after contacting the charity AbScent, which supports people who have lost their ability to smell and taste, she began smell training.
"What smell training does - particularly if you do it twice a day, regularly, religiously - is it forces you to take the smell, allow it to go back into your nose and then to think about what it is that you're smelling," she said.
"And that connection between what's in the external world and what goes into your brain and your mind is what is being exercised."
Ms Totaro has now recovered most of her sense of smell - although she still has trouble identifying what different smells are.
"It's a mix of joy that the sense has come back but still a little bit of anxiety that I'm not quite there yet," she said.
UK Biobank chief scientist Prof Naomi Allen said: "It opens up all sorts of questions that other researchers can follow up about the effect of coronavirus infection on cognitive function, on brain fog and on other areas of the brain - and to really focus research on how best to mitigate that."
Prof David Werring, from the University College London Institute of Neurology, said other health-related behaviour could have contributed to the changes seen.
"The changes in cognitive function were also subtle and of unclear relevance to day-to-day function," he said.
"And these changes are not necessarily seen in every infected individual and may not be relevant for more recent strains." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60591487 |
Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelensky to address UK MPs in Commons - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The Ukrainian president will speak via video link to British politicians on Tuesday. | The Ukrainian president - pictured here with Boris Johnson in February - will make a statement to the Commons by video link
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address British politicians via video link later, as his country battles the Russian invasion.
Mr Zelensky's speech will be broadcast to MPs in the Commons at 17:00 GMT using TV screens being installed in the chamber.
Members of the House of Lords are also expected to watch from the public gallery.
MPs will be able to follow a live translation over special headphones.
After Mr Zelensky's speech, Boris Johnson and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will respond.
Meanwhile, the prime minister is hosting meetings in London with the leaders of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
The series of meetings will be to discuss the UK's support for security in central Europe.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said: "Every parliamentarian wants to hear directly from the president, who will be speaking to us live from Ukraine, so this is an important opportunity for the House.
"Thanks again to our incredible staff for working at pace to make this historic address possible."
His counterpart in the House of Lords, Lord McFall of Alcluith, said: "Today we are not members of the House of Lords or Commons, we are parliamentarians, united in solidarity with Ukraine."
Mr Zelensky, a former comedian and actor, has been the figurehead of Ukraine's struggle since Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces invaded the country last month.
Last week, he received a standing ovation when he spoke, via videolink, to the European Parliament.
Boris Johnson pledged support for European countries as he opened the meetings on Tuesday
Mr Zelensky has also spoken frequently to Prime Minister Boris Johnson since the conflict started.
On Monday, the president promised to punish anyone who commits atrocities against the Ukrainian people.
"There will be no quiet place on Earth for you, except for the grave," the president said.
On Monday evening, Mr Johnson spoke with US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, with the four leaders agreeing to maintain pressure on Russia to isolate Mr Putin diplomatically and economically.
"The prime minister stressed that our goal must be ensuring Putin's failure in this act of aggression against Ukraine," said a No 10 spokeswoman.
At Prime Minister's Questions last week, MPs stood to applaud Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, who watched parliamentary proceedings from the Commons gallery.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60655003 |
Cost of living: Warning UK faces biggest income squeeze in nearly 50 years - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The war in Ukraine will lead to an even tighter squeeze on living standards this spring, a think tank says. | War in Ukraine will push up energy prices and see UK families squeezed even further, a think tank has warned.
The Resolution Foundation forecasts that a typical household's income will fall by about £1,000 this year once the effect of inflation is accounted for.
That would be the biggest real-terms fall in incomes since the mid-1970s, it added.
A government spokesperson said it recognised the pressures households are facing.
Many families were already expecting their monthly spend to go up when the energy price cap jumps in April, and National Insurance contributions rise.
But in a new report, the Resolution Foundation said the Ukraine conflict would push up living costs even further as the prices of fuel and other goods surged.
It expects inflation, which measures how the cost of living changes over time, to peak in April at 8.3%. That is much higher the Bank of England's forecast of 7.25% back in February.
"The crisis in Ukraine has increased both the scale of price rises but also the degree of uncertainty about their levels and duration," the Foundation's report said.
"The UK's post-Covid economic recovery is well under way, but a deep living standards downturn is just getting going," it added, also warning that wages are not forecast to grow particularly fast either.
This spring was always going to be a crunch moment.
At the start of April, spikes in global oil and gas prices from last year start to feed through to our energy bills and the energy price cap jumps up. You should have had a message from your provider by now explaining what's happening to your particular bill and warning about an increase to your direct debit.
That will be hard enough for many households, but we're also now seeing record prices at petrol stations due to the war in Ukraine. The Resolution Foundation is also warning the conflict will bring more price rises, with inflation peaking at the same point as the price cap goes up.
The only saving grace is the time of year. At least if the weather improves (and that's a big "if"), we can start using less energy and leaving the car at home becomes easier for many. That could help people to divert cash to cover the rising prices in shops, which we will have to pay whatever the season.
Its principal economist, Adam Cortlett, said soaring bills would hit low and middle-income families the hardest.
He also suggested poorer households would face a "living standards rollercoaster" because of the way that benefit payments are set months in advance.
For example, most working age benefits and the state pension are due to rise by 3.1% in April - a time when the increase in the cost of living could be as high as 8%. But high inflation in 2022 should lead to bigger payments next year.
The think tank called on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to announce fresh support for struggling families at his Spring Statement.
Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, said: "While the economic fallout from the war will feel trivial compared to the suffering experienced by millions of Ukrainians, it will still have a significant impact in Britain."
He suggested that surging gas and oil prices would worsen the "cost of living crisis", causing a "painful squeeze on family incomes".
Mr Bell told the BBC's Today programme the country was heading into a "living standards recession".
"We could see income falls of 4% in the financial year that's about to kick off, we never see that outside of significant recessions," he said.
"Given it will take us quite a few years to claw our way back from that, it may well feel like our living standards during the pandemic were as good as it got during the first half of the 2020s."
A government spokesperson said: "We recognise the pressures people are facing with the cost of living, which is why we're providing support worth around £20bn this financial year and next to help."
They said this includes freezing fuel duties to keep costs down, as well as launching energy bills rebate programme.
"We have also boosted the minimum wage by more than £1,000 a year for full-time workers and our £500m Household Support Fund is helping the most vulnerable with essential costs," they added. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60649217 |
War in Ukraine: 'It's hell, it's really hell' - Families flee bombs in Irpin - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Silent and weeping, a stream of civilians with backpacks try to outpace the Russian shells. | Residents of Irpin are fleeing the Russian assault on their city, which is half an hour's drive from Kyiv
They came on foot, in an endless stream - trying to outpace the Russian shells laying waste to their hometown. There were families with children in strollers clutching stuffed toys, young mothers with babes in arms, and the elderly moving as fast as their years would allow. Most were silent. Some were weeping. At the edge of Irpin there was urgency, panic, and anguish. It felt like we were witnessing the death of a city.
"Everything is bombed," said Valentina, as she rushed past us, fleeing her home and her life with just a single bag over her shoulder. "There are no lights," she said, "there's been no electricity, no gas, and no internet for two to three days. People are sitting in the basements and kids are sick there."
Russian forces are already inside the city.
"Part of Irpin was captured by Russian invaders but part of the city is fighting and not surrendering," said the mayor, Oleksandr Markushyn, in a video he posted on social media.
Those trying to flee are still being targeted, as the mayor himself saw yesterday. "The Russian invaders fired on our local civilians," he said. "A family died. This shell, this mine hit, and in front of my eyes two children and two adults died."
It seems clear that the Russian strategy is to terrorise the residents of Irpin into submission and empty the city - a tactic Moscow has used elsewhere from Grozny to Aleppo. The residents who remain have endured days and nights of relentless bombardment. We could hear the assault during an earlier visit on Saturday. The soundtrack was the same today, except maybe louder. And this time we could also hear grad rocket fire, and occasional gunshots.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jeremy Bowen was on the frontline in Irpin, as residents came under Russian fire while trying to flee.
"Tell everyone to close the skies, urgently, we need it," said Andrei as he dashed past - with his pet poodle - pleading for a no-fly zone. "Close the skies - please. It's hell, it's really hell. The Russian soldiers are bombing civilian houses. The Russians are not fighting the army. They are fighting anyone."
He knew it was time to go when the Russians arrived on his street. "We saw the armoured vehicles near our house. They passed by. Then the tank stopped and blew up a house near me. So, I think we are lucky, we are all really lucky that we are here."
Andrei says Russian tanks blew up a house close to his
The 36-year-old is - or was - an events manager. 'I make the people laugh, with shows, concerts. But I think I have no work now in Ukraine," he said. Then he joined the crowds heading for minibuses that are screeching to and from the edge of the city, ferrying people, and pets, to the railway station in Kyiv - a lifeline for those trying to escape to western Ukraine.
Getting out of Irpin means picking your way over a mass of rubble, and jagged boulders and metal bars that now litter the bed of the Irpin river. This is the remains of a bridge blown up by Ukrainian forces to block - or at least slow - Russian armour reaching the capital. Planks of wood are balanced precariously on the wreckage. One elderly man almost tumbled from a plank into the water. Then he summoned his courage and shuffled forward. Nearby a woman lay flat on the ground on the riverbank - conscious but immobile. We were told she had fallen. No one knew how to try to move her.
Ukrainian forces blew up the bridge themselves, hoping to slow the Russian advance
As we filmed a gunshot rang out. A Ukrainian soldier took a screaming young boy by the hand and ran with him to cover. Two others grabbed a buggy. Another helped a woman on a crutch, who was breathless with exertion.
A blackened building was still smouldering, neatly framed by the golden onion domes of the church directly behind (which appeared to be intact). This was an image of Ukraine, past and present, of war and peace.
The golden domes of a church rise just behind a damaged building
The country's future is painful to imagine, but it's already being sketched out in cities under bombardment from Kharkiv to Mariupol, where cold, frightened civilians cower in basements, or try to run for their lives.
And what we witnessed in Irpin could be a chronicle of the capital foretold. Kyiv lies straight down the road, about half an hour's drive away - a distance of 26km or 16 miles. That's why Irpin matters so much to both sides.
There's no doubting the fighting spirit here, and the determination to resist. But military experts say a broken bridge won't be enough to stop the Russians, and there is no doubt that they have Kyiv in their sights. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60651801 |
Ukraine war: Boy of 11 flees to safety in Slovakia by himself - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Hassan travelled 1,200km to Slovakia with two bags, a passport and his relatives' phone number. | Hassan was given food and drink by volunteers and his relatives were then contacted in Bratislava
A boy has arrived safely in Slovakia after travelling some 1,200km (750 miles) from eastern Ukraine with no more than two small bags, a passport and his relatives' phone number.
Hassan, 11, left his home in Zaporizhzhia because his mother could not leave her elderly mother.
She put him on a train and when he finally got to the border he was helped across by customs officers.
Officials said he was a true hero and had won over everyone with his smile.
The boy arrived at the border carrying a plastic bag, a small red backpack and his passport. He was taken in by volunteers who gave him food and a drink while border officials got in touch with relatives in the Slovak capital Bratislava.
His mother, in a video posted by Slovak police, thanked everyone for taking care of her son and explained why he had travelled across the country when it was in the grip of a Russian invasion.
"Next to my town is a power plant that the Russians are shelling. I couldn't leave my mum - she can't move by herself - so I sent my son to Slovakia," said Julia Pisecka, who is a widow.
The nuclear power station at Zaporizhzhia is the biggest in Europe. It was seized by Russia's military over the weekend after an attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky warned could have caused destruction on a scale far bigger than the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Hassan is one of more than two million people who have fled Russia's war in Ukraine. More than 1.2 million have arrived in Poland, while 140,745 have reached Slovakia, according to the latest UN figures.
Julia Pisecka thanked everyone who had looked after her son
On the verge of tears, his mother pleaded for Ukraine's children to be given a safe haven.
A Slovak interior ministry official said Hassan had won over everyone at the border with his smile, fearlessness and determination.
The official said he had used a phone number written on the boy's hand, as well as a piece of paper he had in his pocket, to contact relatives in the Slovak capital who came to pick him up.
Interior Minister Roman Mikulec met Hassan on Monday and said he and his siblings had already asked for temporary protection in Slovakia.
Slovak officials urged people who were keen on helping the boy's mother and grandmother to donate to Slovak Christian youth association ZKSM.
Hassan had his relative's phone number in Slovakia written on the back of his hand
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60659365 |
Nicola Sturgeon apologises to people accused of witchcraft - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Legislation may be brought forward to pardon those convicted under the Witchcraft Act of 1563. | Nicola Sturgeon said the Witchcraft Act prompted "injustice on a colossal scale"
Nicola Sturgeon has offered a formal apology to people accused of witchcraft between the 16th and 18th centuries, many of whom were executed.
The Scottish first minister said she was choosing to acknowledge an "egregious historic injustice".
It is thought 4,000 Scots, most of them women, were accused of breaking the Witchcraft Act between 1563 and 1736.
Ms Sturgeon also told MSPs that parliament could choose to legislate to pardon those convicted under the law.
The Witches of Scotland campaign had urged the government to offer a public apology, saying it would send a "powerful signal".
Witch hunts took place in many countries during that period, but academics say Scotland's execution rate was five times the European average.
Confessions were regularly secured under torture, with those condemned strangled and burned at the stake.
In a statement at Holyrood, the first minister said those accused under the act "were not witches, they were people and they were overwhelmingly women".
She said: "At a time when women were not even allowed to speak as witnesses in a courtroom, they were accused and killed because they were poor, different, vulnerable or in many cases just because they were women.
"It was injustice on a colossal scale, driven at least in part by misogyny in its most literal sense, hatred of women.
"Today on International Women's Day, as first minister on behalf of the Scottish government, I am choosing to acknowledge that egregious historic injustice and extend a formal posthumous apology to all of those accused, convicted, vilified or executed under the Witchcraft Act of 1563."
The Witches of Scotland group has been petitioning Holyrood to pardon those convicted under the act, with QC Claire Mitchell saying it would correct as far as possible a "terrible miscarriage of justice".
SNP MSP Natalie Don was already planning a member's bill extending a formal pardon, and Ms Sturgeon noted that parliament may choose to legislate in due course. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-60667533 |
War in Ukraine: Russia says it may cut gas supplies if oil ban goes ahead - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | A top official says Russia may close its gas lines to Germany if the West halts oil imports. | The Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline was inaugurated just over a decade ago
Russia has said it may close its main gas pipeline to Germany if the West goes ahead with a ban on Russian oil.
Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said a "rejection of Russian oil would lead to catastrophic consequences for the global market", causing prices to more than double to $300 a barrel.
The US has been exploring a potential ban with allies as a way of punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
But Germany and the Netherlands rejected the plan on Monday.
The EU gets about 40% of its gas and 30% of its oil from Russia, and has no easy substitutes if supplies are disrupted.
While the UK would not be directly impacted by supply disruption, as it imports less than 5% of its gas from Russia, it would be affected by prices rising in the global markets as demand in Europe increases.
Iain Conn, the former boss of British Gas owner Centrica, said natural gas was "less freely" traded compared to oil, and it would be "much more difficult" to replace Russian gas if supplies are affected as it is transported through fixed pipelines from country to country.
The price of Brent crude - the global benchmark for oil prices - rose to around $130 a barrel on Tuesday following reports that the US and UK will announce its own ban on Russian oil imports.
In an address on Russian state television, Mr Novak said it would be "impossible to quickly find a replacement for Russian oil on the European market".
"It will take years, and it will still be much more expensive for European consumers. Ultimately, they will be hurt the worst by this outcome," he said.
Pointing to Germany's decision last month to freeze certification of Nord Stream 2, a new gas pipeline connecting the two countries, he added that an oil embargo could prompt retaliation.
"We have every right to take a matching decision and impose an embargo on gas pumping through the [existing] Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline," he said.
Russia is the world's second largest gas producer and third largest oil exporter, and any move to impose sanctions on its energy industry would badly damage its own economy.
Nathan Piper, head of oil and gas research at Investec, said although imposing sanctions on Russia's oil and gas exports was attractive, "practically it is challenging".
He said both the global oil and gas markets were tight ahead of the war in Ukraine "with limited spare capacity to replace any disrupted Russian volumes".
"The question is now whether US and European leaders are prepared to endure high oil and gas prices to add energy exports to the sanctions list," he told the BBC.
"The threat of this action is almost the worst of both worlds, forcing prices up but doing nothing to limit Russian volumes or the revenues flowing to Moscow."
Analysts at Capital Economics have forecast oil prices could rise to $160 a barrel if the West imposed sanctions on Russian exports, but David Oxley, senior global economist at the consultancy, told the BBC it was disruption to Russian gas that would hit countries harder, describing it as a "completely different kettle of fish".
He said energy intensive industries across Europe could be hit, with "vast swathes of heavy industry being switched off" as it is much harder finding replacement gas suppliers compared with oil.
EU countries heavily reliant on Russian gas, such as Germany, could switch from gas to coal, he said, but that would run counter to the bloc's climate ambitions and would not be a long-term solution.
The energy markets have been supremely volatile over the past week, and understandably so. There are genuine fears that supplies of oil and gas from Russia could be cut off or disrupted.
Yet the response to Russia's suggestion it could close a major pipeline, depriving northern Europe of a large chunk of its gas supplies, has been pretty muted so far.
There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, Russia is threatening a tit-for-tat embargo - cutting off its gas exports if the West goes ahead with a ban on Russian oil.
But despite pressure from the US, such a ban is unlikely. European leaders have already poured cold water on the idea - so Russia's counter-threat carries relatively little weight.
And then there's the fact that Russia is still making huge sums from sales of oil and gas to Europe every day, helping to fund its war.
Moscow has everything to gain from exploiting traders' nerves to push up energy prices; but a great deal to lose if it were to carry out its threat.
Ukraine has implored the West to adopt an oil and gas ban, but there are concerns it would send prices soaring. Investor fears of an embargo drove Brent crude oil to $139 (£106) a barrel at one point on Monday - its highest level for almost 14 years.
Meanwhile, wholesale gas prices rose to 565p per therm early on Tuesday, but fell to 480p in the afternoon.
UK stock markets rose slightly in early trading after a volatile Monday caused by the US's discussions over a potential Russian oil and gas ban.
Early on Tuesday, nickel prices on the London Metal Exchange more than doubled to rise above the $100,000-a-tonne level for the first time, before trading in the metal was suspended.
Russia supplies the world with about 10% of its nickel needs, mainly for use in stainless steel and electric vehicle batteries.
Quoting unnamed sources, Reuters news agency reported that the US might be willing to move ahead with an embargo without its allies, although it only gets about 3% of its oil from Russia.
However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has dismissed the idea of a wider ban, saying Europe had "deliberately exempted" Russian energy from sanctions because its supply could not be secured "any other way" at the moment.
European powers have, however, committed to move away from Russian hydrocarbons over time, while some Western companies have boycotted Russian shipments or pledged to sell their stakes in Russian energy companies.
Mr Novak said that Russian companies were already feeling the pressure of US and European moves to lower the dependence on Russian energy, despite fulfilling all its contractual obligations to deliver oil and gas to Europe.
"We are concerned by the discussion and statements we are seeing regarding a possible embargo on Russian oil and petrochemicals, on phasing them out," he said.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jeremy Bowen was on the frontline in Irpin, as residents came under Russian fire while trying to flee. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60656673 |
War in Ukraine: World Bank approves $723m financial package - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The package of financial support for Ukraine includes a $100m pledge from the UK. | The World Bank has approved $723m (£551m) in loans and grants for Ukraine, as the country fights against a Russian invasion.
The bank said it is continuing to work on another $3bn package of support in the coming months for the country.
It also promised extra help for neighbouring countries that are taking in more than 1.7m refugees, which are mostly women, children and the elderly.
The financial package for Ukraine includes a $100m pledge from the UK.
"The World Bank Group is taking quick action to support Ukraine and its people in the face of the violence and extreme disruption caused by the Russian invasion," the bank's president David Malpass said in a statement.
The bank said the funds would help Ukraine's government provide critical services, including wages for hospital workers, pensions for the elderly and social programmes for the vulnerable.
The package includes a $350m loan, augmented by about $139m through guarantees from the Netherlands and Sweden.
It is also made up of $134m in grants from Britain, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania and Iceland, as well as $100m of financing from Japan.
Last week, Mr Malpass told the BBC that the war was "a catastrophe" for the world which will cut global economic growth.
"The war in Ukraine comes at a bad time for the world because inflation was already rising," he said.
He stressed that his biggest concern was "about the pure human loss of lives".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Jeremy Bowen was on the frontline in Irpin, as residents came under Russian fire while trying to flee. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60657127 |
Amazon rainforest reaching tipping point, researchers say - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The world's largest rainforest is fast losing its ability to bounce back from human impacts, researchers say. | The Amazon contains between 90 and 140 billion metric tons of carbon
The Amazon rainforest is moving towards a "tipping point" where trees may die off en masse, say researchers.
A study suggests the world's largest rainforest is losing its ability to bounce back from damage caused by droughts, fires and deforestation.
Large swathes could become sparsely forested savannah, which is much less efficient than tropical forest at sucking carbon dioxide from the air.
The giant forest traps carbon that would otherwise add to global warming.
But previous studies have shown that parts of the Amazon are now emitting more carbon dioxide than can be absorbed.
"The trees are losing health and could be approaching a tipping point - basically, a mass loss of trees," said Dr Chris Boulton of the University of Exeter.
The findings, based on three decades of satellite data, show alarming trends in the "health" of the Amazon rainforest.
There are signs of a loss of resilience in more than 75% of the forest, with trees taking longer to recover from the effects of droughts largely driven by climate change as well as human impacts such as deforestation and fires.
A vicious cycle of damage could trigger "dieback", the scientists said.
And while it's not clear when that critical point might be reached, the implications for climate change, biodiversity and the local community would be "devastating".
The more trees cut down, the less the forest can soak up emissions
Once the process begins they predict it could be a matter of decades before a "significant chunk" of the Amazon is transformed into savannah - a vastly different ecosystem made up of a mixture of grassland and trees.
"The Amazon stores lots of carbon and all of that would be released into the atmosphere, which would then further contribute to increasing temperatures and have future effects on global mean temperatures," Dr Boulton said, adding that stopping deforestation would go some way to addressing the problem.
Around a fifth of the rainforest has already been lost, compared to pre-industrial levels, they said.
The research was carried out by the University of Exeter, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Technical University of Munich.
"Deforestation and climate change are likely to be the main drivers of this decline," said Prof Niklas Boers of PIK and the Technical University of Munich.
Commenting, Dr Bonnie Waring of the Grantham Institute - Climate Change and Environment, Imperial College London, said: "These latest findings are consistent with the accumulating evidence that the twin pressures of climate change and human exploitation of tropical forests are endangering the world's largest rainforest, which is home to one out of every 10 species known to science."
The findings, based on satellite data from 1991 to 2016, are published in the journal Nature Climate Change. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60650415 |
Public sexual harassment: The women groped and laughed at in the street - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | A survey for the BBC suggests 43% of women have experienced unwelcome touching in public. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Women have been speaking about shocking incidents of sexual harassment - after a BBC poll found many often still feel unsafe walking alone at night.
The new poll suggests 43% of women in the UK have experienced unwelcome touching or groping in public.
The survey - conducted by YouGov - also indicates 28% of women have experienced indecent exposure in public.
The chair of the Women and Equalities Committee said Boris Johnson must show he takes women's safety seriously.
It follows growing pressure to make public sexual harassment a crime.
Caroline Nokes, a Conservative MP who chairs the committee, told the BBC changing the law would send a "really powerful message" and could help tackle underlying causes of violent offences against women.
"It will give women the confidence to report and sends a very clear message to perpetrators that this is criminal," she said.
The survey found two thirds - 66% - of women said they did not feel safe walking alone at night, at least some of the time. That compared to just 39% of men who said they felt unsafe in the same situation.
The findings come a year after the murder of Sarah Everard, who was abducted and murdered while walking home in south London.
Ms Everard's killer, police officer Wayne Couzens, was previously linked to allegations of indecent public exposure. Hers and other high-profile cases in the past year have led to increased awareness and campaigning around women's safety and public sexual harassment.
The BBC has also spoken to women across the UK about how sexual harassment impacts their lives.
One, a woman named Sarah, was on her way to a morning exercise class in Edinburgh last year when a man followed and groped her before running off laughing and filming her reaction.
"I was incredibly shocked. I remember I felt incredibly angry as well," she told the BBC. "I also felt a real invasion of privacy, the fact he had filmed the whole incident."
What happened to Sarah that day was the worst of a long history of experiences she and her friends remember going through over the years - from being groped in nightclubs as students to being shouted at by strangers in the street.
"We used to be catcalled all the time as teenagers going out. It was something we laughed off and shrugged off," she said. "But as a woman now, everyone has become a lot more aware of how dangerous those things are and how hostile it is."
"There's an absolute entitlement to touch and to talk to you in a manner that is completely inappropriate," she added.
Sarah said the "brazen" assault by a stranger left her with a "horrible feeling"
More than half of the women surveyed for the BBC said they avoided certain areas and being out at certain times to try to keep themselves safe from possible harassment and assault.
Roxanne, 26, no longer feels confident walking alone after experiencing everything from obscene comments to unwanted touching when out in public since she was a teenager.
Roxanne believes a door has opened for women to "normalise" speaking out about their experiences
She now sticks to main roads when walking her dog and tries to only go out in daylight when she's by herself.
Like 30% of women surveyed in the poll for the BBC, Roxanne says she wears flat shoes as a way to feel safer. She also carries a rape alarm, criminal identification spray and tries not to wear her hair in hairstyles such as ponytails she fears might be easier for an attacker to grab.
"I don't know who's going to harm me, when they're going to harm me - so I'm cautious of everybody," she said. "And I think that's a natural and very common thing to feel with everything that's going on."
The latest Crime Survey for England and Wales estimated 2.2% of the population aged between 16-59 were victims of sexual assault in the year ending March 2020 - a slight decrease on the year before.
Public sexual harassment is not currently an offence in its own right. The term refers to unwanted sexual behaviour - from verbal comments to physical actions - which can leave victims feeling intimidated and degraded.
The Law Commission - an independent body that advises the government on legal changes - recommended in December that ministers should consider creating a specific criminal offence for it during a review into hate crime laws.
Ms Nokes believes criminalising public sexual harassment could help intervene in escalating offender journeys to ensure "today's flasher does not become tomorrow's rapist".
"I think the prime minister needs to step up and show that he does take women's safety seriously and that he's not interested in a few cosmetic measures like CCTV - but actually in legislative change with a cross-government approach," she said.
Caroline Nokes told the BBC the government should do more to help women feel safe
She believes current safety initiatives and advice place too much onus on women having to take precautions to try to protect themselves.
"Of course we want women to be safe and we want them to be vigilant, but this is about men attacking them when they are just going about their daily lives," she said. "Women should be safe wherever they are, whatever they're doing, however they're dressed."
Ms Nokes also supports cultural and education reforms - including with mandatory consent classes in schools, colleges and universities.
Nathaniel Horne works for a charity that runs workshops for boys and men aimed at tackling misogyny and encouraging healthier relationships.
Nathaniel Horne says "all men can be better" to help women feel more safe and change attitudes in society
"It's important to talk to people about this stuff early," he told the BBC about going into schools. "Because I think once people are adults, and they've been out for a while, that can be entrenched in those views and those behaviours."
The view is echoed by April-Joy Serrant, who last year was exposed to by a man performing a sex act in public while out on a run. As a mother of three sons, she says her experience has changed how she speaks with her children about relationships and content they may be exposed to.
After posting a video about her experience online, she was overwhelmed by other women and girls getting in touch with their own experiences of the "day in, day out" harassment.
"It had never crossed my mind until the incident that I experienced last year that my husband can go for a walk or for a run and it never crosses his mind," she said. "And that is freedom."
The Home Office told the BBC that tacking violence against women and girls "remains one of the top priorities of this government".
"We are committed to ensuring that existing laws on public sexual harassment are effective but we continue to look carefully at where there may be gaps and how a specific offence could address those," safeguarding minister Rachel Maclean said in a statement."
She said the government last week launched a new national communications campaign and said violence against women had now been made a priority for police forces, alongside national threats like terrorism.
Have you been affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences 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/uk-60523422 |
Ros Atkins on… The UK’s refugee response - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Ros Atkins looks at the UK's response to refugees fleeing Ukraine, and its family visa scheme. | Ros Atkins takes a look at the UK's response to refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, and the family visa scheme it has set up. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60668779 |
'World-first' heart-thymus transplant success for Easton - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Doctors hope the pioneering procedure, believed to be a world first, marks a new chapter for transplant surgery. | US doctors say a young boy called Easton has made medical history by becoming the first person in the world to receive a combined heart and thymus transplant.
The pioneering procedure was done to save his life, but could also revolutionise the field of organ transplantation, they hope.
The donated thymus tissue should help stop his body rejecting the new heart.
Months on from the surgery, tests reveal Easton is progressing well.
The thymus tissue is working, meaning his body is building critical immune cells which might ultimately reduce or even eliminate the need for him to take lifelong anti-rejection drugs.
One of his doctors, Joseph Turek from Duke University Hospital, said: "We are very excited about it. This concept of tolerance has always been the holy grail in transplantation, and we are now on the doorstep.
The thymus gland is located in the chest, near the heart
"This has the potential to change the face of solid organ transplantation in the future."
The thymus gland helps the development of T-cells, which fight foreign substances in the body. It teaches these immune cells what is "self" and what isn't, and therefore what can be attacked.
Giving Easton cultured thymus tissue from the same donor who gave him a heart, should help his body adopt the new tissues, his doctors believe.
Easton was born with a weak heart as well as problems with his immune system. He spent his first seven months in hospital - some of it on life support - and needed numerous heart operations. as well as treatment for recurrent infections that his body was unable to fight on its own.
His mother, Kaitlyn Sinnamon, recalls: "It helped some, but it was basically a band aid for us to make it through transplant."
His doctors applied to the medical regulatory body, the FDA, to carry out an experimental type of transplant that hadn't been done in combination before, as far as they knew.
Since Easton needed a new heart and, independently, a new thymus gland, the FDA granted approval for the procedures that went ahead in August 2021, when Easton was six months old.
Easton at home with his sister
Dr Turek said: "This was very serendipitous. We had the expertise to do both.
"The work we had done in the laboratory was based around using thymus along with heart transplantation in order to develop tolerance - so basically retraining the immune system and having the thymus of the same donor and heart grow up together.
"We thought this was an opportunity for Easton. This could be applied to all solid organs down the road potentially if this works."
Much more research is needed before then, including checking if it is viable to remove and replace the thymus in people who have one that is already fully functioning.
The medical team plan to wean Easton off the immunosuppressive drugs at some point, to see how he progresses.
Kaitlyn said: "I hope that as he gets older he gets to be proud of his scars, and know that he not only got to save his own life, but got to save other people's lives as well."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60648869 |
Chaos, upheaval and exhaustion for Ukraine's disabled children - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The BBC's Fergal Keane travels on a bus with disabled children fleeing the bombed city of Kharkiv. | They had been travelling for thirty hours already. There were many hours ahead. The bus to the Polish border was a capsule of exhaustion, grief and tender mercies. Carers hugged the frightened children and whispered soothing sounds. It was not a time or place for words. There were none that could have explained the madness engulfing the world of the children from Kharkiv's Hippocrates Care Centre. They were aged between one and three and all were disabled, with serious medical conditions.
Before the bus there had been the train across the land from east to west, and before the train a journey in cars through stricken Kharkiv. Shells were falling close by and the noise sparked terror in the children. The dash to the station was their first trip outside of a bomb shelter since the Russian invasion began.
The city of Kharkiv is only 54 kilometres from the Russian border and was one of the first places targeted in the invasion. Hundreds of thousands of its residents have since fled for neighbouring countries, the majority to Poland. One of the young carers on the bus, Iryna Miroshnichenko, said that when the bombardment began staff had to make an urgent decision: hide in the basement shelter of the centre or to try to leave immediately. Either way they ran the risk of death or serious injury.
It was an agonising dilemma for people who had never known war and for whom the care of the children is something like a sacred responsibility. It can be seen in the gentleness with which they treat their young charges.
Kharkiv, where the children's centre is based, was one of the first places bombed during the invasion
"It's very deplorable. It is really, really bad. We are being bombed from morning till night. We've been in the bomb shelter all this time. We were there with all of the kids, all of them hiding," said Iryna.
The director of the centre, Valentyna Shlyahova, went back and forth through the crowded bus reassuring children and encouraging her staff. She has a disabled daughter who has already been evacuated to safety. Another older daughter and her family have also left Kharkiv. They are all among the 1.5 million people forced out of their homes by President Putin's decision to invade Ukraine.
Valentyna gestured towards a pair of children who were crying relentlessly.
"We are tired ourselves and the children are tired. You hear how the children behave? They also want calm, silence, cosiness and warmth," she said.
Unicef estimates that 7.5 million children in Ukraine are in danger from the conflict and require urgent assistance. Shelling has hit hospitals, restricted the work of emergency services and is creating a major wave of trauma among the young. Half a million children have fled out of Ukraine with their families.
A week ago, Unicef's executive director, Catherine Russell, called for respect for the laws of war to protect children.
"We renew our call on all parties to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure - and to abide by all legal and moral obligations to keep children out of the line of fire. We must protect all children in Ukraine. Now. They need peace," she said.
In the week since she made that statement Russia has escalated the conflict.
