title
stringlengths 28
112
| published_date
stringlengths 10
10
| authors
stringclasses 6
values | description
stringlengths 0
239
| section
stringclasses 95
values | content
stringlengths 178
42.3k
| link
stringlengths 34
77
| top_image
stringlengths 53
143
| news_id
stringlengths 13
55
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Boris Johnson: I've seen no evidence of plotters being blackmailed - BBC News
|
2022-01-20
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The PM rejects the claims of a Tory MP, who says rebels face intimidation from ministers.
|
UK Politics
|
Boris Johnson was asked about the claims on a visit to Somerset
Boris Johnson says he has "seen no evidence" of blackmail in his party after claims by one of his own MPs.
William Wragg - who has called on the PM to resign over parties at No 10 - said suspected plotters against the PM have been threatened with bad publicity and cuts to constituency funding.
He has advised colleagues who feel threatened to go to the police.
An ex-Tory MP who defected to Labour, Christian Wakeford, also said he was threatened over funding for a school.
Mr Johnson told reporters on Thursday he had "seen no evidence [and] heard no evidence" of Mr Wragg's claims, but he would look into them.
On Friday, the Times reported rebels have met to discuss the tactics of government whips, the MPs in charge of party discipline.
The newspaper reported the plotters discussed whether to make public text messages and other evidence of how they have been treated.
Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner called Mr Wragg's claims "shocking" and Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey accused Mr Johnson of "acting more like a mafia boss than a prime minister".
Scotland's First Minister, the SNP's Nicola Sturgeon, said: "If Tories are threatening to withhold public investment from constituencies as a way of keeping MPs in line then, yes, that's blackmail and intimidation - but it is also corruption.
"The moral decay at the heart of Johnson's government may be even worse than we thought."
But Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries accused Mr Wragg of "attention-seeking behaviour", calling his accusations "nonsense".
And Energy Minister Greg Hands, who used to work as a government whip, said Mr Wakeford was not a "credible source" because his defection meant his job was now to "do down the Conservative Party".
He added that Mr Wragg's claims had "not been borne out by anybody else", adding: "This is not something that happens."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Mr Johnson is facing down an attempt from some Tory MPs to oust him as leader over lockdown parties held in Downing Street.
He has called on potential rebels to wait for the outcome of civil servant Sue Gray's inquiry into parties, expected next week, before passing judgement on him.
But prominent Tory backbencher, Steve Baker, told the BBC's Political Thinking podcast that it "looks like checkmate" for the prime minister.
"Honestly, at the moment, I'm looking to the cabinet for leadership," he told host Nick Robinson.
"At the moment, I'm afraid it does look like checkmate - but whether he can save himself, we'll see."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. MPs should report intimidation tactics to the police, says William Wragg
Mr Wragg launched a stinging attack on the way the government has handled dissent among Tory MPs on Thursday, in another sign of worsening relations between Mr Johnson and his backbenchers.
Speaking at a Commons committee that he chairs, the MP for Hazel Grove accused government whips of threatening those suspected of plotting with the removal of government investment in their constituencies.
He also said he had received reports of government ministers, advisers and staff at No 10 "encouraging the publication of stories in the press seeking to embarrass" those suspected of lacking confidence in the PM.
Mr Wragg claimed the reports "would seem to constitute blackmail" - and as well as contacting police, affected MPs should contact the Commons Speaker.
After the appearance, Mr Wakeford - who defected to the Labour Party on Thursday - said he had been threatened into supporting the government when sitting as a Tory MP.
"I was threatened that I would not get the school for Radcliffe if I didn't vote one particular way," he told BBC North West Tonight.
"This is a town that's not had a high school for the best part of 10 years and how would you feel with holding back the regeneration of a town for a vote?"
He said the incident "didn't sit comfortably" and it led to him "starting to question my place where I was and ultimately to where I am now".
Black books and dark arts, quiet words and not so quiet words.
The art of persuasion is as old as the stones in Parliament's walls.
But William Wragg's intervention stands out because it alleges blackmail, potential criminal wrongdoing and breaches of the ministerial code.
One or two are whispering privately here that Mr Wragg is overcooking his argument and has long been outspoken about the prime minister.
And a few are saying similar stuff publicly.
It's a reminder that while the imminent pressure on Boris Johnson has eased for now, the anger and vitriol provoked by these rows is still very real, very live.
Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said "serious allegations" had been made, and MPs with concerns should write to him.
He said government ministers and those who work for them "are not above the criminal law," after Mr Wragg said MPs concerned about potential blackmail should contact the Metropolitan Police.
But the Speaker added: "The investigation of allegedly criminal conduct is a matter for the police and decisions about prosecution are for the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service]."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Christian Wakeford says he was threatened to vote in a certain way
One rebel MP told the BBC that some dissenters had been threatened with funding cuts, whilst an impending shake-up of parliamentary boundaries due next year had also been used to put down rebellion.
"It's been done to the weakest to make an example," they added.
However, Tory MP Anthony Mangnall, said he had never been threatened, despite rebelling against the government on "quite a lot of matters".
Ms Dorries also called Mr Wragg's accusations "disappointing" and told BBC West Midlands: "That is nonsense because that is not how government works, and we are the party of government.
"The whips have no say over what happens in individual constituencies.
"And not only is it nonsense, it is just attention seeking behaviour from William Wragg, who has been a constant critic of the prime minister."
It follows a dramatic day in Westminster on Wednesday, when Tory MP Christian Wakeford defected to Labour, describing the PM as incapable of leading.
Tory grandee and former ally of Mr Johnson David Davis told the PM: "In the name of God, go."
So far six Conservative MPs have publicly declared no confidence in the PM, but more are thought to have submitted letters to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, who organises Tory leadership contests.
There are claims that the threshold of 54 letters needed to trigger a no-confidence vote and leadership election could soon be reached, but no official word has been given.
However, some Conservatives have told the BBC the mood has changed, following the defection of Mr Wakeford.
Northern Ireland Minister Conor Burns - a close ally of Mr Johnson - claimed Tory MPs were "stepping back" from calling for the PM to go now, and were waiting for Ms Gray's report.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60068612
|
news_uk-politics-60068612
|
|
Omicron: Is it too soon to lift the restrictions? - BBC News
|
2022-01-20
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Masks, Covid passes and working from home are being scrapped in England. Is this the right decision?
|
Health
|
The restrictions introduced to curb the Omicron wave are being scrapped in England.
Mandatory face coverings, Covid passes and working-from-home guidance - the so-called Plan B - are all going.
It leaves England - in the words of Health Secretary Sajid Javid - the most open country in Europe. But is it too soon to take such a step?
Infections levels, while falling, are still well above what they were at the height of the peak last winter.
What is more, the progress being made varies between regions. The Midlands, North East and Yorkshire are yet to see hospital admissions start falling, despite a drop in the overall national figure.
It is why some scientists and public health experts have expressed concern the easing may be too much and risks a rebound in infections .
And one has to wonder what influence the political considerations have had - the Tory backbenchers were unlikely to vote to keep any part of Plan B.
But, in the end, it also comes down to a judgement about what is proportionate.
A trade-off has to be made between the costs of such restrictions and the benefits they bring.
And with the worst of the Omicron wave almost certainly over, the benefits were reducing.
Do you think it is too soon to lift restrictions? Share your experience by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk
England - and the rest of the UK, for that matter - is one of best protected nations when you combine the immunity built up by vaccination and previous infection.
More than 97% of the population has antibodies, the latest Office for National Statistics data suggests. When the pandemic began, that was, of course, 0%.
This does not necessarily mean people are immune to infection, but our bodies have become better at fighting the virus. The result is Covid is now causing milder illness and the proportion of infected people dying has dropped markedly.
Although there are also signs this is partly down to Omicron being intrinsically less severe too.
This has helped keep the number of deaths in recent weeks much lower than previous waves and at a similar level to a bad flu season.
It is very much the best-case scenario in terms of what we were told we could see when this variant, first identified in South Africa, took off.
Hospital admissions appear to have peaked at just over 2,000 a day, when modelling suggested they could reach three to four times that in the worst case and even the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), the government's official advisory body, said it expected them to hit 3,000 at least.
But there are still huge pressures on the NHS. More than 15,000 people in England are in hospital with Covid, although this is not entirely what it seems as close to half of them have been admitted for something else rather than being seriously ill with the virus.
So there are plenty of reasons for ministers and their advisers to say the data supports the case for a relaxation.
The restriction that reduces spread of the virus most when infected - the requirement to isolate - remains, remember.
The outgoing Plan B measures, by comparison, all have a more marginal impact, if any.
Of these, working from home was the measure government scientists always argued had the most effect - but the jury was out over the exact effectiveness of the others.
For example, the Department for Education's own evidence review admitted the data on the ability of masks in classrooms to reduce the spread of the virus was inconclusive, with studies showing mixed results. What is more, their use could harm communication and learning.
Meanwhile, the rise of Omicron meant the effectiveness of two vaccine doses in preventing infection has been significantly reduced, weakening the argument for Covid passes to access events.
Instead, what many experts believe will be crucial now is the behaviour of the public.
Just because the government is giving people more freedom, it does not mean there will be a headlong rush back to normal.
This has been seen throughout the pandemic. Even after England's 19 July "Freedom Day", mixing patterns did not rebound back to pre-pandemic levels, when people would average 10 contacts a day, helping keep the virus largely in check until the arrival of Omicron.
By the end of December, as the Omicron wave was peaking, daily contacts were actually close to the levels seen in the first lockdown, curbing the spread in the process.
Now the public is again being asked to manage the risks, and that behaviour will determine the course of the pandemic over the coming weeks.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60059761
|
news_health-60059761
|
|
Covid: Next few days crucial for the NHS, says health boss - BBC News
|
2022-01-02
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Covid admissions are rising but what could happen next is unclear, the head of NHS Providers says.
|
UK
|
The next few days are crucial in understanding the impact of Omicron on the NHS, a health boss has said.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts, said hospital admissions are rising across the country but what could happen next is unclear.
He warned ministers "must be ready to introduce new restrictions at pace if they're needed".
But the health secretary said any extra measures must be a "last resort".
Writing on Twitter, Mr Hopson said staff were working "flat out" and the NHS was now under "different, arguably more" pressure compared to last January because more planned treatments were being carried out, the booster vaccination campaign was using up significant resources and staff absences were having a greater impact.
England has reported 162,572 new cases - a record number for the fifth day in a row - as well as 154 deaths within 28 days of a positive test.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland did not report figures on Saturday.
The number of hospital admissions in England are at their highest level since January 2021, according to the latest figures, while NHS hospital staff absences due to Covid have nearly doubled in a month.
Mr Hopson said there was evidence infections peaked in London before Christmas and had plateaued since but the future trajectory "remains very unclear", ranging from hospital admissions plateauing and then dropping to numbers rapidly increasing.
"If the evidence shows that we are getting very significant numbers of people coming into hospital with Covid, then the government needs to be ready to introduce further restrictions at pace," he told the BBC.
He said there were currently not the large numbers of severely ill older people that were seen in previous peaks and intensive care occupancy was broadly stable.
However, he said there were worries about the possible impact of intergenerational mixing over Christmas.
University Hospital of North Tees in Stockton has become the latest of more than a dozen hospitals to temporarily suspend routine visits because of rising infections.
The doctors' union, the British Medical Association, has said further public health measures should be introduced as a matter or urgency.
The association's council chairman, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, said it was "wholly erroneous to talk about the risk of the NHS becoming overwhelmed".
The new year began with the health service "already overwhelmed, in a parlous state, and with patient care suffering", he said.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Sajid Javid warned it was "inevitable" there would be a big increase in people needing NHS care over the next month due to the time lag between infections and hospital admissions.
"This will likely test the limits of finite NHS capacity even more than a typical winter," he added.
The problem facing the government is that the window to suppress the peak with restrictions may already have passed.
Modelling produced for government by Warwick University suggests even a return to lockdown with only schools open has virtually no impact on hospital admissions now.
To have had a significant impact, measures would need to have been introduced on Boxing Day or a week earlier.
But even then the argument for them was unclear - in both scenarios infections and hospital admissions rebound once restrictions are lifted. Largely all it achieves is delaying and spreading out illness.
That could have been of benefit by evening out the pressure on the NHS.
But there is, of course, the wider costs of restrictions to society, the economy and mental health to factor in.
Some say it would also have bought you time to carry out more vaccinations, but with nine in 10 of the most vulnerable boosted and evidence protection wanes over time this may actually be the point in time when we have the most immunity across the population.
There are no simple solutions to this Omicron wave - and the options that the government did have may well have gone.
England is currently under Plan B restrictions, which includes mandatory masks in most indoor public places, Covid passes for nightclubs and other large venues and guidance to work from home if possible.
The measures are set to expire six weeks after implementation, with a review after three weeks, which is expected on or close to 4 January.
There are already tougher restrictions for hospitality venues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59848634
|
news_uk-59848634
|
|
DUP MLA Christopher Stalford dies aged 39 - BBC News
|
2022-02-21
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Mr Stalford represented South Belfast and was the NI Assembly's principal deputy speaker.
|
Northern Ireland
|
Christopher Stalford was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician Christopher Stalford has died suddenly at the age of 39.
Mr Stalford was a well-known member of the party and had represented South Belfast in the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2016.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he was deeply saddened at Mr Stalford's death.
Sir Jeffrey said Mr Stalford was "not just an elected representative or a colleague, he was a friend".
Mr Stalford is survived by his wife Laura and four children.
The DUP leader said his sympathies were with the wider Stalford family on the "loss of a husband, father, son and brother".
"I talked at length with Christopher on Friday night," said Sir Jeffrey.
"He was passionate about Northern Ireland and wanted the best for his constituents.
"I was never to know how precious that conversation was to be."
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said Mr Stalford was "born to be a public representative"
Boris Johnson said Mr Stalford was a "passionate and dedicated servant" of the people of South Belfast.
Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin said he was "deeply saddened".
"I conveyed my sympathies to his party leader Jeffrey Donaldson earlier, and my sincere condolences go to his wife Laura, children, family, friends and colleagues in the DUP," he said.
DUP chairman Lord Morrow said he had known Mr Stalford since he was a child.
"As a party, we are shocked and saddened by his death but most of all we are heartbroken for Laura, their four little children and Christopher's wider family who will feel this loss most keenly," he said.
The party's North Antrim MP Ian Paisley said he had "loved politics and engagement with the public".
"We just do not know what a day will bring forward and today a shadow of loss hangs over our party," he added.
He once thought about being a history or politics teacher and before he became a politician he often took part in discussion programmes on radio and television.
An articulate advocate for unionism, he began working for the then DUP MEP Jim Allister and also for the MLA Peter Weir.
Later he joined the DUP's press team.
After 11 years on Belfast City Council he became an assembly member for South Belfast where he was brought up - it was a place he was very proud of.
He often talked about growing up in Annadale Flats near the River Lagan.
He once described himself as an Arlene Ultra when Arlene Foster was party leader - but last year he supported Edwin Poots in his bid for leadership.
In private Christopher Stalford was a very witty man.
He took his job as a public representative seriously, but never himself. He liked nothing more than winding up colleagues and political rivals.
When Stormont returned in 2020 he relished the role of principal deputy speaker and even at moments of political tension his personality and sense of humour shone through.
Mr Stalford with party colleagues at the opening of his constituency office in 2016
Mr Stalford had worked in the DUP press office for a number of years before becoming an elected representative.
Elected to Belfast City Council in 2005, he served as deputy mayor from 2013 to 2014.
In 2016, he was one of two DUP candidates selected to run for the South Belfast constituency in the assembly election.
After the restoration of the Stormont institutions in 2020, Mr Stalford was appointed principal deputy speaker to chair debates in the assembly.
"His friends and colleagues throughout the world of politics will miss his political contribution, and his constituents his local efforts and leadership across south Belfast," she added.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood announced the party's spring conference, scheduled for Sunday evening, would be postponed as a mark of respect for Mr Stalford.
"Christopher and I knew each other for more than 20 years and this news has come as such a shock," he said.
"You could have a storming argument in the assembly with terse words and raised voices but as soon as you left, he would always have a wry smile and a laugh."
Doug Beattie, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, said he was "lost for words" at the news.
"He was someone I liked, respected and who worked tirelessly for his community and country," he added.
Naomi Long, Alliance Party leader, said it was hard to put into words her "shock, sadness and devastation".
"Despite our politics often being radically different, Christopher and I had a warm personal friendship, with him often talking to me about his pride in his family," said Mrs Long.
"He was a genuine and funny person, who was dedicated to public service."
Christopher Stalford, pictured alongside former DUP leader Ian Paisley, served as deputy mayor of Belfast City Council
TUV leader Jim Allister said words were not adequate to express the shock he felt.
"His colleagues in the assembly and elsewhere will feel an aching void, though it is his family who above all require the prayers and support of us all," he said.
Brandon Lewis, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, offered sincere condolences to Mr Stalford's family.
"As MLA and principal deputy speaker, Christopher was passionate about crucial issues that affected people across NI and was dedicated to building a better Northern Ireland for everyone," Mr Lewis said.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60451845
|
news_uk-northern-ireland-60451845
|
|
Christopher Stalford: MLAs pay tribute to DUP politician - BBC News
|
2022-02-21
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The DUP says "words cannot adequately explain the sense of pain" following his sudden death at 39.
|
Northern Ireland
|
Tributes have been paid at Stormont to Christopher Stalford after the DUP assembly member's sudden death aged 39.