To those of us witnessing the exodus of refugees the most striking feature is the huge numbers of children of all ages who are on the move. Most are travelling with their mothers. All men of fighting age are being ordered to stay behind unless they have a medical or job exemption. The demands of the war supersede those of families.
Unicef estimates that 7.5 million children in Ukraine are in danger from the conflict
One of the most powerful images of this conflict is that of mothers and carers patiently shepherding children through the chaos that has ruptured family lives. It is an inspiring counterpoint to the obscenity of this war.
I asked director Valentyna Shlyahova what the children meant to her. She smiled. "Many people ask me why I do it. I would say that twenty years ago fate took a turn and I took this job. Let me say to you that I feel that I am needed here."
Valentyna has no idea when she or the children will be able to return to Ukraine or what kind of country they will find when that moment comes. But she will be with them, whatever lies ahead. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60648735 |
War in Ukraine: McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Starbucks halt Russian sales - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Western companies are turning their backs on Russia amid sanctions and violence in Ukraine. | Consumer giants including McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Starbucks have joined the list of firms halting business in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine.
McDonald's said it was temporarily closing its roughly 850 restaurants in Russia, while Starbucks also said its 100 coffee shops would shut.
On Wednesday, Heineken stopped beer production and sales in Russia.
And Mothercare said all business in Russia, which represents 20% to 25% of its global sales, had been stopped.
Elsewhere, tobacco company Imperial Brands - the group behind brands including JPS and Davidoff cigarettes - said it was pausing production at its factory in Volgograd in a move impacting about 1,000 employees.
It has already suspended its operations in Ukraine over staff safety concerns.
Russia and Ukraine together accounted for 2% of Imperial's net revenues last year - about £656m.
Meanwhile, British American Tobacco has halted investment in Russia, but said its business in the country continues to operate.
The moves by McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Starbucks come after mounting pressure on companies to act over the war in Ukraine. All three firms said they would continue to pay their staff.
Anna MacDonald, a fund manager at Amati Global Investors, told the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme that firms who were joining the wave of firms leaving Russia were doing so because "shareholders and wider stakeholders wouldn't stand for continued generation of revenues and profits" from the country,
"It was affecting their share prices and the feeling was that it was just utterly inappropriate to continue to do so," she said.
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McDonald's established a presence in Moscow in 1990 as the Soviet Union was opening its economy, and it drew thousands for its burgers and fries. Its closure now carries similar symbolic weight, and could influence other firms.
However, fast-food chain rival Burger King is currently keeping its Russian stores open. It committed $3m (£2.3m) to support Ukrainian refugees and said people fleeing to European nations could get free Whopper meal vouchers.
Restaurant Brands International, which owns Burger King, said it would redirect its profits from more than 800 franchised operations in Russia to humanitarian efforts.
The company told the BBC its Russian outlets were operated by franchisees with which it had "long-standing legal agreements" that were not easy to change currently.
McDonald's chief executive Chris Kempczinski said it was "impossible to predict" when it would reopen in Russia.
McDonalds has also temporarily closed its 108 restaurants in Ukraine.
Collectively the countries account for about 9% of the firm's revenue and about 2% of global sales.
Companies have been under pressure to act as Russian violence against civilians has escalated.
#BoycottMcDonalds and #BoycottCocaCola had both been trending on Twitter over recent days.
Dozens of well-known firms including Netflix and Levi's have already suspended sales or stopped providing services in Russia amid severe sanctions imposed by Western allies.
Coca-Cola on Tuesday said it was suspending operations in Russia, which accounted for roughly 2% of the firm's operating revenue and income. It also has a roughly 20% ownership stake in a bottling and distribution business in Russia.
"Our hearts are with the people who are enduring unconscionable effects from these tragic events in Ukraine," the company said.
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 and suspending capital investments and advertising, citing "horrific events" in Ukraine.
But the company, which started operating in Russia during the Cold War and now employs 20,000 people there, said it would continue to offer other products.
"As a food and beverage company, now more than ever we must stay true to the humanitarian aspect of our business," boss Ramon Laguarta said. "That means we have a responsibility to continue to offer our other products in Russia, including daily essentials such as milk and other dairy offerings, baby formula and baby food."
Starbucks' plans to stop business in Russia include stopping shipments of its products.
The coffee chain's licensee in the country Kuwait-based Alshaya Group will continue to pay its roughly 2,000 staff members.
Other major global brands joining the backlash on Tuesday included the world's largest music company, Universal Music Group, which said it was suspending all operations in Russia and closing its offices there.
Unilever, maker of Marmite, Dove beauty products and PG Tips, among other brands, also said it had suspended trade with Russia and planned to halt its advertising and media spending and investment in the country.
It said it would continue to supply "everyday essential food and hygiene products" that are made in Russia.
L'Oreal, the world's biggest cosmetics company, is also shutting its stores and concessions in Russia and suspending online sales.
In response to the number of firms packing up, Russia has warned that it may nationalise production plants or factories where work has temporarily been suspended.
Andrei Turchak, secretary of the ruling United Russia party's general council, said on Monday evening: "United Russia proposes nationalising production plants of the companies that announce their exit and the closure of production in Russia", during what he described as a "special operation" in Ukraine.
Some firms have also defended plans to continue operating in Russia, including Uniqlo owner Fast Retailing, whose founder told Japan's Nikkei newspaper that "clothing is a necessity of life". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60665877 |
War in Ukraine: West hits Russia with oil bans and gas curbs - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The US bans Russian oil, targeting the Russian economy's "main artery" over its invasion of Ukraine. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: US bans all Russian oil and gas imports
The US and UK are banning Russian oil and the EU is ending its reliance on Russian gas, stepping up the economic response to the invasion of Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden said the move targeted "the main artery of Russia's economy".
Energy exports are a vital source of revenue for Russia but the move is also likely to impact Western consumers.
Major brands have meanwhile continued to pull out of Russia, with McDonald's and Coca-Cola the latest to leave.
Russia's economy is heavily dependent on energy. It is the world's third-biggest oil producer, behind Saudi Arabia and the US.
Before the measures were announced, Russia warned of "catastrophic" consequences for the global economy and said it might close its main gas pipeline to Germany.
On the ground in Ukraine, civilians have been evacuated from two under-attack areas while the US has said up to 4,000 Russian troops may have been killed in the conflict.
The conflict has already sent petrol prices to record highs in the US and the UK and experts warn they could go even higher.
However, Venezuela could increase its oil production to help replace Russian oil.
Reinaldo Quintero, president of the association that represents Venezuelan oil companies told the BBC that the country could potentially raise its production levels by 400,000 barrels a day.
"I think we can reach 1.2 million barrels per day with the infrastructure we have right now at this moment. So that will make us able to supply the need, some of the need, to the North American market," he said.
President Biden's announcement followed pressure from both sides of the US political divide to do more to target the Russian economy.
"We're banning all imports of Russian oil and gas and energy," he said.
"That means Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at US ports and the American people will deal another powerful blow to [President Vladimir] Putin."
Mr Biden admitted the move was "not without cost at home," adding the decision was taken "in close consultation" with allies.
In a similar move, the UK is to phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022.
The UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, accepted that the move would not hit Russia immediately but added "what it will do is add to the pressure we're already seeing on Russia and don't forget that the economic impact of the sanctions that the UK has led has been extreme".
About 8% of US oil and refined product imports come from Russia, while Russia makes up about 6% of the UK's oil imports.
By contrast, the EU is much more reliant on Russian energy, so the bloc's response stopped short of a ban.
The European Commission said it would switch to alternative supplies and expand clean energy faster to fill the shortfall, with the aim of making Europe independent from Russian fossil fuels "well before 2030".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Five times Russians have stood up for Ukraine
"We're not standing here to say this is going to be in any way easy," said the European Commission's Vice-President Frans Timmermans.
"But I am also deeply convinced that even if it's not easy, even if it's very hard, it's something we need to do, because now it's also intimately linked to our security."
Russia later announced plans to ban the exports of certain commodities and raw materials. The details are still to be worked out, but Russia is a major exporter of grain and metals.
Even countries with low Russian energy imports are set to feel the impact as the measures are likely to boost already high wholesale prices. Inflation is soaring in the US, EU and the UK, adding to the pressure on households.
The move adds to a long list of economic sanctions imposed against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine - the central bank has had its assets frozen, some Russian banks have been cut off from global payment networks and Germany suspended the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which would have transported more gas from Russia to Germany.
But energy sales have continued to provide a source of cash despite the other financial restrictions. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60666251 |
Iowa tornadoes: Seven people killed, including two children - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Seven people are dead after tornadoes packing winds of up to 138 mph (222kph) tore through Iowa. | At least seven people are dead after three tornadoes tore through central Iowa, including two children and a family of four. The most powerful tornado generated wind gusts of up to 138 mph (222kph) and left over 50 houses damaged and destroyed. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60655723 |
Dizzee Rascal: Grime artist guilty of assaulting former partner - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The grime artist was found guilty of assaulting his former partner in London last year. | The chart-topping rapper had denied assault by beating
Grime artist Dizzee Rascal has been found guilty of assaulting his former partner.
The rapper, whose real name is Dylan Kwabena Mills, attacked Cassandra Jones at a property in Streatham, south London, in June 2021.
The 37-year-old, of Sevenoaks, Kent, "barged" his way into the house, put his forehead against Ms Jones' and "pushed her to the ground".
The couple had two children before they split up in February 2021.
At Wimbledon Magistrates' Court on Monday, the musician - whose chart-topping singles have included Bonkers and Dance Wiv Me - had denied assault by beating.
The court heard Mills "barged" his way into the property on 8 June, with his son under his arms before "screaming and shouting" and banging his own head on the fridge three times.
He then approached Ms Jones, "put his forehead against hers and pushed her around the room" and then "pushed her to the ground", the court heard.
He had accused her of causing injuries to his arm.
The grime artist was made an MBE for services to music in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2020
The court heard how Ms Jones began filming him but he took her phone from her and then took the phone from her mother, Dawn Kirk, who was there.
The shouting became so loud it alerted two neighbours and police were called.
When they arrived, Mills said "I'm the aggressor", but later gave a prepared statement in a police interview, denying the allegations and claimed he had been assaulted by Ms Jones, the court heard.
Delivering her verdict, District Judge Polly Gledhill said Mills had lost his temper in an argument over child contact and finances.
She added he was "abusive and aggressive" and "assaulted her as outlined by the Crown".
Following the verdict, Mills took a camera from a Press Association photographer outside the court and threw it into a road, smashing it.
A Press Association photographer said Mills smashed his camera outside court
Photographer, James Manning, said: "He came out of the court, I was taking his picture, just standing still on the corner.
"He then pushed my camera into my face, which then caused it to fall to the floor, at which point he then picked it up and then threw it across the road. It smashed into a lot of pieces.
"He was angry, he came straight out of the door, didn't say anything, didn't say anything until the point at which he pushed my camera.
"I think he said something like 'get away' or 'get out of my face' or something along those lines."
Det Con Hannah Barton said she wanted to "praise the woman who Mills assaulted - she has shown immense strength throughout this investigation".
"No woman should be subjected to violence of any form and I would urge anyone who finds themselves in this position to trust police - we will investigate and you will be provided with the support you need to help you through," she added.
Mills released his debut album, Boy In Da Corner, in 2003, and is due to release his seventh album later this year.
In 2020, he was made an MBE for services to music in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
He will be sentenced at Croydon Magistrates' Court on 8 April.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-60653545 |
Ex-Commons Speaker John Bercow was a serial bully, says report - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Watchdog says the ex-Speaker should not have a parliamentary pass but Mr Bercow says the inquiry was "amateurish". | John Bercow was a "serial bully" while House of Commons Speaker, and would be banned from getting a parliamentary pass, a report has said.
The Independent Expert Panel said "his behaviour fell very far below that which the public has a right to expect" from an MP.
It also said his evidence showed he had been "a serial liar".
However, Mr Bercow said the inquiry into the complaints was "amateurish" and based on "tittle-tattle".
Mr Bercow was Speaker of the House of Commons from 2009 to 2019 and presided over a turbulent period during which the House of Commons debated the UK's exit from the European Union.
A report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Kathryn Stone found that Mr Bercow had displayed "threatening conduct" towards staff, including verbal abuse, and displays of anger.
It said he had "shouted at and mimicked" a member of staff and was responsible for "intimidating, insulting behaviour involving an abuse of power".
She also found he had subjected Lord Lisvane - a senior clerk in the House of Commons - to "repeated unfounded criticism… often made at length and at volume and included derogatory inferences about [his] upbringing and background".
Mr Bercow appealed but the Independent Expert Panel upheld all 21 findings of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.
The panel said it agreed with the commissioner's findings that Mr Bercow had been "a serial bully".
It added that Mr Bercow's conduct "was so serious that, had he still been a Member of Parliament, we would have determined that he should be expelled by resolution of the House", and that he would be banned from getting a pass giving him access to Parliament's buildings.
However, in a strongly-worded statement Mr Bercow called the report "a travesty of justice rooted in prejudice, spite and hearsay".
He said claims of misconduct were "upheld even when eyewitnesses testified that they had not taken place", and said he'd been targeted by three former staff members, because he had set out to reform the House of Commons.
Mr Bercow, who resigned as an MP in 2019, said he had never applied for a Parliamentary pass and does not want one, but could still go to Parliament as a guest of another pass holder.
Asked on BBC Radio 4's World at One programme if he had apologised, Mr Bercow said he had not bullied anyone and that he "didn't believe in faux apologies".
He called the Independent Expert Panel a "kangaroo court" which he said had ignored "large volumes of evidence".
Mr Bercow began his political career in the Conservative Party but later switched to Labour telling the Observer newspaper: "The conclusion I have reached is that this government needs to be replaced. The reality is that the Labour Party is the only vehicle that can achieve that objective."
Mr Bercow is understood to have been administratively suspended by the Labour party while it investigates.
The investigations came after complaints from three people who worked for Mr Bercow - Lord Lisvane, the former clerk of the Commons, and private secretaries Kate Emms and Angus Sinclair.
One of the complainants, Ms Emms, said: "I am supremely glad to be vindicated by the report of the Independent Expert Panel."
She said her time working for Mr Bercow had been "the one and only genuinely horrible, undermining and consistently upsetting period of my career" which had led to "stress, anxiety and a loss of confidence".
She said Mr Bercow had failed to show remorse and had instead "blamed the process for being flawed, amateurish and unjust and not even applicable to him".
Responding to the report, the prime minister's spokesman said the government hoped it would give "all those in Westminster confidence to come forward and report their cases and that they'll be fairly heard".
John Bercow during a debate in the House of Commons in October 2019
During his decade-long stint as Speaker, Mr Bercow made several changes to Parliament to fulfil his aim to make the House of Commons "less stuffy".
For example, he allowed MPs to speak in the chamber without wearing ties, and removed the requirement for clerks to wear wigs.
He won praise from some MPs for giving backbenchers more opportunities to question ministers.
However, his style drew criticisms from others, and some Conservatives accused him of bias, breaching the requirement that the Speaker stays neutral.
During the fierce Brexit debates, Mr Bercow gained international recognition for his attempts to control Parliament, particularly his loud cries of "order order". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60660385 |
Could EU weaponise energy in Russia crisis? - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | After a series of seismic changes in Brussels because of the war in Ukraine, an energy revolution looms. | The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was an early casualty of Germany's change of heart over Russia
You know that feeling when you're running downhill, going so fast that you seem to lose control of your own feet?
That's where the EU appears to be at the moment.
Once dismissed as impossible - or at least, hugely improbable - from one day to the next, EU revolutions, provoked by the Russia-Ukraine crisis, have been happening thick and fast.
The next seismic change bubbling in Brussels? A looming energy revolution, provoked by a simple question: What's the point of punitive financial sanctions if Vladimir Putin's war chest is refilled on a daily basis with oil and gas revenues?
The EU depends on Russia for 40% of its natural gas and a quarter of its oil imports.
EU countries pay about €1bn a day to Moscow for those supplies, according to Bruegel, the Brussels-based think tank.
The US - which is far less reliant on Russian energy supplies than Europe - says it's considering banning Russian oil imports as part of its sanctions against the Kremlin.
On Monday, standing next to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Lithuania's foreign minister agreed. "We cannot pay for oil and gas with Ukrainian blood," he said.
Along with other eastern European Nato and EU members, Lithuania views Vladimir Putin - with his ambitions to change Europe's geopolitical order in Moscow's favour - as an active security threat.
The West must fight Russia "with all means available", said Lithuania's president. "To avoid World War Three."
But other EU countries, such as big powers Germany and Italy - far more reliant on Russian energy than most - feel more threatened by the prospect of skyrocketing energy prices that would surely follow any sanctions on Russian oil or gas imports.
Energy prices are already painfully high across the continent.
Until Russia's attacks on Ukraine, the majority of Germans supported Nord Stream 2, their new gas pipeline direct from Russia.
The pipeline has been frozen as part of EU sanctions against Russia, but Berlin fears public opinion could turn if Germans suddenly can't fill their cars with petrol or afford to heat their homes.
Germany's Federation of Industries, the BDI, has warned that soaring prices could crush the EU's largest economy, forcing factory and other German business closures, with a rippling effect across the single market.
Anti-nuclear sentiment has always been strong in Germany
France's Emmanuel Macron is nervous too. He hopes to be re-elected president next month.
The last time he was blamed for petrol price hikes in France, it sparked months of massive street protests by the "gilets jaunes", the yellow jackets, so-called because of the high-visibility vests they wore.
So, while on the world stage, President Macron presents himself as the European champion of carbon neutrality, energy prices are such a sensitive issue in France that he introduced €100 bonuses for the poorest voters this winter, to mitigate fossil fuel prices as part of his re-election bid.
It's notable, too, that French energy giant Total says it's staying put in Russia for now, despite the Kremlin's onslaught against Ukraine, while competitors BP and Shell have voluntarily pulled out.
So are energy sanctions against Russia just the latest example of an "EU impossible" that will suddenly become reality?
The issue will be discussed in the European Parliament on Tuesday and among EU leaders at their Thursday summit.
When I speak to EU naysayers, they talk defensively, not only about the dangers of domestic blowback, but also potential aftershocks in the global energy market.
"At the moment, we're speaking with one voice alongside Latin America, regarding Russian aggression," one diplomat told me.
"But what would happen if the Argentine economy implodes as a result of energy price hikes and scarcity and the EU and the West is blamed for that?"
So for the moment, the EU is clinging to what it views as safer ground.
On Monday, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc would be speeding up efforts to wean itself off Russian energy.
Russia's actions in Ukraine mean Brussels now views the Climate Question as a question of security. Energy security.
Germany's new chancellor took the world's breath away a week ago by reversing his country's defence policy, sending weapons to Ukraine and announcing a €100bn investment in the German military.
His finance minister has also announced a €200bn investment in renewable and alternative energy sources. Germany's need is acute, as it has all but phased out nuclear energy, as well as phasing out coal.
But those plans for renewable energies, alternative suppliers and a clean energy divorce from Russia will take time.
Something Ukraine just does not have. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60654586 |
Uniqlo keeps Russian shops open as clothes a 'necessity' - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The founder of the Japanese retailer says Russians 'have the same right to live as we do' | The owner of Uniqlo has defended its decision to keep its Russian shops open, saying that clothing is a "necessity of life".
Uniqlo has 49 stores in Russia and while it will "monitor the situation" it has no plans to suspend trading.
A number of Western firms such as Zara and H&M, have halted operations in Russia because of the war with Ukraine.
But Fast Retailing's founder Tadashi Yanai said Russia's people "have the same right to live as we do".
Mr Yanai told Japan's Nikkei newspaper: "There should never be war. Every country should oppose it,"
But he said: "Clothing is a necessity of life. The people of Russia have the same right to live as we do."
Uniqlo is not alone in its decision to continue its operations in Russia, despite a number of firms exiting the country in reaction to its invasion of Ukraine.
Many international firms that rely on production plants and customer bases in Russia have chosen to stay in the country.
Though, food and drink giants McDonald's and Coca-Cola have announced plans to close operations in Russia after being criticised, Burger King and KFC restaurants remain open.
Yum Brands, the owner of KFC and Pizza Hut, said it had suspended all investment in Russia "while we continue to assess additional options".
The company - which has about 1,000 KFC outlets and 50 Pizza Hut restaurants in Russia mostly run by franchisees - is not pulling out of the country, but says it will "redirect all profits from operations in Russia to humanitarian efforts".
Meanwhile, Restaurant Brands International, which owns Burger King, said it would redirect its profits from more than 800 franchised operations in Russia to humanitarian efforts.
It has also committed $3m (£2.3m) to support Ukrainian refugees and said people feeling to European nations could get free Whopper meal vouchers.
The world's largest yoghurt maker, French firm Danone, has said it will not commit new investment to Russia but will continue to sell dairy, water bottles and baby food in the country.
"It is very easy to get drawn into black-and-white thinking and demagogic positions, but in the end our reputation is about our behaviour," chief executive Antoine de Saint-Affrique told the Financial Times.
Danone dairy production at one of its biggest plants in the Russian town of Chekhov
"We have a responsibility to the people we feed, the farmers who provide us with milk, and the tens of thousands of people who depend on us."
Danone has 8,000 workers across 10 sites in Russia.
Tobacco giant Philip Morris International was the leading foreign company by revenue in Russia in 2020. It has suspended operations in Ukraine but not Russia.
Japan Tobacco, which has a 37% share of the Russian market and 4,500 employees in the country, also continues to operate in Russia. Its tax payments in 2020 accounted for 1.4% of the Russian Federation state budget according to the company's website. Japan Tobacco says it is "fully committed" to complying with national and international sanctions.
British American Tobacco (BAT) has 2,500 workers across 76 offices in Russia and continues to sell cigarettes in the country where it has operated for more than 30 years.
"BAT always complies with relevant regulation and legislation wherever we operate, and we are aligned with all international sanctions," a spokesperson told the BBC. "We continue to closely monitor the situation as it evolves."
Russia is carmaker Renault's second-biggest market and accounts for around 12% of Renault's revenue, about $5.5bn (£4.2bn). The French government currently has a 15% stake in Renault and is its most important investor in terms of voting rights.
The French company has not made any statements on the issue and has not responded to the BBC's request for comment.
Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever has suspended all imports and exports of products into and out of Russia, and has stopped all new investment, media and advertising in the country. However, the firm said it will continue to supply its "everyday essential food and hygiene products made in Russia" to people in the country.
Operations at the firm's sites in Moscow, Omsk, Saint-Petersburg, Ekaterinburg and Tula remain open. Unilever - whose brands include Marmite, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, Domestos and Dove - employs 3,000 people in Russia.
Nestle, which made $1.7bn from Russian sales in 2020, has six factories in Russia making snacks and drinks. The firm says it has "business continuity plans in place that can be activated as needed".
"The safety and protection of our employees remains our highest priority. We will not speculate on any potential sanctions.
Responding to Ukrainian deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov's letter and tweet calling on the company to leave Russia, Japanese conglomerate Hitachi said it "continues to monitor the situation closely". It said it had paused "operational activity in the affected areas". It did not specify whether these areas related to production in Russia or its plants in Ukraine.
Mr Fedorov has tweeted: "Day 13 of the bloody Russian invasion of Ukraine! I urge @HitachiGlobal to stop supplying products and providing services in Russia when their tanks and missiles kill peaceful Ukrainians!"
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 Mykhailo Fedorov 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.
In a statement, Hitachi said: "Right now, our top priority is the safety and health of our staff and their families. As a result of the current situation, operational activity in the affected areas has been paused."
The Carlsberg Group has decided to immediately stop new investments into Russia as well as exports from other Carlsberg Group companies to Baltika Breweries in Russia. Carlsberg took control of Baltika, Russia's largest beer brand, in 2008 and it will continue to employ around 9,000 staff in the country.
"We will respect all applicable sanctions being put in place and continue to assess the situation in relation to our business in Russia," the firm said. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60660006 |
Blue and yellow flowers as Queen meets Trudeau - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The Queen returns to in-person meetings with what appears to be a subtle show of support for Ukraine. | The Queen posed in front of blue and yellow flowers, the national colours of Ukraine, as she held her first in-person meeting at Windsor Castle since falling ill with Covid.
On whether this was a symbolic show of support, a Royal source indicated it was unlikely to be accidental.
The 95-year-old monarch was pictured smiling warmly at the Canadian PM as he held her right hand in both of his.
Justin Trudeau was visiting for talks with the UK PM about the Ukraine war.
The monarch, who is also Queen of Canada, tested positive for Covid-19 on 20 February and has carried out only "light duties" since then, cancelling several events.
She carried out her first virtual engagements on 1 March before Monday's face-to-face meeting.
During the audience at Windsor Castle's Oak Room, Mr Trudeau was also pictured laughing as the Queen gestured towards herself.
The Queen was not seen with the walking stick which she has been using recently.
Asked later at a Downing Street news conference about his meeting with the monarch, Mr Trudeau said: "She was as insightful and perspicacious as ever, very interested in what is going on, asked me all sorts of questions about Canada.
"We had a really useful - for me anyway - conversation about global events, as we always do."
As well as this gesture of support for Ukraine at the meeting, the Queen previously made a donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal to help people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine.
She has two high-profile events scheduled in the coming weeks: the Commonwealth Service on 14 March and the Duke of Edinburgh's memorial service on 29 March, both at Westminster Abbey.
Last month, she reached her Platinum Jubilee after 70 years on the throne. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60650285 |
Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelensky invokes Winston Churchill as he appeals to MPs - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Ukrainian president calls for Russia to be recognised as a "terrorist state" in a speech to the Commons. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. President Zelensky: We will not give up, and we will not lose, we will fight to the end... whatever the cost
Volodymyr Zelensky has invoked the words of Britain's wartime leader Winston Churchill as he appealed to MPs for more help at home.
The Ukrainian president spoke to the Commons via video, thanking the UK for its support since Russia's invasion, and receiving a standing ovation.
But he called for Russia to be named a "terrorist state" and for allies to "make sure our skies are safe".
"We will not surrender, we will not lose, we will go to the end," he added.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the leader had "moved the hearts of everybody" watching, and pledged to "press on with tightening the economic vice" around Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer also praised "the bravery [and] the resolve" of the president and his people, adding: "He has shown his strength and we must show him - and the Ukrainian people - our commitment and support."
Speaking to MPs and peers in the Commons, President Zelensky gave a day-by-day account of the invasion by Russia, which began a fortnight ago.
He described how it was a war Ukraine "didn't start and we didn't want", but his country now had to fight.
"We do not want to lose what we have, what is ours... just the same way as you once didn't want to lose your country when the Nazis started to fight your country and you had to fight for Britain," he added.
The president also spoke of the 50 children "that could have lived" but were killed by Russian forces, along with those of his people dying from dehydration where their cities had been blockaded by Russia.
MPs and peers gathered in the Commons to listen to the address through headsets and watch the president on large screens
In a nod to one of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's famous speeches from 1940, the president said he wanted to "remind you of the words Britain heard already, which become current again".
He said: "We will not surrender, we will not lose, we will go to the end.
"We will fight at sea, we will fight in the air, we will protect our land.
"We will fight everywhere… and we will not surrender."
He also turned to a William Shakespeare quote in his address.
"To be or not to be," said President Zelensky. "You know the Shakespeare question very well.
"Thirteen days and that question still could have applied to Ukraine.
"But now, already, it is obvious it is 'to be' - it is obvious it is to be free."
Alongside his British cultural references, President Zelensky also hinted towards his previous appeal for a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying: "We still have the sky open, it is still open to Russian missiles planes and helicopters."
He also called for allies to "strengthen the sanctions against the terrorist state [Russia], finally classify it as a terrorist state [and] find a way to make our Ukrainian skies safe".
The leader concluded his speech by saying: "Do what you can, do what you must, because greatness obliges greatness, of your state and your people.
"Glory to Ukraine and glory to Great Britain."
MPs crammed into every corner. Members of the House of Lords packed the public galleries high in the chamber. Parliamentary staff huddled close to peer through the stone arches, almost in the roof, to watch.
After a few minutes of chatter, with MPs fiddling with their headsets to ensure they would be able to hear the translation of the speech, there was hush.
Then alone at his desk, only a Ukrainian flag for company, President Volodymyr Zelensky appeared on screens to speak to MPs and, of course, to the country.
Ukraine's leader told of his country's pain as each day, a war "we did not start" progressed. Bombs falling on schools. Churches destroyed. Children's hospitals attacked. Food and water running low in some parts.
He thanked the UK for its support, urging the government to tighten sanctions still further, to protect Ukraine's skies, even though enforcing a no-fly zone is a step - a risk - that the UK and its allies just aren't willing to take yet.
Yet the message that brought tears to some MPs' eyes was Mr Zelenksy's utter defiance.
Leaders of the main political parties in the Commons then made speeches to praise President Zelensky's efforts against the Russian Invasion.
Mr Johnson said: "At this moment, ordinary Ukrainians are defending their homes and their families against a brutal assault, and they are by their actions inspiring millions with their courage and their devotion.
"And I think today, one of the proudest boasts in the free world is, 'Ya Ukrainets' - 'I am a Ukrainian'."
Sir Keir added: "Invading troops march through [President Zelensky's] streets, shells reign down on his people, and assassins seek his life.
"No-one would have blamed him for fleeing. But instead, he has stayed in Kyiv to lead the Ukrainian people and to fight.
"Labour stands with President Zelensky, with Ukraine, with democracy. Slava Ukraini."
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford also said he saluted the Ukrainian leader, adding: "We stand with the people of Ukraine on the basis of the act of aggression, on the act of war of Putin.
"We must do all that we can to send support to Ukraine, to send the weapons that they need to defend themselves, to make sure that we sanction the regime in Moscow, that we deliver the clearest message to President Putin - that this will end in failure for him, that he will face justice at the international court." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60667964 |
Ukraine: Mother of Russian soldier asks 'Whose door should I knock on to get my child back?' - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Families of Russian soldiers in Ukraine tell the BBC the men had no idea what they were getting into. | The funeral in Moscow last week for a Russian sergeant killed in Ukraine
President Putin has directly addressed the mothers of soldiers serving in Ukraine, telling them: "I know how worried you are" and trying to reassure them. But some mothers, grandmothers, sisters and girlfriends have been telling the BBC they are desperately anxious about loved ones in the military - young men who appear to have had little idea what they were being sent to do.
All names have been changed
When Marina hadn't heard from her grandson for more than a week, she started making calls. In his final message to her, he said he was on the Belarus-Ukraine border and would be home soon. But with no news since, she fears the worst.
"I phoned his military unit, they said he hadn't left [Russia]. 'I said - are you joking? He contacted me from Belarus. Do you not know where your soldiers go?' They hung up and didn't talk to me any more."
Marina's grandson Nikita was originally a conscript. Men in Russia aged 18-27 who do not have an exemption - such as studying or looking after young children - are drafted into the military for a year.
But Marina says in Nikita's first few days of service, representatives of military units arrived in their region, hoping to get conscripts to become contracted soldiers in order to lengthen their military service and earn a salary. Contractors make up the bulk of Russia's junior service personnel.
They "convinced him"... "[They told him] you can retire early, you will have a steady salary, you will learn how to drive."
Nikita became a driver in a mechanised infantry division, but his earnings did not translate into a comfortable standard of living. His monthly salary of 18,000 roubles - $240 (£180) before the rouble crashed - was just enough to get by on in rural Russia. And, he told his grandmother, he was expected to pay for uniform and petrol out of that salary. He had free accommodation in barracks but could not bear the freezing conditions - there was no heating or hot water - so had to pay for rent as well, she says.
It is difficult to establish how common Nikita's experience is, but the scores of Russian companies who help young men find loopholes to avoid the draft suggest the army is not seen as an attractive prospect.
In mid-February, Nikita told his grandmother he was moving to the Ukraine-Belarus border "to guard it". He also told her he had heard they would soon be returning home.
There has been no word from him since he last texted her on 23 February - a Russian public holiday - to say he was at a concert.
She is certain her grandson had no idea he would be sent into combat in Ukraine.
"He said, 'It's drills and more drills and then we go home'," a line repeated by many Russian soldiers' relatives we spoke to.
Military drills in Belarus just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine - many families thought that was all their son or partner was going to be doing
Another woman, Galina, says she only realised her son Nikolai was in Ukraine when her sister spotted his photo on the Facebook page of Ukraine's armed forces' chief as a POW.
A US Pentagon briefing on Friday suggested that a significant number of the men fighting in Ukraine are conscripts, and that might account for their inexperience and lack of awareness about what they were expected to do.
But it appears the men's belief - that they were simply on drills rather than being sent into combat - was not unique to conscripts. Like Marina's grandson Nikita - and many of the other men whose relatives we spoke to - Galina's son Nikolai began as a conscript, but was now a contracted soldier.
Galina says she last heard from Nikolai the day before her sister spotted his photo, when he told her his unit was near the Ukrainian border.
"I don't know what to do. The media is silent about the fact that our guys were captured. Or they don't know."
Nikolai's girlfriend says he became a contract soldier last December to "provide for his future family", despite her efforts to dissuade him. His mother adds that there are no other opportunities to earn decent money locally.
"My child did not go [to Ukraine] of his own free will, the commander-in-chief sent him there," she says.
"To be honest, I don't understand what it's all for," she says. "In our country, some people have nothing to eat. I don't understand any war or any military action.
"Whose door should I knock on to get my child back?"
This sense of impotence is shared by another mother the BBC spoke to, whose son also worked as a contract soldier and was sent away on "drills".
"If I knew where he is now, I would have packed up myself and gone to these people and begged them for mercy," she says.
Historically, soldiers' mothers in Russia have been outspoken about how the military has been deployed and treated, and have agitated for the authorities to be more open about casualty figures.
They played a particularly significant role in agitating against both of Russia's Chechen wars, waging a widely publicised campaign.
Mothers of soldiers deployed in Chechnya waged a powerful campaign to bring their sons home
But a new law passed in the country last week threatens anyone seen to be spreading what the government deems "fakes" about military action in Ukraine with 15 years in jail.
The Russian public has also been exposed to powerful anti-Ukraine propaganda from Russian state-run media. The sister of one man she believes is missing in Ukraine said she thought there must be a good reason for the invasion.
"And now we are called to rallies. To me it looks like they [Ukraine] have destroyed their [own] country, and now they want to destroy another."
Ukraine has sought to counter that propaganda with a powerful campaign of its own. A helpline called "Look for your own" (Ishchi Svoikh in Russian) was first advertised on day three of what Russia was describing as a "special military operation to demilitarise and denazify" the country. A companion Telegram channel carries photos of Russian POWs and casualties, and encourages worried relatives to get in touch. The Washington Post has highlighted concerns about the publication of the graphic images.
"This is our gesture of good will to the Russian mothers," Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych announced.
A flyer carried on the Ukrainian interior ministry Facebook page goes even further, making a direct call to Russian mothers to come and collect their sons, and gives specific instructions about what to do.
"We, Ukrainian people, in contrast to [Russian President] Putin's fascists, do not make war with mothers and their captured sons," it says.
Despite these appeals, all the relatives we spoke to had no view on the legitimacy of Russia's action in Ukraine or supported it.
But the text exchange of one woman with her soldier fiance - which she showed to the BBC - suggested that in his case he did not buy into the Russian rhetoric that they were entering Ukraine to "liberate" the population.
In it, he tells his fiancee that he is off on "a tour around some countries" - possibly referring to Russia's ally and neighbour Belarus - before saying he is going to "defend the defenceless, LOL".
When she asks "Are you joking?" he simply replies: "No. I am going to war."
Russia finally published death toll figures for its combatants in the invasion last week, saying that as of 3 March 498 Russian troops had been killed and a further 1,597 injured. But Ukraine says that more than 11,000 Russian military have been killed, though this cannot be verified. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60604952 |
Ukraine conflict: Transport firms feeling pinch of rising fuel costs - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | In parts of Northern Ireland, petrol is now £1.65 per litre and diesel close to £1.80 per litre. | The conflict in Ukraine continues to affect the cost of oil and gas, putting a further squeeze on the cost of living.
World oil prices have jumped to $139 (£106) a barrel, the highest level for almost 14 years.
The Northern Ireland Consumer Council has found 500 litres of home heating oil costs £559.50 - an increase of 75% since 23 February.
And petrol and diesel prices continue to soar.
Petrol prices of £1.65 per litre have been reported in parts of Northern Ireland, with diesel prices close to £1.80 per litre some places.
Those compare to around the £1.20 per litre mark a year ago, and prices are unlikely to fall any time soon.
The owner of a County Fermanagh fuel company is predicting that diesel prices could hit £2 per litre by the end of this week.
Garry Jennings, from Jennings Fuels and Lubricants in Kesh, said as well as volatility in oil market, there are issues with supplies coming into Northern Ireland.
"We are selling the fuel we've bought in on Friday, tonight it looks like there's going to be another 10p on oil and that's going to come to us tomorrow morning.
"We buy on the day and try and sell on the day so this is fuel we bought in on Friday, tomorrow's fuel is going to be 10p up, what's going to happen Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday?"
The Northern Ireland Oil Federation (NIOF) have said there is no issue with supplies, but they are dealing with a 10-day backlog of orders due to mass panic-buying.
While some drivers may be able to travel less or use public transport, that is not an option for transport companies.
Stephen Anton, from taxi company Fonacab, said rising fuel prices are felt directly by taxi drivers as they are self employed and account for all of their income and costs individually.
Stephen Anton, from taxi company Fonacab, said rising fuel costs may encourage drivers to leave the industry
"In other words, they fuel their vehicles, the cost of doing so an expense against their booking income," Mr Anton said.
"While drivers can offset fuel costs against their taxable income, the increased fuel costs affect what they take home on a day-to-day basis."
He added: "If this continues to be a problem, it has the potential to impact negatively on taxi driver numbers across Northern Ireland.
"Many drivers left the industry for various reasons during Covid and a substantial number have not returned, instead taking early retirement or remaining in other jobs they secured during lockdowns.
"A sustained high fuel cost may encourage some other drivers to do the same."
Mr Anton said the company was conscious that customers are feeling cost of living increases in their pockets too and did not want to increase fares unnecessarily.
"There is a balancing act to ensuring that prices remain competitive and affordable for our customers and are also sufficient to allow drivers to make a living and work to provide the services that customers need," he said.
"The current fuel price increases make this a more difficult exercise than ever.
"From our perspective, anything that can be done to reduce fuel costs for drivers' vehicles is a priority.
"A temporary decrease in fuel duty would be welcome, and there are other tools that local government can employ to reduce overall costs for drivers - for example, reducing the cost of an annual PSV for a taxi to that of an MoT."
Paul Stewart said some form of price cap would be beneficial
Paul Stewart, from courier firm NI Parcels, said fuel prices had been increasing "slowly but surely" over the last year.
"However, in the last six weeks the increases have been huge," he said.
"It has been the largest increase I have ever seen in our business.
"We have been absorbing some of the increases ourselves, but there is only so much you can absorb, so this has now resulted in some of the increased costs onto our customers.
"As the fuel prices change so regularly, it is difficult to keep changing your prices and this could make our business look unprofessional.
"It is a very difficult time to absorb the costs or increase prices, we have done a blend of both for now."
Mr Stewart said the full costs have not been passed onto customers, meaning a reduction in profits for the company.
"The main issue is the constant price changes making it difficult to set prices, some form of price freeze or price caps would be hugely appreciated," he said.
"As the fuel price increases so does the revenue collected on the duty on the increased prices. Duty on fuel could be reduced to help with these increases." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60650159 |
Ukraine war: BBC News journalists resume English-language broadcasts from Russia - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Journalists' work was put on hold last week after the introduction of a strict new media law. | BBC correspondent Steve Rosenberg reported from Moscow on the Six O'Clock News on BBC One on Tuesday
BBC News journalists in Russia have resumed their English-language broadcasts, days after putting their work on hold after the introduction of a strict new media law.
The law threatens anyone deemed to have spread "fake" news about Russia's armed forces with up to 15 years in jail.
Numerous other Western news media also suspended their operations.
The BBC has decided to resume work after "careful deliberation", it said.
A statement said: "We have considered the implications of the new legislation alongside the urgent need to report from inside Russia.
"After careful deliberation we have decided to resume English language reporting from Russia this evening (Tuesday 8 March), after it was temporarily suspended at the end of last week.
"We will tell this crucial part of the story independently and impartially, adhering to the BBC's strict editorial standards. The safety of our staff in Russia remains our number one priority."
In their first broadcasts since the suspension, BBC correspondents Steve Rosenberg and Jenny Hill reported from Moscow on Tuesday.
Other news outlets to suspend their work in Russia at the end of last week included US news network CNN, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Bloomberg News, Spanish news agency EFE, Italian channel RAI and Germany's ARD and ZDF. Days later, the New York Times said it was pulling its staff out of the country.
On Friday, BBC director general Tim Davie said he was not prepared to expose staff "to the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs".
The BBC's resumption of broadcasting came as the New York Times announced its withdrawal.
A spokesperson for the newspaper said: "Russia's new legislation seeks to criminalise independent, accurate news reporting about the war against Ukraine.
"For the safety and security of our editorial staff working in the region, we are moving them out of the country for now.
"We look forward to them returning as soon as possible while we monitor the application of the new law."
Access to BBC websites has been restricted in Russia, and the Kremlin took BBC World News off the air in the country at the weekend.
"We regret that our Russian audiences are being denied access to trusted and impartial news at a time when they need it most," a BBC spokesperson said at the time.
The corporation has provided information for people in Russia about how to continue to access BBC News. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60667770 |
Government rescue of Bulb Energy set to cost taxpayers billions more - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | A buyer hasn't been found for the ailing supplier, so the the taxpayer will have to keep funding it. | Keeping Bulb Energy running will potentially cost taxpayers billions of pounds more than has currently been set aside, government officials have said.
Bulb, which has 1.6 million customers, was quasi-nationalised in late November when it was put into special administration as it buckled under rising wholesale gas prices.
In November, wholesale prices were around £2 per unit.
Since then, prices have been consistently higher than that.
They hit peaks of £4.70 in December and as high as £8 on Monday - 20 times the prices seen last year - during extreme volatility.
At the time Bulb was placed in special administration, the Treasury set aside £1.7bn to purchase the gas required until the end of the tax year in April 2022 by which time it was hoped a buyer would be found for the business.
Government officials have conceded that the prospect of offloading the business to a private buyer seems remote in this environment and that means that taxpayers will be on the hook for a gas bill that energy analysts believe could run to billions of pounds.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: "The Special Administrator of Bulb is obligated to keep costs of the administration process as low as possible, and we continue to engage closely with them throughout to ensure maximum value for money for taxpayers."
The extreme volatility in energy markets has seen some customers prepared to pay £3,500 a year to fix their energy bills for two years, according to another large energy operator.
That is well above the energy price cap of £1,971 that comes into effect in April but that cap is subject to potential further increases every six months.
Industry analysts estimate the next energy price cap could be set at £3,000 or more from October.
Other energy retailers are reluctant to offer or recommend customers lock in at such high prices as they fear they could be trapped on high tariffs if and when prices return to more normal levels.
Some may be prepared to pay a high price for the peace of mind conferred by knowing what their outgoings will be. Millions of customers will simply be unable to afford energy bills later this year - despite the government's two-stage £9bn energy bill support package.
This will offer consumers a £150 council tax rebate in April and a £200 loan in October to be repaid at £40 a year for the next five years. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60653751 |
Ukraine: 'We try to tell them the truth' - parenting in wartime - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | In Ukraine, families are having to adapt to being at war. But what do you tell the children? | A little girl clutches a doll at a checkpoint on the Ukraine-Slovakia border
In Ukraine, families are having to adapt to a terrifying new reality. How do you tell young children that you're at war?
Ten days ago Anton Eine, a science fiction writer in Ukraine, had been due to launch his latest book - but then the Russians invaded. Now, he says, none of that matters any more. He is hunkering down in Kyiv with his wife and their three-year-old son.
They live in a 24-storey apartment block with an underground car park, where people are sleeping on the concrete floor. It's bitterly cold, and Anton is worried about what might happen if the building collapses, so he and his family feel safer in a square concrete well between the lifts. That has become their sanctuary during the constant air raid sirens. They bring toys and their son's tablet and make sure he sits in the corner, which is the safest place.
Anton says their son is worried, and asks lots of questions. "Yesterday, my wife went downstairs and when she returned, he was asking, 'Mum, did they shoot you?' and she said 'No baby', and he said, 'Will they shoot me? I don't want them to go bang-bang'."
Anton says some parents have sewn badges with their child's blood group on to their clothes and are teaching them their home address and parents' names, in case they are separated. And while they hide in shelters or try to board trains to safety, many parents are also talking to each other about how the war is affecting their children, and how best to protect them from trauma.
"Some parents tell the kids it's a game," says Anton. "We are trying to tell our son the truth, but in a softer way, adapted to the mind of a three-year-old kid.
"We tell him that bad soldiers attacked us and the good soldiers, the ones with the Ukrainian flag, are the ones who protect us, and you don't need to worry here in this sanctuary."
His own son's drawings don't appear to show any signs of trauma, but some of Anton's friends have older children, and the pictures they draw clearly show they've been affected by the situation.
A friend of Anton's shared her four-year-old son's drawing after spending the night in a bomb shelter - it shows people fleeing a big red devil
The parents and staff from his son's nursery stay in touch via the social media app Telegram, where they share advice about how to talk to the children about what's going on. This even included a tutorial on how to explain to the kids why it was OK for adults to swear now, while it was not OK in normal life. "Because people are swearing right now," says Anton.
They have become more relaxed about other little things, too. "Because of this situation, he has to watch much more cartoons than normal, and is eating much more sweets than normal. We need something to occupy him - he has to not pay too much attention to what's going on.
"The psychologists advise us to be gentler with kids in these times, and to love them much more than usual," says Anton.
When it comes to safety, though, they have to be quite strict. Their three-year-old quickly learned that when there's a siren, the family have to run and hide. "As soon as we hear sirens or get a notification we shout, 'To the shelter!' and whatever he's doing he leaves it and runs. He understands that the situation is extraordinary. It even surprises us how well children understand the necessity to behave properly."
Evacuees and a child, sitting on top of a suitcase, wait for a train to Romania from Lviv
As the Russian shelling gets worse and the convoys close in, many Ukrainian parents have decided to flee their homes with their young children in tow.
Hanna, a scientist, left Kyiv and travelled to Poland with her two sons, who are eight and six years old. For days, they had been at home listening to explosions, the windows trembling, and she somehow had to tell them what was going on. She found it hard to strike a balance between reality and how much a child's mind can take.
"This was a challenge for me as a mother because I have to choose between how to explain the truth, but at the same time not to scare them too much," she says. "So I was just telling them that we are under attack, and at the moment we are safe, but when we feel we have to move, they have to listen."
Her parenting style had to change, too - there was no room for discussion. "Normally I ask them to do something, but this is a time to get orders."
A child on a swing outside a residential building in Kyiv damaged by a missile
After a few days of shelling, Hanna felt she no longer wanted her children to hear the bombs and decided to leave Ukraine. "It was a very, super hard decision," she says.
Her children had to make a hard decision too - they could only take one of their toys. Her eldest chose Toothless, a toy dragon from the How to Train your Dragon series, and her youngest chose a Transformer toy car that turns into a robot. It was a huge decision for them, says Hanna - perhaps as momentous as it was for her to leave her country. "I think that we were in the same emotional decision-taking position."
It took them 52 hours to reach safety in Poland. Hanna's ex-husband came with them for the first part of the car journey but then had to turn back, to fight. Hanna says travelling in a war zone with two kids was exhausting and she can understand why many of her friends are choosing to stay nearer home.
Now they are safe, but the boys ask lots of questions, about their grandparents and especially their father, who has stayed behind. "Heart-breaking questions, because they ask me every day if he is alive, or if he still has his hands and legs. They are afraid that he can get super hurt."
Hanna tells them to try and live in the present. "All we have is just now. At the moment we are safe," she says.
How much to tell their children is something all parents are having to weigh up. Oksana fled her home town of Lviv, in the west, and is now also in Poland. Her six-year-old daughter is autistic and hates loud noises, so she found the air raid sirens very scary. She could tell her mother was nervous too, so Oksana told her the truth about what was happening.
"I was explaining that it's a war and we need to be safe, and that a lot of people are dead now because of all this," says Oksana. "I think it is important that when children are old enough to understand they are not misled, because they can sense the atmosphere is bad."
Iryna's son is just two, and she has decided not to tell him too much. After spending three nights in a bomb shelter they left Irpin, a small city near Kyiv, and went to western Ukraine.
She told her son they were going to stay with friends, because he's too young to understand that they're in danger. "I didn't tell him that it's a war. I'm not sure I have to when he's so young, because I think it makes this situation only worse."
As for Anton and his family, the Russian troops are closing in and they may have to evacuate soon. He's not sure where to. "No-one knows which place is the safest - so it's gambling," he says.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: A mother in Kyiv speaks to the BBC about the decision to tell her children why dad joined the war | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60632147 |
Covid vaccines not linked to deaths, major US study finds - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The CDC says 92% of reported side effects after the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are mild. | A major study of vaccine side-effects in the US found no link between two Covid jabs and the number of deaths recorded after vaccination.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 92% of reported side-effects after the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were mild.
About 4,500 people died after being vaccinated, in the US, up to June 2021.
But no unusual patterns in the data were detected that might suggest a link to the vaccine itself.
Study author Dr Tom Shimabukuro said: "[It's] reassuring that reactions to both mRNA vaccines are generally mild and subside after one or two days - confirming reports from clinical trials and post-authorisation monitoring."
Researchers looked at "adverse events" from nearly 300 million vaccine doses given in the US between December 2020 and June 2021.
Members of the public, healthcare providers and drug companies can report any possible side-effect, using the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), run by the CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
A second method, V-safe, allows individuals to fill out a survey on their smartphone in the months after vaccination.
Both systems rely on individuals deciding to self-report an adverse event.
The results of the study are published in the Lancet medical journal:
Other serious events, including a form of heart inflammation known as myocarditis, have already been identified following both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccinations, although that side-effect is very rare.
Because Covid jabs were originally authorised in the United States under emergency-use provisions, healthcare providers are required to report all deaths following vaccination, whether a doctor suspects a "plausible" link or not.
About 4,500 deaths were recorded in the six months to June 2021, more than 80% among people aged 60 and over.
"The rapid pace at which Covid-19 vaccines were administered under emergency use, especially among older populations, was unprecedented," the CDC's Dr David Shay said.
"Due to their age, this group already has a higher baseline mortality rate than the general population and our results follow similar patterns of death rates for people in this age group following other adult vaccinations."
The researchers said less than 1% of people who filled out the V-safe survey had sought any medical care following vaccination.
Dr Elizabeth Phillips, a professor of medicine, at Vanderbilt University, who was not involved in the study, said: "Reassuringly, the six-month VAERS data supports that - although approximately one in 1,000 individuals vaccinated may have an adverse effect, most of these are non-serious.
"For adverse events of special interest, it is reassuring that there were no unexpected [safety] signals other than myocarditis and anaphylaxis, already known to be associated with mRNA vaccines." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60653946 |
Mariupol: Fires, no water, and bodies in the street - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Maxim, a 27-year-old city resident, tells the BBC what happened after the first ceasefire collapsed. | A building on fire after a strike near the centre of Mariupol
A ceasefire, and a chance for civilians to leave, was announced on Saturday morning in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, where an estimated 200,000 people are trapped under heavy bombardment by Russian forces.
The city arranged 50 buses, and many people travelled to the city centre to get them. But after less than two hours, Russia's army began shelling residential areas again, trapping civilians who had begun their escape.
The city is now in its fifth day with no running water, no power, no sanitation, and food and water are fast running out.
Maxim, a 27-year-old IT developer who is caring for his grandparents in their sixth-floor apartment, spoke to the BBC on Saturday night to describe a day that began with hope and ended in despair.
We tried to escape today, during the planned time of no shooting. We heard we could get out.
As fast as I could, I packed four bags for me and my grandparents with warm clothes and food, and all of our remaining water, and I packed them into my car.
My grandparents are in their eighties, they cannot help. I carried everything down six flights of stairs to my car. There is no lift now.
Right when I was ready to drive, the shelling started again. I heard explosions near to us. I carried everything back upstairs as fast as I could to the apartment. From there, I could see smoke rising from the city and smoke rising from the highway to Zaporizhzhia where people were supposed to escape.
So I am still in my grandparents' apartment and the shelling and bombing has continued all day. But now instead of three of us here, there are nearly 20.
Many people came into the city centre because they heard there was a ceasefire and buses to take them out, and to flee the shelling there. Then they could not get back to their shelters when it started again.
So we have taken many people into the apartment. They are from the left side of the city, they say it is destroyed. All the houses are burning and no-one can put out the fires. There are many dead bodies lying in the streets and no-one can carry them.
I know three of the people from before, from my neighbourhood, but the rest I do not know. The oldest is a woman in her late 70s, the youngest is a small child. We also have two cats, a parrot and a dog.
We have tried to make space for the women and children to sleep on the floor. We don't have any extra mattresses but we have put some spare carpet and clothes on the floor for them to lie on.
We have run out of bottled water. We are down to the water that I filled in the bath before the taps went off. The gas is the only thing still working - we can use it to boil the bath water to drink.
Today the police opened the stores and told people to take everything, because the people here have no food and drink. Our neighbours managed to take some candy, some fish and some fizzy drinks.
The ceasefire was a lie. One side never planned to stop firing. If they say there is a ceasefire tomorrow [Sunday] we will have to try to go, but we don't know if it will be real. Maybe now we are better to hide.
You can keep calling me as long as I have some battery left in my phone, but I don't know how long that will be. After today I am without hope. From now on we do what we have to each day only to survive and for our neighbours to survive.
After that I don't know what comes next. We are very tired and we do not see a way out.
Are you in the Mariupol area? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
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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-60637338 |
Covid: Vaccines not linked to deaths, says study, and brain changes after virus - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Tuesday morning. | Here are five things you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic this Tuesday morning.
There is no link between Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines and deaths that were recorded after people had their jabs, according to a major study. The US research looked at the side effects of the jab and found no unusual patterns in death rates.
Significant differences to the brain before and after a Covid infection have been found by scientists. MRI scans showed that catching the virus, even a mild form, had shrunk the size of the organ slightly, with less grey matter in the parts related to smell and memory. It's not known if the change is permanent but the brain can heal.
A trial of four men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan's Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer over Covid rules she imposed is due to begin. The alleged plot was foiled by the FBI 17 months ago and involves four men. The jury is being selected later for the trial, in the city of Grand Rapids, which is expected to last about six weeks.
The first wave of Covid in India "was about saving lives with minimal resources," says Dr Sangram Kapale. Since then the Indian government has ramped up its spending on healthcare and there's hope the devastating impact of the pandemic was a turning point, with a future focus on technology and innovation. So, can technology help revive India's health system? Find out here.
Caitlin Rich has cystic fibrosis - an incurable condition that causes a build-up of thick sticky mucus in the lungs, digestive system and other organs. Before the pandemic she would often self-isolate over fears of catching infections. The 25-year-old, from Derbyshire, says the requirement for millions to self-isolate during the pandemic now means more people can relate to her everyday life Here's her story.
You've got Covid, so what next in terms of self-isolation? Find out here.
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Sydney floods: Two killed and thousands forced to evacuate - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Two people die as flash-flooding inundates roads and homes in Australia's most populous city. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Tens of thousands of Sydney residents have been told to evacuate their homes as floods ravage eastern Australia.
In the past fortnight, New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland have been pummelled by heavy downpours that have caused floods and killed 20 people.
The threat has now intensified in Sydney, which has been hit by widespread flash-flooding.
Two bodies - believed to be of a woman, 67, and her son, 34 - were found in a Sydney canal on Tuesday.
Police said their deaths would be investigated, but noted the canal had risen "from ankle-deep to above neck height in a matter of minutes".
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said 40,000 residents in the state had been ordered to evacuate, and another 20,000 people were on standby.
He added that a dam in the suburb of Manly had begun to spill, and a flooded river was threatening lives in the city's southwest.
There was also a "substantial catastrophe" in the state's north, where more than 800 people had been placed in temporary accommodation.
The State Emergency Service said more than 2,500 people had requested help in the past 24 hours. Australian Defence Force soldiers have also been deployed.
"The best thing you can do right across our state is follow those instructions and please do not drive through flood waters," Mr Perrottet said.
Authorities warn rain is likely to cause more flooding
He warned flash-flooding was likely to continue on Wednesday.
Experts say the flooding emergency has been worsened by climate change and a La Niña weather phenomenon. A La Niña develops when strong winds blow the warm surface waters of the Pacific away from South America and towards Indonesia. In their place, colder waters come up to the surface.
In Australia, a La Niña increases the likelihood of rain, cyclones and cooler daytime temperatures.
The wailing sirens can just about be heard above the incessant drumbeat of rain on the roof and an angry wind.
Roads have become rivers as Sydney is battered by another mammoth storm. For 16 consecutive days, it has rained, and more is on the way.
On the Northern Beaches, friends ask for sandbags to protect their home as a reservoir overflows, but hundreds of people have been told to leave.
Images posted online show high school children watching in disbelief as cars float away outside. Bookended by the Pacific Ocean on one side and the harbour on the other, parts of the seaside suburb of Manly have been swamped.
Australia's biggest city had had its wettest summer in 30 years. About 4,000km away, Perth - the Western Australian state capital - has been sweltering through its hottest summer on record.
This is a vast country that's well used to nature's extremes, but many Australians will be asking: what will happen next? | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-60656717 |
Glass Animals: UK band's hit Heat Waves sets new record to top US chart - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The Oxford group's hit Heat Waves finally reaches number one after 59 weeks, the longest ever ascent. | The four-piece group said they "didn't think it would really go anywhere"
UK band Glass Animals have gone to number one in the US with their sleeper hit Heat Waves, setting a new record for the longest time to reach the top.
The Oxford indie group's song spent 59 weeks on its slow ascent to the summit of the Billboard Hot 100.
The previous record was held by Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You, on 35 weeks.
"I absolutely can't believe it," singer Dave Bayley said. "For it to do this means the absolute world."
He added in a Twitter message to fans: "This song came out at the beginning of the pandemic and we didn't think it would really go anywhere because of that, and it has because you guys have embraced it so much."
There are slow-burning hits, then there's Heat Waves - a song that took longer to reach room temperature than an ice age mammoth.
The song's 59-week trek to the top of the US Billboard chart eclipses the previous record-holder, Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You, by a massive 24 weeks. With just one song, Glass Animals have spent 27 more weeks on the chart than The Prodigy have managed in their entire career.
The Oxford band also became the first UK group to break into Spotify's global top 10 since Clean Bandit in 2018 (Coldplay have since made the chart, too).
The song had all the right ingredients for a sleeper hit. Glass Animals were well respected in the industry, with a Mercury Prize nomination for their second album How To Be A Human Being - but they weren't big enough to have their song automatically added to radio station and streaming service playlists. It took months for Heat Waves to cross over from alternative radio to pop stations, building up a bigger head of steam as it went.
Streaming also played a crucial part in its success. Songs tend to have a longer half-life now than 10 years ago, as fans continue to play their favourite tracks, keeping them afloat for months on end.
Glass Animals were also given a late boost by TikTok, where creator Juliette Cullen used Heat Waves to soundtrack a viral video about a lack of curly fries in certain branches of McDonald's.
The band have joked its success is all down to Bayley's mum streaming it on a loop… but given that the song's been played 1.3 billion times on Spotify alone, she'd had to have started 9,900 years ago.
In reality, it's just a great song - one whose vibey production and low-key hooks reveal new treasures on each listen. Hopefully its success will encourage people to seek out the rest of the band's equally-rewarding back catalogue.
The song, which was originally released as a single in June 2020, first snuck into the US singles chart in 100th place in January 2021.
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Most weeks ever to reach US number one:
Heat Waves peaked at number five in the UK in October 2021.
Bayley, who wrote and produced the grower, told the BBC it had its genesis as far back as May 2018.
"We were winding down from touring our second album and I hired a studio in north London called The Church," he explained last year.
"I was in the little basement room, which used to be the kitchen - and I've recently found out that's where Bob Dylan used to sit and write. He only wanted to be in the kitchen, apparently.
"Anyway, I spent all day there… but I was fishing and catching rubbish. At the end of the day, I was ready to go home, but I just picked up a guitar to try one more time, and I just played those chords." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60660186 |
Ukraine crisis: The West fights back against Putin the disruptor - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Several US presidents have failed to get the measure of him but now Europe has joined the fray things may change. | Successive US presidents have struggled to get the measure of Vladimir Putin but now that Brussels and Berlin have joined the fray with such resolve, it's a different story, writes Nick Bryant.
It is often tempting to look upon Vladimir Putin as the millennium bug in a human and deadly form.
The Russian president rose to power on 31 December 1999, as the world held its breath that computers would go into meltdown when the clock struck midnight, unable to process the change from 1999 to 2000.
In the 20 years since, Putin has been trying to engineer a different kind of global system malfunction, the destruction of the liberal international order. The former KGB spymaster wanted to turn back the clock: to revive Russia's tsarist greatness and to restore the might and menace of the Soviet Union prior to its break-up in 1991.
This Russian revanchist has become the most disruptive international leader of the 21st Century, the mastermind behind so much misery from Chechnya to Crimea, from Syria to the cathedral city of Salisbury. He has sought - successfully at times - to redraw the map of Europe.
He has tried - successfully at times - to immobilise the United Nations. He has been determined - successfully at times - to weaken America, and hasten its division and decline.
Putin came to power at a moment of western hubris. The United States was the sole superpower in a unipolar world. Francis Fukuyama's End of History thesis, proclaiming the triumph of liberal democracy, was widely accepted.
Some economists even peddled the theory that recessions would be no more, partly because of the productivity gains of the new digital economy. It was also thought that globalisation, and the interdependence it wrought, would stop major economic powers fighting wars. The same utopianism attached itself to the internet, which was seen overwhelmingly as a force for global good.
An honour guard greets Air Force One on the Moscow tarmac in 2002
In the early days especially, the same misplaced optimism and wishful thinking coloured the west's approach to Putin - a figure, it is now obvious, who was trying to buck history and thwart democratisation, however many lives were lost in the process.
Successive US presidents have played into his hands. Bill Clinton, the occupant of the White House when Putin came to power, handed this ultra-nationalist a popular grievance by pushing for the expansion of Nato right up to Russia's borders. As George F Kennan, the famed architect of America's Cold War strategy of containment, warned at the time: "Expanding Nato would be the most fateful error of America policy in the entire post-Cold War era."
George W Bush completely misjudged his Russian counterpart. "I looked the man in the eye," Bush famously said after their first meeting in Slovenia in 2001. "I found him very straightforward and trustworthy… I was able to get a sense of his soul." Bush mistakenly thought he could mount a charm offensive with Putin, and gently cajole him further down the democratic path.
But even though Bush visited Russia more than any other country - including, as a personal favour, two trips in 2002 to Putin's home city, St Petersburg - the Russian leader was already displaying dangerously despotic tendencies.
In 2008, Bush's final year as president, Putin invaded Georgia - what he called a "peace enforcement operation". The Kremlin argued then - and has continued to argue ever since - that it was hypocritical for Washington to complain about this violation of international law after Bush had invaded Iraq.
Barack Obama sought to reframe US-Russian relations. His first secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, even handed her Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov a mock reset button (which was mistakenly labelled with the Russian word for "overloaded"). But Putin knew that America, after its long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, no longer wanted to police the world.
When Obama refused in 2013 to enforce his red-line warning against Bashar al-Assad when the Syrian dictator used chemical weapons against his own people, Putin saw a green light. By helping Assad carry out his murderous war, he extended Moscow's sphere of influence in the Middle East when the United States wanted to extract itself from the region. The following year, he annexed Crimea, and established a foothold in eastern Ukraine.
Despite being told by Obama to "cut it out," Putin even sought to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election in the hope that Hillary Clinton, a long-time nemesis, would be defeated and that Donald Trump, a long-time fan boy, would win.
The New York property tycoon made no secret of his admiration for Putin, a sycophantic approach that seems to have further emboldened the Russian president. Much to Moscow's delight, Trump publicly criticised Nato, weakened the US post-war alliance system and became such a polarising figure that he left America more politically divided than at any time since the Civil War.
Arguably, then, you have to reach back 30 years to find a US leader whose approach to the Kremlin has stood the test of time. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, George Herbert Walker Bush resisted the temptation to rejoice in America's Cold War victory - much to the astonishment of the White House press pack, he refused to travel to Berlin for a victory lap - knowing that it would bolster hardliners in the Politburo and military seeking to oust Mikhail Gorbachev.
That magnanimity in victory helped when it came to bringing about the reunification of Germany, which was arguably Bush's greatest foreign policy success.
Putin is obviously a more formidable adversary, harder to deal with than even Leonid Brezhnev or Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet premier during the Cuban Missile Crisis. But since the turn of the century no US president has truly had his measure.
Bill Clinton pushed for the expansion of Nato which some said was a mistake
Joe Biden, like George Herbert Walker Bush, is a Cold War warrior, who has dedicated his presidency to defending democracy at home and abroad. Seeking to re-establish America's traditional post-war role as the leader of the free world, he has sought to mobilise the international community, offered military aid to Ukraine and adopted the toughest sanction regime ever targeted against Putin.
As Russian forces amassed at the border, he also shared US intelligence showing that Putin had decided to invade, in ways that sought to disrupt the Kremlin's usual misinformation campaigns and false flag operations.
His State of the Union address became a rallying cry. "Freedom will always triumph over tyranny," he said. And while Biden does not speak with the clarity or force of a Kennedy or a Reagan, it was nonetheless a significant speech.
What's been striking since the Russian invasion started, however, has been the assertion of forceful presidential leadership from elsewhere. Volodymyr Zelensky has been lauded and lionised, as he has continued this extraordinary personal journey from comedian to Churchillian colossus.
In Brussels, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has been another commanding presence. This former German politician has been a driving force behind the decision, for the first time in EU history, to finance and purchase weapons for a nation under attack, a commitment that includes not just ammunition but fighter jets as well.
Her compatriot, the new Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz, has also shown more resolve in dealing with Putin than his predecessor Angela Merkel. At warp speed, he has overturned decades of post-Cold War German foreign policy, an approach so often predicated on caution and timidity towards the Russian leader.
Berlin has sent anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine (ending the policy of not sending weapons to active war zones), halted the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea gas pipeline project, withdrawn its opposition to blocking Russia from the SWIFT international payments system, and even committed to spending 2% of its GDP on defence spending.