Mr Stalford was principal deputy speaker and had represented South Belfast since 2016, having served previously as councillor, high sheriff of Belfast and deputy mayor.
He is survived by his wife Laura and four children.
Ahead of the sitting, DUP assembly members gathered in the Great Hall at Stormont to pray.
They were led by North Antrim MLA Mervyn Storey.
Some then entered the chamber, with others heading to the assembly gallery which has been opened specially for other MLAs to sit and watch the tributes, because social distancing rules are still in place in the chamber limiting numbers.
After tributes had been paid, members took part in a minute's silence to reflect on Mr Stalford's life.
Ahead of the sitting, DUP assembly members gathered in the Great Hall at Stormont to pray
Mr Stalford's death was announced on Sunday and the tributes, paid across the political spectrum, referenced his wry humour, passion for politics and debate, and love for his wife and children.
DUP deputy leader Paula Bradley led a tearful tribute in the chamber on behalf of the party.
She said she wanted to "honour and give thanks for the life of our much-loved friend and esteemed colleague".
"Words cannot adequately explain the sense of pain and loss that is felt on these benches," she added.
DUP deputy leader Paula Bradley led an emotional tribute to her colleague
She expressed her sympathies to Mr Stalford's family "on the loss of a man who was so utterly devoted to them".
"Christopher's joy came not in holding office but in how he could use that office to improve the everyday lives of those he was honoured to represent," she said.
"It was a mark of the man that he had friends on all sides of this chamber."
Before tributes began, DUP MLAs gathered together just outside the chamber in the great hall, led in prayer by the party's Mervyn Storey.
The DUP deputy leader Paula Bradley spoke tearfully as she thanked other parties for their kind tributes.
One by one, members of other parties shared their fond memories of the fierce debater, known for his wit but also his respect for the institutions and love of public service - something reflected by the Assembly Speaker Alex Maskey
Every MLA who spoke, conscious of what Stormont is now without, even more aware of the great loss felt by Christopher Stalford's family, who he was so deeply devoted to.
The former Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill has Covid so is not present.
Instead, Deirdre Hargey, the communities minister, led the tributes for Sinn Féin.
The South Belfast MLA said she first met Mr Stalford at Belfast City Council and "instantly thought he was older than me due to his mannerisms and his attire of his pinstriped suit, initially thinking this was the instructed uniform of all DUP councillors at that time".
Ms Hargey said he "enjoyed the cut and thrust" of debate and loved talking about his family, faith and unionism.
"Whilst our politics differed, we shared similarities, growing up in working class communities in south Belfast," she added.
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) MLA Nichola Mallon told the chamber she had known the DUP MLA for 10 years.
"In all that time, I got to know a man who was challenging, argumentative, ambitious, some may even say combative, during debates but also a man who was kind, who was quick-witted, fiercely intelligent and very, very funny," Ms Mallon said.
She said his love for his wife and children "just radiated from him".
On Sunday, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood postponed his party's conference out of respect.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Christopher Stalford and his wife Laura in 2010
UUP leader Doug Beattie told the chamber Mr Stalford was "absolutely unique, he was a fierce debater".
"I have no words that will quench the anguish of his party colleagues sitting here today, I have no words that will help with the pain that his family is dealing with today," he said.
"I didn't just like Christopher Stalford, I was jealous of Christopher Stalford as he was truly a first class politician and family man."
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 Michelle O’Neill 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.
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said she first met Mr Stalford during their time at Belfast City Council.
She added that during his tenure as principal deputy speaker, Mr Stalford was "fair, he could be fierce, he kept us all in order", but "used his wit and self-deprecating humour and you never felt that when you were stopped or challenged by him that there was any animosity or personal discord behind it".
"We had very different political backgrounds and views but we had a lot in common," adding that they were "opponents but friends".
"We both lost our fathers at a young age, we were both fiercely proud of coming from working class backgrounds, we both had a passion for the communities we grow up in that drove us into politics and we both believed passionately that education was the route to lift people permanently out of disadvantage in life and we shared a deep faith.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said Mr Stalford was passionate about Northern Ireland
Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister told the chamber that he was still having difficulty processing the shock of Mr Stalford's passing.
"That pales into total insignificance compared to the devastation that undoubtedly his beloved wife Laura and beautiful children are experiencing," he added, sending them his condolences.
He said Mr Stalford had come to work for him 20 years ago in his Belfast office.
"It was evident to me that he had the ability and talent which would make him the politician that he was," he said.
"Though our political perspectives diverged, I am pleased to say we retained a friendship and respect."
People Before Profit's Gerry Carroll said he could "only imagine the heartbreak" Mr Stalford's family were going through.
The West Belfast MLA said that he and Mr Stalford had "robust debate and strong disagreements" when they first met at Belfast City Hall in 2014.
Mr Carroll said he was "an absolutely fair speaker, someone who went out of his way to ensure all voices were heard in debates".
Clare Sugden, an independent MLA, said his passing was "devastating" and that she "felt numb" when she heard the news of his passing, and still does.
"We have lost one of our own. He was the epitome of public service," she said.
He was incredibly "funny and full of wit" said the East Londonderry representative.
She said he was a witty man but one that, when his wit cut, it was "never with malice, and that's how he stood out".
"I do believe that this assembly and NI politics will miss him and I will miss him," she said.
Christopher Stalford with his DUP colleague Carla Lockhart and former leader Arlene Foster
Earlier, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he last spoke to Mr Stalford on Friday.
"I was never to know how precious that conversation was to be," he told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.
"A young man who came a long way, from a working class background in south Belfast to the deputy principal speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly - something he was immensely proud of.
"More than anything else and with his love for politics, the one thing that stood out about Christopher was his love for his family.
"His desire to create a better future for his children was something that drove him on."
Mr Stalford sat on the board of governors at Braniel Primary School.
On Monday morning, Diane Dawson, headteacher at Braniel Primary School, said Mr Stalford was "passionate" about education and "wanted the best for every single child irrespective of their background, or their creed or their colour or their denomination".
"We have a very integrated school here in Braniel Nursery and Primary and Christopher championed that," she said.
She said she had the privilege of knowing him as a father and a husband.
"What I saw with Christopher was his sense of fairness and wanting equality for every child in this school."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60456763
|
news_uk-northern-ireland-60456763
|
|
'Bankrupt' Tommy Robinson faces High Court questioning over finances - BBC News
|
2022-02-03
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
A judge orders the English Defence League founder to court to answer questions on his finances.
|
Leeds & West Yorkshire
|
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, owes an estimated £2m to people
English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson will be quizzed about his finances after he failed to pay legal bills for a libel case he lost.
The 39-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was sued by Jamal Hijazi after defaming him online.
In response to a video of the then 16-year-old schoolboy being attacked, Mr Yaxley-Lennon claimed he had attacked "young English girls".
A High Court judge ordered him to court to answer questions on his finances.
Mr Yaxley-Lennon was sued by Mr Hijazi after he made the accusations following a viral video clip of him being attacked at Almondbury School in Huddersfield in 2018.
The judge found in the claimant's favour and said the fake accusations and language used by Mr Yaxley-Lennon on Facebook were intended to "inflame the situation".
At a High Court hearing earlier, Mr Hijazi's barrister Ian Helme said Mr Yaxley-Lennon was ordered to pay £43,293 in legal costs after a pre-trial hearing in November 2020.
However, at a further hearing in March 2021, he said he was bankrupt.
The barrister argued Mr Yaxley-Lennon, who did not attend the hearing, could be cross-examined about his finances over the debt, despite the ongoing bankruptcy process.
In written arguments, he stated: "The claimant envisages that counsel's opportunity to cross-examine the defendant under oath, accompanied by documents provided by the defendant, will provide for a more detailed analysis of his assets than might be possible through the normal bankruptcy process."
The barrister said Mr Yaxley-Lennon owes a "substantial sum" and he intended to question him "with a view to establishing what steps would be most proportionate to take with a view to maximising recovery".
He told the court that Mr Hijazi's lawyers had information "that what is stated in his bankruptcy application is not a full account of [Mr Yaxley-Lennon's] assets".
While damages and legal costs from the libel trial were not mentioned at the High Court hearing, Mr Yaxley-Lennon was ordered to pay £100,000 damages to Mr Hijazi and £500,000 in legal costs.
The High Court hearing about his finances is due to take place on 22 March.
Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-60253855
|
news_uk-england-leeds-60253855
|
|
Can Boris Johnson avoid a lockdown party fine? - BBC News
|
2022-02-17
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The PM is hoping his replies to police on Downing Street gatherings will get him off the hook.
|
UK Politics
|
Boris Johnson has until 22:00 GMT on Friday to answer the Metropolitan Police's questionnaire about whether he broke lockdown rules at Downing Street parties.
The prime minister has been consulting lawyers about his response.
It is these private lawyers who are overseeing communications with the Met Police.
Sources close to Mr Johnson say he is funding that himself. The No 10 machine is being kept in the dark to avoid what one insider called a conflict of interest.
The prime minister has made it clear what his defence will be: that he both lived and worked in Downing Street, so had a reasonable excuse to be in the building and around the garden when controversial drinks gatherings took place.
Mr Johnson hopes that will be enough to get him off the hook - if it doesn't, there could be a new wave of political crises for the prime minister and more Conservative MPs could try to force him out.
Among Mr Johnson's allies, there is a frank admission that they just don't know for sure whether his explanation will work. But here's how they think it might.
Firstly, there have not been many retrospective prosecutions for breaking lockdown laws.
Secondly, the prime minister has argued both publicly and privately that the events he was at can be reasonably seen as work. If he makes that case, will the Met have enough evidence to conclude he is wrong? The bar, some believe, is likely to be high.
Some of the argument delves a bit deeper.
It starts with the fact that the prime minister and some staff were required to be in the office to oversee the Covid response.
If they had a glass of wine at the end of the day - in an office they had a good reason to be in - was that really an illegal gathering?
Part of the answer to that, some think, might rest on just how many glasses of wine a certain person had.
The argument goes: if someone can prove they were at a gathering for a short period of time, then went to a meeting or to do something else for their job, this would still be classed as being at work.
That might be judged differently if they went on to get drunk late into the night - or, for example, if they broke the prime minister's son's swing, as has been alleged happened at one event in the Downing Street garden.
Police are investigating several gatherings in Downing Street as part of their probe
That's the thinking from some of the PM's political supporters.
His lawyers will decide what legal case to make - and then it's for the Met to decide whether they buy it. That process could take a few weeks.
Then there's the politics - what happens next?
At the moment, things are considerably calmer in the Conservative Party than they were a fortnight ago. That's in part because Parliament is on a week's holiday, meaning MPs are not meeting up to chat - and maybe even plot - about the PM's future.
There are, very broadly, three key groups:
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith - an MP who knows how the party works and what the mood in Parliament is - has said it would be hard for any leader to survive having been found to have broken the rules.
One former cabinet minister said that if the prime minister is found to have broken the rules that he introduced, the number of MPs calling for a confidence vote is likely to increase quickly.
At least 54 MPs must write a letter to Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 committee, to trigger such a vote, which could lead to a leadership contest.
But our senior Tory source also suggested the prime minister was more likely than not to find a way to get himself off the hook and last at least until May's local elections, when it could become clearer if the "partygate" rows have had an electoral impact.
Another MP still making their mind up agreed it was quite plausible the PM could survive, saying: "If there is anyone who could ride it out, he can."
This MP went on to argue that changes to the No 10 operation - like the new chief of staff and communications director - could help steady the ship. They argued that Mr Johnson could survive even if he gets a fine.
It's worth noting that a prime minister being found to have broken the rules they introduced would be a significant blow. Some question whether even Boris Johnson, with his reputation for defying political gravity, could get past that.
But the simple fact is, nobody knows for sure what is going to happen next.
Among Mr Johnson's staunchest allies, there is a feeling that things have cooled down. But that doesn't mean they won't heat up again.
In the words of one: "It's not passed - it's not over".
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60401498
|
news_uk-politics-60401498
|
|
Ukraine-Russia tensions: UK vows to step up support - BBC News
|
2022-02-17
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says the UK will spend more on democracy and energy projects in Ukraine.
|
UK Politics
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says the UK is increasing its financial support for Ukraine, amid tensions with Russia.
Speaking in Kyiv, Ms Truss said the UK would be spending an additional £12m on democracy and energy independence projects in the country.
Western allies have warned Russia could try to stage an attack to justify invading Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly denied it has plans to invade despite amassing more than 100,000 troops along the border.
As part of ongoing diplomatic efforts, Ms Truss visited the Ukrainian capital, holding a press conference alongside the country's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
She praised the country's "fortitude in the face of Russian aggression" and pledged UK's "steadfast support".
Mr Kuleba said Ukrainian-British relationships had "reached an unprecedentedly high level".
In addition to increasing funding for Ukraine's defence capabilities from £88m to £100m, Ms Truss also announced a new "trilateral partnership" with Ukraine and Poland to "intensify work on defence and security, sanctions, energy security and countering disinformation".
The foreign secretary also warned that "false-flag" operations were taking place in the region adding: "We are very clear the aggressor in this situation is Russia."
A false-flag attack is where one side stages or fabricates an attack against it in order to justify the use of force in retaliation.
Earlier in the day, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia could be "trying to stage a pretext for an armed attack against Ukraine".
Russia has accused the West of "hysteria" over such warnings in recent weeks.
It has also called on Nato to guarantee Ukraine will not be allowed to join the defence alliance.
Nato insists it will keep its open door policy, and has been increasingly concerned an invasion is on the cards.
Mr Stoltenberg, said there were "signs from Moscow that diplomacy could continue", but that the West had "not seen any sign of withdrawal or de-escalation".
Speaking from an RAF base in Waddington, Lincolnshire, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was "still time to avoid a catastrophe" but said the picture from the region was "very grim".
He added that a Russian invasion would result in a "bloody and protracted conflict in which, I'm afraid, there will be many casualties and including many Russian casualties"
In a speech following the press conference in Kyiv, Ms Truss, who became foreign secretary last year, said the current crisis in the region was a "litmus test" for the West.
"The free world needs to draw the line under a decade of drift... we must stand up to and defuse Russian aggression now, because if we don't it will embolden not only the Kremlin, but aggressors, authoritarians and autocrats everywhere.
"The West needs to wise up. We need to work together to discredit their arguments in public."
Ms Truss is now travelling to Poland for a meeting with her Polish counterpart, before heading to the Munich Security Conference on Saturday for meetings with allies.
The UK has no troops in Ukraine but it has increased numbers in Estonia to the "high hundreds," according to the Ministry of Defence, as well as sending additional helicopters, jets and warships to the region.
A further 1,000 British troops are also on standby to support Nato if called upon.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60414013
|
news_uk-politics-60414013
|
|
Camilla: The making of the future Queen Consort - BBC News
|
2022-02-07
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The Duchess of Cornwall's endorsement by the Queen is well-deserved, say royal commentators.
|
UK
|
The couple laugh as they drink whisky given to them as a wedding gift in Caithness, Scotland
The Queen has announced she would like Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, to have the title of Queen Consort when the Prince of Wales becomes King.
It is an endorsement from the very top, say royal commentators - and one that is well-deserved after years of loyalty and hard work.
Prince Charles described it as a deep honour for both him and his "darling wife".
Since marrying into the Royal Family 17 years ago, Camilla, 74, has grown into her role as a senior royal.
The path to public acceptance has been at times rocky, and at first Camilla was a controversial figure who was blamed by some for the end of the prince's first marriage to Princess Diana.
In 1994, Charles admitted to adultery with Camilla, but said it came after his marriage to Diana had "irretrievably broken down".
It was not until 1999 when she and Charles went public with their romance, being photographed emerging from the Ritz as part of a carefully-planned PR campaign.
Prince Charles and Camilla pictured for the first time in public, leaving the Ritz hotel in 1999
Since then, Camilla has won over a cautious public. She has been praised for championing her own causes and interests, including supporting literacy charities, animal welfare and organisations helping victims of domestic abuse.
The duchess has also been outspoken on the issue of sexual violence against women. In a speech in London last year, she mentioned the murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa, and called for men to also be "on board" with tackling a culture of sexual violence.
"She's been loyal, discreet and works her socks off with her charities and supports the prince," says royal author Penny Junor.
"She's taken to this job at a relatively late age and she's been extraordinary."
The Queen smiles on as Charles and Camilla leave the chapel after their marriage blessing
Born Camilla Rosemary Shand on 17 July 1947 to an upper-class family, she grew up on the edge of the South Downs in East Sussex.
She has described having a childhood love of ponies, saying she thought of little else but "charging about on them".
Her other interests include reading. Camilla has spoken of the importance of children's books - naming Black Beauty as one of her favourites - and is a fan of the literary Hay Festival. During the pandemic, she set up an Instagram-based book club.
And she has also confessed to being an addict of Radio 4 serial drama the Archers - joking she suffered "severe withdrawal symptoms" when episodes were disrupted by Covid.
"Many people will have seen the good work the Duchess of Cornwall has done over the years, her loyalty, her discreet nature and the hard work she puts in," says Victoria Howard - who edits the website The Crown Chronicles. "I think many people were pleased to see this."
Camilla delivers a speech at the City of London Guildhall last November
Many royal commentators remark that with Camilla by his side, Charles often appears more relaxed.
Before her royal marriage, the duchess's life was not one of palaces and public engagements - and sometimes that more normal experience shows.
In an interview in 2020, Camilla revealed she'd enjoyed not dressing up and living in a pair of jeans during lockdown.
And the mother-of-two also spoke about her love of her grandchildren, saying missing them during lockdown was "the worst" and she just wanted to "rush up and hug them".