The biggest assault on a European state since World War Two has stiffened European resolve. But so, too, it seems has the relative weakness of America. Mindful of the botched US withdrawal from Afghanistan and possibility of a Trump 2.0 presidency, European leaders seem to have realised that they can no longer lean so heavily on Washington to defend democracy in this hour of maximum peril. Leadership of the free world has, in this crisis, become a common endeavour.
Even since the end of the Cold War, Washington has been calling upon European nations to do more to police its own neighbourhood, something they failed to do when the break-up of the former Yugoslavia sparked the Bosnian war. Historians may well conclude that it took a combination of Putin's aggressiveness, America's fragility, Ukraine's heroic resolve and the fear that Europe's post-war stability is truly on the line to finally make that happen.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: What Americans think of Biden's Ukraine response
It would be naive to be swept away by the romanticism of Zelensky's speeches or to succumb to the dopamine high of watching the seizure of Russian-owned super-yachts unfold on social media. Putin is intensifying the war. But the last week has sent a message to Moscow - and to Beijing as well - that the post-war international order still continues to function, despite the deployment of the Russian war machine to bring about its collapse. Just as history never ended, nor has liberal democracy.
As Joe Biden put it in his State of the Union, during a passage in which rhetoric served also as sober analysis: Putin "thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead, he met a wall of resistance he never imagined".
Nick Bryant is the author of When America Stopped Being Great: a history of the present. He is the former New York correspondent for the BBC and now lives in Sydney. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60597186 |
Ghislaine Maxwell: Juror admits 'mistake' not revealing abuse - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | He failed to disclose on a jury sheet that he had been abused, so Maxwell's lawyers are demanding a retrial. | A juror in Ghislaine Maxwell's sex abuse trial has told a hearing it was an "inadvertent mistake", not a lie, to fail to disclose on a questionnaire that he was an abuse victim himself.
Maxwell was convicted of trafficking girls and her lawyers want a new trial, arguing the jury were not impartial.
Her case was thrown into disarray when this juror told the media he had told other jurors about his own abuse.
The hearing in New York will establish whether or not Maxwell is retried.
Maxwell, the daughter of a late British media tycoon, was convicted in December of grooming teenage girls for abuse by the late Jeffrey Epstein.
She faces up to 65 years in prison but maintains her innocence. Epstein killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The juror in question, who asked to be identified by his first and middle name, Scotty David, was given immunity from prosecution earlier on Tuesday.
When asked why he failed to disclose his past in the jury questionnaire when explicitly asked, he said it was an "inadvertent mistake."
"This is one of the biggest mistakes I have made in my life," he added, saying he "flew through" the document and was "super-distracted" by everything going on around him in the jury room.
After the conviction of Maxwell he had told reporters that he had shared his own experience of sexual abuse with jurors after some had questioned the recollections from two of Maxwell's accusers.
They argued that him sharing his experience with other jurors could have made them more sympathetic to her accusers and meant she never got a fair trial. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60666414 |
McDonald's and Coca-Cola boycott calls grow over Russia - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Food and drink giants have been criticised on social media for failing to speak out on Ukraine's invasion. | Pressure is growing on Western food and drink giants to pull out of Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine.
McDonald's and Coca-Cola have been criticised on social media for failing to speak out about the attacks and continuing to operate in the country.
Well-known firms including Netflix and Levi's have already suspended sales or stopped providing services in Russia.
McDonald's and Coca-Cola have not responded to the BBC's request for comment.
#BoycottMcDonalds and #BoycottCocaCola were trending on Twitter on Monday and over the weekend respectively.
Dragon's Den investor Deborah Meaden also spoke out on social media against the fizzy drinks company, urging people to stop drinking its products.
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The criticism comes amid calls for other well-known Western firms such as KFC, Pepsi, Starbucks and Burger King to close their outlets and stop sales in Russia.
However, most firms have stayed silent on the issue with Pepsi, Starbucks and Burger King also declining to respond to the BBC's requests for comment.
Fast food chain KFC did not respond initially but its owner Yum Brands, which also owns Pizza Hut, has since announced that it has suspended future investments in Russia.
Yum Brands is the world's second-biggest restaurant chain, and there are about 1,000 KFC outlets and 50 Pizza Hut restaurants in Russia. The company was not pulling out entirely, but Yum said that it would "redirect all profits from operations in Russia to humanitarian efforts". It is also donating $1m (£762,000) to the Red Cross.
Many of the firms the BBC has contacted have a large number of stores in the country.
In recently-published information on its website, McDonald's said that it has 847 stores in Russia. The company also owns the majority of these outlets, whereas across the rest of the world most are typically operated by franchisees.
Both McDonald's and Pepsi, who have had a presence in Russia for decades, have also been singled out by the boss of New York state's pension fund.
The oldest Russian McDonald's branch, off Pushkin Square in central Moscow, opened in 1990.
Thomas DiNapoli, comptroller of the New York state common retirement fund, wrote letters to the companies, according to Reuters reports, urging them to review their businesses in Russia because they face "significant and growing legal, compliance, operational, human rights and personnel, and reputational risks".
Often, franchise owners will be able to take the decision as to whether or not to shut chains down, depending on terms of agreements they might have with big food chains like KFC or Starbucks.
In a recent statement, Kevin Johnson, the boss of Starbucks, described attacks on Ukraine as "unprovoked" and "unjust".
But most of its sites in Russia remain open, according to its website. Most of these franchises are run by the Kuwait-based Alshaya Group.
Kathleen Brooks, director at Minerva Analysis, said McDonald's and Coca-Cola were "very complicated businesses", which would not make it easy to make a decision to leave Russia quickly.
She told the BBC's Today programme that Coca-Cola had an "incredibly complicated structure" with bottling plants in Russia.
"I don't think it's as simple as saying can you just pull out of Russia," she said. "These are complicated businesses and there's a lot to consider, but right now the reputation risk could really hit their share prices so they may have no choice going forward."
But Dr Ian Peters, director of the Institute for Business Ethics, told BBC News: "This is not a time to sit on the fence.
"The world is likely to judge companies by what they do in such circumstances, and ethical judgement will be as important as complying with any government-led regulations and sanctions."
He said that most firms would have what they refer to as an "ethical compass" they use to make big decisions.
"We would advise firms in such circumstances always to look at the bigger picture and seek to do the right thing, putting the wider interest above short-term profit," he added.
He cited important ethical dilemmas that might come up for companies when considering to suspend operations in Russia too: What duty of care do these companies hold to employees on the ground? Is it fair to deprive Russian citizens of basic goods?
Professor of business ethics at Henley Business School, Kleio Akrivou, suggested that these types of decisions might be more difficult to reach for food companies than, say, consulting firms.
"When it comes to sanctions which deprive the Russian population of its basic goods and dignity, firms may need to approach the situation more thoughtfully, with an appeal to practical reason."
She said now is the time for fast food giants to balance how real people are affected by such moves, alongside any reputational risk.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The BBC's Jeremy Bowen was on the frontline in Irpin, as residents came under Russian fire while trying to flee | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60649214 |
Ukrainian actor Pasha Lee killed in Russian bombardment - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Pasha Lee, 33, had signed up to defend his country at the start of the war. | Pasha Lee was a rising star on Ukrainian TV but was already well known on the big screen there
Talented Ukrainian actor and TV presenter Pasha Lee has been killed in battle as Russian forces bombarded the town of Irpin outside the capital Kyiv.
Lee, 33, had signed up for Ukraine's territorial defence force in the first days of the war.
A resident of Irpin, he appeared in several films and his voice featured in the Ukrainian versions of The Lion King and The Hobbit.
He is one of a number of public figures killed in the Russian invasion.
Investigative journalist Viktor Dudar was killed on the front line during a battle with Russian troops near the southern city of Mykolaiv, Ukrainian reports said.
Pavlo Li, as the actor was formally known, was born in Crimea in 1988 and had recently begun presenting a show on Dom TV, a Ukrainian channel originally aimed at audiences in the eastern areas seized by Russian-backed separatists in 2014.
Channel head Yulia Ostrovska told Ukraine's national union of journalists that he was the "most cheerful and sunny" of the presenters on the show.
Lee starred in TV talent shows Star Factory and X-Factor as well as a number of films including the 2016 release SelfieParty, involving four students who wake up in a police station after a night on the town, unaware of how they got there.
As a young actor in 2006 he starred in a teen-horror movie called The Pit but more recently featured in the comedy Meeting of Classmates.
Irpin, the town 20km (12 miles) north-west of Kyiv where he lived, has been bombarded for days by Russian artillery, with shocking scenes of death, destruction and families rushing to escape.
Residents of Irpin have been fleeing the Russian assault on their city, which is half an hour's drive from Kyiv
Residents were able to get out of Irpin as well as the north-eastern city of Sumy on Tuesday as part of a Russian evacuation corridor, heading for the central city of Poltava.
Days before Pasha Lee was killed he posted a link to a Ukrainian refugee charity, urging people either to approach them for help or to volunteer.
In his final Instagram post he posted a photo showing him and a colleague with the cheerful message that they were smiling because "we'll be ok and everything will be Ukraine".
This Instagram post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on Instagram The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Skip instagram post by pashaleeofficial This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Meta’s Instagram 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. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60659363 |
War in Ukraine: Crisis is unleashing 'hell on earth' for food prices - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The Ukraine war could push millions closer to starvation, the boss of the World Food Programme says. | Countries such as Yemen depend heavily on Russia and Ukraine for their wheat
The head of the World Food Programme, David Beasley, has warned the conflict in Ukraine could send global food prices soaring, with a catastrophic impact on the world's poorest.
Ukraine and Russia are both major exporters of basic foodstuffs, and the war has already hit crop production, driving up prices
Mr Beasley said it was putting more people at risk of starvation worldwide.
"Just when you think hell on earth can't get any worse, it does," he said.
Russia and Ukraine, once dubbed "the breadbasket of Europe", export about a quarter of the world's wheat and half of its sunflower products, like seeds and oil. Ukraine also sells a lot of corn globally.
Analysts have warned that war could impact the production of grains and even double global wheat prices.
Mr Beasley told BBC World Service's Business Daily programme that the number of people facing potential starvation worldwide had already risen from 80 million to 276 million in four years prior to Russia's invasion, due to what he calls a "perfect storm" of conflict, climate change and coronavirus.
He said certain countries could be particularly affected by the current crisis, due to the high proportion of grains they currently import from the Black Sea region.
"The country of Lebanon, 50%, give or take, of their grains, come from Ukraine. Yemen, Syria, Tunisia - and I could go on and on - depend on the country of Ukraine as a breadbasket," he said.
"So you're going from being a breadbasket to now, literally, having to hand out bread to them. It's just an incredible reverse of reality."
Norwegian chemical company Yara International, a major fertiliser producer which operates in more than 60 countries, told the BBC a shortage could badly hit crop yields, leading to "a global food crisis".
Ukrainian lawyer Ivanna Dorichenko, an expert in international trade arbitration, said some farmers in Ukraine have already abandoned their fields in order to take up arms against the Russian invasion.
She told the BBC: "The men who need to work on the land, they're all defending our land right now. Because if they do not defend the land, there'll be nothing to work on at a later stage, and you don't have a single person right now who's not trying to help in any way they can."
Ms Dorichenko said the war had wreaked havoc with supply lines typically used to export agricultural produce. Ukraine's military suspended all commercial shipping at its ports in the aftermath of the Russian invasion.
"The vessels cannot leave the waters, the vessels cannot get loaded. It's effectively a war zone. Sadly, there's nothing which can be potentially shipped right now from Ukraine."
She said it meant "huge losses" for businesses, but also humanitarian efforts, because Ukraine could no longer send goods to regions such as South East Asia, the Middle East and Africa, as well as to groups such the World Food Programme.
With food price inflation already at crisis point in some countries prior to the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, South African economist Wandile Sihlobo said he was worried about the potential consequences for grain-importing nations in Africa and beyond.
Mr Sihlobo, chief economist at the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, told the BBC that while steep price rises may be a problem in the short-term, shortages of essential crops could follow.
"Over time, depending on the length and the severity of this war, you could begin to see shortages of shipments that come to the African continent, and that could cause shortages. Particularly in the North African countries, and to an extent in East Africa."
He added: "If you were to look at the global food price index, it was at multiple highs at the start of this year. This crisis already adds to that difficult environment for many consumers, particularly in the developing world."
On Monday, one of the world's biggest fertiliser companies, Yara International, warned the conflict could hit its industry, further affecting food prices.
Fertiliser prices had already been rising due to soaring wholesale gas prices. Russia also produces enormous amounts of nutrients, like potash and phosphate - key ingredients in fertilisers, which enable plants and crops to grow. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60653856 |
Brexit: UK and EU 'still determined to find solutions to protocol' - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The joint committee met on Tuesday to discuss issues around the Northern Ireland Protocol. | The UK and EU said they remain determined to find "durable solutions" to the issues around the Northern Ireland Protocol.
The two sides issued a joint statement after a meeting of senior officials.
The negotiators met in a body known as the Specialised Committee.
It deals with technical issues and can make recommendations to the lead negotiators, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and European Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič.
The statement said: "Both parties underlined their ongoing determination to ensure that outstanding issues in the context of the protocol are addressed, and durable solutions are found as soon as possible for the benefit of people and businesses in Northern Ireland.
"In addition, the EU and the UK reiterated the importance of further engagement with business groups, civil society and other stakeholders in Northern Ireland and committed to further joint engagements."
Officials representing the NI Executive attended the meeting as part of the UK delegation.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and European Commissioner in charge of Brexit negotiations Maroš Šefčovič
The protocol is the Brexit deal which prevents a hard Irish border by keeping Northern Ireland inside the EU's single market for goods.
That also creates a new trade border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, something the EU accepts is causing difficulties for many businesses.
The EU has agreed in principle that GB goods which are going to stay in Northern Ireland should be subject to fewer checks and controls than those which are due to travel onwards to the Republic of Ireland and the wider EU.
But there is still a big difference between the UK and EU about how that should be implemented and what should be considered a reasonable level of risk to the EU single market.
At that time Mrs Truss and Mr Šefčovič said they were determined that outstanding issues would be addressed.
A senior EU official suggested that the talks would happen in a more "discreet" way in the run up to the Northern Ireland Assembly elections in May.
It is not yet clear if, or how, the war in Ukraine will affect the negotiations.
Mrs Truss and Mr Šefčovič have previously made a joint statement expressing a wish for "a positive EU-UK relationship" which would allow for "co-operation on common global challenges".
Last week, Mrs Truss was a guest at an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels alongside the US secretary of state and Canada's foreign minister.
However, EU and UK sources have both played down the prospect that the changed environment could unlock rapid progress. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60654362 |
Chaos and tears as thousands try to catch a train out of Ukraine - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | At the central train station in Lviv, many thousands arrive after fleeing bombed out cities further east. | Women and children queue at Lviv station for a train to Poland. Hundred of thousands are passing through the station every day
When Svitlana Maksymenko's train pulled into the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, about halfway through her 800-mile journey from home to safety, people pushed onto every part of the carriage, she said, grasping for their own escape route west. Some abandoned their luggage. Some begged to get on.
"They were on their knees on the platform," Maksymenko said. "There was no room. There were people standing in every space, in every gangway, there were five people on every bed."
Maksymenko's journey began in Kharkiv, an eastern city that has been heavily shelled by Russian forces, and stopped, for now, in Lviv, a picturesque western city about 50 miles from the Polish border with a grand central station that has become a waypoint for hundreds of thousands of refugees.
In almost every corner of the station concourse over the weekend, in the waiting rooms, the underpasses and all along the platforms, there were people taking shelter, sleeping, anxiously waiting, rushing for trains. There were tense moments as volunteer stewards tried to hold back the crowds of people massed at entry gates, fearful of missing their chance to escape. Women with children wept with the stress, clutching their passports and family birth certificates in one hand and their children in the other. Outside the station, there were tearful goodbyes as fighting-age men, banned from leaving Ukraine, stopped and let their families go, unsure if they would ever see them again.
There were tense moments as stewards attempted to hold back crowds anxious to make the trains
By the time she reached Lviv, Maksymenko had been on the train with her parents-in-law and three-year-old daughter for 26 hours. Some reported longer journeys. Maksymenko was a drop in a river of people that began flowing into Lviv when Russia invaded and swelled over the past few days as Russian forces escalated their campaign of bombing against Ukrainian civilians.
"We estimate 30,000 people arrived on Thursday, 100,000 people on Friday and at least a 100,000 more on Saturday," said Viktoria Khrystenko, a Lviv city council official helping to manage the influx of refugees.
"We are doing our best to cope but we have never seen anything like this," she said. "We are expecting more people. It might be millions. It's a disaster. These people have nothing, just one bag because they had only three minutes to run and save their lives."
Lviv station was heaving with people on Friday night, thinning only slightly as trains departed for Poland before filling again with new arrivals from the bombed-out cities in the north, east, and south of Ukraine.
Outside, Kolya, 46, was standing with tears streaming down his face, watching his wife and two teenage daughters walk away from him.
"I hope they will make it safely to Europe, I want so badly to be with them," he said. "This is as far as I can go."
Ukraine has banned men aged 16-60 from leaving the country, unless they have a disability or three children under 18. They are stopped in document checks at the station or at border crossing points further west. Kolya had stood for 10 hours on the train from Kyiv to ensure his family reached Lviv safely, he said, and now he would make the same journey back to join his 19-year-old son and his brothers in the fight against Russia.
"I will go back to Kyiv and defend my city. It is my home," he said. "How, I don't know - I have asked them for a gun, but how will I protect my city from missiles with a gun?"
Poland's government began sending buses over the weekend to bring Ukraine's refugees over the border to safety.
Kolya's wife and children would press on to Poland, whose government has sent trains and buses to bring people from Ukraine into its country, sparing tens of thousands of refugees traumatic journeys to the border and long waits to cross by foot.
By Sunday, more than 1.5 million Ukrainians had crossed into Poland, according to the UN. Hundreds of thousands more were on the move inside Ukraine.
Amid the chaos in the station at Lviv, volunteers and fellow travellers helped the very young and the very old, carrying pushchairs and suitcases up and down the stairs to the platforms, marshalling children to rooms upstairs where they could get a hot meal, and helping the elderly wherever they could.
"Physically it was very hard for me of course, people were pushing very hard," said Dusia Kostiuk, 91, who boarded a train in Kharkiv at 9pm on Friday, arrived in Lviv at midnight on Saturday, and spent the next 15 hours in a queue at the station to move on Poland.
"Our house was still there when we left but shelling was happening all around and we were told that terrible shelling is happening there now," Kostiuk said.
"We didn't take anything with us, I took two dresses and that's it.
"I was born and raised in Kharkiv. I didn't really travel before, I don't like to travel. I never thought I would leave my home like this."
Dusia Kostiuk, 91, spent 27 hours on a train from the heavily bombed city of Kharkiv to Lviv.
Many of those arriving in Lviv, like Kostiuk, stay in the station until they can board a train to Poland - some bedding down for a night or longer in any free corner. The air inside the grand waiting rooms and gangways was thick with the heat and odour of a mass of people who have been on the move for many days.
Those who cannot move straight on to Poland head out into the city looking for temporary shelter. At a small theatre in Lviv's historic old town, 20 beds had been arranged for those who needed to spend up to three nights in the city before they can leave.
Olha Adamenko, 32, arrived there on Sunday evening with her husband and sick two-year-old daughter. They had driven over four days from Kyiv, stopping in shelters along the way. But the shelter in the theatre was already at capacity and it was not clear whether there was going to be a bed there for her that night, the staff said.
It was a problem many would face that night, according to Khyrstenko, the city official, who said all of the roughly 20,000 temporary beds in the city were already taken.
At the theatre, Adam Yemchenko, a volunteer, was preparing to turn people away. "Most people arrive later than this but people getting to us tonight won't get a bed, we will have to send them somewhere else," he said.
"Some will carry straight on to the border but they face an eight hour wait there in the cold."
Refugees rest in a shelter in a small theatre in Lviv. By early evening on Sunday the shelter was full and turning people away.
This was the choice facing Adamenko, as she sat down inside the small theatre foyer looking tired and stressed. She stopped to breastfeed her daughter, who was restless and tearful. Her husband would soon have to leave them here in Lviv and travel back to Kyiv to join the territorial defence forces.
She asked the volunteers at the shelter how to reach the Polish border by bus and which were the best border crossings.
"Maybe we will go tonight," she said. But she was worried, there were long queues at the crossing points and it was the depth of winter.
"I heard people are queuing outside there during the day but at night locals take them into their homes, but I don't know if it is true," she said. "I am worried about the baby, she is sick and tired."
Adamenko was also starting to worry more about her husband. She thought their local defence battalion on the outskirts of Kyiv would be relatively safe, but heavy fighting surrounded it over the weekend in the districts of Bucha and Irpin.
"Maybe that means the Russians will go through our neighbourhood next," she said.
A young boy leaves Ukraine on a bus bound for Poland. Thousands of children have spent hours away from home.
As night fell, Adamenko and her husband left the theatre and walked into Lviv with directions to another shelter, where if she could find a bed they would part - one on to safety abroad, one back to danger at home.
Later on Sunday night, at the station, many thousands more people were still arriving and departing. They formed queues that were as orderly as possible under the circumstances and continued to help each other. Volunteers bustled through the crowds with trays made from cardboard boxes, handing out tea and snacks in plastic cups.
At the same time, Viktoria Khrystenko, the city council official, was driving her own three children to the Polish border. They had left on Sunday morning and by early Monday morning they had been in the car nearly 24 hours through the bitterly cold night.
Eventually they crossed in to Poland and Khrystenko left her children with relatives and began the long return journey to Lviv. As she drove, she wept.
"I'm sorry, I'm emotional because I didn't sleep at all," she said. "I had a task to take my kids to a safe place across the border and I have done that, so now I need to go back to Lviv and continue to help."
Khrystenko was born here in Lviv. She had never been more proud of its people, she said. They were "ready to give away their last package of buckwheat or can of food" to help others. "We have only one Ukraine and we need to save it," she said.
She hung up and drove on, headed for her three-room apartment in the city, where there were 17 women and children from all over Ukraine resting after long journeys to Lviv. She had taken home as many people from the station as she could, she said.
Outside Lviv station fire barrels were lit during the night to keep the crowds warm
Orysia Khimiak and Svitlana Libet contributed to this report. Photographs by Joel Gunter. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60645126 |
Edward III gold coin found by Norfolk detectorist sells for £174k - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The finder says the sale is a "life-changing amount of money" and is hoping to buy a new car. | Coins discovered by Mark Pallett (left) and Andy Carter have been sold at auction
An "extremely rare and important" Edward III leopard gold coin found by a metal detectorist has sold for £174,600 at auction.
The florin, which dates from 1344, was discovered in Reepham, Norfolk, in 2019 by Andy Carter who said it was a "life-changing amount of money".
It was expected to sell for £140,00.
At the same auction, an Anglo-Saxon gold coin found in a Cambridgeshire field sold for £18,600, more than £8,000 over its expected auction price.
The Edward III coin was minted at the Tower of London in January 1344
The 23-carat Edward III coin, which features a leopard sitting upright wearing a banner, had a face value of three shillings or 36 silver pennies, auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb said.
It was in circulation for just seven months before it was withdrawn making it "extremely rare and important", it added.
It was bought by a private collector from the UK.
Mr Carter, 65, from Norwich, said: "This is a life-changing amount of money and I will share with the landowner, but my partner would like a new kitchen and I have always dreamt of getting a Land Rover Defender, not sure where I will park it though!"
The Anglo-Saxon gold coin was expected to sell for between £8,000 to £10,000 and went for £18,600
The Anglo-Saxon gold shilling, which dates from AD650-670, was bought in the sale room by a member of the trade for a client, the auctioneers said.
Only eight examples of this 'Crispus' type have been recorded on the Early Medieval Coins database at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, it added.
Mark Pallett, from Brentwood, Essex, discovered it in a field in Haslingfield, South Cambridgeshire, on 3 January.
"I am truly overwhelmed by the price that the coin achieved and am pleased for myself and the farmer who will get half of the proceeds," he said.
"I did think about buying a new detector with the money but I don't think that there's anything wrong with my current one as it helped me find this wonderful coin!"
An 11th or 12th Century gold cross found in Lincolnshire in April 2019 is up for sale later this month
A medieval pendant discovered in a muddy field by a Norwich detectorist, James Willis, will be sold by the same auction house on 15 March and is expected to sell for £8,000.
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The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-60665067 |
As it happened: Ukraine latest news: Zelensky says children's hospital attack a 'war crime' - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Ukraine officials say the strike destroyed a maternity and a children's ward, with reports of many dead and injured. | Fergus Drake is overseeing aid heading to Ukraine from Poland Image caption: Fergus Drake is overseeing aid heading to Ukraine from Poland
Ukraine's health ministry is calling out for medical trauma kits to stem shelling wounds, desperately needed oxygen for patients, and protective armour for doctors and nurses.
But a key supplier says bringing those much-needed essentials across the border is being hindered by a lack of Ukrainian drivers.
Many of them have been called up to fight - and those that remain face the threat of Russian attacks on aid convoys, and have no easy routes into besieged cities, like Kharkiv and Mariupol.
But Fergus Drake, who is overseeing around £1m worth of humanitarian aid into Ukraine for a medical supplies distributor, says there has been "a tidal wave of humanity we haven’t seen since World War Two".
His non-profit company has been working in Ukraine for 25 years and he describes seeing "astonishing acts of kindness" from people at the Polish border.
His Ukrainian staff who have left their homes have been offered accommodation, food and phone credits and welcomed, as Drake puts it, "using language like ‘you are Polish now'". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60657155 |
Ukraine conflict: Petrol at fresh record as oil and gas prices soar - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Investors fear a global economic shock, with rising fuel bills causing more pain for households. | Petrol prices have hit another record high as oil and gas costs soar amid fears of a global economic shock from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Oil jumped to $139 a barrel at one point, the highest level for almost 14 years, while wholesale gas prices for next-day delivery more than doubled.
It came as the US hinted at a ban on buying Russian energy, as it looked to other countries to increase supplies.
However, European leaders rejected that idea on Monday.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Europe had "deliberately exempted" Russian energy from sanctions because its supply cannot be secured "any other way" at the moment.
And Netherlands prime minister Mark Rutte said: "The painful reality is we are still very much dependent on Russian gas and Russian oil and if you now force European companies to quit doing business with Russia that would have enormous ramifications around Europe including Ukraine but also around the world.
"We have to reduce our dependency. That will take time," he added.
UK petrol prices have hit an average of 155p a litre, the AA motoring group said.
The market turmoil is fuelling concerns that the price of many everyday items from food to petrol and heating, already rising at their fastest rate for 30 years, could be pushed higher.
Analysts have already warned that UK energy bills could reach as high as £3,000 a year due to the surge in oil and gas prices.
Russia is the world's second top producer of crude oil after Saudi Arabia, and supplies about a third of Europe's needs. The price of Brent crude rose by more than a fifth last week amid fears of a reduction in Russian supplies.
After peaking at $139.13 a barrel early on Monday, the price of Brent crude - an international benchmark - fell back to around $125.
The latest rise in UK petrol prices has pushed the cost to more than £7 a gallon, the AA said. Filling up a car with a 55-litre tank now costs nearly £17 more than a year ago, rising from £68.60 to £85.59.
The boss of fuel delivery firm Portland Fuel, James Spencer, told the BBC he thought fuel prices could reach £1.70-£1.75 a litre. "Even if we can get extra [oil] supplies on to the market, nothing will happen quickly."
He said that, to a certain extent, individual car drivers have options to cut their use by driving less, but added that businesses that have no alternatives were really starting to feel the squeeze.
The crisis continues to affect share markets. The main stock exchanges in France and Germany sank more than 4% in early trading before paring their losses, closing 1.3% and 2% lower respectively.
In London, the FTSE 100 dropped more than 2%, but then recovered to close 0.4% lower. Last week, the FTSE had its worse week since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
In the US, markets ended lower with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 down 2.4% and 3% respectively. The Dow is now in a "correction", having fallen 10% since its last record closing level on 4 January.
The price of gold, a haven in troubled times for investors looking for security, hit $2,000 an ounce for the first time in almost 18 months.
These are massive movements in the price of commodities - the raw materials that eventually feed, warm and transport us.
The extra movements this morning arose out of talk of an embargo on Russian oil. That is very significant, because Russia is the second biggest world exporter. Anyone passing a petrol station would have seen the impact. If there was an actual embargo, the price of an average tank could head close to £100, and indeed is already there at the most expensive service stations in the UK.
But we don't need to be physically reliant on actual Russian supplies for it to feed through into the prices our suppliers pay and then pass on to us. The price for gas in international markets was already at incredible highs last week. It further increased by a third to frankly frightening levels, 10- to 15-times normal, above £6 per therm.
If in the first half of this year these prices average £3.20, then typical dual fuel bills in October could rise to £3,000 a year or £250 a month.
On Sunday, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration and its allies were discussing a ban on Russian oil supplies.
The comments came as pressure grows on the White House and other Western nations to take tougher action against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
A Russian oil embargo would be a major escalation in the response to the invasion of Ukraine and would potentially have a major impact on the global economy.
However, some European countries are reluctant given their dependence on Russian energy supplies.
"While the US might just push through a ban on Russian oil imports, Europe can ill-afford to do the same. More worryingly, [Russian leader Vladimir] Putin, with his back to the wall, could turn off gas supplies to Europe, cutting off the continent's energy lifeline," said Vandana Hari at oil markets analysis firm Vanda Insights.
Mr Johnson said Europe could not simply shut down the use of oil and gas overnight, but that countries should move together quickly to look beyond Russia for its oil and gas supplies.
On Sunday, energy giant Shell defended its decision to purchase Russian crude oil despite the invasion of Ukraine.
The company said it was forced to buy oil from Russia in order to maintain timely supplies of fuel to Europe.
"To be clear, without an uninterrupted supply of crude oil to refineries, the energy industry cannot assure continued provision of essential products to people across Europe over the weeks ahead," a spokesperson added.
A possible ban on buying Russian oil has intensified pressure to find alternative supplies.
The US is this week expected to press Saudi Arabia to increase crude production, and there is fresh impetus for a deal over Iran's nuclear ambitions that would lift sanctions on its oil exports.
However, progress on a deal has been hampered after Russia sought a US guarantee that the sanctions it faces over the Ukraine conflict will not affect its trade with Tehran.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Video shows people running to escape Russian shelling in Irpin, just outside of the capital Kyiv | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60642786 |
Ukraine war: Why has 'Z' become a Russian pro-war symbol? - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | In Russia, the 'Z' is fast becoming seen as a staunchly pro-war symbol - what does it mean? | Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak is facing disciplinary proceedings by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) for displaying the letter "Z" on the podium next to a Ukrainian rival in Qatar. But what does the symbol mean?
In Russia, the "Z" is fast becoming seen as a staunchly pro-war symbol of President Putin's invasion of Ukraine. It has been sported by politicians, seen on the sides of cars, vans and advertising hoardings - as well as daubed on bus shelters. It has even been used by Serbs at pro-Russian demonstration in Belgrade. Photographs have been widely shared on social media.
It has become a social media conversation, says Aglaya Snetkova, a lecturer in international politics at the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies at UCL. "In many ways, this shows the extent to which Russia is, or has been, very much part of the global world."
While zed in the Russian Cyrillic alphabet is written differently - and looks like a 3 - most Russians recognise Latin letters. Emily Ferris - Russia and Eurasia research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) - says the "Z" is a powerful and easily recognisable symbol.
"Often with propaganda the simplest things catch on the quickest," she says. "It looks rather intimidating and quite stark. From an aesthetic perspective, it's a very powerful symbol."
It has taken less than a fortnight for the "Z" to spread among those supportive of President Putin's invasion.
In the central Russian city of Kazan, about 60 children and staff at a hospice were photographed outside in the snow forming a giant "Z" in front of their building.
Several theories have circulated as to what the "Z" symbol actually means. It first caught attention on social media after Russian tanks with "Zs" on the side were spotted en route to Ukraine.
Initially, it was thought that the "Z" was in fact a number "2" - representing the 22 February (22/02/2022). That was the day Russia ratified an agreement on "friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance" with the self-proclaimed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine - Donetsk and Luhansk.
But it is now believed the symbol is simply a way for Russia's military to identify its own forces.
Last week, viewers to a news programme on Russia's state-controlled Channel One were told that a "Z" was a common marking on Russian military equipment. The Orthodox Christian pro-Putin website Tsargrad told readers the simple marking could "avoid friendly fire" and couldn't be "mixed up with anything else".
Russian special forces veteran Sergey Kuvykin told the Russian magazine website, Life, that different symbols signified different military units. "Symbols like these are used - a 'Z' in a square, a 'Z' in a circle, a 'Z' with a star or simply 'Z' on its own." He said the markings helped make sure that troops, who might not be in contact with other comrades, were where they should be.
Russian warplanes fly too quickly to see the daubed white markings, says US Air Force Lt Col Tyson Wetzel - a senior Air Force fellow with The Atlantic Council think tank. But, in an interview with the Task and Purpose website, he agrees the "Zs" are a "de-confliction measure to help prevent fratricide" - friendly fire from Russian attack helicopters or artillery.
The spread of "Z" in Russia has not only been because of social media spontaneity - cautions Aglaya Snetkov from UCL.
"It has also been pushed by the regime."
One Russian politician, Maria Butina, shared a video of how to write the "Z" insignia on a business jacket - she explains - "so you can go into work and show it to everyone without shouting about it."
But Ms Snetkov says the symbol shouldn't be seen as fascist. "There are lots of memes transforming the 'Z' into a swastika, but that's done by people who want to push back against the regime."