She will bring warmth to the role of Queen Consort, says Ms Junor. "She's fun and friendly and she has a twinkle in her eye. She makes people feel good for having met her."
When Camilla and Charles married in a civil ceremony in 2005, it was announced Camilla would become known as Princess Consort - rather than Queen Consort - due to public sensitivity.
But royal experts say the Queen's endorsement will now sway the public into embracing Camilla as Queen.
"For Camilla, the journey from being the third person in a marriage to queen-in-waiting is complete," says former royal correspondent Peter Hunt.
Emily Nash from Hello! magazine agrees: "By her giving her own royal approval to Queen Camilla, the Queen Consort, it settles an argument that's been raging for many years - and I think that that's what's going to happen now."
The royal wave: Camilla is driven along Edinburgh's Royal Mile after Zara Tindall's wedding in 2011
"This is the Queen's wish," adds Junor. "This is not about Charles being headstrong and wanting this for the woman he loves. It is a proper endorsement from the top and it's right and well-deserved, and just as it should be."
For historian Robert Lacey, the timing of the Queen's message - less than a year after Prince Philip's death - is poignant.
"She has been clearly been thinking about the importance of a partner and a consort to her. She has just lost her own consort, and I think that's a big factor in why we're hearing it now," he tells the BBC.
"They call it the Firm - and this really brings Camilla into the Firm properly."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60279761
|
news_uk-60279761
|
|
Covid: Plan to tackle England's NHS backlog delayed - BBC News
|
2022-02-07
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The health secretary denies the full plan has been held back because of an intervention by the Treasury.
|
UK
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Sajid Javid: Delay to NHS backlog plan not down to the Treasury
A last minute intervention in Whitehall has delayed plans to tackle the backlog of patients on hospital waiting lists in England.
Details of the NHS England scheme were expected to be published on Monday.
The health secretary denied reports the Treasury had blocked the announcement, blaming the Omicron wave for the delay.
However, the government has announced a new online service that will allow people needing non-urgent surgery to get information about waiting times.
Sajid Javid told BBC Breakfast the full plan was due to be released in early December but the emergence of the new, more transmissible coronavirus variant meant the focus shifted to the booster programme.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said during a visit to a hospital in Kent that the government would set out more details "in the course of the week".
"We're now working with the NHS to set some tough targets so that we are able to deliver for patients and also for the taxpayer," he said.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the Treasury had refused to sign off the plans.
But Mr Javid denied this, saying the Treasury was "an excellent partner" and "we have a great relationship".
"There's no issue around the money at all. It's all about just making sure that when you publish something so ambitious and so important, we do want to make sure across government everything is agreed and everyone is behind the plan," he said.
A government spokesperson said: "We are united in our plan to clear the NHS's record backlog as we recover from the pandemic."
A record six million patients were on waiting lists for non-urgent operations and procedures in England in November, with the suspension of routine surgery during certain periods of the pandemic adding to pressures which were already clear before it began.
Mr Javid said the figure would rise before it starts to fall because an estimated eight to nine million people stayed away from the NHS at the height of the pandemic - but it was difficult to know how high it could go.
A modern browser with JavaScript and a stable internet connection are required to view this interactive. How is the NHS in your area coping this winter? This trust does not currently supply A&E waiting time figures. When patients arrive at hospital by ambulance they should be handed over within 15 minutes. This data shows the proportion of ambulance patients who waited 30 minutes or more, in the week shown. It comes from daily situation reports which are published weekly during the winter in England. As this is fast-turnaround data, the NHS says only minimal validation can be carried out but it is considered fit for purpose. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not publish ambulance queue data. Patients at A&E should be seen within four hours of arrival. This data shows the proportion of patients attending A&E who waited longer than four hours to be treated, discharged or admitted. This data is published monthly for England and Wales and weekly for Scotland. Northern Ireland publishes its data quarterly and Winter 2021 is not yet available. If a patient at A&E needs to be admitted, the wait from decision to admit to being given a bed on a ward is recorded in England. The bed waits figure is the proportion of patients admitted via A&E who waited longer than four hours for a ward bed. In Wales, bed wait data is not published, so the figure shown is the occupancy level in general and acute beds. Scotland and Northern Ireland do not publish bed wait or bed occupancy data. Data for England is show by NHS trust, where the trust includes at least one hospital with a Type 1 A&E department. Type 1 means a consultant-led 24 hour A&E service with full resuscitation facilities. When you enter a postcode for a location in England you will be shown a list of NHS trusts in your area. They will not necessarily be in order of your closest hospital as some trusts have more than one hospital. Data for Wales and Scotland are shown by NHS board. Comparative data from two years ago is shown where available. However, where trusts have merged there is no like-for-like comparison to show. Bed occupancy data in Wales only goes back to April 2020.
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents the healthcare system, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the delay was "frustrating" as the plan had been agreed with NHS leaders who "want to get on with the work".
However, with an unknown number of people not included in waiting list figures because they did not come forward for treatment during the pandemic, he warned that "unrealistic" targets could end up "skewing clinical priorities".
Tell us how you have been affected by the issues raised in this story.
There's a golden rule in politics: when two senior politicians do a joint event, or write a joint article (I've always wondered who holds the pen), the chances are they've had the lightest smattering of recent disagreements.
Well, the prime minister and the chancellor are out and about together today.
Last week, Rishi Sunak pointedly publicly disagreed with the prime minister's comments about Sir Keir Starmer and Jimmy Savile.
Meanwhile, a big plan for sorting out the massive waiting lists in the NHS in England has been kiboshed, for now.
We understand the plan was fully written and approved by the Department of Health.
But it's currently squashed under a lever arch file somewhere in the bowels of government.
Some sources are pointing fingers at the Treasury.
Others say there's still discussion - read argument - between No 10, the Treasury and Department of Health.
Plenty will argue when you're talking about massive amounts of public money, of course there must be scrutiny and accountability about how it'll be spent.
But it means having to wait a bit longer before we see the plan - although perhaps only a couple of days.
Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents health trusts, said the parts of the plan being held up included measures to free up clinician time, support for trusts working together, use of the independent sector and how funding will be allocated.
She told Today that high staff absences caused by Omicron had caused significant disruption and it was important NHS leaders saw the full plan to tackle the backlog "as quickly as possible".
Labour's Jonathan Ashworth said the government was in "utter chaos" and while it was "preoccupied" with Boris Johnson's future "the needs of the British people are not met".
"We need a plan and the NHS is in a desperate crisis because of years of underfunding, years of Tory failure to recruit the doctors and nurses that we need, years of Tory cuts," the shadow work and pensions secretary told the BBC.
What has been announced is an online platform called My Planned Care, which will be launched later this month, to give patients waiting for routine surgery increased transparency about their local hospitals and information they might need while preparing for their operations.
There will also be advice on prevention services, such as how to stop smoking and exercise plans, to make sure people are fit for surgery.
The platform will initially be available through the NHS website but it is expected it will become available through the NHS app in the future.
A third of on-the-day cancellations of operations were due to people not being clinically ready for treatment, the Department of Health and Social Care said.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60283636
|
news_uk-60283636
|
|
Court bid to prevent BBC airing MI5 agent probe - BBC News
|
2022-02-25
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The government wants to stop a programme which alleges the man is a dangerous extremist and misogynist.
|
UK
|
The government wants to stop a BBC programme that alleges an MI5 agent is a dangerous extremist and misogynist, who abused two former female partners.
A High Court judgment published on Thursday revealed details of the previously-secret legal battle over whether the story can proceed.
Mr Justice Chamberlain said parts of the case must be heard in public.
A full hearing of the attorney general's request for an injunction against the BBC begins on 1 March.
Summarising the proposed story, Mr Justice Chamberlain said: "The BBC wants to broadcast a programme about an individual, "X".
"The programme is to include the allegations that X is a dangerous extremist and misogynist who physically and psychologically abused two former female partners.
"[The BBC will allege] that X is also a covert human intelligence source (variously referred to as a 'CHIS' or an 'agent') for the Security Service, MI5, that X told one of these women that he worked for MI5 in order to terrorise and control her - and that MI5 should have known about X's behaviour and realised that it was inappropriate to use him as a CHIS.
"The BBC says that the broadcast of this story, and the identification of X by name, is in the public interest."
The judge said that the Attorney General, Suella Braverman QC, was seeking an injunction to prevent the BBC from broadcasting the programme while, at the same time, neither confirming nor denying in public whether X has ever worked for MI5.
"She submits, however, that irrespective of the truth of the allegation, the BBC's proposed broadcast would involve a breach of confidence... create a real and immediate risk to the life, safety and private life of X and damage the public interest and national security.
"The Attorney has also made clear that there would be no objection to a broadcast making allegations about MI5's use and management of agents without naming or otherwise identifying X or any particular individual.
"Nor would there be any problem with a broadcast making allegations about the conduct and dangerousness of X without identifying him as an alleged MI5 agent."
Mr Justice Chamberlain said he had not been convinced by arguments from the attorney general that he should ban the media and public from attending court.
Instead, parts of the case will be heard behind closed doors under a legal procedure designed to allow the UK's intelligence agencies to provide evidence to a judge, and other parts of the case will now be heard in public.
The judge said this decision was influenced by the government's failure so far to dispel the possibility that it had been the source for quotes in the Daily Telegraph warning about the BBC's intentions.
"The fact that a government source, whether acting with or without authority, appears to have briefed the press about this case has an impact on the extent to which it is necessary to sit in private to secure the proper administration of justice," said the judge.
"It would in principle be unfair to allow one party to put its own spin on a case without allowing the other party to put before the public even the basic factual elements of its defence.
"The question of damage to national security... has to be considered against that background."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60514708
|
news_uk-60514708
|
|
Christopher Stalford: MLAs pay tribute to DUP politician - BBC News
|
2022-02-22
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The DUP says "words cannot adequately explain the sense of pain" following his sudden death at 39.
|
Northern Ireland
|
Tributes have been paid at Stormont to Christopher Stalford after the DUP assembly member's sudden death aged 39.
Mr Stalford was principal deputy speaker and had represented South Belfast since 2016, having served previously as councillor, high sheriff of Belfast and deputy mayor.
He is survived by his wife Laura and four children.
Ahead of the sitting, DUP assembly members gathered in the Great Hall at Stormont to pray.
They were led by North Antrim MLA Mervyn Storey.
Some then entered the chamber, with others heading to the assembly gallery which has been opened specially for other MLAs to sit and watch the tributes, because social distancing rules are still in place in the chamber limiting numbers.
After tributes had been paid, members took part in a minute's silence to reflect on Mr Stalford's life.
Ahead of the sitting, DUP assembly members gathered in the Great Hall at Stormont to pray
Mr Stalford's death was announced on Sunday and the tributes, paid across the political spectrum, referenced his wry humour, passion for politics and debate, and love for his wife and children.
DUP deputy leader Paula Bradley led a tearful tribute in the chamber on behalf of the party.
She said she wanted to "honour and give thanks for the life of our much-loved friend and esteemed colleague".
"Words cannot adequately explain the sense of pain and loss that is felt on these benches," she added.
DUP deputy leader Paula Bradley led an emotional tribute to her colleague
She expressed her sympathies to Mr Stalford's family "on the loss of a man who was so utterly devoted to them".
"Christopher's joy came not in holding office but in how he could use that office to improve the everyday lives of those he was honoured to represent," she said.
"It was a mark of the man that he had friends on all sides of this chamber."
Before tributes began, DUP MLAs gathered together just outside the chamber in the great hall, led in prayer by the party's Mervyn Storey.
The DUP deputy leader Paula Bradley spoke tearfully as she thanked other parties for their kind tributes.
One by one, members of other parties shared their fond memories of the fierce debater, known for his wit but also his respect for the institutions and love of public service - something reflected by the Assembly Speaker Alex Maskey
Every MLA who spoke, conscious of what Stormont is now without, even more aware of the great loss felt by Christopher Stalford's family, who he was so deeply devoted to.
The former Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill has Covid so is not present.
Instead, Deirdre Hargey, the communities minister, led the tributes for Sinn Féin.
The South Belfast MLA said she first met Mr Stalford at Belfast City Council and "instantly thought he was older than me due to his mannerisms and his attire of his pinstriped suit, initially thinking this was the instructed uniform of all DUP councillors at that time".
Ms Hargey said he "enjoyed the cut and thrust" of debate and loved talking about his family, faith and unionism.
"Whilst our politics differed, we shared similarities, growing up in working class communities in south Belfast," she added.
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) MLA Nichola Mallon told the chamber she had known the DUP MLA for 10 years.
"In all that time, I got to know a man who was challenging, argumentative, ambitious, some may even say combative, during debates but also a man who was kind, who was quick-witted, fiercely intelligent and very, very funny," Ms Mallon said.
She said his love for his wife and children "just radiated from him".
On Sunday, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood postponed his party's conference out of respect.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Christopher Stalford and his wife Laura in 2010
UUP leader Doug Beattie told the chamber Mr Stalford was "absolutely unique, he was a fierce debater".
"I have no words that will quench the anguish of his party colleagues sitting here today, I have no words that will help with the pain that his family is dealing with today," he said.
"I didn't just like Christopher Stalford, I was jealous of Christopher Stalford as he was truly a first class politician and family man."
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 Michelle O’Neill 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.
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said she first met Mr Stalford during their time at Belfast City Council.
She added that during his tenure as principal deputy speaker, Mr Stalford was "fair, he could be fierce, he kept us all in order", but "used his wit and self-deprecating humour and you never felt that when you were stopped or challenged by him that there was any animosity or personal discord behind it".
"We had very different political backgrounds and views but we had a lot in common," adding that they were "opponents but friends".
"We both lost our fathers at a young age, we were both fiercely proud of coming from working class backgrounds, we both had a passion for the communities we grow up in that drove us into politics and we both believed passionately that education was the route to lift people permanently out of disadvantage in life and we shared a deep faith.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said Mr Stalford was passionate about Northern Ireland
Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister told the chamber that he was still having difficulty processing the shock of Mr Stalford's passing.
"That pales into total insignificance compared to the devastation that undoubtedly his beloved wife Laura and beautiful children are experiencing," he added, sending them his condolences.
He said Mr Stalford had come to work for him 20 years ago in his Belfast office.
"It was evident to me that he had the ability and talent which would make him the politician that he was," he said.
"Though our political perspectives diverged, I am pleased to say we retained a friendship and respect."
People Before Profit's Gerry Carroll said he could "only imagine the heartbreak" Mr Stalford's family were going through.
The West Belfast MLA said that he and Mr Stalford had "robust debate and strong disagreements" when they first met at Belfast City Hall in 2014.
Mr Carroll said he was "an absolutely fair speaker, someone who went out of his way to ensure all voices were heard in debates".
Clare Sugden, an independent MLA, said his passing was "devastating" and that she "felt numb" when she heard the news of his passing, and still does.
"We have lost one of our own. He was the epitome of public service," she said.
He was incredibly "funny and full of wit" said the East Londonderry representative.
She said he was a witty man but one that, when his wit cut, it was "never with malice, and that's how he stood out".
"I do believe that this assembly and NI politics will miss him and I will miss him," she said.
Christopher Stalford with his DUP colleague Carla Lockhart and former leader Arlene Foster
Earlier, DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he last spoke to Mr Stalford on Friday.
"I was never to know how precious that conversation was to be," he told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme.
"A young man who came a long way, from a working class background in south Belfast to the deputy principal speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly - something he was immensely proud of.
"More than anything else and with his love for politics, the one thing that stood out about Christopher was his love for his family.
"His desire to create a better future for his children was something that drove him on."
Mr Stalford sat on the board of governors at Braniel Primary School.
On Monday morning, Diane Dawson, headteacher at Braniel Primary School, said Mr Stalford was "passionate" about education and "wanted the best for every single child irrespective of their background, or their creed or their colour or their denomination".
"We have a very integrated school here in Braniel Nursery and Primary and Christopher championed that," she said.
She said she had the privilege of knowing him as a father and a husband.
"What I saw with Christopher was his sense of fairness and wanting equality for every child in this school."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60456763
|
news_uk-northern-ireland-60456763
|
|
Ukraine-Russia crisis: Stakes are very high, Boris Johnson says - BBC News
|
2022-02-10
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Boris Johnson says he hopes "strong deterrence" and "patient diplomacy" can find a way through.
|
UK
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. PM says we must oppose any return to the days where "great powers" decide the "fates of nations"
Europe faces "the most dangerous moment" in its "biggest security crisis" for decades, Boris Johnson has said as tensions grow between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaking in Brussels, the PM said he hoped "strong deterrence" and "patient diplomacy" could find a way through the crisis but the stakes were "very high".
Russia denies it plans to invade but has 100,000 troops on Ukraine's border.
Mr Johnson is also visiting Poland to show support for Nato allies.
In a joint news conference with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister said he did not believe Russia had yet taken a decision on whether to invade Ukraine but the UK's intelligence "remains grim".
Asked whether the UK would consider going further in its support for Ukraine, including military support for an insurgency if Russia invades, Mr Johnson said he would "consider what more we can conceivably offer".
"It's possible, I don't want to rule this out, but at the moment we think the package is the right one," he said.
As part of a surge of UK diplomatic activity, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss met her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, while Defence Secretary Ben Wallace will travel to Russia on Friday.
During a tense joint news conference on Thursday, Mr Lavrov said the talks had been "disappointing".
"It's like we're listening but not hearing each other so our very detailed explanation fell on deaf ears," he said.