And there are other symbols appearing, too.
The letter "V" for instance - also not in the Cyrillic alphabet - appears in posts on the official Instagram account of the Russian department of defence, alongside images of "Zs".
There are written captions. "Za PatsanoV" reads one, meaning "for the lads" - while another says "Sila V pravde", which translates into English as "strength in truth".
One theory is that the two Latin letters might stand for "vostok", meaning east, and "zapad", meaning west. But on social media, it has also been suggested that the Ukrainian military believes the "Z" refers to Russia's "Eastern Forces" - and the "V" to the "Naval infantry". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60644832 |
Ukraine war: President Zelensky speaks to UK MPs - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the House of Commons and pledges to keep on fighting against Russia. | President Volodymyr Zelensky has addressed the House of Commons and pledged to keep on fighting against Russia.
Two weeks after the invasion of Ukraine began, Mr Zelensky quoted William Shakespeare and Sir Winston Churchill, he thanked Boris Johnson and called for an increase in sanctions.
The leader spoke virtually from Kyiv in Ukraine - it's the first time a foreign leader has addressed MPs in the chamber. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60666782 |
Clive Myrie: The Ukrainians I met are not about to give up - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The presenter reflects on the indomitable locals he met in Kyiv - convinced they would defeat the Russians. | The BBC's Clive Myrie, who has left Ukraine, reflects on the indomitable locals he met in Kyiv - convinced they would defeat the Russians.
I didn't really see her face, but at her feet were several cooing pigeons. Every now and again, a shower of birdseed would tumble from her hand. She was wearing a heavy-looking grey coat, keeping out the late morning winter chill. I motioned to my colleague, cameraman David McIlveen, to try to take her picture - but she sensed he was approaching, emptied the brown paper bag of birdseed and briskly walked away.
It was the first time in 48 hours that I had left our lodgings - a basement car park in the heart of Kyiv which had become a make-shift bomb shelter. A weekend-long curfew had been imposed after Russian troops had invaded the country. There was a real fear foreign saboteurs were moving among the population and anyone caught outdoors would have been arrested.
You could see the nervousness on the faces of the soldiers and partisans manning checkpoints, despite the black balaclavas shielding them from the cold. Their eyes told stories of apprehension, concern, worry and existential threat. Russian spies might be plotting routes for incoming troops, or smuggling weapons into the Ukrainian capital, or simply there to somehow sow seeds of discord among ordinary people to break local unity.
The city was awash with rumour and dread. Who might that be in the bomb shelter next to you, who is listening in to your conversation in the bread queue? Best stay indoors and observe the curfew.
The woman feeding the pigeons would have spent the past two days in her own basement as well, and I thought it was interesting that one of the first things she did was to feed the pigeons - as if nothing was awry. An ordinary day out, a bit of fresh air, with no threat of death from above.
A few other people were on the streets, queuing outside a supermarket which had little on its shelves. Most people were shuttered at home. Villages, towns and cities across the land saw a vanishing, as citizens descended underground to subterranean worlds of refuge.
Vladimir Putin professes to know what the 40 million-plus population of this land want. A few days among these people would have told him much more than he seems to understand.
In an elegant apartment block in the centre of Kyiv, one flat has become a sort of commune for young people who have just moved to the city from the sticks and need a place to crash while they find their feet. It is clean and tidy with a mattress for a sofa in the main room - but still the paraphernalia of student life is on show. There are several guitars lying around and posters on the wall. Giorgy, our local fixer and driver, introduces us to some of his friends. All are in their early 20s and have been waiting tables or studying at college. Oleksiy, 22, a waiter in a local bar, also plays in a rock band.
Now, all that's on hold. He may have to fight the Russians.
"I am prepared to die for my country, for what I love," he told me in perfect English. "Putin doesn't understand we don't want his authority - his world. All of us here know what we want - the right to live our own lives, the right to choose who leads us. That's our right, not Moscow's."
I had met other reserve army volunteers who'd put themselves forward to fight while I was in Ukraine. They all displayed the same patriotism and love of their country that Vladimir Putin didn't think existed. They were firm in their convictions and convinced they would prevail - despite the Russian military's greater numbers.
While speaking to Oleksiy, there was a commotion outside with the sound of police sirens in the street below. A long convoy of Ukrainian military vehicles was heading up the road and bystanders were applauding the troops. It was clear the Kremlin thought these people would be cowed by Moscow's ostentatious display of might, with Russian troops stationed on the Ukrainian border for several weeks to intimidate.
Not a chance. These people will fight.
The teenage Russian conscripts in their tanks and armoured personnel carriers who had crossed the border to the north, south and east, have quickly become disabused of Putin's jaundiced view of Ukraine. After the invasion, video footage began to emerge of Ukrainians berating the foreign army, yelling at them "Go home" and "We don't want you here."
And this was happening even in Russian-speaking parts of the north-east. There were pictures of people lying in the road to block the movement of Russian tanks. Others were throwing bicycles beneath tank tracks - there were no flowers or garlands of welcome. Pictures of Ukrainian men urinating on Russian vehicles, and a dog cocking a hind leg on the tail fin of a missile sticking out of the ground, went viral. On Twitter, one person quipped "give piss a chance!"
On a visit to the magnificent St Sophia Cathedral - a stunning riot of frescoes and gold - I watched an interfaith prayer service for peace, as the war raged across the country. Orthodox, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim - all were united. A little later, Ukraine's interior minister Denys Monastyrskyy in a bullet-proof vest turned up seeking divine guidance. Four heavily armed Ukrainian army soldiers were protecting him. I asked him if faith was what underpinned the Ukrainian belief that they could defeat the second-largest army on the planet.
Speaking softly, he was unequivocal and clear-eyed - just like the young Ukrainian reservists I had spoken to days earlier. "God is on our side," he told me with deep conviction. "We will win." And to drive home the point, he repeated those words in Ukrainian: "My vyhrayemo".
Also attending the prayer service was military chaplain Oleksandr Mishura. He had a yellow armband on his right bicep, the insignia of the volunteer brigades - or the citizen soldiers. He said morale was high among the troops he ministered to, and that the soldiers had no choice but to fight to defend and protect the country. He took my arm and looked straight at me. He shared a sentiment that I suspect many in Ukraine believe - "We all know what the Bible says, when the enemy is wicked, God will always intervene."
Shortly before my assignment in Kyiv ended, I began to think about the people I would leave behind to an uncertain fate. They included a mother and her 18-year-old daughter who shared our underground shelter. One morning, the daughter's crying woke me up. She had got word that her father, who had been living near the Chernobyl nuclear plant, had apparently been harmed by a group of Russian soldiers. They had ransacked his house looking for cigarettes and alcohol. The teenager feared the worst.
Throughout the day she tried to call her father, but he wasn't picking up the phone. All of us in the shelter prayed he was still alive. When word finally came from his neighbour, that he was safe and unharmed, it felt like a tiny victory for all of us. I thought about the other dwellers of the underground shelter. The woman with a very large white fluffy cat and the children who had run around playing games oblivious to the madness of adults above ground.
I am writing this from a hotel in Romania having left Ukraine via Moldova a couple of days ago. I can't get the image of the woman feeding the pigeons out of my head. She was risking bombs and missiles to feed the pigeons. For me, she represents strength and courage - the indomitability of an independent state, not the cowering fear of the colonised.
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Ed Sheeran denies Shape of You copyright claim at High Court trial - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The pop singer is accused by two songwriters of copying parts of his 2017 hit Shape Of You. | Ed Sheeran gave evidence at the High Court on Monday
Ed Sheeran has told the High Court he does not "borrow" ideas from unknown songwriters without credit.
The singer-songwriter has been accused by two other songwriters of copying parts of his 2017 hit Shape Of You.
Sami Chokri and Ross O'Donoghue's barrister suggested Sheeran treated lesser-known songwriters differently from famous ones.
Sheeran denied this, telling the court he had cleared parts of songs with "lots" of unknown artists.
Shape of You was number one for 14 weeks in the UK in 2017, becoming the best-selling song of the year around the world.
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Chokri and O'Donoghue claim the song's "Oh I" hook is "strikingly similar" to part of their track Oh Why, which was released by Chokri under the name Sami Switch in 2015.
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On Friday, their barrister Andrew Sutcliffe QC claimed Sheeran "borrows ideas and throws them into his songs, sometimes he will acknowledge it but sometimes he won't".
But Sheeran denied the claim that he is a "magpie" who lifts other people's work without acknowledgment, pointing out that he has often shared credit with lesser-known artists, including Shivers and Visiting Hours, and a song that sampled an "unknown composer's" work from Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
"All those examples are not famous artists that we've cleared songs with and that's what I have to say on that," he told the court.
Sami Chokri performs under the name Sami Switch
Sheeran created Shape of You with co-writers Steve Mac - real name Steven McCutcheon - and Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid, both of whom were also in court.
After its release, Sheeran added the team behind TLC's 1999 single No Scrubs to the song's writing credits after some commentators pointed out similarities.
On Monday, Mr Sutcliffe told the star: "The evidence is overwhelming that at the time of writing Shape of You, your songwriting process involved collecting ideas."
Sheeran replied: "You say it's overwhelming, I don't agree with that."
In written evidence, the singer said the contested element of Shape of You was "very short", and the relevant parts of both songs were "entirely commonplace".
He said: "Even so, if I had heard Oh Why at the time and had referenced it, I would have taken steps to clear it."
He added: "I have always tried to be completely fair in crediting anyone who makes any contribution to any song I write.
"I do refer to other works on occasion when I write, as do many songwriters. If there is a reference to another work, I notify my team so that steps can be taken to obtain clearance.
"I have been as scrupulous as I possibly can and have even given credits to people who I believe may have been no more than a mere influence for a songwriting element. This is because I want to treat other songwriters fairly."
Dressed in a sharp black suit, Ed Sheeran is firm, determined and just a little bit irritated on the stand as lawyers for Chokri and O'Donoghue deconstruct his songwriting process, looking for hints that he might take inspiration from outside sources.
Sheeran testifies that he mostly works in collaboration with other writers, and that it's often hard to identify who has written each individual part of a song once it's finished.
Referencing his Shape of You co-writer Johnny McDaid, he says: "My and Johnny's writing partnership is very much like a game of tennis. He'll say something and I'll say something back. We're quite quick when we go back and forth."
Asked repeatedly whether he is responsible for the chorus to his 2015 song Photograph, Sheeran replies tersely: "I honestly couldn't tell you. I don't know. We wrote the song together." It's a phrase he returns to several times throughout the morning's questioning.
Photograph is relevant because it was the subject of a separate copyright claim from Martin Harrington and Thomas Leonard, who wrote Matt Cardle's 2011 single Amazing. The duo were eventually given a share of the song's royalties and a £4m lump sum in an out-of-court settlement.
Sheeran says he settled the claim because it was a "nuisance" and "more trouble than it was worth". Asked why he would pay out such a "substantial" sum instead of taking the case to court, he says he did so on the advice of his lawyers.
Mr Sutcliffe said Sheeran had known about Chokri before Shape Of You was written because the grime artist had tweeted Sheeran directly, and the singer had given a shout out to Sami Switch on stage in 2011. But Sheeran replied: "This isn't stuff that's true."
Chokri had also appeared on YouTube channel SBTV at around the same time as Sheeran, who described its founder Jamal Edwards as his "best friend".
But he said the music entrepreneur, who died last month, didn't share songs like Oh Why with him. Instead, the pair would "talk about football, talk about his mum, talk about theatre", he said.
Sheeran was also asked about his role as a talent-spotter for his own label Gingerbread Man Records. He denied being aware of Oh Why, saying he had just signed Jamie Lawson to the label and "wasn't looking for anyone else" to work with.
The musician told the court he quit social media in 2015, adding that for "the whole of 2016" he was "off" social media and was using a "flip phone from Tesco".
In May 2018, Sheeran and his co-writers issued proceedings asking the High Court to declare they had not infringed Chokri and O'Donoghue's copyright.
The pair then issued a counter claim for copyright infringement. The trial is expected to continue for about three weeks. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60648263 |
Lancaster mum wins legal fight for son's kidney transplant - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | A judge rules the 17-year-old should be given the chance of a potentially life-saving operation. | William has been at the centre of a treatment dispute with Royal Manchester Children's Hospital
A mother has won a legal battle to ensure her teenage son has the right to a potentially life-saving transplant.
Ami McLennan, from Lancaster, had argued a transplant was 17-year-old William's only chance and without it he would have just 12 months to live.
Royal Manchester Children's Hospital had claimed his autism would make the operation and aftercare too risky.
But a judge has ruled the teenager should be given the chance of having the operation.
Presiding over the case in the Court of Protection, sitting in Liverpool, Mrs Justice Emma Arbuthnot said she had put herself in "William's shoes".
"I have no doubt he wants to live a life with the support of his family and that he wants to continue playing 'kerbie' long into the future," she said.
She added that even though there were many risks involved in a transplant it was the only way of potentially securing William's long-term survival.
Ami McLennan asked for help to find a living donor for her son
Her decision came after a four-day hearing which heard evidence from clinicians involved in William's care as well as experts representing both the hospital and his family.
The court heard how William, who has autism, ADHD and learning disabilities, was not deemed to have the capacity to make such a complex decision about his future.
But his mother said they should never have had "to fight this" but added "now we have got a chance".
"William's situation is critical. It could mean the difference between life and death," she said.
"All we have ever wanted is for him to be added to the transplant list and treatment continued until a donor is found."
She believes, with the right care, her son could cope with the complexity of such a procedure, as well as having various lines for dialysis and other treatment post operation if needed.
The hospital argued the only way of ensuring a successful transplant would be to put William under sedation and ventilation for an extended period of time, which could cause huge psychological trauma.
Despite these risks, William, a keen golfer, gave evidence to the judge in a private hearing in which he said he wanted the operation and that it would "make him better".
He told Justice Arbuthnot that while he was scared about the operation he wanted the chance to live longer.
He told her how he loved his jobs at his local respite centre, making tea, mopping, making picture frames and laminating documents.
The judge told the court: "It is very clear he enjoys the life he leads, playing games and doing odd jobs, going to school and being at home with his family."
Kim McGowan believes William should have the same chance as any other child
The health trust had argued that, post operation, William would be unable to cope with the number of tubes in his body - there could be five in total after the operation - and there was a risk he could pull them out and cause damage to his new kidney.
Acting for Ms McLennan, Victoria Butler Cole disputed that saying that with the right care and reasonable adjustments - such as having relatives or a carer present to stroke his hand and calm him - he had proven that he could manage such complex treatment.
Since BBC News supported his mother to lift reporting restrictions, several altruistic donors have come forward, willing to donate one of their kidneys if they are found to be a match.
Kim McGowan is among them. Her son, also called William, is autistic with ADHD and she believes strongly that William should have the same chance as any other child.
She said: "I think when you're a parent of a child with any additional need you will be very familiar with the feeling of having to fight. [Their] fight is unimaginable and I will do anything, anything I can do to help."
Ms Toli Onon, joint medical director for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We welcome the clarity which this decision brings for William, his family and our clinicians.
"The trust asked the Court of Protection to make today's judgment because of how unusual, complex and risky the situation is.
"William, his family and our staff have all worked really hard together to support his dialysis; and we will now be liaising with William and his family regarding how best to progress his treatment."
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Ukraine: Refugees to UK turned back at Calais over paperwork - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Hundreds of refugees trying to reach the UK are stuck in north-west France, unable to get visas. | Members of a Ukrainian family wait for paperwork to be completed at the ferry terminal in Calais, France
Almost 300 Ukrainian refugees trying to reach the UK have already been turned back at the French border by British Border Force officials, the Calais authorities have said. Hundreds more are trying to complete paperwork for the visa that will allow them to cross the Channel by tunnel or ferry.
On Monday, one family followed by the BBC was sent from building to building across Calais to track down promised British support. When they eventually found the right place, the Home Office representation amounted to three men at a trestle table in a deserted departure hall at the port, with bags of ready salted crisps and Kit Kats.
The family were advised to make an appointment for 15 March, about 200 miles away in Paris.
The British staff offering water and snacks at a deserted Calais port building
Having promised a Home Office "surge team" would be available in Calais to support people fleeing the war and looking to come to Britain, the government now says there is no visa application centre (VAC) in the city and refugees should go elsewhere.
The Home Secretary Priti Patel has said she has decided not to set up a VAC in Calais because refugees might be exploited by the criminal gangs of people traffickers. The government is worried about a "pull factor," encouraging desperate people to risk their lives by attempting to cross the channel in small boats.
The Home Office now says it has set up a VAC centre in Lille, around 70 miles from Calais.
In Calais yesterday, a Home Office presence at a local administrative building disappeared, a sign at the hostel instead advising people to go to Brussels where there are now walk-in appointments, or try to get an appointment in Paris.
The UK has retained controls on the entry of refugees from Ukraine
Calais regional administrator Veronique Deprez-Boudier told us it was important that the UK build a more organised team to help people in Calais. "Ideally they would get their visas here, and not have to take the train to get a visa," she said.
"We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the people from Ukraine," a Home Office spokesperson told the BBC. "We have worked closely with Ukrainian partners to ensure our measures respond directly to their needs and asks and the government's Ukraine Family Scheme will help tens of thousands of people to join their family members in the UK."
Unlike the European Union - which is allowing Ukrainians three-year residency without a visa - the UK has retained controls on entry, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying it was "sensible" to "have some basic ability to check who is coming in and who isn't".
There are two main routes to a visa for refugees, requiring them either to have family in the UK, or a British sponsor for their application.
The experience of Misha, his wife and children, is typical. A British citizen with a home in north-east London, he drove 2,000 miles to Poland to rescue his Ukrainian wife Maria and two children, 17-year-old Gabrielle and six-year-old Misha Jr. They had walked 45 miles to escape the war and reach the border.
He drove them to Calais where they have been now for six days, having been turned back by Border Force officers at the ferry terminal because they did not all have visas.
Misha, a scaffolder by trade, is now close to despair, his daughter in tears, as they try to navigate the bureaucracy. Maria has a vacant look in her eyes that speaks of a nightmare journey still without a final conclusion.
"I feel left out," Misha told the BBC. "Who else is going to help me if not my own government?"
Misha, a scaffolder from north-west London, drove 2,000 miles to pick up his family - at Calais he was redirected to Paris
We followed Misha, who was among other desperate refugees - including many children, babies and elderly people, as he returned from a fruitless trek to the building, unsure what to do or where to go. What "shoulder to shoulder" actually meant.
Eventually, Misha spoke to a Border Force official who advised him to head across town to a port building - where he was met with the chocolate and crisps.
"Another week stuck here," he lamented. "I have never claimed a benefit in my life and the first time I ask my government for their help, this is how they treat me. I am gutted."
For the hundreds of refugees in Calais, there appears to be a gap as wide as the English Channel between the supportive rhetoric of ministers in London and the reality on the ground. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60659786 |
Ed Sheeran sings Nina Simone during Shape of You copyright case - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The star serenades London's High Court in an attempt to prove he didn't copy his hit Shape of You. | Sheeran said Shape of You was originally intended to be recorded by Little Mix or Rihanna
Ed Sheeran has serenaded London's High Court in an attempt to prove he did not copy portions of his 2017 hit Shape of You from another artist.
The star is accused of lifting his song's "Oh I, oh I, oh I" hook from Sami Chokri's 2015 single Oh Why.
In court, he sang elements of Nina Simone's Feeling Good and Blackstreet's No Diggity to illustrate how the melody is commonplace in pop music.
"If you put them all in the same key, they'll sound the same," he explained.
Sheeran denies having heard Mr Chokri's song and rejected the suggestion that friends might have played it to him before he wrote Shape of You in October 2016.
His upbeat pop track became 2017's best-selling single and remains the most-played song of all time on Spotify.
Sami Chokri performs under the name Sami Switch
But Sheeran's royalties - estimated to be about £20m - have been frozen since Mr Chokri and his co-writer Ross O'Donoghue claimed copyright infringement in 2018.
Lawyers for the pair played the court excerpts from the Shape of You recording sessions as they built their case.
In one recording, Sheeran could be heard saying he needed to change the "oh I" melody because it was "a bit close to the bone".
"We thought it was a bit too close to a song called No Diggity by Blackstreet," the star told the court. "I said that... we should change it."
Asked whether his final melody bore a similarity to Chokri's song, he added: "Fundamentally, yes. They are based around the minor pentatonic scale [and] they both have vowels in them."
Ed Sheeran has been giving evidence for two days
Andrew Sutcliffe QC, representing Mr Chokri and Mr O'Donoghue, asked: "It was a phrase you already had in your head after listening to the chorus of Sam's song, wasn't it?"
The singer was also accused of being an "obsessive music squirrel" who consumed music "voraciously" and would have been aware of Mr Chokri's music.
"I'm a music fan, I like music, I listen to music," Sheeran said. But he insisted he had "disappeared for the whole year" in 2016 and was "not plugged in" to the UK music scene.
Sheeran was repeatedly asked who had come up with the "oh I" phrase, but explained it had been a collaborative effort with his co-writers Steve Mac and Johnny McDaid.
"It was all of us three bouncing back and forth in a circle," he said. "That was how it originated."
"Three people could not create the germ of the melody," suggested Mr Sutcliffe.
"Why can't three people create a melody?" Sheeran replied.
The court also heard how Sheeran tweaked the first version of Shape of You to remove elements that were similar to the Bill Withers song Grandma's Hands and TLC's No Scrubs.
"Your approach is take it, change it and make lots of money, isn't it?" Mr Sutcliffe asked the star.
"No," he replied, later adding that a "musicologist went over the song [Shape of You] and found similarities and we changed the similarities".
Sheeran pointed out that he had sought clearance from TLC's writers, although they had not responded by the time his song was released. They were later given a credit on the track.
The star disclosed that Shape of You was originally envisioned for Little Mix or Rihanna, and that he had not wanted to release it on his multi-platinum Divide album.
"I thought this song clashed with Castle On The Hill. It doesn't fit with the rest of the album," he said. "I didn't want to put it out and I was subsequently proved wrong."
The singer briefly became irritated when a snippet of an unreleased song was mistakenly played to the court.
"That's a song I wrote last January. How did you get that?" he asked, glancing at his lawyers. "I want to know how you got that."
It was later explained that some of the music played to the court was coming from Steve Mac's personal laptop, and the wrong folder had been accidentally accessed.
Sheeran and his co-authors launched legal proceedings in May 2018, asking the High Court to declare they had not infringed Mr Chokri and Mr O'Donoghue's copyright.
In July 2018, Mr Chokri and Mr O'Donoghue issued their own claim for "copyright infringement, damages and an account of profits in relation to the alleged infringement".
Mr Sutcliffe accused Sheeran and his co-writers of issuing what he called a "slapp suit" intended to "intimidate" his clients with the burdensome cost of a legal defence "until they abandon their claim".
"No I wanted to prove I was right," he replied. "I'm trying to clear my name here."
Follow us on Facebook, or on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60661895 |
Vamps star tells of liposuction body-image pressure - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | James Brittain-McVey tells MPs he wishes he had talked to friends about worries over how he looked. | James Brittain-McVey told MPs about his struggle to conform when starting out with his band, The Vamps
The Vamps' lead guitarist, James Brittain-McVey, has told MPs pressure to conform led him to have liposuction to remove breast tissue, aged just 20.
At a committee discussing the impact of body image on physical and mental health, the musician said he wished he had opened up to friends at the time.
And he said no doctor had ever asked if he was sure he wanted to have surgery.
Concerns over weight or body shape can often lead to eating disorders, which are particularly common in teenagers.
Two leading medical organisations have told BBC News GPs are not receiving the right support to treat eating disorders.
Doctors said they needed more time with patients and more specialist units.
Brittain-McVey, 27, said he had started worrying about how his body looked aged 14-15.
At school, he struggled to feel he fitted in - and that led him to the gym, prompted by what he saw advertised on social media and by "big American surf style companies".
"I had one of their shopping bags in my bedroom, of a guy ripped on a beach in Malibu, and I think unconsciously every morning I would think that is what I need to look like," the musician said.
"Social media encouraged me to fall further down that rabbit hole.
"The first thoughts I would have when I woke up in the morning was, 'Should I be eating that, am I going to be able to get to the gym?"'
He described worrying about what he ate aged 15-16 - and by the time The Vamps started, he decided to have surplus natural breast tissue in his chest, a condition called gynaecomastia, removed.
"People presume it was me striving for vanity - but it was pressure to conform to stereotypes and gender constructs," Brittain-McVey said.
"And before I realised it, my whole life was controlled by this chase to look a certain way."
His family was supportive of his decision but he was too embarrassed to tell many of his friends or bandmates.
The government should be "clamping down on advertising", he said, so "bodies represent society and not unachievable bodies".
"How on earth are they meant to feel comfortable within their skin if you go on apps now and you scroll and see another person that looks a certain way?"
Cosmetic-surgery adverts are to be banned from targeting children in the UK, from May.
Asked if any doctors had discussed with him why he wanted liposuction, Brittain-McVey said: "Before surgery, I don't think anyone said, 'Are you sure?'"
In 2018, he joined ITV's I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! and came out of the Australian jungle having lost 4-5kg (11lb).
"My wife was shocked how ill I looked - but I was happy I had a six-pack again," he said.
The programme had been "brilliant" - but it had made him focus on the way he looked "more than ever".
"I still feel a pressure to look a certain way and that's why I worry for a lot of our fan base," he told the MPs.
The committee is considering whether NHS training on body-image issues should be changed and whether there is enough support, advice and regulation to ensure patient safety.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60662357 |
Ukraine: Documenting the war on TikTok - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Valerisssh has posted videos online of her standing outside shelled buildings. | Russia has banned western social media platforms including Facebook, but in Ukraine people have been showing the rest of the world what’s happening to them via social media - including TikToker Valerisssh.
Valeria lives in Ukraine and has been posting videos showing the situation in her city. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60656613 |
Ukraine conflict: Your guide to understanding day 13 - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Some civilians are finally able to escape Russian bombardment. Here's your guide to day 13 of the war. | Many of the Sumy evacuees so far have been foreign students
On day 13 of the invasion, some civilians were finally able to leave areas under bombardment, after several days of ceasefire talks and failed evacuations.
A convoy of buses carrying mostly foreign students left the northern city of Sumy, and dozens left Irpin, near the capital Kyiv.
But human rights activists in Sumy said few local residents were willing to go, fearing that Russia would shell the humanitarian corridor that had been set up.
"Now I'm deciding whether or not to leave my family, because [my] grandparents decided not to go and my mother cannot leave them, and now I need to decide to leave them alone, or to stay."
An evacuation route was opened in Mariupol once again on Tuesday, only to fail again, with Ukrainian officials accused Russia of shelling the route.
Tuesday also saw coordinated efforts from the UK, US and EU to - in the words of President Joe Biden - hit "the main artery of Russia's economy": its energy sector.
The US has announced a complete ban on Russian oil, gas and coal imports, the UK is phasing out Russian oil by the end of the year, and and the EU is reducing its demand for Russian gas by two-thirds.
Russia's economy is heavily dependent on energy. It is the world's third-biggest oil producer, behind Saudi Arabia and the US.
Hassan was given food and drink by volunteers and his relatives were then contacted in Bratislava
According to the United Nations two million people have already left Ukraine as of Tuesday.
But among so many stories of courage in the face of huge suffering, one in particular stands out.
Days ago Hassan, 11, left his home in Zaporizhzhia, saying goodbye to his mother and elderly grandmother, to travel some 1,200km (750 miles) to the Slovakian border.
Carrying no more than two small bags, a passport and his relatives' phone number, he was finally helped across the border by customs officials.
They said he was a true hero and had won over everyone with his smile, his fearlessness and his determination.
While many Ukrainians are trying to leave, the BBC's Clive Myrie has been reflecting on those staying behind to defend their country.
Our correspondent, who is now in Romania, mentions a woman he saw in Kyiv risking bombs and missiles to feed the pigeons.
"For me, she represents strength and courage - the indomitability of an independent state, not the cowering fear of the colonised," she says.
Maj-Gen Gerasimov, deputy commander of the 41st Russian Army, is reported to have died
Ukrainian military sources have reported the death of a senior Russian commander in fighting near Kharkiv.
Maj-Gen Vitaly Gerasimov, chief of staff of the 41st Army, would be the second officer of this rank to be killed during the invasion - if confirmed by Russia.
The news came to light, apparently, via the interception of some phone calls between Russian intelligence officers.
An analyst suggests it is unusual for senior Russian officers to be so close to the front line, and that this has been necessitated by the intensity of the war.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky received a standing ovation after addressing the UK's House of Commons on Wednesday afternoon.
The embattled president invoked the words of Winston Churchill, telling the gathered MPs: "We will not surrender, we will not lose, we will go to the end.
"We will fight at sea, we will fight in the air, we will protect our land.
"We will fight everywhere… and we will not surrender."
You can learn more about the man who went from a TV star to Ukraine's war time leader in the video below:
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60666787 |
Shell sorry and pledges to stop buying Russian oil - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The energy giant says it will also close all its petrol stations in Russia and stop buying oil there. | Shell has pledged to stop buying oil from Russia as it apologised for its purchase of cheap Russian crude at the weekend.
The energy giant also said it would close all its service stations in the country and stop all current work there.
Shell came under huge criticism at the weekend after it purchased a cargo of Russian crude at a discounted price.
Its boss said on Tuesday, however, that it was wrong to buy Russian oil.
"We are acutely aware that our decision last week to purchase a cargo of Russian crude oil... was not the right one and we are sorry," Mr van Beurden said.
The company said it will immediately stop purchasing Russian crude oil and will shut about 500 service stations there, as well as halting its aviation fuel and lubricant operations in the country.
The rest of the company's exit from Russian oil and gas is expected to take some time.
The Ukrainian foreign minister had hit out at the firm on social media after it emerged Shell had bought crude.
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"Changing this part of the energy system will require concerted action by governments, energy suppliers and customers, and a transition to other energy supplies will take much longer."
When Shell was forced to defend its purchase of Russian crude over the weekend, it insisted that it had "no alternative" in order to maintain timely supplies of fuel to Europe.
Russian oil currently makes up about 8% of Shell's working supplies. One of the firm's refineries, which produces diesel and petrol and other products, is also among the biggest in Europe.
Cargoes from other sources would not have arrived in time to avoid disruptions to market supply, it said.
It still remains unclear, however, how exactly Shell will replace the volume of energy produced by Russia.
"These societal challenges highlight the dilemma between putting pressure on the Russian government over its atrocities in Ukraine and ensuring stable, secure energy supplies across Europe," said Mr van Beurden.
"But ultimately, it is for governments to decide on the incredibly difficult trade-offs that must be made during the war in Ukraine."
He added that the firm would continue to work with governments on how to manage any potential impact on energy supplies.
And any profits it generates from remaining Russian oil will go to dedicated funds aimed at helping people affected by the war in Ukraine.
The move follows previous announcements by the company, which set out its plans to end all of its joint ventures with the Russian energy company Gazprom following the invasion.
That will involve the company selling its 27.5% stake in a major liquefied natural gas plant and a 50% stake in two oilfield projects in Siberia.
It will also end its involvement in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany. The 1,200km pipeline under the Baltic Sea had already been put on hold by German ministers.
Shell said that it expected the move would cost about $3bn (£2.2bn) and followed on from BP announcing it would offload its 19.75% stake in Russian state-owned oil firm Rosneft, which it has held since 2013. BP's stake in Rosneft is valued at around $25bn.
Extracting a company like Shell from the Russian energy market is a complex business.
Unlike BP, which owns a 19.75% financial stake in Rosneft which it intends to walk away from, Shell has complex operations with thousands of employees on the ground. Extricating itself from long-term supply contracts will take months.
Buying a cargo of Russian crude at knock-down prices as other companies shunned Russian supplies drew outrage on social media and, according to Shell sources, dismay from its own employees in Ukraine.
The company insists it had to buy the cargo to avoid disruptions to operations at its huge refinery in Pernis, Rotterdam, and was not "trying to make a quick buck".
But that explanation drew scepticism in some quarters and the chief executive apologised today, saying it had been the wrong thing to do. The company also said that phasing out Russian oil and gas would need to be done carefully to minimise the damage done to the rest of the world.
A reminder that the tougher the sanction, the greater the collateral damage on those imposing them.
Shell's plans emerged as a warning from Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that it would close its main gas pipeline to Germany if the West goes ahead with a ban on Russian oil.
Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said a "rejection of Russian oil would lead to catastrophic consequences for the global market", causing prices to more than double to $300 a barrel.
The US has been exploring a potential ban with allies as a way of punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, but Germany and the Netherlands rejected the plan on Monday.
The EU gets about 40% of its gas and 30% of its oil from Russia, and has no easy substitutes if supplies are disrupted, as Shell has pointed out.
While the UK would not be directly impacted by supply disruption, as it imports less than 5% of its gas from Russia, it would be affected by prices rising in the global markets as demand in Europe increases. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60661611 |
Ukrainians on way to UK hit paperwork dead-end in Calais - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | "No visa for at least another week," said Misha, simply. "No-one can help us in Calais." | The Raminishvili family are stuck in Calais
Misha Raminishvili was close to despair, his daughter in tears, as the news came through. His wife Maria had a vacant look in her eyes that spoke of a nightmare journey still without a final destination.
"No visa for at least another week," he said, simply. "No-one can help us in Calais."
I met Misha, with his Ukrainian wife Maria and two children, at a hostel in the French port which is accommodating 137 Ukrainian refugees.