He said relations between the UK and Russia "leave much to be desired" and are at the "lowest point over the past few years".
Asked if he had seen any concessions over Russia's concerns about Nato, Mr Lavrov said he had only heard a demand to "remove Russian troops from Russian territory".
Ms Truss accused Russia of "Cold War rhetoric". She later told the BBC the UK was putting its "full diplomatic effort" into deterring an invasion and de-escalating the situation.
Asked about her meetings with Mr Lavrov, who has been Russia's foreign policy chief for 18 years, Ms Truss said he had "been involved in a lot of the issues that have created the situation we're in now" and that "proper diplomatic talks" were needed.
The reason Boris Johnson is saying the next few days are a dangerous moment is because his and other Western officials believe the confrontation is getting worse.
They say it is not just that there is no de-escalation on Russia's part; it is the fact there is escalation.
They see more troops deployed close to Ukraine's border, whether in Russia or Belarus. They see more intelligence about Russia's plans. They see what they describe as greater disinformation and threats of cyber-attacks.
That is why Western diplomacy is being stepped up, both to reinforce the warning to Moscow about the price it would pay for any invasion, but also to reassure Nato allies close to Ukraine's border and to maintain Western unity.
That is why Mr Johnson has followed his French counterpart and preceded his German counterpart in a flurry of diplomacy. What is not clear is whether Russia is listening.
On the evidence of the frosty news conference between Liz Truss and Sergei Lavrov, there was no meeting of minds.
But what is significant is that all sides seem happy for now to continue talking, however fruitlessly.
Diplomats from Russia and Ukraine and elsewhere have been meeting in Berlin. Further Western leaders are due in Moscow and Kyiv.
And while there is talking taking place, the diplomatic door to a solution remains open, even it may be only ajar.
The latest diplomatic efforts come as Russia and its ally Belarus, which borders Ukraine, prepare to start 10 days of joint military drills. The US has described the move as "escalatory", while France said it was a "violent gesture".
The current tensions come eight years after Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula. Since then, Ukraine's military has been locked in a war with Russian-backed rebels in eastern areas near Russia's borders.
Further talks involving France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia took place on Thursday. France's President Emmanuel Macron met Mr Putin for more than five hours of talks on Monday.
Former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major compared this with a "brief" phone call between Mr Johnson and President Putin last week, saying he did not think the UK's "weight in the international community" was "as strong as it was or as we would wish it to be".
Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer backed Mr Johnson over the UK's stance on Ukraine, telling the BBC: "I've got plenty of arguments with the prime minister on many things particularly in recent months, but when it comes to Russian aggression, we stand as one in the United Kingdom."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The prime minister announced 1,000 more British troops will be put on alert in the UK but he has stressed that Nato is unwilling to send troops into Ukraine itself.
Legislation allowing tougher sanctions to be implemented against Russian individuals, businesses and other entities if it invades came into force on Thursday.
Mr Johnson later visited Poland, where 350 Royal Marines from 45 Commando arrived as part of support announced earlier this week, joining 150 personnel already in the country.
Earlier, Liz Truss took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow
During a news conference in Warsaw, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the UK had shown "wonderful solidarity" with his country, while Mr Johnson said Poland was "absolutely critical to our collective European security".
The UK will also offer to double the number of its troops in Estonia, deploy more RAF jets based in southern Europe, and to sail a Type 45 destroyer and HMS Trent, a patrol ship, in the eastern Mediterranean.
Nato's 30 members - which include the UK, US and several former Soviet republics - agree to come to another's aid in the event of an armed attack.
Ukraine is not a member of Nato. However, it is a "partner country" and may be allowed to join the military alliance sometime in the future, a move Russia sees as a direct threat to its security.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60326142
|
news_uk-60326142
|
|
Vardy’s ‘nasty’ text not about Rooney, court told - BBC News
|
2022-02-10
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
On the second day of the hearing, Mrs Vardy's barrister said the message was "about someone else".
|
Newsbeat
|
Rebekah Vardy was not referring to Coleen Rooney when she called someone an expletive in a message to her agent, a court has heard.
On the second day of a two-day hearing, Mrs Vardy's barrister said the "nasty" message was "about someone else".
Proceedings this week will decide what evidence can be used in a May trial.
The "Wagatha Christie" row broke out in 2019 after Mrs Rooney said fake stories were leaked to newspapers that had only been seen by Mrs Vardy's Instagram.
Mrs Vardy denies the accusations and is suing Mrs Rooney for libel.
On Tuesday, the High Court heard the content of some WhatsApp messages exchanged between Mrs Vardy and her PR and friend Caroline Watt.
Today the judge was told many of these messages were not supposed to be released but a software glitch meant they could be read by her rival's legal team and they want them to be included in the upcoming trial.
They include the key message "I would love to leak those stories", from Mrs Vardy, about Coleen Rooney's Instagram posts.
Mrs Rooney's lawyers have previously claimed that Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie, had leaked information to The Sun newspaper either directly or through Ms Watt "acting on her instruction or with her knowing approval".
In court, her barrister David Sherborne, had said those messages "reveal that Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt are responsible for the leaking". But today, Mrs Vardy's lawyer, Mr Tomlinson insisted they were "selective", and had "precisely the opposite effect".
He also said a text in which she referred to someone as a "nasty" expletive was "not a passage about Mrs Rooney".
During Tuesday's hearing, the barrister quoted messages from Mrs Vardy to Ms Watt in which she said she was "offended" that Mrs Rooney thought she was the person who had leaked the information.
He added: "If one reads these messages in full, what one sees is that Mrs Vardy expresses shock at being accused and she is here communicating with the person that Mr Sherborne says is her co-conspirator.
"These are obviously candid personal messages, and if she was really concerned - 'Oh, this is terrible, we have been found out' - then it would have been completely different."
Rebekah Vardy's lawyer said an expletive message was not about Coleen Rooney
Mrs Rooney is also bringing a claim against Ms Watt for misuse of private information and is asking for it to be joined to the libel case.
Mr Sherborne told the court that if Mrs Vardy wins her claim on the basis that she was not the person who leaked the information, then Mrs Rooney will be left without "vindication" unless she is able to bring the claim against Ms Watt as part of the same case.
David Sherborne also said that Mrs Rooney's lawyers wanted further information from the WhatsApp messages between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt, but were told Ms Watt's phone had fallen into the sea after a boat she was on hit a wave, shortly after the last hearing.
"[It was] most unfortunate, because it was only a short time after the court ordered that the phone should be specifically searched," he said.
Mr Tomlinson told the court: "That is what happened. Mrs Vardy was not present when that happened. She [Ms Watt] was on holiday, she lost her phone."
Mrs Vardy's lawyers have opposed the application to add the claim against Ms Watt to the libel case, saying in written arguments the claim "could have been brought 15 months ago".
Ian Helme, representing Ms Watt, also opposed the application and previously said she has given "clear and consistent" denials against the claim for misuse of private information.
The trial is due to begin in early May but is likely to be delayed.
The hearing before Mrs Justice Steyn concluded on Wednesday with judgement expected on Monday morning.
Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-60323900
|
news_newsbeat-60323900
|
|
Ukraine tensions: Truss in frosty Moscow meeting as UK pushes diplomacy - BBC News
|
2022-02-10
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The foreign secretary has a frosty meeting in Russia as the PM visits Brussels and Warsaw.
|
UK
|
In case you missed it at 12:12 GMT, here's our diplomatic correspondent's analysis on the Lavrov-Truss talks earlier...
On the basis of this morning’s news conference in Moscow, relations between Russia and Britain remain as cold as ever.
The exchanges began slowly. Sergei Lavrov began with a gentle recitation of Russia’s demands and said the talks had improved the UK’s understanding of those demands.
Liz Truss responded by rejecting Russia’s core argument, namely that its security is somehow threatened by Nato expansion and the possibility of Ukraine joining the military alliance. “That is just not true,” she said.
She accused Russia of using aggression to try to “relitigate the past” in a way that was undermining its international standing. This lit Mr Lavrov’s fuse and he hit back.
The talks had been “disappointing”, he said, adding that it was as if the two sides were listening but not hearing. He accused the UK and the West of “hysteria” that was destabilising Ukraine. The West was demanding guarantees from Russia but offering none back in what he described as a “one sided dialogue”.
On Mr Lavrov went: "Russia has been cheated and wronged for many years."
Ms Truss responded robustly: Russia’s 100,000 troops were threatening Ukraine, she said, Russia needed to abide by agreements it had signed not to do so, and it needed to implement a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine.
Mr Lavrov responded, again at length: Nato had promised not to expand but it had - the alliance had a history of being aggressive and cited the former Yugoslavia and Iraq as an example. He also compared the Ukrainian President Zelensky to the Nazi propagandist, Joseph Goebbels.
So diplomacy took place, messages were delivered and received. But there appeared little progress - and no warming of the frosty ground dividing Britain and Russia.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-60325643
|
news_live_uk-60325643
|
|
'Bankrupt' Tommy Robinson faces High Court questioning over finances - BBC News
|
2022-02-04
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
A judge orders the English Defence League founder to court to answer questions on his finances.
|
Leeds & West Yorkshire
|
Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson, owes an estimated £2m to people
English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson will be quizzed about his finances after he failed to pay legal bills for a libel case he lost.
The 39-year-old, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was sued by Jamal Hijazi after defaming him online.
In response to a video of the then 16-year-old schoolboy being attacked, Mr Yaxley-Lennon claimed he had attacked "young English girls".
A High Court judge ordered him to court to answer questions on his finances.
Mr Yaxley-Lennon was sued by Mr Hijazi after he made the accusations following a viral video clip of him being attacked at Almondbury School in Huddersfield in 2018.
The judge found in the claimant's favour and said the fake accusations and language used by Mr Yaxley-Lennon on Facebook were intended to "inflame the situation".
At a High Court hearing earlier, Mr Hijazi's barrister Ian Helme said Mr Yaxley-Lennon was ordered to pay £43,293 in legal costs after a pre-trial hearing in November 2020.
However, at a further hearing in March 2021, he said he was bankrupt.
The barrister argued Mr Yaxley-Lennon, who did not attend the hearing, could be cross-examined about his finances over the debt, despite the ongoing bankruptcy process.
In written arguments, he stated: "The claimant envisages that counsel's opportunity to cross-examine the defendant under oath, accompanied by documents provided by the defendant, will provide for a more detailed analysis of his assets than might be possible through the normal bankruptcy process."
The barrister said Mr Yaxley-Lennon owes a "substantial sum" and he intended to question him "with a view to establishing what steps would be most proportionate to take with a view to maximising recovery".
He told the court that Mr Hijazi's lawyers had information "that what is stated in his bankruptcy application is not a full account of [Mr Yaxley-Lennon's] assets".
While damages and legal costs from the libel trial were not mentioned at the High Court hearing, Mr Yaxley-Lennon was ordered to pay £100,000 damages to Mr Hijazi and £500,000 in legal costs.
The High Court hearing about his finances is due to take place on 22 March.
Follow BBC Yorkshire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-60253855
|
news_uk-england-leeds-60253855
|
|
Rebekah Vardy declared 'war' after Coleen Rooney tweet, court told - BBC News
|
2022-02-08
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
WhatsApp messages shared between Mrs Vardy and her friend and PR have been made public.
|
Newsbeat
|
Rebekah Vardy said it was "war" after Coleen Rooney publicly accused her of leaking stories, a court has heard.
A trial is due to start in May, and the two-day hearing this week is to decide what evidence can be used when that comes around.
The "Wagatha Christie" row broke out in 2019 when Mrs Rooney said fake stories were leaked to the press after only being seen by Mrs Vardy's Instagram.
Mrs Vardy denies the accusations and is suing Mrs Rooney for libel.
On Tuesday, the High Court heard that WhatsApp messages between Mrs Vardy and her PR and friend Caroline Watt had been disclosed ahead of the trial.
And it's what's in those messages that has been discussed in court today.
On the day Mrs Rooney, the wife of former England star Wayne, published a post on Twitter which ended, "It's.......... Rebekah Vardy's account", Mrs Vardy sent a message to Ms Watt, stating: "That's war."
The messages also revealed Mrs Vardy referred to Mrs Rooney and her husband Wayne with offensive language.
Mrs Rooney's lawyers have previously claimed that Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie, had leaked information to The Sun newspaper either directly or through Ms Watt "acting on her instruction or with her knowing approval".
In written arguments, Mrs Rooney's barrister David Sherborne said: "From the outset, Mrs Vardy has always claimed that neither she nor Ms Watt were involved in the leaking of private information from Mrs Rooney's Instagram account.
"The recent disclosure has shown that this is emphatically not the case," he added - referring to those WhatsApp messages.
Mrs Rooney's lawyers have presented messages between Mrs Vardy and her friend as evidence in court
According to Mrs Rooney's written case, messages between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt in January 2019 showed them discussing a post on Mrs Rooney's private Instagram where her car had been damaged.
Mrs Vardy told Ms Watt she "would love to leak those stories x".
Mr Sherborne said Ms Watt was later responsible for the leak of the story to the newspaper, with Mrs Vardy's approval.
After the story was published in The Sun Mrs Rooney tweeted it was "sad" someone who followed her was "betraying" her.
On the first day of the court case, Mrs Vardy posted this photo on her Instagram story
According to written submissions, while discussing the tweet in a private WhatsApp conversation, Ms Watt told Mrs Vardy "It wasn't someone she trusted. It was me", in a message accompanied by a laughing emoji.
In written arguments Mrs Rooney's barrister said this "conspicuously elicits neither surprise, contradiction or criticism from Mrs Vardy, who was plainly aware and approved of this leak".
At the hearing on Tuesday, which is due to last two days, Mr Sherborne said Mrs Rooney had brought a claim against Ms Watt for misuse of private information, which Ms Watt denies.
He added that Mrs Rooney's legal team had wanted more information from the WhatsApp messages between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt, but said Ms Watt's phone had "regrettably" fallen into the North Sea after a boat she was on hit a wave, shortly after the last court hearing.
"[It was] most unfortunate, because it was only a short time after the court ordered that the phone should be specifically searched," he said.
Hugh Tomlinson QC, representing Mrs Vardy, said the denied allegations have caused her "huge damage and distress".
In written arguments, the barrister said the information and messages disclosed "provides no evidence that the claimant leaked the three fake posts".
He said Mrs Rooney "relies upon selective and incomplete WhatsApp exchanges... conveniently ignoring the messages which demonstrate beyond doubt that the claimant was not responsible for leaking the defendant's private information to The Sun".
In further WhatsApp messages between her and Ms Watt, Mrs Vardy said she had supported Mrs Rooney and suggested it was Mrs Rooney's own PR who had leaked stories.
Ian Helme, for Ms Watt, said she had given "clear and consistent" denials against the claim for misuse of private information.
The barrister said in written arguments that it was not only Mrs Vardy's Instagram account that had viewed the post about Mrs Rooney's car, adding that the incident also took place in public.
"It is difficult to see how there could be said to be any reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to such information," Mr Helme said.
He later said that Mrs Rooney's lawyers had taken "an extremely aggressive" approach and added it can be inferred that Mrs Rooney's primary concern is "public opinion, or vindication".
The trial is due to start in early May.
The hearing before Mrs Justice Steyn is due to finish on Wednesday.
Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-60302760
|
news_newsbeat-60302760
|
|
Ukraine-Russia crisis: Stakes are very high, Boris Johnson says - BBC News
|
2022-02-11
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Boris Johnson says he hopes "strong deterrence" and "patient diplomacy" can find a way through.
|
UK
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. PM says we must oppose any return to the days where "great powers" decide the "fates of nations"
Europe faces "the most dangerous moment" in its "biggest security crisis" for decades, Boris Johnson has said as tensions grow between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaking in Brussels, the PM said he hoped "strong deterrence" and "patient diplomacy" could find a way through the crisis but the stakes were "very high".
Russia denies it plans to invade but has 100,000 troops on Ukraine's border.
Mr Johnson is also visiting Poland to show support for Nato allies.
In a joint news conference with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister said he did not believe Russia had yet taken a decision on whether to invade Ukraine but the UK's intelligence "remains grim".
Asked whether the UK would consider going further in its support for Ukraine, including military support for an insurgency if Russia invades, Mr Johnson said he would "consider what more we can conceivably offer".
"It's possible, I don't want to rule this out, but at the moment we think the package is the right one," he said.
As part of a surge of UK diplomatic activity, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss met her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, while Defence Secretary Ben Wallace will travel to Russia on Friday.
During a tense joint news conference on Thursday, Mr Lavrov said the talks had been "disappointing".
"It's like we're listening but not hearing each other so our very detailed explanation fell on deaf ears," he said.
He said relations between the UK and Russia "leave much to be desired" and are at the "lowest point over the past few years".
Asked if he had seen any concessions over Russia's concerns about Nato, Mr Lavrov said he had only heard a demand to "remove Russian troops from Russian territory".
Ms Truss accused Russia of "Cold War rhetoric". She later told the BBC the UK was putting its "full diplomatic effort" into deterring an invasion and de-escalating the situation.
Asked about her meetings with Mr Lavrov, who has been Russia's foreign policy chief for 18 years, Ms Truss said he had "been involved in a lot of the issues that have created the situation we're in now" and that "proper diplomatic talks" were needed.
The reason Boris Johnson is saying the next few days are a dangerous moment is because his and other Western officials believe the confrontation is getting worse.
They say it is not just that there is no de-escalation on Russia's part; it is the fact there is escalation.
They see more troops deployed close to Ukraine's border, whether in Russia or Belarus. They see more intelligence about Russia's plans. They see what they describe as greater disinformation and threats of cyber-attacks.