Misha has a house in Hornchurch, east London, but lives between there and Kyiv.
He and his son, Misha Jr, have UK passports. But his wife Maria, and daughter Gabrielle, do not - and therefore need visas to enter the UK, which require biometric checks.
Misha has been stuck in Calais for five days, unable to get his family across the Channel, in what would be the last leg of a journey that began on 24 February.
At the start of that journey, Maria walked 45 miles to Ukraine's border with Romania before Misha reached her.
"I feel left out," Misha told me in Calais. "Who else is going to help me if not my own government?"
Misha Raminishvili and his son can enter the UK, but his wife and daughter can not
More than 500 Ukrainian refugees are currently in Calais, hoping to get to the UK.
Among them are families with small children and babies, as well as elderly women who have fled the war and crossed a continent.
Many tell of having attempted to reach Britain, only to have been turned back by Border Force officials because they didn't have the right paperwork.
Despite Home Secretary Priti Patel saying she had "surged a Home Office team" to help people on the ground in Calais - and denying that anyone had been turned back at the border - there is frustration and despair among those trying to navigate the bureaucracy.
A Home Office presence at a local administrative building disappeared this morning, a sign at the hostel advising people to go to Brussels or Paris to apply for a visa.
Desperate refugees returned from the building to say they didn't know what to do - or where to go.
Eventually, Misha spoke to a Border Force official who advised him to head across town to the old port building.
He has a car and was able to drive there. But when he arrived, the Home Office representation amounted to three men at a table in a deserted departure hall with bags of ready salted crisps and chocolate bars.
When Misha asked them how he could get home to England with his family, he was told he could have an appointment in Paris on 15 March.
"Another week stuck here," Misha lamented. "I have never claimed a benefit in my life and the first time I ask my government for their help, this is how they treat me. I am gutted."
The Home Office had promised refugees arriving in Calais there would be support available to help them complete the final leg of their long journeys.
However, a Home Office statement today announced: "There is no visa application centre in Calais and people should not travel there.
"Anyone wishing to make an application under the Ukraine Family Scheme should apply online and then to travel to their nearest visa application centre.
"The only visa application centre in France is in Paris."
A charity worker from Care4Calais has become the focal point for many of the refugees in the hostel, but she too is frustrated by the lack of information and support from the UK authorities.
The prime minister has said the UK government will be "very, very generous" in its approach to helping Ukrainian refugees come to the UK, but in Calais people fleeing the war and looking for sanctuary in Britain spoke of a different attitude from those at the border. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60652914 |
Baby killed in suspected dog attack at Ostler's Plantation - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | A man and woman are arrested on suspicion of a dangerous dogs offence after a three-month-old dies. | Ambulance crews summoned police to Ostler's Plantation, in Lincolnshire, on Sunday night
A three-month-old girl has been killed in a suspected dog attack at a beauty spot.
Paramedics were called to Ostler's Plantation, near Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire, at 23:13 GMT on Sunday.
They called police to the scene, who arrested a 40-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man on suspicion of being in charge of a dog which was out of control. Both remain in custody.
Officers have not released information about how the baby died.
Ch Supt Andy Cox said Lincolnshire Police was doing "everything we can" to establish the circumstances.
"This is an exceptionally sad incident, and one that we know will impact the local community, or indeed anyone hearing about it," he said.
Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-60649825 |
Ukraine war: Refugee's daughter says there's a risk of riots at visa centre - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | The daughter of a Ukrainian refugee tells of anger and frustration as MPs criticise the UK visa system. | Antonina Kolodii, 79, is trying to get to the UK to join her daughter, Marianne Kay
The daughter of a Ukrainian refugee has warned of the anger and frustration of people waiting for visas at an "understaffed" UK application centre.
Marianne Kay from Yorkshire says if delays continue much longer "it does feel like there will be riots".
She has travelled to Rzeszow in Poland to help her 79-year-old mother Antonina Kolodii to safety in the UK.
People were gathering outside the centre in freezing temperatures from the early morning, she says.
MPs have criticised the Home Office for a slow response to the flight of more than two million people from Ukraine, saying those seeking sanctuary are being held up by bureaucracy or turned away.
About 500 visas have been granted under the Ukraine Family Scheme, with more than 10,000 people having applied to join relatives in the UK. A second visa route, requiring a British sponsor, is also being set up.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told broadcasters the "huge and very generous" visa programme could eventually help "hundreds of thousands" of refugees enter the UK.
The government has rejected the European Union's approach of a three-year residency without a visa, however, claiming officials had seen people in Calais with false documents claiming to be Ukrainian. Mr Johnson said: "To have a system of simply uncontrolled immigration isn't right."
In addition to long waits at visa centres, hundreds of Ukrainians are stuck in Calais trying to complete paperwork, with French authorities saying almost 300 Ukrainian refugees have been turned back by the UK Border Force, and repeating their criticism of the UK's "lack of humanity".
At the Rzeszow visa application centre, Marianne says the situation is "desperate" and tense, with people "shouting at each other all the time".
"It's quite clear that this place is understaffed quite severely so that there is absolutely no way that people who work here can process so many applications," she says.
Marianne left her job and children at home in Yorkshire on Friday to travel to Poland and help her mother get to the UK.
Amid conflicting advice about whether refugees should apply online or walk in to the centre, she was initially told the next available appointment was 14 March. But after waiting at the centre for two days, her mother's application was finally processed.
Now they will need to see if the application is approved and attend another visa centre in Warsaw before they can finally travel to the UK.
Marianne says there is no order or queuing system for visas, with many people waiting from the early morning
Tory MP Tracey Crouch said in the Commons that some people had been told there were no appointments until the end of April.
Marianne says crowds including elderly people and young children gather from the early morning, with some people left outside in freezing temperatures.
"It's really inappropriate to treat people who haven't slept for days and nights for a long time," she says.
"They have crossed the border in the cold, in the dark, in difficult conditions. And they can't cope with the situation very well."
She says she understands the need for security checks, but refugees have been grappling with contradictory advice.
"You can't tell people that they can apply for something and then make it completely impossible to do so and change rules every day," she says.
She adds that there is only one biometrics machine in Rzeszow. Other refugees have told the BBC they arrived in Lviv, western Ukraine, only to find the biometrics machine had been removed and the visa centre closed due to the increasing dangers of the war.
Two million people have fled Ukraine, the UNHCR says, mostly into neighbouring countries such as Poland and Romania
Responding to an urgent question in the House of Commons, Home Office minister Kevin Foster told MPs that a new visa processing centre would be established in the northern French city of Lille.
Ukrainians without their own transport will be allowed to travel on the Eurostar free to get to the Lille centre, as well as those in Paris and Brussels.
Mr Foster insisted ministers would "not take chances with the security of this country and our people" - citing the Salisbury Novichok attack in 2018 - where Russian nationals used a nerve agent in an attempt to murder the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
"A crucial part of the application process is providing biometrics so we can be sure applicants are who they say they are", he said.
Meanwhile, the government has created a new minister for refugees in the Home Office and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
Richard Harrington, who stood down as an MP in 2019, will be made a life peer.
Criticising the absence of Home Secretary Priti Patel in the Commons, Labour's Yvette Cooper called for visa centres to be established at all major travel points, on-the-spot security checks and for Ukrainians to be given emergency visas.
"The government should not be continuing to change this in a chaotic way, rather than opening the system properly," she added.
Ms Cooper criticised the apparent lack of clarity over the locations and operation of visa centres.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Yvette Cooper calls for emergency visa centres for Ukrainians over UK's "chaotic" response
She said: "Yesterday the home secretary told the House twice that a visa centre en route to Calais has now been set up but it still doesn't exist.
"The foreign secretary just said it might be in Lille - nearly 72 miles from Calais.
"The Home Office said this morning that no decision had been taken. Well, which is it? Has it? Where is it? Can people get there yet?"
Downing Street said the Lille centre is expected to be set up "in the coming days".
A string of Conservative MPs joined opposition politicians in demanding further and faster action from the government in helping Ukrainian refugees enter the UK.
Former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told LBC radio: "This is a big area of failure where I think we've misjudged the public mood."
Conservative Mark Harper, a former immigration minister, said even if security checks were needed, the government needed to "grip the pace of this" and called for a minister to set out the details of the humanitarian sponsorship route within days - not weeks or months.
Tory MP Alec Shelbrooke said the speed of response was a "disgrace".
This report is based on an interview by BBC special correspondent Lucy Manning. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60664797 |
As it happened: Russian shelling prevents evacuations once again - Ukraine - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Russia continues to bombard Mariupol, Kharkiv and other key cities despite offering escape routes, Ukraine officials say. | There are two questions regarding China and the war in Ukraine.
Does it have enough leverage to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to call off the invasion?
And, more crucially, how much does Beijing want to use its standing with Russia to stop the war?
Every year here in the Chinese capital, the foreign minister holds a press conference on the sidelines of the National People's Congress.
It is a highly scripted event, with questions screened beforehand so you know the answers have been approved at the highest levels of the Party.
Today Wang Yi was asked if China was disappointed with Russia’s behaviour and whether its own international standing had been diminished by Beijing's refusal to describe what is happening in Ukraine as an "invasion".
The foreign minister didn't respond regarding the word "invasion", but did say that his government was "willing if needed, together with the international community, to be part of a mediation" process to resolve the crisis.
Some analysts say Beijing is using this conflict to achieve geopolitical advantage and point to the economic lifeline it's now offering Russia to keep Putin afloat, while blaming the US for the war.
Asked about sanctions by a Russian reporter, Wang said China and Russia jointly opposed "attempts to revive a cold war mindset".
For the Chinese government to be part of any solution to the Ukraine war, it will also have to be a solution that is approved by the Kremlin. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60635927 |
Ukraine: Are arms shipments from the West making a difference? - BBC News | 2022-03-08 | Russian has struggled to gain air supremacy as Ukrainian forces make use of missiles supplied by the West. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. This video, shared by Ukrainian armed forces, shows a Russian helicopter being shot down by a missile
Ukraine's military has released several videos showing Russian helicopters being shot down by surface-to-air missiles.
One, from last week, shows a Russian helicopter flying low, just above the tree line - in the hope of avoiding what's about to happen next. Tracking its path is the smoking trail of a surface-to-air missile. In a matter of seconds the missile has found its target. On impact the Russian helicopter crashes to the ground, before bursting into a fireball
Russian aircraft are being shot down by Ukrainian forces - as well as the video above, this video shows a jet hit near Kharkiv - and military analysts believe there's evidence that recently supplied weapons by the West are already being used.
Justin Bronk, a research fellow on airpower at the Royal United Services Institute, says there's been visual confirmation of at least 20 Russian aircraft shot down in Ukraine so far - both helicopters and jets. That's significantly fewer than claimed by Ukraine's ministry of defence, which says it has downed 48 Russian planes and 80 helicopters. Yet even the lower number shows Russia's struggled to gain supremacy in the skies.
Ukraine has suffered losses too. But UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told the BBC that Russia had so far not been successful in destroying the country's air defences and air force.
Before the war began, Ukraine's military aircraft were outnumbered at least three-to-one by those that had been amassed on the border by Russia.
Mr Wallace said Ukraine's ability to keep some of its air defences intact was already forcing Russian aircraft to fly at night to avoid detection.
Shoulder-launched air defence missiles, also known as Manpads (man-portable air defence systems) are just one of the weapons that Western nations have been supplying to Ukraine. They include the infamous US-made Stinger surface-to-air missiles - scourge of Soviet aircraft during its occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Exact numbers are hard to come by. Last week Mr Wallace told the BBC the West had now delivered "thousands" of anti-tank weapons and "over a thousand" Stingers. CNN, quoting a US defence official, put the total at 17,000 anti-tank weapons and 2,000 Stingers, sent by the US and Nato allies.
Britain and America had provided weapons to Ukraine before the invasion began on 24 February, with the UK delivering 2,000 light anti-tank missiles (Nlaws). Commenting on reports that they were already being used to destroy Russian armoured columns, Mr Wallace said "we've got anecdotal evidence to verify that".
Most countries, though, only started to send weapons in response to the Russian invasion. In all, 14 nations have supplied arms. They include Sweden and Finland, both of which have a long history of neutrality and are not members of Nato. But both have sent thousands of anti-tank weapons to Ukraine.
Germany has supplied 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles. The Baltic states have also delivered thousands of weapons including Stingers and Javelin missiles, one of the world's most effective anti-tank weapons with a range of 2.5km (1.5 miles). Ukraine says it has already successfully destroyed several Russian T-72 tanks.
Recent weapons deliveries also include tens of thousands of assault rifles and machine guns, anti-tank mines and hundreds of tonnes of ammunition, as well as body armour and helmets, and medical supplies.
A blown-off tank turret near Kharkiv - the West has supplied anti-tank weapons to Ukraine
How are the weapons getting through?
The UK says it is helping "facilitate" the deliveries of these weapons. Western officials, though, are not giving details of how the supplies are getting through.
But it's no secret that while Russia's military operations have been focused in eastern Ukraine, the flow of people and supplies from the west of the country has continued via neighbouring European states. The BBC has spoken to the defence ministries of Estonia, Sweden and Denmark, all of whom confirmed their weapons supplies had been tracked and successfully reached Ukraine in recent weeks.
So, how much difference are these weapons consignments making?
Weapons supplied by the West can make a difference, but only if Ukraine continues to have armed forces capable of using them.
Mr Bronk says Ukraine's ability to retain some of its older, Soviet-era, air defence systems - which have a longer range - has forced Russian aircraft to fly lower. But that makes them more vulnerable to the shorter-range surface-to-air missiles being supplied by the West.
Without those longer-range air defence systems, Russian aircraft could fly higher to avoid the dangers of shorter-range air defences.
Meanwhile, America and European allies are looking to increase their arms supplies to Ukraine. There may be a limited opportunity before Russia tries to target any supply lines of weapons.
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has said he's had talks with Poland about it supplying Russian-made Mig fighter jets to the Ukrainian Air Force. But even if that happened, Ukraine would still need trained pilots to fly them.
The supply of Western weapons helps, but you still need an army that knows how to use them. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-60655349 |
Ukraine: Workers refuse to unload Russian oil from ship - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Workers at Stanlow Oil Refinery will not unload the cargo from a German-flagged ship, a union says. | The Seacod set sail for Tranmere on 22 February
Workers are refusing to unload Russian oil from a German-flagged ship which is moored at a major British oil refinery.
The Seacod vessel is at a terminal on the River Mersey, from where oil is usually pumped to Stanlow Oil Refinery.
The UK government has banned ships with "any Russian connection" from entering its ports due to the country's invasion of Ukraine.
However, the Unite union said cargo was not included in the ban and has called for ministers "to close this loophole".
Stanlow operators Essar said a German-flagged vessel was granted approval to berth by the Port Authority on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the refinery, which supplies 16% of road transport fuels in the UK, said Essar "remained deeply concerned by the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ukraine" and was "fully complying with the statutory framework implemented by the UK government with regard to Russia-related entities".
The firm said it had turned away Russian-flagged tankers earlier this week.
It added it had been "working urgently to find alternative sources of diesel while simultaneously ensuring uninterrupted supply of fuel to the North West of England".
The German-flagged tanker Seacod is berthed on the River Mersey
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, said they had informed the company that "Unite workers at the facility will under no circumstances unload any Russian oil regardless of the nationality of the vessel which delivers it".
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the UK became the first country to ban all ships that are Russian-owned, operated, controlled, registered or flagged from entering its ports.
However BBC business correspondent Simon Browning has said that many Russian businesses use transport that is licensed and registered in other countries, which experts describe as a "loophole" for sanction enforcement.
A government spokesperson said "the UK is in no way dependent on Russian gas, with imports making up just 4% of demand".
"Ministers are exploring options to further reduce the already small amount of imports we do get from Russia and we continue to urge Europe to put in place plans to end their dependence on Russian gas."
Earlier this week, dockers in Kent refused to unload two tankers of Russian gas, prompting the vessels to be diverted.
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The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-60631735 |
Zara, Paypal and Samsung suspend business in Russia over Ukraine invasion - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Inditex, which owns Zara and several other major brands, will close all of its 502 stores in Russia. | Russia's 86 Zara stores are to close from Sunday, including this one in St Petersburg
Zara, Paypal and Samsung are the latest international firms to suspend trading in Russia after it invaded Ukraine.
The clothes retailer's owner, Inditex, will shut all 502 stores of its eight brands, including Bershka, Stradivarius and Oysho, from Sunday.
Payment giant Paypal cited "violent military aggression in Ukraine" as the reason to shut down its services.
Samsung - Russia's top supplier of smartphones - is suspending shipments over "geopolitical developments".
Other global brands, including Apple, H&M and Ikea, have already stopped selling in Russia.
The clothes store closures are expected to hit more than 9,000 of Inditex's employees who work in Russia.
The Spanish-owned business told the BBC it was drawing up a plan to support them.
"In the current circumstances Inditex cannot guarantee the continuity of the operations and commercial conditions in the Russian Federation and temporarily suspends its activity," the Zara owner company said.
Adam Cochrane, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Research, told Reuters that logistical difficulties and the weakness in the rouble - resulting in large price increases for the Russian consumer - would make "operations difficult for all retailers importing into Russia".
Russians rush to buy furniture and household goods in Ikea before the store closes in St Petersburg
Other brands that have halted their business in Russia include:
Online payments company Paypal has also shut down services in Russia but said it would support withdrawals "for a period of time".
This would ensure that account balances were dispersed "in line with applicable laws and regulations", it said.
The Ukrainian government had been calling on Paypal to quit Russia and help its officials with fundraising.
Fashion and technology. Some of the biggest interests for young people around the world.
But today, young Russians are having their choices and access to them severely restricted, as huge global businesses continue to turn their backs on Russia.
Samsung sells the most popular smartphones in Russia, but when current stocks sell out, there'll be little option to get an upgrade because Samsung is stopping its shipments.
And Zara, known for its up-to-date and on-trend fashions, will be unavailable for fashion-conscious Russians as the shutters stay down in its shops and the website closes.
We don't know how they'll respond, but the Ukrainian deputy prime minister thinks restricting access to tech will motivate young Russians to object to the invasion.
And as more Western retailers close, what reasons are these business owners giving to their Russian employees about the reasons?
Samsung, the leading supplier of smartphones in Russia ahead of Xiaomi and Apple, will suspend shipments to the country. It is unclear whether Samsung's shops will close.
Reports suggest that Ukraine's vice-prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, who is responsible for digital operations, wrote to Samsung's vice-chairman to urge them to temporarily cease supplying services and products to Russia.
"We believe that such actions will motivate the youth and active population of Russia to proactively stop the disgraceful military aggression," Mr Fedorov said in the letter posted on his Twitter account on Friday.
In a statement, the South Korean company said it would "continue to actively monitor the complex situation to determine its next steps".
In other developments, Russia's national airline, Aeroflot, has cancelled nearly all international flights from 8 March, because of what it called "additional circumstances" impeding its operations.
Domestic routes and flights to neighbouring Belarus will continue unchanged, the airline said.
The EU, UK, US and Canada have all banned Russian airlines from their airspace - severely restricting the number of destinations available, and making other routes more difficult.
Russia has reciprocated with airspace bans of its own.
International sanctions have also been directed at Russia's airline industry, making it difficult for Aeroflot and other Russian airlines to operate normally.
Earlier, the Foreign Office advised all British nationals who did not need to be in Russia to leave the country using the remaining commercial routes | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60631835 |
Mum reunited with daughter in Northern Ireland after fleeing Ukraine - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | 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 |
Naomi Long: Alliance 'can end Stormont political soap operas' - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | It is not time to walk away from government but instead to lead, Naomi Long says. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Naomi Long was speaking at the Alliance Party's conference in Belfast on Saturday
The assembly election in May will be a chance to say no to "political soap operas" and deliver politics that works, Naomi Long has said.
The Alliance Party leader said it was not a time to walk away from government, but "lead in government".
Mrs Long is leading the party into the second assembly election since she took over in 2016.
She addressed the party's annual conference on Saturday - its first since the Covid pandemic began.
The party currently has seven assembly members (MLAs) at Stormont, but is hoping that will rise following successful local government, European and Westminster elections in 2019.
Mrs Long has also been Stormont's justice minister since January 2020, remaining in post despite the absence of an executive after the DUP withdrew Paul Givan as first minister.
She said it was "hard to fathom" that Stormont was again without an executive after being restored just two years ago.
"It seems some politicians are addicted to crisis and conflict and simply not up to the job of actually governing," Mrs Long said.
"People have had enough of the constant dramas and political soap operas.
"They want politicians who don't just identify more problems - or worse still, add to them - but who are focused on finding solutions."
She added that Alliance had so far been "punching well above its weight" in the assembly but needed to "finish the job".
She cited a private members bill her party had brought seeking to ban hunting of animals with dogs, and said "four more Alliance" MLAs could have helped pass the bill after other parties voted against it.
"May's election won't just determine how our politics works for the next five years - it will determine if it works."
Alliance is part of the bloc that designates as other in the assembly, but Mrs Long has previously said that system means her party's views are not considered on controversial issues that require cross-community support, i.e. a majority of both unionists and nationalists.
He was elected as the party's sole MP for North Down in the 2019 general election.
He described Alliance as "protocol realists".
The Northern Ireland Protocol puts a trade border in the Irish Sea.
North Down MP Stephen Farry took to the stage before his party leader
Mr Farry said: "In the absence of an alternative, the only course of action is to try and make it work.
"We are committed to doing all we can to reduce the level and impact of the resultant checks down the Irish Sea through seeking closer alignment between the UK and the EU, and achieving further mitigations, flexibilities and derogations from EU requirements."
The conference took place in Belfast on Saturday.
The assembly election is due to take place on 5 May. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60577371 |
BBC News - Seven Days That Changed the World | 2022-03-05 | James Waterhouse reports on how lives across Ukraine have changed irrevocably. | From a basement in the centre of Kyiv, BBC Correspondent James Waterhouse reports on how lives across Ukraine have changed irrevocably in the last seven days.
From a basement in the centre of Kyiv, BBC correspondent, James Waterhouse, has been reporting on the seismic developments in Ukraine as the Russian bombardment continues. In this special programme, James speaks with colleagues from BBC News across Ukraine and Russia on the extraordinary impact of seven days that have changed the world. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0bsc8v5 |
Highland hermit makes surprise film festival visit - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Ken Smith left his log cabin for the premiere of a documentary about his 40 years in isolation. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ken Smith's extraordinary life has been documented by filmmaker Lizzie MacKenzie. Video courtesy of Glasgow Film Festival.
A hermit who has spent 40 years living in isolation in the Scottish Highlands has made a surprise appearance on the red carpet of a film festival.
Ken Smith left his cabin in Lochaber to attend the premiere in Glasgow of a documentary about his life.
The 74-year-old normally lives without electricity or running water beside Loch Treig - the "lonely loch".
He described Glasgow as a very changed city and added: "I've never seen so many people."
Ken, who is originally from Derbyshire, began a life of wandering after being beaten up during a night out, leaving him unconscious for nearly a fortnight.
While travelling in Canada, he became interested in the wilderness - and on his return, he sought out what he felt was the "most isolated place in Britain" and built himself a log cabin.
His extraordinary story has been told by Lizzie MacKenzie who spent two years filming a documentary for BBC Scotland.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Hermit of Treig Ken Smith finds sustenance in nature
Ken had to get up at 04:00 so he could make the two-hour walk to the nearest road for his journey to the premiere in Glasgow.
He said he wasn't nervous - but his first trip away from the Highlands in decades made a big impression on him.
"The last time I was in Glasgow was 30 or 40 years ago - it's changed so much from what it used to be," he said.
" I don't know any of the places or anything like that, in the past I did.
"It's certainly a different form of life - I've never seen so many people. From where I am, where I live I can go weeks and never see anybody and I just carry on with my jobs."
Ken had to get up at 04:00 in order to make the long journey to the red carpet in Glasgow
Lizzie first met Ken a decade ago while she was working in a café in the Highlands, after hearing stories from deer stalkers about an old man who lived in the forest.
"I got curious and ended up going to meet Ken and we wrote letters for years and years - and I slowly learned how to make films so I could tell his story," she said.
She made regular visits with her camera, recording how he lived off the land, facing struggles as he grows older but also enjoying his close relationship with nature.
"The most challenging one was when Ken did his 50-mile or whatever round trip to town and we got up at 03:00 and walked around in the dark.
Ken with his log cabin soon after it was built in the mid-1980s
"I was trying to keep up with him with the camera and I struggled to keep up - I thought I was fit until I tried to follow Ken with a camera."
Over the years they have become friends, and Lizzie was able to help Ken when he needed hospital treatment after a fall.
"She was the one that kept coming in and doing my shopping while I was in hospital. I was quite grateful for that," he recalled.
The Hermit of Treig will be available online via Glasgow Film at Home from 8 - 11 March and then released in cinemas across the UK from 25 March. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-60632608 |
Ukraine war: 'My city's being shelled, but mum won’t believe me' - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | These Ukrainians say their Russian relatives only trust the narratives they see on TV at home. | Oleksandra says her mother repeats the narratives of what she hears on Russian state TV
Oleksandra and her four rescue dogs have been sheltering in the bathroom of her flat in Kharkiv since the shelling began.
"When I heard the first explosions, I ran out of the house to get my dogs from their enclosures outside. People were panicking, abandoning their cars. I was so scared," she says.
The 25-year-old has been speaking regularly to her mother, who lives in Moscow. But in these conversations, and even after sending videos from her heavily bombarded hometown, Oleksandra is unable to convince her mother about the danger she is in.
"I didn't want to scare my parents, but I started telling them directly that civilians and children are dying," she says.
"But even though they worry about me, they still say it probably happens only by accident, that the Russian army would never target civilians. That it's Ukrainians who're killing their own people."
It's common for Ukrainians to have family across the border in Russia. But for some, like Oleksandra, their Russian relatives have a contrasting understanding of the conflict. She believes it's down to the stories they are told by the tightly-controlled Russian media.
Oleksandra's dogs have been a source of support during the bombing
Oleksandra says her mother just repeats the narratives of what she hears on Russian state TV channels.
"It really scared me when my mum exactly quoted Russian TV. They are just brainwashing people. And people trust them," says Oleksandra.
"My parents understand that some military action is happening here. But they say: 'Russians came to liberate you. They won't ruin anything, they won't touch you. They're only targeting military bases'."
While we were interviewing Oleksandra, the shelling went on. The internet connection was weak, so we had to exchange voice messages.
"I've almost forgotten what silence sounds like. They're shelling non-stop," she said.
But on Russian state TV channels on the same day, there was no mention of the missiles striking Kharkiv's residential districts, of civilian deaths, or of four people killed while queuing for water.
State TV channel Rossiya 1 refers to the war as a "special operation"
Russian state TV channels justify the war by blaming Ukrainian aggression, and continue to call it "a special operation of liberation". Any Russian outlet using the words "war", "invasion" or "attack" faces being blocked by the country's media regulator for spreading "deliberately false information about the actions of Russian military personnel" in Ukraine.
And now a new law has passed through the Russian Parliament that means people who spread "fake" information about Russia's military forces could be jailed for up to 15 years.
Some Russians have taken to the streets to protest against the war - but these demonstrations were not shown on the main state television channels.
Mykhailo, a well-known Kyiv restaurateur, didn't have the time or inclination to watch Russian TV coverage of the invasion.
When shelling of Ukraine's capital started, he and his wife were concentrating on how to protect their six-year-old daughter and baby son.
Mykhailo with his father before the war
At night their children woke up at the sound of explosions and couldn't stop crying. The family made the decision to move to the outskirts of Kyiv and then flee abroad.
They travelled to Hungary, where Mykhailo left his wife and children and came back to Western Ukraine to help the war effort.
He was surprised not to have heard from his father, who works at a monastery near Nizhny Novgorod in Russia. He called his father and described what was happening. His father replied that this wasn't true; there was no war and - in fact - Russians were saving Ukraine from Nazis.
Mykhailo said he felt he knew the power of Russian propaganda, but when he heard it from his father, he was devastated.
"My own father does not believe me, knowing that I'm here and see everything with my own eyes. And my mum, his ex-wife, is going through this too," he says.
"She is hiding with my grandmother in the bathroom, because of the bombardment."
Russian media has been tightly controlled for many years and viewers are given an uncritical view of Russia and its actions around the world.
"The state narrative only ever shows Russia as the good guy." says Dr Joanna Szostek, an expert in Russia and political communications at University of Glasgow.
"Even the tales they tell about World War Two, the Great Patriotic War, Russia has never really done anything wrong. And this is why they won't believe it now."
Most Russians, she says, don't look for other points of view. She believes the one-sided narrative that is highly critical of the West helps explain why Russians can have opposing views to their relatives in neighbouring countries.
"People who criticise Russia have for so long been presented as traitors or foreign agents; critics are all foreign agents working for the West. So you don't even believe your own daughter."
Anastasiya's parents live in a small village 20km (12 miles) away from the rebel-held Donetsk People's Republic. The village is still under the control of Kyiv authorities, but Russian state TV channels are always on in their house. They even have the clock set to Moscow time - a throwback to the Soviet past.
So when on 24 February, Anastasiya woke up in Kyiv to the sound of sirens, she knew how her parents would react.
'My mum was the first person I called when I jumped out of bed at five, disoriented. She was surprised I called and sounded really calm, almost casual," she says.
Anastasiya, a BBC Ukrainian correspondent who moved to Kyiv 10 years ago, heard bombs exploding after waking and was worried about where would be hit next.
Anastasiya - and her cat - have left home
"I called my mum again. I told her I was scared. 'Don't worry', she said, reassuringly. 'They [Russia] will never bomb Kyiv'."
But they are already doing it, Anastasiya replied.
"I told her there were casualties among civilians. 'But that's what we had too when Ukraine attacked Donbas!', she said, laughing. For a moment I couldn't breathe. Hearing my mum say this with such cruelty just broke my heart."
Anastasiya believes the image Russian media has created is one of the "glorified Russian army" ridding Ukraine from Nazis. For years she avoided political arguments with her parents, but this time she slammed the phone down on her mum.
We spoke to Anastasiya when she was travelling away from Kyiv after four nights in a bomb shelter. Her mind was on an uncertain future.
"There are a lot of thoughts in my head now. What will happen to us all? Where is this going? Will I ever come back? Will I ever see my parents again? I still love them deeply, but something inside me has broken and I don't think it can ever be fixed." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60600487 |
Game Of Thrones actor John Stahl dies aged 68 - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | The Scottish actor was also well known for playing Inveradarroch in soap opera Take The High Road. | John Stahl appearing at the Royal Court Theatre, London in 2016
Game Of Thrones actor John Stahl has died at the age of 68, his agent has confirmed.
The Scottish actor played the role of Rickard Karstark in two series of the popular HBO fantasy show.
He was also well known for playing Inverdarroch in the long-running soap opera Take The High Road.
A statement from his agent Amanda Fitzalan Howard described him as "an actor of remarkable skill and a stalwart of Scottish theatre".
Stahl, who was from Sauchie in Clackmannanshire, also appeared in numerous theatre productions during his career, including performances at The Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Theatre.
Scottish screenwriter Peter May also remembered the actor and recalled how he had recently attended his online wedding.
He said: "Terribly sad to hear that my old friend, John Stahl, has passed. I wrote so many scenes for the character of Inverdarroch that he portrayed in Take The High Road.
"Only recently attended his online wedding. Saw him last in Adelaide, Australia, for a fun reunion. RIP John."
Writer Ian Rankin, best known for his Inspector Rebus novels, said he had hoped to work with the actor again after he featured in his play Long Shadows, describing his portrayal as "terrifying and charismatic".
Scottish playwright and theatre director David Greig described him as a "truly great actor" and noted that the Scottish theatre world will miss him.
He added that he was a "beloved company member" in many Scottish shows, recalling his roles in The Winter's Tale, Gagarin Way and his own play The Architect.
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 National Theatre of Scotland 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. End of twitter post by National Theatre of Scotland
The National Theatre of Scotland also paid tribute, saying they were "deeply saddened" to hear the news.
They shared a photo of the actor on Twitter and added: "We were fortunate to work with John on Mary Stuart and The James Plays.
"His passing is a huge loss to the industry, and he will be sorely missed. Our thoughts are with his loved ones."
Mr Stahl died on the Isle of Lewis on 2 March and is survived by his wife, Jane Paton. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-60624212 |
Ukraine invasion: Russia restricts social media access - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Connectivity watchers accuse Moscow of "limiting the free flow of information at a time of crisis". | Facebook said it had refused to stop fact-checking and labelling content from state-owned news organisations.
Russia has limited Twitter in parts of Russia, Twitter has confirmed.
In a statement, the company said "We're aware that Twitter is being restricted for some people in Russia and are working to keep our services safe and accessible".
On Friday Russia restricted Facebook after a clash over "censorship".
Russia's communications regulator Roskomnadzor accused Facebook of violating "the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens".
Facebook said it had refused to stop fact-checking and labelling content from state-owned news organisations.
Internet connectivity watchers at NetBlocks say there is a total or near-total restriction on Twitter in Russia.
NetBlocks said Facebook and Instagram weren't "observably restricted per our metrics, certainly not to the extent Twitter is at present".
The actions follow Russia's attack on Ukraine with many videos and images of the invasion going viral on social media.
The BBC's Moscow correspondent, Steve Rosenberg, said he'd had difficulty tweeting.
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Circumvention for those in Russia is currently possible using VPN services, which can work around government-imposed restrictions.