That is why Western diplomacy is being stepped up, both to reinforce the warning to Moscow about the price it would pay for any invasion, but also to reassure Nato allies close to Ukraine's border and to maintain Western unity.
That is why Mr Johnson has followed his French counterpart and preceded his German counterpart in a flurry of diplomacy. What is not clear is whether Russia is listening.
On the evidence of the frosty news conference between Liz Truss and Sergei Lavrov, there was no meeting of minds.
But what is significant is that all sides seem happy for now to continue talking, however fruitlessly.
Diplomats from Russia and Ukraine and elsewhere have been meeting in Berlin. Further Western leaders are due in Moscow and Kyiv.
And while there is talking taking place, the diplomatic door to a solution remains open, even it may be only ajar.
The latest diplomatic efforts come as Russia and its ally Belarus, which borders Ukraine, prepare to start 10 days of joint military drills. The US has described the move as "escalatory", while France said it was a "violent gesture".
The current tensions come eight years after Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula. Since then, Ukraine's military has been locked in a war with Russian-backed rebels in eastern areas near Russia's borders.
Further talks involving France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia took place on Thursday. France's President Emmanuel Macron met Mr Putin for more than five hours of talks on Monday.
Former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major compared this with a "brief" phone call between Mr Johnson and President Putin last week, saying he did not think the UK's "weight in the international community" was "as strong as it was or as we would wish it to be".
Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer backed Mr Johnson over the UK's stance on Ukraine, telling the BBC: "I've got plenty of arguments with the prime minister on many things particularly in recent months, but when it comes to Russian aggression, we stand as one in the United Kingdom."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The prime minister announced 1,000 more British troops will be put on alert in the UK but he has stressed that Nato is unwilling to send troops into Ukraine itself.
Legislation allowing tougher sanctions to be implemented against Russian individuals, businesses and other entities if it invades came into force on Thursday.
Mr Johnson later visited Poland, where 350 Royal Marines from 45 Commando arrived as part of support announced earlier this week, joining 150 personnel already in the country.
Earlier, Liz Truss took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow
During a news conference in Warsaw, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the UK had shown "wonderful solidarity" with his country, while Mr Johnson said Poland was "absolutely critical to our collective European security".
The UK will also offer to double the number of its troops in Estonia, deploy more RAF jets based in southern Europe, and to sail a Type 45 destroyer and HMS Trent, a patrol ship, in the eastern Mediterranean.
Nato's 30 members - which include the UK, US and several former Soviet republics - agree to come to another's aid in the event of an armed attack.
Ukraine is not a member of Nato. However, it is a "partner country" and may be allowed to join the military alliance sometime in the future, a move Russia sees as a direct threat to its security.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60326142
|
news_uk-60326142
|
|
Winter Olympics: Kamila Valieva test 'due to contamination with grandad's medicine' - BBC Sport
|
2022-02-15
|
['https://www.facebook.com/BBCSport/']
|
Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has argued her positive drugs test was due to contamination with her grandad's medicine, an Olympic official says.
|
Winter Olympics
|
Kamila is favourite for the gold medal in the women's figure skating
Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has argued her positive drugs test was due to contamination with her grandad's medicine, an Olympic official says. The 15-year-old failed a test but is being allowed to compete at Beijing 2022 after a court ruled on Monday ruled that a provisional suspension should not be re-imposed. "Her argument was this contamination happened with a product her grandfather was taking," the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Denis Oswald told reporters. Valieva discovered a week ago that she had failed a drugs test but then successfully appealed against a Russian Anti-Doping Agency decision to impose a provisional suspension. That decision was upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday after appeals by the IOC and others. It cleared the way for Valieva to continue participating at the Games and she will launch her bid for gold in the women's figure skating competition on Tuesday. She says she is "happy" but "emotionally tired" after the past week. The pre-Games favourite, who had already wowed judges to help the Russian Olympic Committee to victory in the team event, continued training - in front of the cameras - amid uncertainty over whether she would be able to carry on competing. "These [past] days have been very difficult for me," Valieva, who sometimes looked tearful at the training rink, told Russia's Channel One television. "It's as if I don't have any emotions left. I am happy but at the same time I am emotionally tired."
Russia, which is banned from competing at the Games under its own flag because of its doping history, has come under the spotlight once again because of this case. But Oswald, who chaired the IOC commission that looked into doping violations by Russian athletes at the 2014 Sochi Games, said that at this stage it looked like there was "no connection with the institutionalised doping we had in Sochi" but that it was difficult to have an opinion yet without all the details. Valieva already knows that if she were to win a medal in the women's event, which starts on Tuesday with the short programme and concludes on Thursday with the free skate, the IOC has decided there will be no medal ceremony. "We want to allocate the medal to the right person," Oswald, the permanent chair of the IOC's disciplinary commission, said. "As long as the decision regarding the doping case of this athlete has not been clarified - she has delivered a positive sample - until we have a clear situation then we will not allocate the medals." The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) is investigating Valieva's entourage, including coaches, doctors and other adults surrounding her, with Oswald adding that a "15-year-old would not do something wrong alone". Meanwhile, she is still the subject of an anti-doping investigation for the failed test. Oswald said she had not yet requested the testing of her B sample, which forms part of that process. Under Wada rules athletes whose A sample tests positive are entitled to ask for their B sample to be tested. The case still has a long way to run and there are many questions to answer, but we will get one answer later on Tuesday to the question over how this will have all affected Valieva's performances on the ice. The Russian says she has been supported by messages on social media, adding: "When I open Instagram, I can see so many good wishes and so much belief. I've seen that in Moscow there are even billboards which say 'Kamila, we're with you'. It is very nice. "And in these difficult moments this support is very important for me."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/winter-olympics/60384450
|
rt_winter-olympics_60384450
|
|
Victim awarded £1.4m damages over abuse by monks - BBC News
|
2022-02-15
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The man was sexually assaulted and beaten by three Christian Brothers at St Ninian's in Falkland, Fife.
|
Edinburgh, Fife & East Scotland
|
Kelly, on the left, and Farrell, abused boys at St Ninian's while working there in the 70s and 80s
A man who was abused by monks at a school in Fife run by Christian Brothers has secured £1.4m in damages.
It is believed to be the highest sum ever to be awarded to a survivor.
The victim was sexually assaulted and beaten by three Christian Brothers while staying at St Ninian's School in Falkland in 1980 and 81.
The man, who was named in courts as AB to protect his identity, said he hoped his award would inspire others in their quest for justice.
A year ago, the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, being conducted by Lady Smith, said St Ninian's residential school had been "a place of abuse and deprivation".
Lady Smith said children suffered physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and described the evidence as "shocking and distressing".
The inquiry chairwoman also concluded that members of the Catholic religious order were able to "pursue their abusive practices with impunity".
Judge Lady Smith has led the inquiry since 2015
Lady Smith concluded children at the school, which opened in 1951 and closed in 1983, were failed by a system that should have protected them.
In 2016 two former teachers at the school were jailed for a total of 15 years after being convicted of the physical and sexual abuse of pupils.
Former headmaster John Farrell, 73, from Motherwell, was jailed for five years and Paul Kelly, 64, from Plymouth, for 10 years.
Paul Kelly, on the left, and John Farrell were jailed for abusing pupils at St Ninian's in Fife
The High Court in Glasgow heard their victims were aged between 11 and 15, when they were abused between 1979 and 1983.
Another monk, Brother Ryan, died in July 2013 before he could be investigated.
AB's evidence did not play a part in the convictions but a sheriff's ruling, which was disclosed this week, said the abuse did occur due to the volume of supporting evidence gathered during a historical abuse claim made by solicitors Digby Brown.
AB was sent to St Ninian's in February 1980 when he was 12 years old and stayed there until April 1981.
While at the school AB said he was raped, molested and beaten by all three men and was forced to watch attacks on other children.
AB said that Brothers Kelly, Farrell and Ryan commonly targeted children from a dormitory they referred to as "the favourite boys room".
St Ninian's in Falkland, Fife, opened in 1951 and closed in 1983
The monks would also frequently play the record 'Ashes to Ashes' by David Bowie during their attacks - a song that continues to elicit harmful flashbacks.
AB, who is now 54, admitted he kept his past secret from his wife and daughter until he opened up for the first time in November 2013 when he spoke to police officers.
He said: "I just broke down in tears. Until then I'd been living in my head for 30 years.
"I used to hide all my emotions. If there was something about abuse on the TV then I'd go to the toilet and hide so no-one would see any reaction on my face."
The Christian Brothers order, which ran St Ninian's at the time of the abuse, tried to have the civil action thrown out as the death of Brother Ryan meant they could not investigate AB's allegations.
But Sheriff Christopher Dickson dismissed this argument and ordered the Christian Brothers to pay £1.39m in damages in recognition of the lifelong impact on AB, including on his ability to work.
Welcoming the court decision, AB said: "Even though the Crown couldn't prosecute anyone in relation to my evidence I am glad the Sheriff and court believed me.
"When it comes to justice in cases like mine people often ask things like 'It must have been worth the wait?'
"I know what they mean but no - it's never worth the wait. Not when you remember why we've been waiting.
"I'll always feel the pain. I'll always have flashbacks."
If you have been affected by the issues raised in this article, help and support can be found at BBC Action Line.
• None School 'was a place of abuse and deprivation'
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-60377109
|
news_uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-60377109
|
|
Supreme Court halts James Craig's US fraud case extradition - BBC News
|
2022-02-23
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
It finds James Craig's human rights were breached by a failure to introduce a legal measure in Scotland.
|
South Scotland
|
The Supreme Court ruled James Craig's human rights had been breached
The UK Supreme Court has halted the extradition of a Scottish man wanted by the United States over a £1.2m fraud.
Five judges found James Craig's human rights had been breached as a legal measure which could have helped him had not been introduced in Scotland.
The UK government did not bring in a measure north of the border allowing an extradition to be blocked if a trial could take place in the UK.
It made the decision at the Scottish government's request.
The Supreme Court's ruling will set a precedent for other extradition cases.
However, it is not immediately clear how many will now be open to challenge as a result.
Mr Craig, from Dunragit in Dumfries and Galloway, has fought a marathon legal battle against his extradition to the US over a crime he denies committing.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has accused him of tweeting false information about two American companies in 2013, costing investors $1.6m.
He was alleged to have made $97 by buying shares at a lower price and then reselling them. He later repaid the cash plus $120 interest without admitting that he had done anything wrong.
The extradition process against Mr Craig began in 2017
Police Scotland searched Mr Craig's house at the request of the FBI in 2014. A warrant for his arrest was issued by the SEC in 2015. The extradition process began in 2017.
Had Mr Craig been from England, Wales or Northern Ireland, he could have opposed his extradition on the grounds of "forum bar."
It allows an extradition to be blocked on the basis that a trial could "fairly and effectively" take place in the UK and not abroad.
The UK government introduced the measure in 2013 following the case of Gary McKinnon, a computer hacker who successfully fought extradition to the US.
However, the Scottish government asked that it should not apply to Scottish cases over fears that it would interfere with the independence of Scottish prosecutors.
That meant Mr Craig could not use forum bar as an argument against his extradition.
Following a legal challenge by Mr Craig in 2018, the Court of Session declared that the UK government had acted unlawfully by failing to introduce forum bar in Scotland.
A sheriff then ruled that Mr Craig's extradition could still go ahead, a judgement backed by the Appeal Court, which said the forum bar failure had not rendered the entire process unlawful.
The UK Supreme Court has now ruled that the failure to bring in the forum bar in Scotland had breached Mr Craig's human rights.
Announcing the decision, judge Lord Reed said: "The Supreme Court unanimously allows the appeal.
"A new extradition hearing may be held before a different sheriff, at which Mr Craig will be able to rely on the forum bar provisions in addition to any other arguments properly available to him."
Forum bar was finally introduced in Scotland in September 2021.
The Supreme Court's ruling means the case is being brought back to Scotland to start all over again, nine years after the original alleged offence.
Mr Craig has declined to comment on the judgement on the advice of his lawyers.
His solicitor Paul Dunne said his client was "very pleased" with the Supreme Court's decision.
"He has felt all along that what has gone on hasn't been right," he said.
"For seven years he has had his life on hold due to a procedure that we knew in 2018 was unlawful."
A Scottish government spokesman said: "When the UK government determined that extradition law should be changed to introduce a forum bar, this was a decision for them, as extradition is a reserved matter.
"But the Scottish government indicated it would be preferable for this provision not to apply in Scotland because of concerns it would potentially impact on the independence of the role of the Lord Advocate in making prosecutorial decisions.
"Instead of not including provision for Scotland, the UK government decided to extend the forum bar provision to Scotland in legislation, but then did not commence the relevant provision for Scotland. This was entirely a matter for the UK government."
• None Craig (Appellant) v Her Majesty's Advocate (for the Government of the United States of America) and another (Respondents) (Sc The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-60493106
|
news_uk-scotland-south-scotland-60493106
|
|
Sunak says he 'firmly believes in lower taxes' despite April increase - BBC News
|
2022-02-23
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The chancellor has pledged to deliver a lower tax economy amid pressure to scrap a rise in National Insurance.
|
Business
|
Chancellor Rishi Sunak told an audience today that not all tax cuts "pay for themselves"
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has pledged to "deliver a low tax, higher growth economy" amid criticism from MPs over rises to National Insurance.
Mr Sunak told an audience at the Bayes Business School on Thursday that he would cut taxes "sustainably".
It comes as National Insurance rates are set to rise from 1 April to help fund health and social care.
The rise means employees, employers and the self-employed will all pay 1.25p more in the pound.
"I am going to deliver a lower tax economy but I am going to do so in a responsible way, and in a way that tackles our long term challenges," Mr Sunak said in his speech.
However, the chancellor also argued that taxes should not be cut if spending plans are unfunded.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the Conservative Party was "now the party of high tax".
"The chancellor may say he 'believes' in low taxes in his lecture - but the hard facts are that Sunak has hit households and business with 15 tax rises in two years in post - with an unfair National Insurance rise down the line," Ms Reeves said.
"He has raised the most tax on average per budget than any chancellor in the last 50 years."
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer was set to deliver a speech in Huddersfield outlining his party's approach to taxation and ending insecure employment, but it was cancelled due to the Ukraine crisis.
Sir Keir had planned to say that a Labour government would end the "economic fatalism" of the Conservatives and build "a new economy of security, where stable employment will be the bedrock of a better future for the next generation".
Mr Sunak said he was "disheartened when I hear the flippant claim that 'tax cuts always pay for themselves'".
"They do not," he added. "Cutting tax sustainably requires hard work, prioritisation, and the willingness to make difficult and often unpopular arguments elsewhere."
In Mr Sunak's two years in his role he has overseen hundreds of billions in Covid-related government spending through furlough payments, business grants and testing.
He has also been at the helm as taxation as a share of the economy has risen to its highest level since the 1950s.
Under the government's plans, employees, employers and the self-employed will all pay 1.25p more in the pound for National Insurance from April for a year.
After that, the extra tax will be collected as a new Health and Social Care Levy.
The changes will see an employee on £20,000 a year pay an extra £89 in tax, while someone on £50,000 will pay £464 more.
The Liberal Democrats and some backbench Tory MPs have called for the chancellor to scrap the incoming NI hike to ease the financial burden on households and businesses at a time of rising costs.
In the speech Mr Sunak also set out his priorities to increase the UK's economic growth, and argued that "what government does is far less important than creating the conditions for private businesses and individuals to thrive".
Tony Danker, director general of the business group the CBI, said setting out how firms could "achieve sustainable growth for the long term" was "vital" at a period of volatility in the economy.
"Government enabling firms to invest, thrive and deliver prosperity is absolutely the right direction of travel," he added.
Mr Danker has called for a permanent "super-deduction" tax break to boost business investment in the UK.
The super-deduction allowance currently gives businesses investing in certain types of equipment, like machinery, a much higher tax reduction than usual but will expire in March next year.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60498425
|
news_business-60498425
|
|
Parliament restoration: Report warns of increasing costs - BBC News
|
2022-02-23
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
A study says works could cost billions more if MPs stay put - but many of them oppose moving out.
|
UK Politics
|
Keeping the Commons and Lords in Parliament while the building is refurbished around them could drive up costs of the multi-billion restoration by at least 40%, according to the most extensive study yet.
Many MPs, including new Commons leader Mark Spencer, argue repair works should continue with MPs, peers and staff still working there.
But a new report said that would mean dramatic increases in both the time needed to complete the work, and the total cost.
The review, by the body set up to oversee the project, estimates the basic cost of essential repairs to the Victorian Palace of Westminster at £7-13 billion.
It said these works would take between 19 and 28 years, with the building fully vacated for between 12 and 20 years.
But the key finding is that those figures would dramatically increase if the politicians stay put.
If the Commons chamber were kept running until MPs are relocated to another venue within the building (probably the House of Lords chamber, which they used for much of World War Two after their own chamber was bombed), the works would be prolonged by 7-15 years.
The report found this would increase costs to £9.5-18.5 billion, or 40%.
If the Commons chamber were kept in action throughout the works, the time required was estimated to increase by 27-48 years, with the cost ballooning to £11-22bn, a 60% increase.
The range in the estimates reflects the continuing uncertainties over the state of the building, even after extensive surveys.
Like any restoration project, the real extent of the work can only be gauged when floorboards are lifted and walls are exposed.
These figures would only increase with VAT and inflation thrown in, the report found - with increased risks of a catastrophic failure, like a fire, or a flood of sewage if politicians stay put.