NetBlocks Director Alp Toker told the BBC: "Russia's restriction of Twitter will significantly limit the free flow of information at a time of crisis when the public most need to stay informed."
Roskomnadzor has not announced actions against Twitter.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Can a government switch off access to the web?
It is unclear what the Facebook restrictions could mean if implemented or if other Meta-owned platforms - like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Instagram - will be hit.
The Russian regulator had demanded Facebook lift the restrictions it placed on Thursday on state news agency RIA, state TV channel Zvezda, and pro-Kremlin news sites Lenta.Ru and Gazeta.Ru.
It said that Meta had "ignored" these requests.
Sir Nick Clegg, vice-president of global affairs at Meta, said Russian authorities "ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labelling" the outlets' content.
But he made clear he wanted Russians to continue to use Meta's platforms.
"Ordinary Russians are using our apps to express themselves and organise for action", Sir Nick said, and the company wants "them to continue to make their voices heard".
Many state-owned media outlets in Russia have painted a largely positive picture of Russian military advances in Ukraine, calling the invasion a "special military operation" that had been forced on Moscow.
On Thursday Meta said it had set up a "special operations centre" to monitor content about the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia has its own Facebook equivalents, VK and Odnoklassniki, but Facebook is also popular in the country - as is Meta-owned Instagram.
On Friday, US Senator Mark Warner said Facebook, YouTube and other social media services had "a clear responsibility to ensure that your products are not used to facilitate human rights abuses".
Meta has been under pressure to label misinformation - and has been working with outside fact-checkers, including Reuters.
Moscow has also increased pressure on domestic media, threatening to block reports that contain what it describes as "false information" regarding its invasion of Ukraine.
Twitter also told the BBC that its safety and integrity teams were "disrupting attempts to amplify false and misleading information and to advance the speed and scale of our enforcement". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60533083 |
Derriford Hospital: Plymouth woman 'blown over by helicopter' before death - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Police continue to investigate the death of an 87-year-old woman at Derriford Hospital on Friday. | The elderly woman sustained a serious head injury and later died at Derriford Hospital
An 87-year-old woman who died during a helicopter landing was blown over while walking on a footpath, police said.
Devon and Cornwall Police said it was continuing to investigate the incident at Derriford Hospital on Friday.
The downdraught from the landing helicopter caused the woman, from Plymouth, to be blown over, the force added.
Another woman, also in her 80s, suffered a broken pelvis and remains in hospital in a stable condition.
The HM Coastguard helicopter, which was landing at the helipad at the hospital at about 11:20 GMT, was carrying a casualty linked to a separate incident.
"Whilst the helicopter was in the process of landing on the helipad, the downdraught caused one member of the public, an 87-year-old woman from the Plymouth area who was on near-by footpath, to be blown over", Det Insp Hodges said.
She suffered a serious head injury and died at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth.
The other injured woman was in the car park when it is believed the down draft also caused a car door to slam shut while she was getting out of the vehicle, Devon and Cornwall Police said.
"This is a tragic incident and our thoughts go out to all affected by what took place," Det Insp Hodges continued.
He said the force was now assisting with the investigation which is being led by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said on Friday: "Our deepest sympathies go out to those affected by the incident at Derriford Hospital.
"It would be inappropriate to comment while the incident is investigated by Devon and Cornwall Police and the Air Accidents Investigation Branch."
A spokeswoman for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said a HM Coastguard helicopter was flying a patient to Derriford Hospital and "as it landed, there was an incident which is now being investigated by the police and Air Accidents Investigation Branch".
"Our thoughts are with all those affected," she added.
Derriford Hospital opened the helipad in 2015 to accommodate larger helicopters.
Follow BBC News South West on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-60630871 |
Ukrainian city of Mariupol 'near to humanitarian catastrophe' after bombardment - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | 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".
Have you been affected by any of the issues raised here? Do you have family in Ukraine? Please get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
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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 |
Ukraine war: Sky News journalist Stuart Ramsay and team shot at in ambush - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Correspondent Stuart Ramsay and his crew miraculously survived after their car was fired on. | Many roads and buildings in Ukraine have been damaged and littered with debris after fighting
A British journalist covering the war in Ukraine has been shot and wounded after coming under fire in Kyiv.
Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay and his four colleagues were driving back to the Ukrainian capital when they were ambushed.
As they tried to escape from the car, a bullet hit Ramsay in his lower back while camera operator Richie Mockler took two rounds to his body armour.
They were told a Russian reconnaissance unit was behind the attack.
Russian forces have stepped up their bombardment in recent days, with heavy shelling and attacks on high-rise apartment buildings, a clinic and a hospital on Friday.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the Sky News crew's bravery and said they were risking their lives so "the truth is told".
He said in a tweet: "Free press will not be intimidated or cowed by barbaric and indiscriminate acts of violence."
The attack on the Sky journalists took place on Monday, as they returned to Kyiv after calling off a trip to another town because it was unsafe.
Alongside Mr Ramsay and camera operator Richie Mockler were producers Dominique Van Heerden, Martin Vowles and Andrii Lytvynenko.
The team fled the car while still under fire and hid inside a factory building before being rescued by Ukrainian police.
Recalling the events, Ramsay said there was a small explosion out of nowhere, the car came to a stop and rounds of bullets began smashing into the car.
"We knew we had to get out to survive, but the incoming fire was intense," he said.
Two of the producers got out first, followed by another producer and then Ramsay and the camera operator.
"I do recall wondering if my death was going to be painful. And then I was hit in the lower back. 'I've been hit' I shouted.
"But what amazed me was that it didn't hurt that bad. It was more like being punched, really."
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Ramsay, who is now back in the UK, added: "It was strange, but I felt very calm. I managed to put my helmet on, and was about to attempt my escape, when I stopped and reached back into a shelf in the door and retrieved my phones and my press card, unbelievably.
"Richie says I then got out of the car and stood up, before jogging to the edge of the embankment and then started running. I lost my balance and fell to the bottom, landing like a sack of potatoes, cutting my face. My armour and helmet almost certainly saved me."
Ramsay said: "The point is we were very lucky. But thousands of Ukrainians are dying, and families are being targeted by Russian hit squads just as we were, driving along in a family saloon and attacked. This war gets worse by the day."
On Friday, it was announced that the BBC was temporarily suspending its journalists' work in Russia, in response to a new law which threatens to jail anyone Russia deems to have spread "fake" news on the armed forces. CNN and Bloomberg News went on to do the same.
Access to BBC websites had already been restricted in Russia - but BBC News in Russian will still be produced from outside the country.
• None Day nine of Russia's war in Ukraine explained | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60627841 |
War in Ukraine: UK promises quicker sanctions against Russian oligarchs - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | The government says the law will change to allow more allies of President Putin to face punishment. | Boris Johnson says allies of Vladimir Putin will have "nowhere to hide"
The government is to change the law to make it easier to introduce sanctions against Russian oligarchs, after criticism the UK is acting too slowly.
Ministers are tabling amendments to the Economic Crime Bill which are designed to allow the UK to align with penalties imposed by allies in the EU and US.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said foreigners trying to launder money in the UK would have "nowhere to hide".
But Labour accused the government of making a "U-turn under pressure".
Ministers have already imposed asset freezes on individuals and companies with links to Russian President Vladimir Putin, following the invasion of Ukraine over a week ago.
But opposition parties have said the government needs to do more to tackle wealthy Putin allies who store large amounts of money in London.
There has been criticism from within the Conservative party too.
Senior Conservative Tom Tugendhat said he was "extremely concerned" that the delays in imposing sanctions might allow people who have stolen from the Russian people for the last 20 years to hide their money in a new jurisdiction. That would be completely unacceptable, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
The bill, which has cross-party support, is expected to be fast-tracked through Parliament on Monday.
Outlining its amendments, the Foreign Office said the "appropriateness test" - a threshold that needed to be met when imposing sanctions on individuals - would be removed.
It is also speeding up the deadline for overseas companies to declare their true owners - from 18 months to six months. Maximum fines for non-compliance with this rule are set to increase from £500 to £2,500 per day.
The bill is expected to become law by the middle of this month.
Mr Johnson said these measures would ramp up the pressure on criminal elites trying to launder money on UK soil and close the net on corruption. "They will have nowhere to hide," he warned.
In a video on Twitter addressed to the Ukrainian people, Mr Johnson said the UK, along with its allies, would continue "doing everything we can to support you and impose a mountain of pressure on Vladimir Putin".
He said they would go further with sanctions "unless and until this aggression stops".
"The world is turning its back on Putin and his regime," he added.
In a call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday evening, the prime minister described the crisis in Ukraine as "the worst war on our continent for a long time".
And, in an interview with European newspapers La Repubblica, Die Welt and El Pais, Mr Johnson said he believed Mr Putin intended to "double down" on the invasion because Mr Putin envisaged no way out but to "continue with the destruction".
He went on to describe the moment he was woken in the middle of the night to the news of the attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear site, the likes of which he said were "clearly a matter of our common European health and safety".
He said it must be made clear to the Kremlin that "a civilian nuclear disaster in Ukraine, another Chernobyl, is a disaster for Russia as well as for everybody".
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On the sanctions proposals, shadow foreign secretary David Lammy welcomed the government's "U-turn". But he added it was unacceptable that oligarchs with links to Mr Putin, who should have been sanctioned, had been allowed to move money around because of government incompetence.
The law should have been introduced months ago, at the same time as allies and partners had done so, he said.
Recent research by campaign group Transparency International suggests £1.5bn worth of UK property has been bought by Russians accused of corruption or links to the Kremlin since 2016.
Since the invasion began, the UK has announced a series of sanctions on Russian banks, oligarchs and businesses.
On Thursday, two more oligarchs were sanctioned - Alisher Usmanov, who has links to Everton football club, and former Russian deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov.
Other measures include asset freezes on Russian banks and an export ban on technical equipment.
• None 'Life is crumbling' - Russians on boycotts and sanctions | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60624518 |
Neighbours: Ramsay Street homeowner hopes for heritage status - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Andrew Whitney owns two Ramsay Street properties made famous by the long-running hit soap Neighbours. | Businessman Andrew Whitney purchased 6 Pin Oak Court, otherwise known as 26 Ramsay Street, in 1998 and invested in 3 Pin Oak Court in 2013
A Neighbours superfan from Yorkshire who owns two Ramsay Street properties is backing a move to give the famous Australian street heritage status.
Andrew Whitney was left "devastated" by Thursday's news that the long-running TV soap will end after 37 years.
Mr Whitney, originally from Melbourne but now living in York, is supporting a council motion to make "Hollywood Down Under" a heritage asset site.
"It's a 37-year-old film set, of course it should be protected," he said.
The 46-year-old entrepreneur's properties have been home to Neighbours stalwarts, including Toadie 'Toadfish' Rebecchi and Paul Robinson and formed the backdrop for the blossoming love of Scott Robinson and Charlene Mitchell.
Mr Whitney, a self-confessed "massive fan" of the programme, said he invested "a good million dollars" (about £550,000) in number 3 and number 6 Pin Oak Court, Vermont South, where the series has been filmed since 1985.
Andrew Whitney is originally from Melbourne but moved to the UK in 1999 and lives with his family in York
"When Neighbours ends I will still own two beautiful houses on an amazing street, but a couple of hundred cast and crew members are going to be out of jobs," he said.
"I wish we could lobby [Neighbours production company] Fremantle to sell Neighbours to a TV subscription service."
The soap, which has provided a launchpad for several Hollywood and music success stories including Kylie Minogue, Jason Donovan, Guy Pierce, and Margot Robbie, will come to an end this summer.
The announcement by the soap's producers follows the news that UK broadcaster Channel 5 was dropping the show, leaving a funding gap after almost 9,000 broadcast episodes.
The houses of Pin Oak Court, pictured during Neighbours filming in 1987, have become almost as famous as the fictional Ramsay Street residents
The set is located in an area of Melbourne covered by Whitehorse City Council, which is in the process of preparing a report to consider heritage protection due to its international cultural significance.
Mr Whitney, who purchased 6 Pin Oak Court in 1998 and 3 Pin Oak Court in 2013, added: "Of course it needs to be heritage listed, it's a living film set and it's Hollywood Down Under."
The long-running Australian soap has launched the careers of pop stars Jason Donovan and Kylie Minogue
Set and filmed in Melbourne, Neighbours was first broadcast in Australia and launched on BBC One in 1986.
Mr Whitney concluded: "It shouldn't really be about what happens to the houses of Ramsay Street, we should be asking how do we keep these guys employed?"
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Ukraine conflict: Ukraine and Man City's Oleksandr Zinchenko on Russian invasion - BBC Sport | 2022-03-05 | Oleksandr Zinchenko thanks the world for standing with Ukraine in an emotional interview with BBC Sport. | Oleksandr Zinchenko has thanked the world for standing with Ukraine in an emotional interview with BBC Sport about the Russian invasion of his homeland.
The 25-year-old Manchester City left-back was named captain for the midweek FA Cup win over Peterborough and carried out the Ukraine flag before the match, having sat out the previous two league games.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine a little over a week ago, about a million Ukrainians have fled to safety while many others have stayed to fight.
The international community has almost universally backed Ukraine, in many cases sending weapons or imposing sanctions on Russian companies or individuals.
Zinchenko, who has family and friends in Ukraine, spoke to Gary Lineker about "his mission" to tell the world what is happening in Ukraine.
You can watch the full interview on Football Focus from 12:00 GMT on Saturday on BBC One.
On discovering the news and crying in the car
"At midnight UK time, my wife woke me up and she was crying," the Ukraine international says of how he discovered the invasion had started.
"I was in shock. She showed me the videos, the pictures, what's going on now in Ukraine.
"Maybe the most closest feeling is when someone from your circle is dying. You know, this feeling like you feel so bad inside. But this is even much more worse."
Nine days into the war and he says the emotion keeps hitting him.
"I'm just crying. So already a week, I'm not counting, but even I can drive the car from the training ground, or it doesn't matter where, I can just cry from nothing," he said.
"It's everything in my head. Imagine the place where you was born, where you was growing up. And there is just empty ground."
On his pride in Ukrainians who won't give up
Many Ukrainians - including Zinchenko's friends - have stayed to fight Russia, with some who live abroad returning home for the war.
"I'll be honest, if not for my daughter, my family, I would be there," he said.
"I'm just born like that. I know the people from my country, the mentality of them, and all of them, they think exactly the same.
"I'm so proud to be Ukrainian, and I will be forever for the rest of my life. And when you're watching the people, how they fight for their lives.
"I know the people, the mentality of my people from my country, they prefer to die, and they will die. But they're not going to give [up]."
On the world standing by Ukraine
He said he had been overwhelmed by support he had received from football fans, from people in the street and also form seeing donations from the British public.
"I'm so grateful," he said. "I'm so grateful to all these people for the support I'm getting here. I didn't realise it's going to be like that in this way. So I would like to say all of them big thanks. I appreciate it.
"I'm getting a lot of messages from a lot of guys in Ukraine and they are asking me about the videos of support [from the UK].
"So people are watching TV, the people are still watching football, and they can see all these things, and I guess it helps a lot for them
"It's like, the people who are supporting Ukraine, they are trying to push them - don't give up. And I know my people they won't."
On his mission to let the world know what is happening
Zinchenko feels his "mission is to show that the rest of the world the real truth, what's going on now in Ukraine", especially amid Russian propaganda.
"I spoke with many people who are on our side. And they said that the way Russian TV is showing us is ridiculous.
"My mission is to show the rest of the world what's going on in this moment.
"There are few cities in the lowest part of Ukraine where the civilians, Russian people, are coming and they do fake protests that like 'we want to be with Russia' and stuff like that.
"I can show you one million pictures. I can show you one million videos, what they are doing now. I can show you every city in my country, which they destroyed.
"The people are starving there. The people are just surviving, sleeping on the ground, in bunkers, they cannot live a proper life."
Zinchenko revealed that was the reason he wanted to do the interview.
"I was thinking a few days about this interview. Should I do it? Should I not?" he said. "But I just want to send the message to all the people that please don't ignore this. We need to stop the war."
On his disappointment in Russian footballers
Zinchenko has said he is really disappointed that no Russia internationals have spoken out against the invasion.
Russia captain Artem Dzyuba even spoke out against his country's suspension from international tournaments by Fifa and Uefa and said "I am proud to be Russian".
Zinchenko said: "I was surprised that no-one, not one of them, from all of them [has said anything].
"Most of them play in the national team and they have a lot of followers on Instagram, Facebook, wherever.
"And they can, they can at least they can do something to stop this war. Because the people can hear them.
"I already know that they scared. But they're scared of what? They're not gonna do anything with them.
"At least they can say their positions, but they don't they just ignore it. I don't know why." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/60623061 |
War in Ukraine: Citizens evacuate town of Irpin as homes are destroyed - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Crowds are leaving the town of Irpin outside Kyiv as Russian shelling strikes residential areas. | Ukrainian civilians, assisted by the country's military, are evacuating the small city of Irpin, which sits just 20km (12 miles) north-west of Kyiv.
The route is a difficult one, with many having to travel by foot along shelled roads and damaged bridges.
Irpin has found itself on the frontline between Russian and Ukrainian forces over the past week.
Artillery and air strikes have caused severe damage in the area, with at least one attack leaving a residential tower block almost completely destroyed.
In recent days, trains have been transporting evacuees, mostly women and children, from Irpin on the outskirts of Kyiv into the capital.
Earlier this week, the shelling of a residential block in Irpin was captured in video footage.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Video shows a block of flats in Irpin, near Kyiv, being hit by projectiles
All images are subject to copyright. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60632974 |
War in Ukraine: Families run for cover as Russian air strikes hit Chernihiv - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Residents of Chernihiv and other cities say apartments, hospitals and schools are being destroyed. | Images and video emerged on Friday showing destruction in residential areas of Chernihiv and other cities
Civilians in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv have described being trapped under relentless shelling as Russia indiscriminately pounds residential neighbourhoods there and in several other cities.
"We can hear the sounds right now of air strikes nearby," Svitlana, 40, told the BBC. She was hiding in Chernihiv on Friday morning under her dining table with her two children, aged six and three, and her neighbours in her five-storey apartment building.
"There are no military targets here, there is only a cemetery, residential buildings, clinics and a hospital, why are they bombing us?" Svitlana said.
Russia escalated its air campaign against Ukraine on Thursday and Friday, killing at least 47 civilians in Chernihiv and continuing to lay siege to residential areas in Mariupol, Borodyanka and Kharkiv.
Aerial attacks in Chernihiv destroyed high-rise apartments buildings and damaged a clinic and hospital, sending residents fleeing into the streets and to underground bunkers.
An apartment building 500m from Svitlana's was destroyed on Thursday, she said. Her building sits just 50m from a children's hospital, where staff had taken children including cancer patients to a shelter between the two buildings but were not able to create a sterile environment there and were struggling to evacuate the children.
Reached on Friday morning, Sergey Zosimenko, a charity worker supporting the hospital, told the BBC that the staff were in the process of attempting an evacuation.
Images and video footage from Chernihiv, which is 90 miles (144 km) north of the capital Kyiv and home to about 300,000 people, showed indiscriminate destruction to residential areas, drawing immediate comparisons to the devastating Russian bombing campaigns against Grozny in the late 1990s and Aleppo in 2016. Chernihiv has reportedly been surrounded by Russian forces.
The BBC verified the full names and exact locations of people it spoke to in Chernihiv and other cities under attack but is not publishing those details for safety reasons.
Katya, a 22-year-old nurse in Chernihiv, said she had been able to hear the sounds of continuous shelling throughout Friday morning.
"I'm calling back now because I don't know if it will be too late, I don't know if we will survive," she said.
"There is me, my mother, my grandma and our neighbour and we all are hiding in our house. At this very moment I can hear the shelling. Local hospitals and schools are destroyed. Russians promised not to kill civilians but they are killing."
Larysa, a 52-year-old maths teacher, managed to escape alive with her husband, sister and brother-in-law after their Chernihiv apartment building was hit in a direct strike.
"We were hiding in the staircase near our sixth-floor apartment and we could hear planes flying overhead and they sounded low," she said. "Suddenly there was a boom and the whole building shook. We ran outside and people were screaming. We could see that the missile went through our building and hit the next building."
Larysa's apartment building, hit while she was hiding in the staircase with her family
Russia and Ukraine agreed on Thursday to the need for humanitarian corridors to help civilians escape from cities under siege, but residents in Chernihiv and in the southern port city of Mariupol told the BBC on Friday that there had been no significant break in the aerial bombardment to allow people to move.
The escalating strikes on residential areas raised concerns that Russia would continue to target civilians from the air after meeting staunch resistance from Ukraine's army and failing to make significant progress on the ground. The bombing of Chernihiv on Tuesday came after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, told French leader Emmanuel Macron that Russia would achieve its military goals in Ukraine "whatever happens".
Heavy bombardment continued in Mariupol, which entered its third day on Friday without power, water or its sanitation system. The city's deputy mayor, Serhiy Orlov, told the BBC on Friday that the city council was trying to create a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to escape.
"We have been preparing everything we can, transport, routes, supplies, but as of Friday morning there is no agreement how and when we can get people out and there has been no break in the shelling," he said.
Mr Orlov said the Ukrainian army was holding its positions around Mariupol, "but they cannot do anything about aerial bombing".
"What you have to understand is this is not troops fighting troops, Putin sees destruction and humanitarian crisis as the goal. He wants to terrify people and force them to lose their will."
Damage in central Kharkiv in Thursday after days of aerial bombardment against the eastern city
In Kharkiv, in the east, Ukrainian authorities said the city had been "pounded all night" by indiscriminate shelling, which UN prosecutors are investigating as a possible war crime.
"Yes the shelling has been constant," said Elena, a 59-year-old engineer who was hiding in the basement of her apartment building with her daughter and grandchild. "We can hear planes flying overhead and explosions," she said. "Nothing has hit our building yet."
Masha, a 24-year-old communications manager in western Ukraine, whose aunt Larysa survived the direct strike on her Chernihiv apartment building, said she had "no feelings right now, only emptiness".
"It is the eighth day of the war and I can't feel anything - no fear, no nothing. Chernihiv was my second home, and now it's destroyed," Masha said.
"I didn't realise what was really happening until the moment I saw a slow-motion video of a missile hitting the building I used to live in."
Svitlana, who was sheltering in her Chernihiv apartment with her two children and neighbours, said she could only wait for a break in the shelling.
"We are terrified here but we have to be brave," she said. "Ukraine above all." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60616946 |
Winter Paralympics: Ukraine top medal table with three golds on opening day - BBC Sport | 2022-03-05 | Ukraine top the medal table with three golds on the first day of the Winter Paralympics in Beijing. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Ukraine topped the medal table with three golds on the first day of the Winter Paralympics in Beijing. Biathlete Grygorii Vovchynskyi triumphed in the men's sprint standing event to win Ukraine's first gold at these Games. Oksana Shyshkova then won the women's sprint vision impaired, before Vitaliy Lukianenko led a Ukrainian one-two-three in the men's event. Ukrainian athletes claimed seven medals in total on the opening day. There are 20 Ukrainian athletes and nine guides in Beijing. The delegation travelled to China despite the Russian invasion of their country, which began on 24 February. "It was difficult for me when the war began. I cried every day," Vovchynskyi said. "What can I do? I can dedicate this race to Ukraine, for peace [for the] people in Ukraine. "Please stop war, it's very important for our children."
Vovchynskyi, who won gold in the long distance event in Sochi in 2014, beat Germany's Marco Maier by 45.8 seconds to win his event. He said: "I was thinking before the race, I must try to do everything for Ukraine. I must think about war, about my country, about my people, about my president. I love Ukraine. "I love sport, but today I ran because I want life in Ukraine to move to the future." Shyshkova held off Germany's Linn Kazmaier to claim Ukraine's second gold. Lukianenko added a third in the men's sprint vision impaired event, with compatriots Oleksandr Kazik and Dmytro Suiarko claiming silver and bronze respectively. There were also silvers for Liudmyla Liashenko and Taras Rad.
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Liashenko, 28, won her fifth Games medal in the women's sprint standing where China's Guo Yujie, 17, emerged victorious. It was a second Paralympic medal for Rad, 23, following his middle distance gold from Pyeongchang, after he finished 17.5secs adrift of China's Liu Zixu in the men's sprint seated event. Before the Games, Valeriy Sushkevych, the Ukrainian Paralympic chief, said his team's presence at the Games was a "symbol that Ukraine is alive" and that it was a "miracle" they made it to the competition. They were warmly welcomed into the Bird's Nest Stadium for Friday's opening ceremony. The Russian Paralympic Committee and Belarus were banned from competing. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/60628947 |
Ukraine war: Boris Johnson urges renewed world push to halt Russia's invasion - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | The PM wants a renewed effort from world leaders to tackle Vladimir Putin's "barbarous assault" on Ukraine. | Boris Johnson held talks with Ukrainian Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko at Downing Street last week
World leaders must mount a renewed effort to ensure Russia's "horrific" invasion of Ukraine fails, Boris Johnson has said.
Writing in the New York Times, the prime minister said "it is not future historians but the people of Ukraine who will be our judge".
But Labour criticised the PM for not acting more quickly over sanctions.
Ahead of a series of meetings with international leaders, the prime minister said: "Putin must fail and must be seen to fail in this act of aggression.
"It is not enough to express our support for the rules-based international order - we must defend it against a sustained attempt to rewrite the rules by military force."
The invasion was condemned by 141 nations at the UN General Assembly this week while 39 countries, co-ordinated by the UK, made the largest-ever referral for war crimes to the International Criminal Court.
But Mr Johnson is set to call on world leaders to make a "renewed and concerted effort" to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin, Downing Street said.
In his six-point plan to maintain pressure on Mr Putin, the prime minister said:
The prime minister is also expected to deliver his message at meetings with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at Downing Street on Monday.
On Tuesday, he will host leaders of the V4 group of central European nations: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
Downing Street says these countries are already experiencing a humanitarian crisis, with 1.4 million people fleeing Ukraine to neighbouring nations in just 10 days. Mr Johnson said: "The world is watching."
On Sunday, he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the phone.
No 10 said the two men discussed "the increasing threat Russia's barbaric attacks pose to Ukrainian civilians" and "the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Ukraine, precipitated by Russia's indiscriminate attacks and ceasefire breaches".
In its daily assessment posted on Twitter, the Ministry of Defence said the scale and strength of Ukrainian resistance continued to surprise Russia.
It was likely Russia was trying to break Ukrainian morale by targeting multiple populated areas, including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol, it added.
It went on to say the reported targeting of Russian supply lines was slowing the advance of their ground forces and there was a "realistic possibility" that Russia was concealing fuel trucks as regular support trucks.
Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has warned Mr Putin not to "test" the UK.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Wallace said: "History is littered with authoritarian leaders underestimating the wider West and the United Kingdom. He clearly underestimated the international community."
He added: "If we stick together and refuse to be intimidated then I believe he will fail."
Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said Labour fully supported the UK joining international efforts to help Ukraine, but he called on the government to move faster on sanctioning oligarchs and politicians linked to the Kremlin.
He said: "It is inexcusable that we have fallen behind the EU and the US on the number of individuals and entities sanctioned. Ministers must move faster, acting against Putin's cronies in days not months."
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is calling on the government to work with him on new laws to prevent Russian oligarchs and other very wealthy people misusing the courts to avoid criticism or sanctions.
He wants legislation to prevent so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation (Slapp) - legal challenges which aim to drain the resources of opponents or intimidate them from using the courts - which Sir Keir said he fears could be used to buy time to move oligarchs' money out of reach and avoid sanctions.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said she has received letters from lawyers representing people sanctioned by Britain threatening legal challenges, while Justice Secretary Dominic Raab has called such cases an "abuse of our system" and promised to address them.
It comes as the government says it is to change the law to make it easier to introduce sanctions against Russian oligarchs, after criticism the UK is acting too slowly. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60634017 |
Clive and Valerie Warrington: Son charged with murdering parents in court - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | William Warrington has appeared before magistrates over the deaths of Clive and Valerie Warrington. | A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of his parents.
William Warrington, 40, of St George's Street, Cheltenham, appeared before Cheltenham magistrates via video link earlier.
He is charged with the murder of his father Clive, 67 and mother Valerie, 73, who were found dead on Wednesday.
Chairman of the bench, Andy Hill, remanded Mr Warrington in custody to appear at Bristol Crown Court on Tuesday.
William Warrington appeared via video link at Cheltenham Magistrates' Court on Saturday morning
The body of Clive Warrington was found at Sherborne Place in Cheltenham at 06:25 GMT on Wednesday.
Shortly afterwards, the body of his ex-wife, Valerie Warrington, 73, was found at a property about 15 miles (24km) away in Whiteshoots Hill, Bourton-on-the-Water, in the Cotswolds.
They were both found with fatal stab wounds and their family said they were devastated by the "sudden and tragic loss".
"We thank everyone for their messages of love and support, which are of great comfort to us," they added in a statement.
Officers were called to Sherborne Place in Cheltenham at 06:25 GMT on Wednesday
William Warrington was arrested on Wednesday morning near Sherborne Place in Cheltenham and questioned for three days before being charged on Friday evening.
He spoke to confirm his name and date of birth during the remand hearing.
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Putin says sanctions over Ukraine are like a declaration of war - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | The Russian president also warned against any attempt to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. | Russian President Vladimir Putin has described sanctions imposed by Western nations over his invasion of Ukraine as "akin to a declaration of war".
"But thank God it has not come to that," he added.
Mr Putin also warned that any attempt to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be seen as participation in the armed conflict.
And he rejected suggestions that he would introduce a state of emergency or martial law in Russia.
Mr Putin made the remarks while speaking to a group of women flight attendants at an Aeroflot training centre near Moscow.
Since the start of Russia's invasion 10 days ago, the West has imposed a raft of sanctions on Russia, including the freezing of Mr Putin's foreign assets and the exclusion of a number of Russian banks from the Swift international payments system.
In addition, many multinational firms have ceased operations in Russia, On Saturday, Zara, Paypal and Samsung became the latest global brands to suspend trading there.
The economic measures have already caused the rouble to plunge in value and forced the Russian central bank to double interest rates.
In his latest comments, Mr Putin sought to justify the war in Ukraine, repeating his assertion that he was seeking to defend Russian speaking communities there through the "demilitarisation and de-Nazification" of the country.
Responding to Western defence analysts' allegations that the Russian military campaign was going less well than expected, he said: "Our army will fulfil all the tasks. I don't doubt that at all. Everything is going to plan."
He added that only professional soldiers were taking part in the hostilities and there were no conscripts involved, despite reports to the contrary.
The Russian leader said efforts to impose a no-fly zone in Ukraine would be considered by Russia to be a step into the military conflict and those responsible would be treated as enemy combatants.
"The current leadership needs to understand that if they continue doing what they are doing, they risk the future of Ukrainian statehood," he added.
For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned Nato for ruling out the no-fly zone. However, Western leaders say introducing the measure would be an escalation.
Mr Putin also said he had no plans to declare martial law in Russia. adding that such a step would only be taken in "instances of external aggression, in defined areas of military activity".
"But we don't have such a situation and I hope we won't have one," he said.
There had been rumours that Mr Putin was planning to declare martial law, which is when normal civil law is suspended or the military takes control of government functions.
He said there were other special emergency states which could be used in the case of a "large-scale external threat", but that he had no plans to introduce these either.
Meanwhile, diplomatic moves have continued on the sidelines of the conflict.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met Mr Putin in Moscow on Saturday and had a three-hour discussion on the war.
Mr Bennett then headed to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. As an Orthodox Jew, he broke Shabbat in order to travel, which is allowed under Jewish law if human life is at stake.
Although Israel is a key ally of the US, Mr Bennett has tried to preserve a good relationship with Russia. Ukraine's President Zelensky, who is Jewish, has called on Israel to mediate in the crisis.
And the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, has met Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, telling him he was in awe of his courage in standing up to Russia.
The two men met on the Polish-Ukraine border. Mr Kuleba reiterated his desire and optimism for more military backing from Nato, including a no-fly zone.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Locals clear out a shopping mall in Mariupol as the city remains under siege by Russian forces | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60633482 |
Shane Warne: Hurley pays tribute to 'beloved lionheart' - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Elizabeth Hurley remembers her former fiance as her son Damian describes him as a father figure. | Elizabeth Hurley has paid tribute to former fiance Shane Warne as her "beloved lionheart", after the cricket legend's death aged 52.
The model and actress posted a series of photos of them together, saying: "I feel like the sun has gone behind a cloud forever".
The couple were engaged between 2011 and 2013, with their relationship attracting significant media attention.
Her son also said the Australian was "one of the best men I've ever known".
Damian Hurley, who was aged nine when his mother became engaged to Mr Warne, said on Instagram that he had been "a father figure for most of my formative years", adding that "my heart is broken".
His mother split from the former cricketer in 2013.
Mr Warne, a spin bowler who has been hailed as one of the greatest cricketers of all time, died of a suspected heart attack on Friday at his villa in Thailand.
Celebrity friends of Mr Warne also paid tribute, including Sir Elton John, who said he was "a magical bowler and such fun", calling it "a tragic day for Australian cricket" with former wicketkeeper Rod Marsh dying on the same day.