The essential repairs cover things like asbestos removal, improved fire safety, renewing wiring, plumbing and data systems, as well as dealing with the backlog of conservation work in the world-heritage building and improving security and accessibility.
Essential work on the parliamentary estate would include replacing old cabling
This is a very live debate in Parliament, with senior voices arguing strongly both for moving out - "decanting" in Commons-speak, and staying put.
MPs voted in 2019 to accept the principle of vacating the building while the restoration work was completed, but the rising projected cost and the increasing duration of their period of exile have produced a backlash.
Many believe the money cannot be justified to their constituents, and hate the idea of moving out for such a long period.
The House of Commons Commission, the administrative body of the Commons, has voted for the Restoration and Renewal Sponsor Body, which is supposed to act as the "client" in the project, to be scrapped, and for MPs to take back control.
But that would require a vote in the Commons, and given the sums of money involved, the government would be forced to take an interest in what is, theoretically, a "House Matter".
This could get very messy - watch out for questions to Mark Spencer on the issue, from influential MPs on both sides of the argument.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60499997
|
news_uk-politics-60499997
|
|
Russia-Ukraine tensions: Powers clash at UN Security Council - BBC News
|
2022-02-01
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Moscow's mobilisation near Ukraine's border is the biggest in Europe in decades, the US says.
|
Europe
|
Linda Thomas-Greenfield (R) warned of more Russian troops arriving in Belarus
There have been angry clashes between Russian and US envoys at the UN Security Council, after the US called a meeting to discuss Moscow's troop build-up on its borders with Ukraine.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the mobilisation was the biggest Europe had seen in decades.
Her Russian counterpart accused the US of fomenting hysteria and unacceptable interference in Russia's affairs.
The US and UK have promised further sanctions if Russia invades Ukraine.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said legislation was being prepared which would target a wider range of individuals and businesses close to the Kremlin than is currently possible.
A US official said Washington's sanctions meant individuals close to the Kremlin would be cut off from the international financial system.
Russia has placed an estimated 100,000 troops, tanks, artillery and missiles near Ukraine's frontiers.
Diplomatic efforts continue, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken due to hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov later on Tuesday.
The US said it had received a written response from Russia to a US proposal aimed at de-escalating the crisis in Ukraine. But hours later Russia's deputy foreign minister said that was not true and a source told Ria news agency it was still preparing a response.
A state department spokesperson said the US remained fully committed to dialogue and would continue to consult closely with its allies and partners, including Ukraine.
Meanwhile a number of European leaders are travelling to Ukraine on Tuesday for talks. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is flying to Kyiv after promising to work with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to find a diplomatic solution to arguments with Moscow and "avoid further bloodshed".
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte are also heading to the Ukrainian capital.
At Monday's UN Security Council meeting, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said there was no proof that Russia was planning military action against Ukraine, and that its troop build-up was not confirmed by the UN.
He said Russia often deployed troops on its own territory and that this was none of Washington's business.
Russia had tried to block the open session of the UN body but was outvoted by 10 votes to two.
The Biden administration was "whipping up tensions and rhetoric, and provoking escalation", Mr Nebenzya said.
"This isn't just unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of our state, it's also an attempt to mislead the international community about the true situation in the region and the reasons for the current global tensions," he said.
Ms Thomas-Greenfield said the US continued to believe there was a diplomatic solution but warned that the US would act decisively if Russia invaded Ukraine, the consequences of which would be "horrific".
"This is the largest... mobilisation of troops in Europe in decades," she said.
"And as we speak, Russia is sending even more forces and arms to join them."
Moscow was planning to increase its force deployed in neighbouring Belarus, on Ukraine's northern border, to 30,000, she added.
Late on Monday, the US ordered the departure of family members of American government employees from Belarus, citing the "unusual and concerning Russian military build-up". A similar order was earlier issued to families of US government personnel in the American embassy in Ukraine's capital Kyiv.
Ukrainian forces have been fighting Russian-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine for eight years
Moscow wants the West to promise Ukraine will never join the Nato alliance - in which members promise to come to another's aid in the event of an armed attack - but the US has rejected that demand.
Nato's 30 members include the US and UK, as well as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - former Soviet republics which border Russia. Moscow sees Nato troops in eastern Europe as a direct threat to its security.
Mr Putin has long argued the US broke a guarantee it made in 1990 that Nato would not expand further east, though interpretations differ over exactly what was promised.
Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula in 2014. It is also backing rebels who seized large swathes of the eastern Donbas region soon afterwards, and some 14,000 people have died in fighting there.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Understand the Ukraine crisis with Ros Atkins in less than six minutes
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60203208
|
news_world-europe-60203208
|
|
Boris Johnson visits Ukraine for talks as Russian invasion fears rise - BBC News
|
2022-02-01
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The UK PM will hold talks designed to avert war, while Russia masses tens of thousands of troops.
|
UK Politics
|
Boris Johnson has arrived in Ukraine for talks with the country's president amid rising concerns over a possible Russian invasion.
The UK prime minister promised to work with Volodymyr Zelensky to find a diplomatic solution to arguments with Moscow and "avoid further bloodshed".
Russia has massed an estimated 100,000 troops, tanks, artillery and missiles near its borders with Ukraine.
But President Vladimir Putin denies he is planning an attack.
However, his government has warned Ukraine not to make any further moves towards joining Nato, arguing that this threatens Russia's own security.
The US has rejected this demand and Western countries are threatening to expand sanctions against Moscow if there is an invasion.
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said legislation was being prepared to target a wider range of individuals and businesses associated with Mr Putin, while a US official said Washington's sanctions meant people close to the Kremlin would be cut off from the international financial system.
Ahead of Mr Johnson's visit to Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, the UK government announced it was giving £88m to promote stable governance and energy independence from Russia.
Mr Johnson said: "It is the right of every Ukrainian to determine how they are governed. As a friend and a democratic partner, the UK will continue to uphold Ukraine's sovereignty in the face of those who seek to destroy it.
"We urge Russia to step back and engage in dialogue to find a diplomatic resolution and avoid further bloodshed."
Mr Johnson hopes also to speak to Mr Putin later this week, having cancelled a call with the Russian president on Monday as he faced questions from MPs over parties held in Downing Street during the pandemic.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had been due to accompany the PM to Ukraine, but she announced on Monday that she had been diagnosed with Covid and was self-isolating.
US President Joe Biden has warned there is a "distinct possibility" of Russia invading Ukraine within the next month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has praised Western backing in the face of Russia's military build-up and announced an expansion of the army.
As British, Polish and Dutch leaders visited the country, top US and Russian officials are due to hold fresh talks on the crisis.
But on Monday there were angry clashes between Russian and US envoys at the UN Security Council, after the US called a meeting to discuss Moscow's troop build-up on its borders with Ukraine.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the mobilisation was the biggest Europe had seen in decades.
She said the US continued to believe there was a diplomatic solution, but warned the US would act decisively in the event of an invasion - the consequences of which would be "horrific".
However, her Russian counterpart Vasily Nebenzya accused the US of fomenting hysteria and "unacceptable interference" in Russia's affairs.
He said there was no proof that Russia was planning military action against Ukraine, adding that Russia often deployed troops on its own territory and this was none of Washington's business.
Russia wants the West to promise Ukraine will never join Nato - a military alliance where members promise to come to another's aid in the event of an armed attack.
Moscow sees Nato troops in eastern Europe as a direct threat to its security, but the US has already rejected this demand.
President Putin has long argued the US broke a 1990 guarantee, amid the collapse of the Soviet Union, that Nato would not expand further east - though interpretations differ over exactly what was promised.
Nato's 30 members include the US and UK, as well as Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - former Soviet republics which border Russia.
Moscow's forces annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula in 2014 and it is backing rebels who seized large swathes of the eastern Donbas region soon afterwards.
Some 14,000 people have died in fighting there.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60204847
|
news_uk-politics-60204847
|
|
Ukraine crisis: Vladimir Putin's geopolitical jigsaw - BBC News
|
2022-02-01
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Invasion or fear strategy: the Russian leader keeps everyone guessing on his real plans for Ukraine.
|
Europe
|
Ever tried doing a jigsaw which has half the pieces missing?
It's frustrating. It's confusing. You never see the full picture.
Welcome to the world of Kremlin politics.
Puzzling out what Vladimir Putin is thinking and planning is challenging, to say the least. That's how the Kremlin likes it: keeping everyone guessing.
What is President Putin's plan for Ukraine? Is Moscow preparing a full-scale invasion? A more limited operation? Or is the sabre-rattling simply brinkmanship, coercive diplomacy (at its most coercive)?
The pieces of the puzzle we do have are causing concern in the West:
Washington has now replied in writing to Moscow's security demands. The Kremlin says it will analyse America's response.
In the meantime, the tough talking continues.
"Do not put Nato infrastructure on Ukrainian territory. We ask our 'partners' in Nato countries to get out. Get out from our borders. Get out from post-Soviet countries, because it's threatening to Russian people," says Yevgeny Popov.
Mr Popov, who hosts a talk show on state TV, is also an MP from the party of power, United Russia.
"Time is running out," Mr Popov warns me. "You have to make a decision. Fast."
"Otherwise it will be a tremendously dangerous reaction for the whole world. Some Western officials said that Russia has no balls. Guys, do you really want to see it?"
Russia has been staging military drills near Ukraine's borders
In public, Russian officials insist that Nato is a danger to Russia's national security.
I'm sceptical. I find it hard to believe that Moscow truly sees the alliance is a threat.
Only 6% of Russia's borders touch Nato countries; the Kremlin has good relations with some Nato members, like Italy and Hungary; it's even sold weapons systems to Nato member Turkey.
And keep in mind that Nato (in the shape of Norway) has been on Russia's border for more than 70 years.
Plus, there is no sign whatsoever of Ukraine, Georgia or other former Soviet states being accepted into Nato in the near future.
So why is the Kremlin fixating on the Nato alliance?
Partly for domestic reasons: to get the Russian people to unite against an alleged external enemy.
But also, perhaps, as an excuse to use this moment to reshape the European security order to Moscow's benefit; to re-establish Russia's sphere of influence and try to rewrite the results of the Cold War.
"Putin believes the West exploited Russian weakness in the 1990s, that Russia wasn't treated fairly and didn't get what it deserved. He wants to change that," believes Andrei Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, a think-tank linked to the authorities.
"His argument is very simple. Now the balance of powers has shifted, it's no longer the West-centred unipolar world. You should listen to us and take our concerns seriously."
So what will Moscow's next step be?
Without all the pieces of the jigsaw, we can only guess. It may depend on whether America's offer to negotiate with Russia on some aspects of European security will be enough to satisfy Vladimir Putin.
If it's not, if the Kremlin leader is determined to dismantle the current European security architecture, military confrontation is possible and long-term friction between East and West.
"I hope Putin will be satisfied with what he got so far," Mr Kortunov tells me. "I think to some extent he was successful. He enforced a dialogue on the West. So, he could argue his mission was accomplished; that keeping tensions on the Ukrainian border helped him incentivise the West to consider Russian proposals.
"But he may have a different interpretation. He may say the West is trying to engage Russia in endless and pointless negotiations and that Western penetration into Ukraine will continue.
"Domestically, though, Russian society is not eager for a big war on its doorstep. Russians are not eager to participate in a major military operation in Ukraine," Mr Kortunov adds.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Ukrainian Marta Yuzkiv is preparing to defend her country but says she doesn't want war
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60152007
|
news_world-europe-60152007
|
|
Ukraine-Russia crisis: Stakes are very high, Boris Johnson says - BBC News
|
2022-02-09
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Boris Johnson says he hopes "strong deterrence" and "patient diplomacy" can find a way through.
|
UK
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. PM says we must oppose any return to the days where "great powers" decide the "fates of nations"
Europe faces "the most dangerous moment" in its "biggest security crisis" for decades, Boris Johnson has said as tensions grow between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaking in Brussels, the PM said he hoped "strong deterrence" and "patient diplomacy" could find a way through the crisis but the stakes were "very high".
Russia denies it plans to invade but has 100,000 troops on Ukraine's border.
Mr Johnson is also visiting Poland to show support for Nato allies.
In a joint news conference with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, the prime minister said he did not believe Russia had yet taken a decision on whether to invade Ukraine but the UK's intelligence "remains grim".
Asked whether the UK would consider going further in its support for Ukraine, including military support for an insurgency if Russia invades, Mr Johnson said he would "consider what more we can conceivably offer".
"It's possible, I don't want to rule this out, but at the moment we think the package is the right one," he said.
As part of a surge of UK diplomatic activity, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss met her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, while Defence Secretary Ben Wallace will travel to Russia on Friday.
During a tense joint news conference on Thursday, Mr Lavrov said the talks had been "disappointing".
"It's like we're listening but not hearing each other so our very detailed explanation fell on deaf ears," he said.
He said relations between the UK and Russia "leave much to be desired" and are at the "lowest point over the past few years".
Asked if he had seen any concessions over Russia's concerns about Nato, Mr Lavrov said he had only heard a demand to "remove Russian troops from Russian territory".
Ms Truss accused Russia of "Cold War rhetoric". She later told the BBC the UK was putting its "full diplomatic effort" into deterring an invasion and de-escalating the situation.
Asked about her meetings with Mr Lavrov, who has been Russia's foreign policy chief for 18 years, Ms Truss said he had "been involved in a lot of the issues that have created the situation we're in now" and that "proper diplomatic talks" were needed.
The reason Boris Johnson is saying the next few days are a dangerous moment is because his and other Western officials believe the confrontation is getting worse.
They say it is not just that there is no de-escalation on Russia's part; it is the fact there is escalation.
They see more troops deployed close to Ukraine's border, whether in Russia or Belarus. They see more intelligence about Russia's plans. They see what they describe as greater disinformation and threats of cyber-attacks.
That is why Western diplomacy is being stepped up, both to reinforce the warning to Moscow about the price it would pay for any invasion, but also to reassure Nato allies close to Ukraine's border and to maintain Western unity.
That is why Mr Johnson has followed his French counterpart and preceded his German counterpart in a flurry of diplomacy. What is not clear is whether Russia is listening.
On the evidence of the frosty news conference between Liz Truss and Sergei Lavrov, there was no meeting of minds.
But what is significant is that all sides seem happy for now to continue talking, however fruitlessly.
Diplomats from Russia and Ukraine and elsewhere have been meeting in Berlin. Further Western leaders are due in Moscow and Kyiv.
And while there is talking taking place, the diplomatic door to a solution remains open, even it may be only ajar.
The latest diplomatic efforts come as Russia and its ally Belarus, which borders Ukraine, prepare to start 10 days of joint military drills. The US has described the move as "escalatory", while France said it was a "violent gesture".
The current tensions come eight years after Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula. Since then, Ukraine's military has been locked in a war with Russian-backed rebels in eastern areas near Russia's borders.
Further talks involving France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia took place on Thursday. France's President Emmanuel Macron met Mr Putin for more than five hours of talks on Monday.
Former Conservative Prime Minister Sir John Major compared this with a "brief" phone call between Mr Johnson and President Putin last week, saying he did not think the UK's "weight in the international community" was "as strong as it was or as we would wish it to be".
Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer backed Mr Johnson over the UK's stance on Ukraine, telling the BBC: "I've got plenty of arguments with the prime minister on many things particularly in recent months, but when it comes to Russian aggression, we stand as one in the United Kingdom."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The prime minister announced 1,000 more British troops will be put on alert in the UK but he has stressed that Nato is unwilling to send troops into Ukraine itself.
Legislation allowing tougher sanctions to be implemented against Russian individuals, businesses and other entities if it invades came into force on Thursday.
Mr Johnson later visited Poland, where 350 Royal Marines from 45 Commando arrived as part of support announced earlier this week, joining 150 personnel already in the country.
Earlier, Liz Truss took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow
During a news conference in Warsaw, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the UK had shown "wonderful solidarity" with his country, while Mr Johnson said Poland was "absolutely critical to our collective European security".
The UK will also offer to double the number of its troops in Estonia, deploy more RAF jets based in southern Europe, and to sail a Type 45 destroyer and HMS Trent, a patrol ship, in the eastern Mediterranean.
Nato's 30 members - which include the UK, US and several former Soviet republics - agree to come to another's aid in the event of an armed attack.
Ukraine is not a member of Nato. However, it is a "partner country" and may be allowed to join the military alliance sometime in the future, a move Russia sees as a direct threat to its security.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60326142
|
news_uk-60326142
|
|
Rebekah Vardy declared 'war' after Coleen Rooney tweet, court told - BBC News
|
2022-02-09
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
WhatsApp messages shared between Mrs Vardy and her friend and PR have been made public.
|
Newsbeat
|
Rebekah Vardy said it was "war" after Coleen Rooney publicly accused her of leaking stories, a court has heard.
A trial is due to start in May, and the two-day hearing this week is to decide what evidence can be used when that comes around.
The "Wagatha Christie" row broke out in 2019 when Mrs Rooney said fake stories were leaked to the press after only being seen by Mrs Vardy's Instagram.
Mrs Vardy denies the accusations and is suing Mrs Rooney for libel.
On Tuesday, the High Court heard that WhatsApp messages between Mrs Vardy and her PR and friend Caroline Watt had been disclosed ahead of the trial.
And it's what's in those messages that has been discussed in court today.
On the day Mrs Rooney, the wife of former England star Wayne, published a post on Twitter which ended, "It's.......... Rebekah Vardy's account", Mrs Vardy sent a message to Ms Watt, stating: "That's war."