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Rolling Stones singer Sir Mick Jagger also said Mr Warne "brought such joy to the game and was the greatest spin bowler ever". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60634012 |
Winter Paralympics: Millie Knight and Brett Wild win downhill bronze - BBC Sport | 2022-03-05 | Great Britain's Millie Knight and guide Brett Wild win women's visually-impaired downhill bronze on day one of the Beijing Winter Paralympics. | Millie Knight made her Paralympic debut as a 15-year-old in Sochi in 2014
Skier Millie Knight defeated her demons as she won Great Britain's first medal of the Beijing Winter Paralympics. The 23-year-old suffered a number of crashes and concussions which left her questioning her future in the sport. But Knight and guide Brett Wild claimed bronze in the women's visually-impaired downhill. "At the start I was just thinking, find the seconds, do anything you can do to go faster, it doesn't matter if you're scared, keep going," Knight said. Knight and Wild, who took silver four years ago, put in a solid run on the opening day of competition at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre to finish in one minute 23.20 seconds. Slovakia's Henrieta Farkasova won her third gold in a row in a time of 1:19.50. China's Zhu Daqing took silver (1:21.75) on her Paralympic debut, earning the host nation's first-ever individual Winter Paralympic medal. Menna Fitzpatrick, Britain's other competitor, was fifth with guide Gary Smith in what is one of her weaker events. Knight, who is competing in her third Games, added: "This bronze is something very special. It ranks above our silver four years ago in Pyeongchang. "We have gone through some tough things and it has changed us. "Brett's belief and confidence in me has very much inspired me and made me want to do it not just for me, my family friends and sponsors but for him. "Crossing the line with a smile on my face was our number one goal. We genuinely didn't believe we were at the level that would get us a medal, especially with the standard at the moment. "I feel like I'm on cloud nine and I just genuinely can't believe that this is happening to us." The pair will next race in Sunday's super-G.
In the men's visually-impaired event Neil Simpson, guided by his brother Andrew, finished seventh in a race won by 16-year-old Austrian Johannes Aigner, with only 0.65 seconds separating the top three finishers. In his third Games, James Whitley had a best finish with ninth in the men's standing division. Great Britain's mixed wheelchair curling team came back from their opening match defeat to beat the United States. The team triumphed 10-6 after narrowly losing 7-5 to Norway earlier in the day.
Scott Meenagh put everything into his opening competition
At the Zhangjiakou Biathlon Centre, Scott Meenagh, at his second Games, claimed his first Paralympic top-10 finish with ninth in the men's sprint seated event. Meenagh was one minute and 43 seconds behind gold medallist Liu Zixu of China while Callum Deboys, on his Games debut, was 17th. However, Steve Arnold was unable to take part in the event after testing positive for Covid-19 prior to his departure for China. Under Games rules, participants must return two negative Covid tests within 96 hours of departure of their flight and the 32-year-old, who was set to make his Games debut in China, will remain in the UK and work with the ParalympicsGB medical team while all options are assessed. The former Army sergeant, who lost his legs while serving in Afghanistan in 2011, was entered in six events across biathlon and cross country at the Games.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-sports/60628945 |
Ukraine: Apartment block just outside Kyiv shelled - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Video footage from Irpin, just outside the capital, shows multiple projectiles hitting an apartment block. | A residential block in the city of Irpin, just outside the capital Kyiv, has been shelled, video footage shows.
Multiple projectiles appear to hit the building, followed by dust clouds. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60626065 |
Facebook hits out at Russia blocking its platforms - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | The Russian communications regulator said on Friday that Facebook has been blocked in the country. | Facebook has hit out at a ban on its platforms introduced in Russia on Friday amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Russia's communications regulator said the ban was a response to restrictions placed on its media there.
It said there had been 26 cases of "discrimination" against Russian media by Facebook since October 2020.
There were also reports that the use of Twitter had been restricted by the Russian regulator, Roskomnadzor, on Friday evening.
Facebook's president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said that "soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information".
Facebook had previously been limited in the country, along with platforms including Twitter.
Although its use was restricted, Facebook had not been blocked entirely in the country.
On Friday Russian media quoted the regulator as saying that Twitter had been restricted following a request by the prosecutor general from 24 February, the day of the invasion of Ukraine.
Twitter did not immediately respond to the BBC's request for comment on the reports.
Meta, the company that owns Facebook, said last week though that it had restricted Russian-backed outlets across the European Union and was globally demoting content from state-affiliated media.
It had also refused to stop fact-checking several Russian state media outlets, including RT and Sputnik.
Russia's media regulator said in a statement: "Since October 2020, 26 cases of discrimination against Russian media and information resources by Facebook have been recorded."
The statement says the block on Facebook platforms has been introduced "to prevent violations of the key principles of the free flow of information".
In response Meta said: "We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express themselves and organize for action."
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The White House said it was "deeply concerned" by Russia's decision to block the US company, and said the move was part of a broader effort to "choke off information".
"This is part of their effort ... to cut off a range of information from their public," White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said, adding that the US was also "concerned about the threat on freedom of speech in the country".
The ban comes after Russia's Parliament passed a new law this week imposing a jail term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally "fake" news about the military.
The BBC also said it would temporarily suspend the work of all its journalists and support staff in Russia following the introduction of the law.
Other technology and social media giants have faced pressure to respond to the crisis in Ukraine from investors and their users.
Apple, for example, has halted all product sales in Russia, and limited other services such as Apple Pay and Apple Maps. Its retail stores in the country have closed as well. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60626777 |
West Yorkshire Police officer jailed for raping woman after night out - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Sgt Ben Lister, of West Yorkshire Police, is jailed for 10 years after being convicted of rape. | Sgt Ben Lister, of West Yorkshire Police was convicted of raping and sexually assaulting the woman in 2016
A police officer has been jailed for 10 years for raping a woman who went on to give birth to his child.
Sgt Ben Lister, of West Yorkshire Police, attacked the woman at a mutual friend's house in Bradford in 2016 after a night out.
Lister, 36, from Bradford, was found guilty of rape and sexual assault after a retrial at the city's crown court.
Passing sentence, Judge Jonathan Rose said the officer carried out a "disgusting and persistent" attack.
Prosecutor Richard Woolfall told the jury that Lister, who was off duty at the time, and the woman had both fallen asleep on separate sofas after drinking "a large amount of alcohol".
He said the woman was later woken by the defendant grabbing her legs and pulling her to the floor, where he raped and sexually assaulted her.
Mr Woolfall said the victim, who cannot be named, "didn't consent" and had "no recollection" of having sex with the defendant.
The court was told the woman approached the police in 2020 after having a "breakdown" at work and confiding in a colleague about the assault.
In a statement read to the court, the woman said although she "loved her little girl to bits", she had "always struggled since she was born".
"I really didn't cope well throughout the pregnancy and felt like I shouldn't have kept her, because I knew deep down what had happened to me and how she was conceived," she said.
"I look at her and feel she is a constant reminder of what he has done to me.
"She is such a lovely, funny, caring young girl and I already dread the future. I don't want her to grow up to hate me even though I have done nothing wrong."
Lister was jailed for 10 years after being found guilty at Bradford Crown Court
Judge Rose told Lister: "You took advantage of her, knowing she couldn't physically fight you off.
"The consequences will extend for many, many years and there are difficulties yet to come when the child asks 'who is my daddy?"'
He added: "You were a police officer. That carries with it a requirement that you behave in an upright, decent and proper manner at all times, whether on or off duty.
"Every woman of any age is entitled to go out and enjoy themselves and to do so knowing they will be safe throughout the evening and when they return to the comfort of a home."
West Yorkshire Police said Lister, who worked in the Bradford district, was suspended from the force when he was charged with the offences in December 2020.
Det Supt Mark Long praised the "bravery and courage" of the victim for coming forward.
"I hope this conviction demonstrates that no-one is above the law," he said.
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The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-60619081 |
Nuclear plant: How close was nuclear plant attack to catastrophe? - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | After Russia seizes two nuclear plant sites, experts weigh the risk to Ukraine and the world at large. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
"By the grace of God, the world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night."
That was the verdict of the US ambassador to the United Nations on Friday, after Russia attacked and seized a nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
Buildings at the Zaporizhzhia plant - the largest in Europe - were damaged after it was hit by shelling.
The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says that none of the safety systems at the plant were affected, and there was no release of radioactive material.
But it is still a very risky situation.
"For the first time this morning, I'm frightened," Sheffield University nuclear materials expert Prof Claire Corkhill told BBC News.
As well as the Zaporizhzhia plant, Russia has taken control of the now-retired Chernobyl plant - the site of the worst nuclear incident in history.
Experts have stressed that there are important differences between the two plants.
The Zaporizhzhia site is far more secure, according to Dr Mark Wenman of Imperial College London.
He says the reactor is in a steel-reinforced concrete building that can "withstand extreme external events, both natural and man-made, such as an aircraft crash or explosions".
The Zaporizhzhia plant also does not contain any graphite in its reactor.
At Chernobyl graphite caused a significant fire and was the source of the radiation plume that travelled across Europe.
Towns near Chernobyl were abandoned following the nuclear incident
However, scientists say a military attack on the reactor itself isn't the only threat. Disruption to its electricity supply could also cause serious issues.
"You don't need to hit directly a plant to get a problem," said Olexi Pasiuk, deputy director of Ecoaction, an energy pressure group in Ukraine.
The Ukrainians were in the process of taking the reactors offline to protect them. Only one of the six reactors operational at the power plant is now thought to be running.
But reactors cannot just be turned off like conventional energy supplies. They must be cooled slowly over 30 hours, which requires a constant electricity supply to the plant.
A disruption to this supply - and therefore the cooling process - could lead to radiation leaking into the surrounding environment.
A loss of cooling like this was experienced at Japan's Fukushima plant following the 2011 tsunami.
In that case a loss of power caused a meltdown in three of its nuclear reactors.
If people are exposed to leaked radiation it can cause severe immediate and long-term health impacts including cancer.
This was seen in 1986 at Chernobyl.
Russia may be trying to curb Ukraine's power capabilities, Prof Corkhill said.
"They're taking the rectors offline. This means they're shutting down the nuclear reaction and putting them into a safe and stable state.
"And this could be the intention of the Russians: if you want to target their power supply, you attack a building close to the power plant and force operators to shut it down."
There are four major nuclear plants in Ukraine, and the defunct Chernobyl.
Russia has control of Zaporizhzhia and Chernobyl and it is approaching a third site - the south Ukraine nuclear power plant.
There are also smaller plants and radioactive disposal sites which store waste material from nuclear power operations across Ukraine.
On 27 February, Russian missiles also reportedly hit the site of a radioactive waste disposal facility in Kyiv.
Ukraine's nuclear inspectorate said no radiation leaks were reported and the plant was not directly damaged.
For now, Russian forces - who have blamed the attack on Ukrainian saboteurs - have allowed staff to remain in the control room at Zaporizhzhia, to run operations.
But world leaders have accused the Kremlin of acting recklessly. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it could "directly threaten the safety of all of Europe", and Ukraine's president accused Russia of "nuclear terror".
IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi said: "We shouldn't wait for something like this to happen [again]."
He plans to travel to Ukraine to negotiate with Russian forces for the safe operation of all power plants in Ukraine. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-60609633 |
War in Ukraine: Thousands march in Kherson against occupiers - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | The Black Sea port is Ukraine's only big city to have been captured by Russia in the war so far. | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. "Kherson is Ukraine": Protests against Russian occupation take place in the only big city captured so far
Protests against Russian occupation have broken out in the port city of Kherson, Ukraine's only big city to have been captured in the war so far.
About 2,000 people marched through the city centre, waving flags and singing the Ukrainian national anthem.
They shouted patriotic slogans including "Russians go home" and "Kherson is Ukraine".
Kherson, a key port on the Black Sea and the Dnieper River, fell to Russian troops earlier this week.
Videos of the protest on social media show Russian troops firing into the air to deter the approaching crowd.
One local resident, Yevhen, told the BBC the protest was a march for freedom and Ukrainian independence.
When asked whether Ukrainian forces were trying to retake Kherson, he said: "Every night we hear about six or 10 explosions. It sounds like mortars. We don't know who is bombing whom."
He added: "We are trying not to go outside because Russian troops are stopping cars, checking what is in the cars. They are even checking phones, searching for evidence of helping the Ukrainian army."
Other locals have told the BBC that Russian soldiers have a list of Ukrainian activists they want to capture.
Elsewhere in the country on the 10th day of the invasion, the Russian defence ministry said its units had opened humanitarian corridors to let civilians leave the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha, which are under siege by its forces.
However, Ukrainian authorities said Russia was not observing the ceasefire and attacks were continuing, so mass evacuations had been postponed.
Russia later announced that its assault on Mariupol was under way again.
"Due to the unwillingness of the Ukrainian side to influence nationalists or extend the ceasefire, offensive actions have been resumed," a Russian defence ministry spokesman said.
Russian forces continued to shell Mariupol on Saturday, despite agreeing to a ceasefire just hours earlier, local residents told the BBC.
"I'm right now in Mariupol, I'm on the street, I can hear shelling every three to five minutes," said Alexander, a 44-year-old engineer.
Mariupol, a port city of about 400,000 people, 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. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60632587 |
War in Ukraine: BBC suspends its journalists' work in Russia - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | The temporary suspension comes in response to a new Russian law which threatens reporters with prison. | The BBC is temporarily suspending its journalists' work in Russia, in response to a new law which threatens to jail anyone Russia deems to have spread "fake" news on the armed forces.
BBC Director-General Tim Davie said the legislation "appears to criminalise the process of independent journalism".
The Kremlin objects to the conflict being called a war, instead calling it a "special military operation".
BBC News in Russian will still be produced from outside the country.
Access to BBC websites had already been restricted in Russia. News outlets Deutsche Welle, Meduza and Radio Liberty also had their services limited, Russia's state-owned news agency RIA said.
Later on Friday, Canada's public broadcaster and Bloomberg News said they too had temporarily halted reporting from Russia, and news channel CNN said it would stop broadcasting in the country.
And on Saturday, German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF announced they were stopping their reporting from Russia - as did Italy's Rai
Responding to the legislation passed by the Russian authorities, BBC Director-General Tim Davie said: "It leaves us no other option than to temporarily suspend the work of all BBC News journalists and their support staff within the Russian Federation while we assess the full implications of this unwelcome development.
"Our BBC News service in Russian will continue to operate from outside Russia.
"The safety of our staff is paramount and we are not prepared to expose them to the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs. I'd like to pay tribute to all of them, for their bravery, determination and professionalism.
"We remain committed to making accurate, independent information available to audiences around the world, including the millions of Russians who use our news services. Our journalists in Ukraine and around the world will continue to report on the invasion of Ukraine."
Record numbers of people have read the BBC's Russian language news website since the invasion, seeking up-to-date information on the conflict.
The announcements from global media outlets come a day after one of Russia's last independent news outlets, TV Rain, stopped broadcasting after coming under pressure for its coverage of the invasion.
The channel ended its final broadcast by showing staff walking off set.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: Staff from TV Rain walk off set after final broadcast
Russia's telecommunications regulator had accused the channel of "inciting extremism, abusing Russian citizens, causing mass disruption of public calm and safety, and encouraging protests".
"No to war," said Natalia Sindeyeva, one of the channel's founders, as employees walked out of the studio.
The channel then began playing footage of a performance of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.
The ballet was used in Soviet-era broadcasts to mark the death of leaders, and was also played during the 1991 coup that contributed to the end of the Soviet Union.
The station's editor in chief, Tikhon Dzyadko, left Russia on Wednesday, saying it was due to concerns for his safety.
"The main problem is that we were covering Ukraine objectively, as professional journalists and covering from different sides. We had journalists going live and covering the situation," Ekaterina Kotrik, TV Rain presenter and former head of news, told the BBC.
She had to leave Russia due to the new law which could lead to prison terms of up to 15 years for people who intentionally spread what the Kremlin terms "fake" information about Russia's armed forces.
"Fifteen years in jail for just doing your job," Ms Kotrik said. "It's the end of democracy in Russia. Any freedom is lost."
Radio station Echo of Moscow was taken off air on Tuesday. On Thursday it was shut entirely by its board of directors and on Friday it was reported by Russia's Interfax agency that the lease at its office had been terminated and its website disabled.
Ekaterina Schulman is a political scientist who was presenting a programme on the station when it was taken off air.
"People like me might find ourselves with nowhere to work. Very soon there won't be media outlets, or lecture halls or other platforms where we can talk to the public," she told the BBC.
Russia's state-controlled TV has depicted the war in a very different way to broadcasts seen around the rest of the world.
"Every deviation from the official narrative about this war is now punishable with jail," Mikhail Fishman, an independent journalist and commentator who recently left Russia, told the BBC.
"Everyone I know in Russian independent journalism has already left Russia or is trying desperately to do so now."
The newspaper Novaya Gazeta said in a tweet on Friday (in Russian) that it was removing material on the conflict, because of the threat of prosecution to journalists and other citizens disseminating information which differed from Russian defence ministry press releases.
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The newspaper is run by Dmitry Muratov. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, along with Maria Ressa of the Philippines, for efforts to safeguard freedom of expression.
The crackdown on independent journalists comes as Russia's economy has been hit by sanctions. Its currency, the rouble, has plunged in value, hitting the savings of citizens.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Russia of "nuclear terror" after it reportedly bombarded a large nuclear power station, causing a fire in a nearby building.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted the war in Ukraine is "going to plan".
The BBC has issued a statement on how to access its content via circumvention tools.
BBC advice on how to access BBC sites using circumvention tools | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60617365 |
French designer giants suspend sales in Russia - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Chanel, LVMH and Hermes announced on Friday they would temporarily suspend sales in the country. | Models walk the runway in a Chanel fashion show in Moscow in 2018
French luxury giants have joined other firms in announcing they will suspend sales in Russia amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
LVMH, Hermes, Kering and Chanel have decided to temporarily shut their shops in Russia, the firms said on Friday.
It follows calls from Ukrainian high-end stores to "stand up" following the invasion of the country.
Luxury retailers have so far largely been left out of sanctions introduced by Western governments.
But many have found doing business and fulfilling orders in the region more difficult, after measures introduced by the UK, European Union and US.
The maker of pricey Birkin bags Hermes and the Swiss Cartier owner Richemont were among the first firms to announce that they would pause business in Russia.
LVMH, which owns such brands as Christian Dior, Givenchy and Bulgari among others, will close its 124 boutiques in the country from Sunday.
Chanel, famous for its boucle jackets, said in a LinkedIn post: "Given our increasing concerns about the current situation, the growing uncertainty and the complexity to operate, Chanel decided to temporarily pause its business in Russia."
Kering, which is home to Gucci and Saint Laurent, has two shops in Russia, along with 180 employees in the country.
The French firm said its decision was due to "growing concerns regarding the current situation in Europe".
An executive at a luxury Ukrainian department store told the BBC that high-end firms must "choose humanity over monetary gain".
Marusya Koval, marketing director at Tsum Kyiv, pointed out that some firms have pledged aid, but have not commented on whether they will stop selling their products in Russia.
Marusya Koval said fashion brands need to do more for Ukraine
She said brands publishing social media posts in support of Ukraine "won't help us to stop the war".
Fashion house Prada, for example, did not respond to requests for comment from BBC News on whether it would stop selling its products in Russia.
In an Instagram post earlier this week, it said the war in Ukraine was "of great concern".
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Countless other firms have already announced plans to withdraw from Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Giorgio Armani has not said if it plans to stop sales in Russia, but Mr Armani said he told his team to not play any music at its recent Paris fashion show to "communicate that we are not celebrating here".
The Tsum Kyiv department store, as with other retailers in the Ukrainian market, is shutting down as Russian troops advance on the capital.
Ms Koval said she wanted to see the fashion and luxury industry "react immediately by imposing sanctions on Russian brands, stores and retailers".
Jewels on display at a Bulgari exhibition at the Kremlin Museum in Moscow in 2018
While affluent Russians are keen consumers of luxury goods, analysts say the proportion of luxury sales generated in Russia is small compared to the industry's key markets - China and the United States.
Analyst Luca Solca, of Bernstein Research, said luxury fashion in Russia makes up about 2% of global revenues for most companies.
He said firms "must be considering their options" but said it could be "possible" brands were trying to make the most of Russian spending before sanctions affect the sector.
"There's a huge devaluation of the rouble so one of the ways they try to cushion it would be to buy expensive jewellery products.
"It's not a bad overall assumption, it could be happening," he said.
Prof. Etel Solingen from the University of California's School of Social Sciences told BBC News that targeted sanctions on luxury goods might target those closely linked to the upper levels of power in Russia.
"Who can afford to buy luxury items in Russia?... It may be a small fraction of Russia's growing penalties for what it has unleashed on the Ukraine, but they target a constituency that is better positioned to express discontent," she said.
She described brands making supportive comments on social media while supplying luxury goods as "hypocritical".
Prof. Thomai Serdari from the Stern School of Business at NYU said that luxury brands were mainly "in the business of selling their creations", goods that many people "covet".
"In tense moments like the one we are living now, it is a very good idea to not aggravate the situation with an explicit statement that would offend anyone and that could perhaps provoke a worse reaction," she suggested.
She added that there was "no question", however, that Russia's isolation would hurt high-end brands who have a presence in the country or continue to sell their goods online there. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60627393 |
From Grozny to Aleppo to Ukraine, Russia meets resistance with more firepower - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Russia answers resistance with big guns and sieges. Ukrainians pray that will not happen to them, writes the BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Kyiv. | Buildings in Kharkiv in ruins after sustained Russian bombings
As I write this, the centre of Kyiv and much of its suburbs are largely untouched. Sirens and alerts punctuate the day.
Everyone here knows that could change, very quickly. By the time you read this, it might have.
Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, has already felt some of the force of the Russian way of war. So have Mariupol and other cities in the east.
Russia answers resistance with firepower. Rather than send in men to fight from house to house and room to room, their military doctrine calls for a bombardment by heavy weapons and from the air to destroy their enemies.
Kharkiv and the other cities and towns have suffered grievous damage, and as far as we know many civilian casualties. The seat of Kharkiv's local government was badly damaged in a missile strike that was filmed. Russian President Vladimir Putin might be sending a message to Kyiv - look to the east, because this could happen to you.
The depressing conclusion I've drawn from other wars in which I have seen Russians in action is that it could get much worse.
So far, Mr Putin has not given the order to inflict the kind of damage that Russian forces brought down on Grozny, when the Russian republic of Chechnya rebelled in the 1990s, and in Syria since Mr Putin intervened in force in 2015.
I covered the first Chechen war when it started in the winter of 1994-1995. Just as in Ukraine, the Russian army made serious military blunders in ground operations. Armoured columns were ambushed by Chechen rebels in narrow streets and destroyed. Many conscript soldiers did not want to fight and die.
Before the invasion of Ukraine, military analysts assessed that Russia's forces were now much more professional. Perhaps they are, but Russia's invasion has once again been slowed by logistical bottlenecks, tactical mistakes and terrified teenagers who had not been told they were going to war - as well as resistance as fierce as anything the Chechens offered in 1995.
Chechnya declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, and in 1994 Russian forces invaded. The bombing of Grozny was intense
In the second Chechen war from 1999-2000, Russian forces again laid siege to Grozny, and intense fighting lasted weeks
Jeremy Bowen (left) with colleagues Scott Hillier and Steve Lidgerwood reported from Grozny in January 1995
In Chechnya, Russia's answer was to use its firepower. In a few weeks, artillery and air strikes reduced the centre of Grozny, a typical concrete and steel Soviet city, to rubble. I was in Minutka Square, a centre of Chechen resistance, on a day when it was hit by repeated air strikes. Civilians were mostly in cellars, risking death every time they went out to find water or food.
In Minutka Square that day, Chechen fighters were killed by cluster bombs, and buildings set on fire. Twenty-four hours later, the entire main avenue of the city was hit by missile strikes and enveloped in smoke and flame. The ground was shaking where we were filming.
The most devastated places I have seen in years of war reporting, apart from Grozny, were in Syria. The connection is the destructive power of the Russian military.
Mr Putin's decision to intervene in Syria saved the regime of Bashar al-Assad and took a big step towards his objective of restoring Russia as a world power. Two decisive victories over rebels in Syria, vitally important for the regime, were delivered by the ruthless use of Russian firepower.
The first was in Aleppo at the end of 2016. The eastern side of the city, which had been held by a variety of rebel factions throughout the war, fell after it was pulverised by shelling and air strikes. The Assad regime did not need any encouragement to shell Syrians, but the Russians brought a much greater level of destructive power. Strategic bombers based at home and in Iran delivered devastating strikes.
The tactic used in Syria was to encircle and besiege rebel-held areas, pound them from the air and from artillery batteries, and in the end exhaust the defenders and any civilians who had not managed to escape. Many of them were killed.
In a devastated street in Aleppo in January 2017
In Eastern Ghouta in Syria in June 2018, with BBC cameraman Nik Millard
When I was able to drive through Eastern Aleppo a few weeks after it fell, destruction went on for mile after mile. I couldn't see a building that was untouched. Entire neighbourhoods were left in ruins. Streets were blocked with mountain ranges of rubble.
I saw the same tactics work in Eastern Ghouta, a string of rebel held towns and farmland on the edge of the Syrian capital. Its capitulation in 2018 was the end of the battle for Damascus, that had looked at first as if it could go the rebels' way. That changed after the US decided in 2013 not to strike the Assad regime when it used chemical weapons in Douma, one of the area's towns. The long fight turned decisively in the regime's favour after Russia entered the war in 2015.
Eastern Ghouta's defenders dug an underground tunnel city to escape the air strikes and shelling. But siege and overwhelming firepower wins battles. That is because defenders get killed and exhausted, and civilians, however defiant, are subjected to such fear and misery that they welcome the respite that surrender brings.
In Kyiv, one of the big questions on everybody's minds is whether they are going to get the treatment meted out not only to Kharkiv, Mariupol and the rest, but also to Chechnya and Syria.
Will the sanctity of Orthodox shrines create the restraint that was absent in attacks on Muslims in Chechnya and Syria? Putin himself has written about Ukraine's significance in Russia's history. Will he be prepared to destroy Ukraine to regain it? If sanctions and Ukrainian resistance threaten his regime's stability, will he take more extreme measures?
The record shows that the Russian military compensates for weaknesses in the capabilities of its ground forces by turning to the big guns. Ukrainians are praying that will not happen here.
Kharkiv residents told the BBC that attacks on civilian targets made them feel like they were living in hell | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60631433 |
Europe's largest nuclear plant shelled in Ukraine - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Security camera footage from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant appears to show a fire at the facility. | Security camera footage from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant appears to show a flare lighting up the site, followed by shelling and a fire.
According to Mayor Dmytro Orlov of nearby Enerhodar, "continuous enemy shelling of [the plant's] buildings and units" seemed to cause a fire at the nuclear station, which is the largest in Europe. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-60613863 |
Shane Warne: Cricket pays tribute after death of its 'greatest showman' - BBC Sport | 2022-03-05 | Australia Test captain Pat Cummins calls Shane Warne a "once-in-a-century cricketer" as he leads tributes to the iconic leg-spinner who died on Friday aged 52. | Last updated on .From the section Cricket
Australia Test captain Pat Cummins says Shane Warne was a "once-in-a-century cricketer" as he led the tributes to the iconic leg-spinner who died on Friday aged 52.
Warne took 708 Test wickets, the second most of all time, in 145 matches across a stellar 15-year international career.
Known for his showmanship and charisma, Warne inspired a generation of fans and players alike.
"The game of cricket was never the same after Shane emerged," said Cummins.
"And it will never be the same now he has gone. So many of us in the playing group grew up idolising him and fell in love with this great sport as a result. Rest in peace, King."
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Cummins added: "Shane was a once-in-a-century cricketer and his achievements will stand for all time, but apart from the wickets he took and the games he helped Australia win, what he did was draw so many people to the sport.
"Players all over the world owe him so much for what he has brought to cricket. He had a huge effect on all he met. He transcended cricket."
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, former England captain Sir Andrew Strauss described Warne as the sport's "greatest showman".
"There were other great cricketers who when you looked at their records would potentially equal Shane's or maybe in some cases even better them. But there was no greater star in cricket than Shane Warne," said Strauss.
"And you felt that when you went on the pitch against him - it was his show and you were just a small part of his show. He literally was the greatest showman."
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Warne shot to prominence in astonishing fashion in the 1993 Ashes in England.
With his first ball of the series, he bowled Mike Gatting with a stunning delivery that pitched outside leg stump and clipped the top of off stump and later became widely known as the 'ball of the century'.
From there he went on to become arguably the best player in Australia's all-conquering side of the 1990s and early 2000s, winning multiple Ashes series and the 1999 World Cup.
He claimed 293 dismissals in 194 one-day internationals between 1993 and 2005, and in 2000 was chosen by Wisden as one of the five outstanding players of the 20th century alongside Sir Donald Bradman, Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Jack Hobbs and Sir Viv Richards.
Warne retired from international cricket in 2007 following Australia's 5-0 Ashes clean sweep of England at home.
He also retired from first-class and List A cricket later that year, ending a seven-year spell with Hampshire, who he had captained since 2004. He continued to play Twenty20 franchise cricket until retiring from all formats in 2013.
England captain Joe Root added: "My experiences of Shane were of someone who absolutely loved the game of cricket.
"He was always a joy to be around, he gave so much energy to the sport. As a kid growing up he was a massive idol of mine and someone you wanted to emulate. The way he could win a game on his own, his skill levels were incredible.
"I'd have been 14 when the 2005 Ashes was on, in many ways that series was a massive influence on my career."
Former England spinner Phil Tufnell, who competed against Warne before later sharing a commentary box with him as a pundit, called the Australian an "absolute superstar".
"He emptied bars, when Shane Warne was bowling people came out and sat there and got involved in the game," Tufnell told 5 Live.
"He got people to fall back in love with spin bowling. Everyone wanted to be a spinner and a leggy when there was just a sea of fast bowlers.
"He had a fantastic cricket brain as well. I got to know him quite well off the field and he had a love for the game and knowledge for the game. Who could he help? What young spinner could he go and help and give some advice to?
"People say you are never bigger than the game but if anyone every got close to it I reckon it was Shane."
Australia's 2010 world snooker champion Neil Robertson said the news of Warne's death was like being "hit by a truck", adding: "All of Australia will be in mourning. He's our national hero, with what he did for Australian cricket and cricket all over the world.
"It's like when Diego Maradona died for Argentines. It's as bad as it gets and I just feel awful for his friends and family and cricket fans around the world."
Former India Test captain Virat Kohli said Warne was "the greatest to turn the cricket ball". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/60626656 |
Greg Robinson: An act of kindness to make a community smile - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Little gifts are being found around Donaghadee, County Down, in memory of Greg Robinson. | Greg Robinson loved "the simple things", like spending time with his family
From sausage rolls to sweeties and a coffee with a bun, there were many things that made Greg Robinson smile.
But none more so than his family, who he adored, and in particular his grandson, who allowed him to be a big kid.
When the father-of-two, who was in his 50s, died suddenly in March 2021, his family's life was turned upside down.
"Granda Greg" was fit and healthy and along with his wife, Nikki, ran a gift shop in his hometown of Donaghadee in County Down.
Whether it was at work, walking the dog, with his local flute band or just out in his beloved town, his family say Greg made time for everyone.
After his death, the community rallied around his family - particularly Nikki and their two daughters, Jess and Sam.
Now, on the week of his first anniversary, they are giving back to their community by sharing some of the things that made him smile.
The little gifts have been being found around the town, each with a simple message: "An act of kindness in memory of Greg Robinson".
"We - Nikki, Jess and Sam - wanted to plan something together that allowed us to put our energy into something positive and give us something practical to do which we knew would have an impact on others," they told BBC News NI.
"We knew that by making others smile that we, in turn, would feel the benefit of that too.
"We wanted to give back to the community of Donaghadee that helped us.
"We have realised the importance of little things that have made us smile throughout the past year."
As Greg was "a Donaghadee man, he loved his town and the community", all the gifts were purchased locally.
Among them are chocolate bars; scents from the family's gift shop; flowers; and vouchers for a bakery, for some of his favourite sausage rolls, an ice-cream shop where he used to buy a quarter of sweets on a Saturday night, and a cafe because "a wee coffee and a bun would have made dad's face light up with excitement".
Many recipients, including some who did not know Greg, have posted photos of their finds on a local Facebook page, prompting others to share memories.
"When someone dies, it is often the case that people are scared to mention the loved one in case it makes you sad, but the grief journey has taught us that this isn't the case and that the wonderful stories and chat about dad brings so much comfort," his family said.
"We love those times when we hear how dad had impacted their lives, from showing kindness as a teenager at high school, to chatting away to customers in his shop."
Nikki remembers her husband as being "a true gentleman" who was always making people laugh.
"He was so charismatic, lighting up the room whenever he walked in," she added.
For Jess and Sam, they will be forever grateful for him teaching them "to focus on the positive parts of the day, looking for ways that we can express gratitude for every day things".
Nikki says her husband was "a raker" who was always joking
Greg's wife and daughters have decided that they will continue to mark his anniversary in this way.
"Our hope is that the finders of the envelopes will feel a wee rush of happiness and that it will bring a smile to their face.
"It would also be our hope that it sparks conversations about dad and how his legacy can live on in the community of Donaghadee." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60619996 |
Jim Crossley: Dunmurry woman, 31, admits killing boyfriend - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | 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 |
Ukraine conflict: Drone shows extent of damage in Borodyanka - BBC News | 2022-03-05 | Footage shows how flats and Russian military vehicles were destroyed in Borodyanka. | Drone footage shows the extent of destruction to buildings as well as Russian military vehicles in the Ukrainian town of Borodyanka, 60km (40 miles) north-west of Kyiv. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60608706 |