The messages also revealed Mrs Vardy referred to Mrs Rooney and her husband Wayne with offensive language.
Mrs Rooney's lawyers have previously claimed that Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie, had leaked information to The Sun newspaper either directly or through Ms Watt "acting on her instruction or with her knowing approval".
In written arguments, Mrs Rooney's barrister David Sherborne said: "From the outset, Mrs Vardy has always claimed that neither she nor Ms Watt were involved in the leaking of private information from Mrs Rooney's Instagram account.
"The recent disclosure has shown that this is emphatically not the case," he added - referring to those WhatsApp messages.
Mrs Rooney's lawyers have presented messages between Mrs Vardy and her friend as evidence in court
According to Mrs Rooney's written case, messages between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt in January 2019 showed them discussing a post on Mrs Rooney's private Instagram where her car had been damaged.
Mrs Vardy told Ms Watt she "would love to leak those stories x".
Mr Sherborne said Ms Watt was later responsible for the leak of the story to the newspaper, with Mrs Vardy's approval.
After the story was published in The Sun Mrs Rooney tweeted it was "sad" someone who followed her was "betraying" her.
On the first day of the court case, Mrs Vardy posted this photo on her Instagram story
According to written submissions, while discussing the tweet in a private WhatsApp conversation, Ms Watt told Mrs Vardy "It wasn't someone she trusted. It was me", in a message accompanied by a laughing emoji.
In written arguments Mrs Rooney's barrister said this "conspicuously elicits neither surprise, contradiction or criticism from Mrs Vardy, who was plainly aware and approved of this leak".
At the hearing on Tuesday, which is due to last two days, Mr Sherborne said Mrs Rooney had brought a claim against Ms Watt for misuse of private information, which Ms Watt denies.
He added that Mrs Rooney's legal team had wanted more information from the WhatsApp messages between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt, but said Ms Watt's phone had "regrettably" fallen into the North Sea after a boat she was on hit a wave, shortly after the last court hearing.
"[It was] most unfortunate, because it was only a short time after the court ordered that the phone should be specifically searched," he said.
Hugh Tomlinson QC, representing Mrs Vardy, said the denied allegations have caused her "huge damage and distress".
In written arguments, the barrister said the information and messages disclosed "provides no evidence that the claimant leaked the three fake posts".
He said Mrs Rooney "relies upon selective and incomplete WhatsApp exchanges... conveniently ignoring the messages which demonstrate beyond doubt that the claimant was not responsible for leaking the defendant's private information to The Sun".
In further WhatsApp messages between her and Ms Watt, Mrs Vardy said she had supported Mrs Rooney and suggested it was Mrs Rooney's own PR who had leaked stories.
Ian Helme, for Ms Watt, said she had given "clear and consistent" denials against the claim for misuse of private information.
The barrister said in written arguments that it was not only Mrs Vardy's Instagram account that had viewed the post about Mrs Rooney's car, adding that the incident also took place in public.
"It is difficult to see how there could be said to be any reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to such information," Mr Helme said.
He later said that Mrs Rooney's lawyers had taken "an extremely aggressive" approach and added it can be inferred that Mrs Rooney's primary concern is "public opinion, or vindication".
The trial is due to start in early May.
The hearing before Mrs Justice Steyn is due to finish on Wednesday.
Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-60302760
|
news_newsbeat-60302760
|
|
Vardy’s ‘nasty’ text not about Rooney, court told - BBC News
|
2022-02-09
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
On the second day of the hearing, Mrs Vardy's barrister said the message was "about someone else".
|
Newsbeat
|
Rebekah Vardy was not referring to Coleen Rooney when she called someone an expletive in a message to her agent, a court has heard.
On the second day of a two-day hearing, Mrs Vardy's barrister said the "nasty" message was "about someone else".
Proceedings this week will decide what evidence can be used in a May trial.
The "Wagatha Christie" row broke out in 2019 after Mrs Rooney said fake stories were leaked to newspapers that had only been seen by Mrs Vardy's Instagram.
Mrs Vardy denies the accusations and is suing Mrs Rooney for libel.
On Tuesday, the High Court heard the content of some WhatsApp messages exchanged between Mrs Vardy and her PR and friend Caroline Watt.
Today the judge was told many of these messages were not supposed to be released but a software glitch meant they could be read by her rival's legal team and they want them to be included in the upcoming trial.
They include the key message "I would love to leak those stories", from Mrs Vardy, about Coleen Rooney's Instagram posts.
Mrs Rooney's lawyers have previously claimed that Mrs Vardy, who is married to Leicester City striker Jamie, had leaked information to The Sun newspaper either directly or through Ms Watt "acting on her instruction or with her knowing approval".
In court, her barrister David Sherborne, had said those messages "reveal that Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt are responsible for the leaking". But today, Mrs Vardy's lawyer, Mr Tomlinson insisted they were "selective", and had "precisely the opposite effect".
He also said a text in which she referred to someone as a "nasty" expletive was "not a passage about Mrs Rooney".
During Tuesday's hearing, the barrister quoted messages from Mrs Vardy to Ms Watt in which she said she was "offended" that Mrs Rooney thought she was the person who had leaked the information.
He added: "If one reads these messages in full, what one sees is that Mrs Vardy expresses shock at being accused and she is here communicating with the person that Mr Sherborne says is her co-conspirator.
"These are obviously candid personal messages, and if she was really concerned - 'Oh, this is terrible, we have been found out' - then it would have been completely different."
Rebekah Vardy's lawyer said an expletive message was not about Coleen Rooney
Mrs Rooney is also bringing a claim against Ms Watt for misuse of private information and is asking for it to be joined to the libel case.
Mr Sherborne told the court that if Mrs Vardy wins her claim on the basis that she was not the person who leaked the information, then Mrs Rooney will be left without "vindication" unless she is able to bring the claim against Ms Watt as part of the same case.
David Sherborne also said that Mrs Rooney's lawyers wanted further information from the WhatsApp messages between Mrs Vardy and Ms Watt, but were told Ms Watt's phone had fallen into the sea after a boat she was on hit a wave, shortly after the last hearing.
"[It was] most unfortunate, because it was only a short time after the court ordered that the phone should be specifically searched," he said.
Mr Tomlinson told the court: "That is what happened. Mrs Vardy was not present when that happened. She [Ms Watt] was on holiday, she lost her phone."
Mrs Vardy's lawyers have opposed the application to add the claim against Ms Watt to the libel case, saying in written arguments the claim "could have been brought 15 months ago".
Ian Helme, representing Ms Watt, also opposed the application and previously said she has given "clear and consistent" denials against the claim for misuse of private information.
The trial is due to begin in early May but is likely to be delayed.
The hearing before Mrs Justice Steyn concluded on Wednesday with judgement expected on Monday morning.
Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-60323900
|
news_newsbeat-60323900
|
|
Mum's search for kidney donor that could save son's life amid legal row - BBC News
|
2022-02-09
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
A mum says her autistic son needs a transplant but medics argue it is not in his best interests.
|
Lancashire
|
William's mum says her son needs a kidney transplant to live
The mother of an autistic teenager at the centre of a legal battle has launched an urgent appeal for a kidney donor in a bid to save his life.
Ami McLennan, from Lancaster, said a transplant represented her son William's only chance and, without it, he would have just 12 months to live.
Royal Manchester Children's Hospital argued a transplant was not in the 17-year-old's best interests.
The BBC successfully challenged an anonymity order to name him.
"He deserves that chance," Ms McLennan said. "I'm just fighting for what he and everybody else with a learning disability should be entitled to.
"Nothing will ever stop me fighting for my son."
William's future is in the hands of a Court of Protection judge who must decide on the best course of treatment.
William, who has only 5% kidney function, can articulate his wishes and has said very clearly he does "not want to die", Ms McLennan said.
The keen golfer has a rare kidney disease Focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) which means he needs to receive dialysis for four hours, four times a week.
At one stage he was hooked up to various machines for 10 hours a day.
Even with dialysis, his condition means he only has a life expectancy of 19 years.
A successful transplant could extend his life by another 20 years.
His autism and ADHD make the treatment more difficult because he struggles to cope with the wires, tubes and various medical procedures.
Even if a suitable donor is found, medics said there was very little guarantee a transplant operation would be successful, his condition could reoccur in a new kidney, and he may not be able to tolerate the procedure because of his autism.
They fear he would have to spend six weeks sedated and ventilated in intensive care to ensure he complies with the interventions after the operation.
William's mother said her son had already proven on repeated occasions that with time, patience and the necessary reasonable adjustments, he could cope with such complex procedures.
Ami McLennan says her son should not be denied an operation "because of his autism"
She said: "He is an active 17-year-old boy. He shouldn't be denied an operation anyone else would have the right to just because of his autism.
"We feel we have had to fight for William at every stage of his life.
"Without lifting the reporting restrictions, we had nothing."
At a remote hearing on Tuesday, the BBC overturned the court order which had prevented Ms McLennan being able to raise the profile of his case, and make this plea for a living donor.
Lifting the reporting restrictions, Mrs Justice Arbuthnot recognised time was running out for William and that the family needed to be able to speak out.
She told the court: "It will take time and no doubt the best option is a live donor rather than a dead donor if a transplant is found to be in William's best interests."
William's family are not suitable donors because of their own health conditions, so they are desperately searching for a live donor.
That would allow them the time to plan the operation and psychologically prepare William for any procedure that followed.
Ms McLennan said: "Now we can try and find a donor and we'll get ready to fight the next battle."
A Court of Protection hearing to decide whether William should be added to the transplant list will be heard in the next three weeks.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, which manages the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, said it recognised it was a "very difficult time" for William and his family.
In a statement, it said: "Our clinicians have worked very hard to enable William's treatment to take place so far, and he continues to have his haemodialysis, as agreed with his family, subject to any change in his clinical condition.
"The decision on whether a transplant would be in his best interest is a very complex one, requiring consideration of a range of very difficult issues including significant risks and the possibility that his transplant would fail, which is why the Court of Protection is being asked to make a decision on the best care for William going forward."
Liz Davis, from Irwin Mitchell, who is representing Ms McLennan, said: "While we are encouraged the trust has been working with the family to try to reach agreement on William's care we're determined to ensure their voice is heard on the incredibly important matter, including putting forward strong legal arguments as to why a kidney transplant is in William's best interests."
Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.uk
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-60313251
|
news_uk-england-lancashire-60313251
|
|
Ukraine-Russia tensions: UK vows to step up support - BBC News
|
2022-02-19
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says the UK will spend more on democracy and energy projects in Ukraine.
|
UK Politics
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss says the UK is increasing its financial support for Ukraine, amid tensions with Russia.
Speaking in Kyiv, Ms Truss said the UK would be spending an additional £12m on democracy and energy independence projects in the country.
Western allies have warned Russia could try to stage an attack to justify invading Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly denied it has plans to invade despite amassing more than 100,000 troops along the border.
As part of ongoing diplomatic efforts, Ms Truss visited the Ukrainian capital, holding a press conference alongside the country's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.
She praised the country's "fortitude in the face of Russian aggression" and pledged UK's "steadfast support".
Mr Kuleba said Ukrainian-British relationships had "reached an unprecedentedly high level".
In addition to increasing funding for Ukraine's defence capabilities from £88m to £100m, Ms Truss also announced a new "trilateral partnership" with Ukraine and Poland to "intensify work on defence and security, sanctions, energy security and countering disinformation".
The foreign secretary also warned that "false-flag" operations were taking place in the region adding: "We are very clear the aggressor in this situation is Russia."
A false-flag attack is where one side stages or fabricates an attack against it in order to justify the use of force in retaliation.
Earlier in the day, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia could be "trying to stage a pretext for an armed attack against Ukraine".
Russia has accused the West of "hysteria" over such warnings in recent weeks.
It has also called on Nato to guarantee Ukraine will not be allowed to join the defence alliance.
Nato insists it will keep its open door policy, and has been increasingly concerned an invasion is on the cards.
Mr Stoltenberg, said there were "signs from Moscow that diplomacy could continue", but that the West had "not seen any sign of withdrawal or de-escalation".
Speaking from an RAF base in Waddington, Lincolnshire, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was "still time to avoid a catastrophe" but said the picture from the region was "very grim".
He added that a Russian invasion would result in a "bloody and protracted conflict in which, I'm afraid, there will be many casualties and including many Russian casualties"
In a speech following the press conference in Kyiv, Ms Truss, who became foreign secretary last year, said the current crisis in the region was a "litmus test" for the West.
"The free world needs to draw the line under a decade of drift... we must stand up to and defuse Russian aggression now, because if we don't it will embolden not only the Kremlin, but aggressors, authoritarians and autocrats everywhere.
"The West needs to wise up. We need to work together to discredit their arguments in public."
Ms Truss is now travelling to Poland for a meeting with her Polish counterpart, before heading to the Munich Security Conference on Saturday for meetings with allies.
The UK has no troops in Ukraine but it has increased numbers in Estonia to the "high hundreds," according to the Ministry of Defence, as well as sending additional helicopters, jets and warships to the region.
A further 1,000 British troops are also on standby to support Nato if called upon.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60414013
|
news_uk-politics-60414013
|
|
Camilla: The making of the future Queen Consort - BBC News
|
2022-02-06
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The Duchess of Cornwall's endorsement by the Queen is well-deserved, say royal commentators.
|
UK
|
The couple laugh as they drink whisky given to them as a wedding gift in Caithness, Scotland
The Queen has announced she would like Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, to have the title of Queen Consort when the Prince of Wales becomes King.
It is an endorsement from the very top, say royal commentators - and one that is well-deserved after years of loyalty and hard work.
Prince Charles described it as a deep honour for both him and his "darling wife".
Since marrying into the Royal Family 17 years ago, Camilla, 74, has grown into her role as a senior royal.
The path to public acceptance has been at times rocky, and at first Camilla was a controversial figure who was blamed by some for the end of the prince's first marriage to Princess Diana.
In 1994, Charles admitted to adultery with Camilla, but said it came after his marriage to Diana had "irretrievably broken down".
It was not until 1999 when she and Charles went public with their romance, being photographed emerging from the Ritz as part of a carefully-planned PR campaign.
Prince Charles and Camilla pictured for the first time in public, leaving the Ritz hotel in 1999
Since then, Camilla has won over a cautious public. She has been praised for championing her own causes and interests, including supporting literacy charities, animal welfare and organisations helping victims of domestic abuse.
The duchess has also been outspoken on the issue of sexual violence against women. In a speech in London last year, she mentioned the murders of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa, and called for men to also be "on board" with tackling a culture of sexual violence.
"She's been loyal, discreet and works her socks off with her charities and supports the prince," says royal author Penny Junor.
"She's taken to this job at a relatively late age and she's been extraordinary."
The Queen smiles on as Charles and Camilla leave the chapel after their marriage blessing
Born Camilla Rosemary Shand on 17 July 1947 to an upper-class family, she grew up on the edge of the South Downs in East Sussex.
She has described having a childhood love of ponies, saying she thought of little else but "charging about on them".
Her other interests include reading. Camilla has spoken of the importance of children's books - naming Black Beauty as one of her favourites - and is a fan of the literary Hay Festival. During the pandemic, she set up an Instagram-based book club.
And she has also confessed to being an addict of Radio 4 serial drama the Archers - joking she suffered "severe withdrawal symptoms" when episodes were disrupted by Covid.
"Many people will have seen the good work the Duchess of Cornwall has done over the years, her loyalty, her discreet nature and the hard work she puts in," says Victoria Howard - who edits the website The Crown Chronicles. "I think many people were pleased to see this."
Camilla delivers a speech at the City of London Guildhall last November
Many royal commentators remark that with Camilla by his side, Charles often appears more relaxed.
Before her royal marriage, the duchess's life was not one of palaces and public engagements - and sometimes that more normal experience shows.
In an interview in 2020, Camilla revealed she'd enjoyed not dressing up and living in a pair of jeans during lockdown.
And the mother-of-two also spoke about her love of her grandchildren, saying missing them during lockdown was "the worst" and she just wanted to "rush up and hug them".
She will bring warmth to the role of Queen Consort, says Ms Junor. "She's fun and friendly and she has a twinkle in her eye. She makes people feel good for having met her."
When Camilla and Charles married in a civil ceremony in 2005, it was announced Camilla would become known as Princess Consort - rather than Queen Consort - due to public sensitivity.
But royal experts say the Queen's endorsement will now sway the public into embracing Camilla as Queen.
"For Camilla, the journey from being the third person in a marriage to queen-in-waiting is complete," says former royal correspondent Peter Hunt.
Emily Nash from Hello! magazine agrees: "By her giving her own royal approval to Queen Camilla, the Queen Consort, it settles an argument that's been raging for many years - and I think that that's what's going to happen now."
The royal wave: Camilla is driven along Edinburgh's Royal Mile after Zara Tindall's wedding in 2011
"This is the Queen's wish," adds Junor. "This is not about Charles being headstrong and wanting this for the woman he loves. It is a proper endorsement from the top and it's right and well-deserved, and just as it should be."
For historian Robert Lacey, the timing of the Queen's message - less than a year after Prince Philip's death - is poignant.
"She has been clearly been thinking about the importance of a partner and a consort to her. She has just lost her own consort, and I think that's a big factor in why we're hearing it now," he tells the BBC.
"They call it the Firm - and this really brings Camilla into the Firm properly."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60279761
|
news_uk-60279761
|
|
Sunak says he 'firmly believes in lower taxes' despite April increase - BBC News
|
2022-02-24
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The chancellor has pledged to deliver a lower tax economy amid pressure to scrap a rise in National Insurance.
|
Business
|
Chancellor Rishi Sunak told an audience today that not all tax cuts "pay for themselves"
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has pledged to "deliver a low tax, higher growth economy" amid criticism from MPs over rises to National Insurance.
Mr Sunak told an audience at the Bayes Business School on Thursday that he would cut taxes "sustainably".
It comes as National Insurance rates are set to rise from 1 April to help fund health and social care.
The rise means employees, employers and the self-employed will all pay 1.25p more in the pound.
"I am going to deliver a lower tax economy but I am going to do so in a responsible way, and in a way that tackles our long term challenges," Mr Sunak said in his speech.
However, the chancellor also argued that taxes should not be cut if spending plans are unfunded.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the Conservative Party was "now the party of high tax".
"The chancellor may say he 'believes' in low taxes in his lecture - but the hard facts are that Sunak has hit households and business with 15 tax rises in two years in post - with an unfair National Insurance rise down the line," Ms Reeves said.
"He has raised the most tax on average per budget than any chancellor in the last 50 years."
Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer was set to deliver a speech in Huddersfield outlining his party's approach to taxation and ending insecure employment, but it was cancelled due to the Ukraine crisis.
Sir Keir had planned to say that a Labour government would end the "economic fatalism" of the Conservatives and build "a new economy of security, where stable employment will be the bedrock of a better future for the next generation".
Mr Sunak said he was "disheartened when I hear the flippant claim that 'tax cuts always pay for themselves'".
"They do not," he added. "Cutting tax sustainably requires hard work, prioritisation, and the willingness to make difficult and often unpopular arguments elsewhere."
In Mr Sunak's two years in his role he has overseen hundreds of billions in Covid-related government spending through furlough payments, business grants and testing.
He has also been at the helm as taxation as a share of the economy has risen to its highest level since the 1950s.
Under the government's plans, employees, employers and the self-employed will all pay 1.25p more in the pound for National Insurance from April for a year.
After that, the extra tax will be collected as a new Health and Social Care Levy.
The changes will see an employee on £20,000 a year pay an extra £89 in tax, while someone on £50,000 will pay £464 more.
The Liberal Democrats and some backbench Tory MPs have called for the chancellor to scrap the incoming NI hike to ease the financial burden on households and businesses at a time of rising costs.
In the speech Mr Sunak also set out his priorities to increase the UK's economic growth, and argued that "what government does is far less important than creating the conditions for private businesses and individuals to thrive".
Tony Danker, director general of the business group the CBI, said setting out how firms could "achieve sustainable growth for the long term" was "vital" at a period of volatility in the economy.
"Government enabling firms to invest, thrive and deliver prosperity is absolutely the right direction of travel," he added.
Mr Danker has called for a permanent "super-deduction" tax break to boost business investment in the UK.
The super-deduction allowance currently gives businesses investing in certain types of equipment, like machinery, a much higher tax reduction than usual but will expire in March next year.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60498425
|
news_business-60498425
|
|
Court bid to prevent BBC airing MI5 agent probe - BBC News
|
2022-02-24
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The government wants to stop a programme which alleges the man is a dangerous extremist and misogynist.
|
UK
|
The government wants to stop a BBC programme that alleges an MI5 agent is a dangerous extremist and misogynist, who abused two former female partners.
A High Court judgment published on Thursday revealed details of the previously-secret legal battle over whether the story can proceed.
Mr Justice Chamberlain said parts of the case must be heard in public.
A full hearing of the attorney general's request for an injunction against the BBC begins on 1 March.
Summarising the proposed story, Mr Justice Chamberlain said: "The BBC wants to broadcast a programme about an individual, "X".
"The programme is to include the allegations that X is a dangerous extremist and misogynist who physically and psychologically abused two former female partners.
"[The BBC will allege] that X is also a covert human intelligence source (variously referred to as a 'CHIS' or an 'agent') for the Security Service, MI5, that X told one of these women that he worked for MI5 in order to terrorise and control her - and that MI5 should have known about X's behaviour and realised that it was inappropriate to use him as a CHIS.
"The BBC says that the broadcast of this story, and the identification of X by name, is in the public interest."
The judge said that the Attorney General, Suella Braverman QC, was seeking an injunction to prevent the BBC from broadcasting the programme while, at the same time, neither confirming nor denying in public whether X has ever worked for MI5.
"She submits, however, that irrespective of the truth of the allegation, the BBC's proposed broadcast would involve a breach of confidence... create a real and immediate risk to the life, safety and private life of X and damage the public interest and national security.
"The Attorney has also made clear that there would be no objection to a broadcast making allegations about MI5's use and management of agents without naming or otherwise identifying X or any particular individual.
"Nor would there be any problem with a broadcast making allegations about the conduct and dangerousness of X without identifying him as an alleged MI5 agent."
Mr Justice Chamberlain said he had not been convinced by arguments from the attorney general that he should ban the media and public from attending court.
Instead, parts of the case will be heard behind closed doors under a legal procedure designed to allow the UK's intelligence agencies to provide evidence to a judge, and other parts of the case will now be heard in public.
The judge said this decision was influenced by the government's failure so far to dispel the possibility that it had been the source for quotes in the Daily Telegraph warning about the BBC's intentions.
"The fact that a government source, whether acting with or without authority, appears to have briefed the press about this case has an impact on the extent to which it is necessary to sit in private to secure the proper administration of justice," said the judge.
"It would in principle be unfair to allow one party to put its own spin on a case without allowing the other party to put before the public even the basic factual elements of its defence.
"The question of damage to national security... has to be considered against that background."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60514708
|
news_uk-60514708
|
|
Parliament restoration: Report warns of increasing costs - BBC News
|
2022-02-24
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
A study says works could cost billions more if MPs stay put - but many of them oppose moving out.
|
UK Politics
|
Keeping the Commons and Lords in Parliament while the building is refurbished around them could drive up costs of the multi-billion restoration by at least 40%, according to the most extensive study yet.
Many MPs, including new Commons leader Mark Spencer, argue repair works should continue with MPs, peers and staff still working there.
But a new report said that would mean dramatic increases in both the time needed to complete the work, and the total cost.
The review, by the body set up to oversee the project, estimates the basic cost of essential repairs to the Victorian Palace of Westminster at £7-13 billion.
It said these works would take between 19 and 28 years, with the building fully vacated for between 12 and 20 years.
But the key finding is that those figures would dramatically increase if the politicians stay put.
If the Commons chamber were kept running until MPs are relocated to another venue within the building (probably the House of Lords chamber, which they used for much of World War Two after their own chamber was bombed), the works would be prolonged by 7-15 years.
The report found this would increase costs to £9.5-18.5 billion, or 40%.
If the Commons chamber were kept in action throughout the works, the time required was estimated to increase by 27-48 years, with the cost ballooning to £11-22bn, a 60% increase.
The range in the estimates reflects the continuing uncertainties over the state of the building, even after extensive surveys.
Like any restoration project, the real extent of the work can only be gauged when floorboards are lifted and walls are exposed.
These figures would only increase with VAT and inflation thrown in, the report found - with increased risks of a catastrophic failure, like a fire, or a flood of sewage if politicians stay put.
The essential repairs cover things like asbestos removal, improved fire safety, renewing wiring, plumbing and data systems, as well as dealing with the backlog of conservation work in the world-heritage building and improving security and accessibility.
Essential work on the parliamentary estate would include replacing old cabling
This is a very live debate in Parliament, with senior voices arguing strongly both for moving out - "decanting" in Commons-speak, and staying put.
MPs voted in 2019 to accept the principle of vacating the building while the restoration work was completed, but the rising projected cost and the increasing duration of their period of exile have produced a backlash.
Many believe the money cannot be justified to their constituents, and hate the idea of moving out for such a long period.
The House of Commons Commission, the administrative body of the Commons, has voted for the Restoration and Renewal Sponsor Body, which is supposed to act as the "client" in the project, to be scrapped, and for MPs to take back control.
But that would require a vote in the Commons, and given the sums of money involved, the government would be forced to take an interest in what is, theoretically, a "House Matter".
This could get very messy - watch out for questions to Mark Spencer on the issue, from influential MPs on both sides of the argument.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60499997
|
news_uk-politics-60499997
|
|
Government climate advisers say cut fossil fuels to lower energy bills - BBC News
|
2022-02-24
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The government's climate change advisers say new oil and gas in the North Sea would not lower bills.
|
Science & Environment
|
Climate advisers say that renewable power is a more reliable way to lower energy bills
The best way to ease consumers' pain from high energy prices is to stop using fossil fuels rather than drill for more of them, the government's climate advisers say.
Some Tory MPs want the government to expand production of shale and North Sea gas, saying it would lower bills.
But advisers said UK-produced gas would be sold internationally and barely reduce the consumer price.
They said wind and solar power, as well as home insulation, is a better route.
The report from the Climate Change Committee (CCC) comes at a time when household energy bills are rising quickly. There is also international uncertainty over gas supplies due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
The committee warned that new fossil fuel projects in the North Sea would, in some cases, not deliver gas until 2050.
That’s the date when climate laws stipulate that the UK must be almost completely weaned off gas.
The committee said it favours tighter restrictions on drilling in the North Sea, and it favours a "presumption against exploration".
But it won’t go so far as recommending these actions to ministers because it said there are finely-balanced arguments for and against drilling.
British-produced gas, for instance, is extracted causing less damage to the climate than imports, although it’s impossible to say whether other exporters will reduce their own emissions in future.
What’s more, a so-called windfall tax might be imposed on the rising profits of oil firms – and the cash given back to consumers.
These uncertainties mean that decisions on whether to drill more in the North Sea must be left to ministers, the committee says.
The oil and gas industry feels it has a strong case because of its lower-than-average emissions.
Environmentalists are angry that the committee hasn’t followed the recommendation of the International Energy Agency (IEA) and ruled out further fossil fuel exploration because enough has been discovered already.
“We think the UK - with its diversified economy and its large historic emissions - should be the ones leading the way on recommending no further oil and gas exploration,” Doug Parr from Greenpeace told BBC News.
Chris Stark, chief executive of the CCC, said the committee was disappointed with the UK oil and gas industry's ambitions to cut its own operational emissions.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. What does it take to live on renewable energy?
It said the industry could lower pollution by reducing methane venting and electrifying oil platforms. And it warned that over-supply of hydro-carbons globally would “blow the Paris climate agreement out of the water.”
Lord Deben, the committee’s chairman, was emphatic about the need to continue on the path away from burning gas. He said if the UK followed through with green policies outlined by the prime minister, it would cut £100 off bills in the future.
He said average home bills would have been £40 lower now if the former PM David Cameron hadn’t scrapped schemes to insulate the UK as part of his initiative to “cut the green crap” – a remark ascribed to one of his aides, which led to an assault against energy-saving programmes.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) welcomed the report as an "acknowledgement that carbon budgets can still be met if new oil and gas fields are developed in the UK".
"There will continue to be ongoing demand for oil and gas over the coming decades as we transition to cleaner and cheaper forms of energy generated in this country," the spokesperson said.
Craig Mackinlay, one of the most vocal MPs calling for increased North Sea drilling, said the CCC advice had "finally acknowledged" that UK "domestic gas production creates jobs, can reduce energy prices and helps towards energy security".
The report comes a day after a think tank, Green Alliance, accused the government of wasting millions of pounds on propping up North Sea oil and gas.
"Tax relief and subsidies have made the UK one of the most skewed tax environments in the world for oil and gas production," it said.
The report estimated that fossil fuel companies received nearly £10bn in tax relief for new exploration in the North Sea between 2016 and 2020, while £3.7bn was granted in tax relief for decommissioning costs.
But the report warned that revenue is expected to drop from the mature basin, as remaining resources become harder to extract.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-60497058
|
news_science-environment-60497058
|
|
DUP MLA Christopher Stalford dies aged 39 - BBC News
|
2022-02-20
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Mr Stalford represented South Belfast and was the NI Assembly's principal deputy speaker.
|
Northern Ireland
|
Christopher Stalford was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly in 2016
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician Christopher Stalford has died suddenly at the age of 39.
Mr Stalford was a well-known member of the party and had represented South Belfast in the Northern Ireland Assembly since 2016.
DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said he was deeply saddened at Mr Stalford's death.
Sir Jeffrey said Mr Stalford was "not just an elected representative or a colleague, he was a friend".
Mr Stalford is survived by his wife Laura and four children.
The DUP leader said his sympathies were with the wider Stalford family on the "loss of a husband, father, son and brother".
"I talked at length with Christopher on Friday night," said Sir Jeffrey.
"He was passionate about Northern Ireland and wanted the best for his constituents.
"I was never to know how precious that conversation was to be."
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said Mr Stalford was "born to be a public representative"
Boris Johnson said Mr Stalford was a "passionate and dedicated servant" of the people of South Belfast.
Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin said he was "deeply saddened".
"I conveyed my sympathies to his party leader Jeffrey Donaldson earlier, and my sincere condolences go to his wife Laura, children, family, friends and colleagues in the DUP," he said.
DUP chairman Lord Morrow said he had known Mr Stalford since he was a child.
"As a party, we are shocked and saddened by his death but most of all we are heartbroken for Laura, their four little children and Christopher's wider family who will feel this loss most keenly," he said.
The party's North Antrim MP Ian Paisley said he had "loved politics and engagement with the public".
"We just do not know what a day will bring forward and today a shadow of loss hangs over our party," he added.
He once thought about being a history or politics teacher and before he became a politician he often took part in discussion programmes on radio and television.
An articulate advocate for unionism, he began working for the then DUP MEP Jim Allister and also for the MLA Peter Weir.
Later he joined the DUP's press team.
After 11 years on Belfast City Council he became an assembly member for South Belfast where he was brought up - it was a place he was very proud of.
He often talked about growing up in Annadale Flats near the River Lagan.
He once described himself as an Arlene Ultra when Arlene Foster was party leader - but last year he supported Edwin Poots in his bid for leadership.
In private Christopher Stalford was a very witty man.
He took his job as a public representative seriously, but never himself. He liked nothing more than winding up colleagues and political rivals.
When Stormont returned in 2020 he relished the role of principal deputy speaker and even at moments of political tension his personality and sense of humour shone through.
Mr Stalford with party colleagues at the opening of his constituency office in 2016
Mr Stalford had worked in the DUP press office for a number of years before becoming an elected representative.
Elected to Belfast City Council in 2005, he served as deputy mayor from 2013 to 2014.
In 2016, he was one of two DUP candidates selected to run for the South Belfast constituency in the assembly election.
After the restoration of the Stormont institutions in 2020, Mr Stalford was appointed principal deputy speaker to chair debates in the assembly.
"His friends and colleagues throughout the world of politics will miss his political contribution, and his constituents his local efforts and leadership across south Belfast," she added.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood announced the party's spring conference, scheduled for Sunday evening, would be postponed as a mark of respect for Mr Stalford.
"Christopher and I knew each other for more than 20 years and this news has come as such a shock," he said.
"You could have a storming argument in the assembly with terse words and raised voices but as soon as you left, he would always have a wry smile and a laugh."
Doug Beattie, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, said he was "lost for words" at the news.
"He was someone I liked, respected and who worked tirelessly for his community and country," he added.
Naomi Long, Alliance Party leader, said it was hard to put into words her "shock, sadness and devastation".
"Despite our politics often being radically different, Christopher and I had a warm personal friendship, with him often talking to me about his pride in his family," said Mrs Long.
"He was a genuine and funny person, who was dedicated to public service."
Christopher Stalford, pictured alongside former DUP leader Ian Paisley, served as deputy mayor of Belfast City Council
TUV leader Jim Allister said words were not adequate to express the shock he felt.
"His colleagues in the assembly and elsewhere will feel an aching void, though it is his family who above all require the prayers and support of us all," he said.
Brandon Lewis, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, offered sincere condolences to Mr Stalford's family.
"As MLA and principal deputy speaker, Christopher was passionate about crucial issues that affected people across NI and was dedicated to building a better Northern Ireland for everyone," Mr Lewis said.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60451845
|
news_uk-northern-ireland-60451845
|
|
Adele announces she will perform at the Brit Awards - BBC News
|
2022-02-02
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The star will also give her first interview since postponing her Las Vegas residency.
|
Entertainment & Arts
|
Adele has four nominations for this year's Brit Awards
Two weeks after postponing her Las Vegas residency, Adele has announced she will perform at the Brit Awards.
"I'm really happy to say that I am performing at the Brits next week!!" the star wrote on Instagram.
Tuesday's ceremony will mark the singer's return to the stage where, in 2011, she gave a career-changing performance of Someone Like You.
While in the UK, Adele will also give Graham Norton her first interview since postponing her 12-week Las Vegas run.
"I'm looking forward to it," she said of her chat show appearance, adding: "Oh, and Rich sends his love."
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 adele 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.
The latter comment was a response to tabloid rumours that her relationship with US sports agent Rich Paul was on the rocks.
Some reports had speculated that relationship troubles derailed her Las Vegas residency. Others have said production issues and arguments over the set design were to blame.
In a video announcing the postponement last month, Adele said that "delivery delays" combined with an outbreak of Covid in her team had caused the delay. She has yet to confirm new dates for the 24 postponed shows.
She last performed live on two TV specials to promote her new album 30 in November.
Adele has four nominations at this year's Brits, with 30 up for the coveted album of the year prize.
If she wins all four, she will equal Robbie Williams as the artist with the most Brit Awards - 13 in all.
Dave, Ed Sheeran and Little Simz also have four nominations this year, and will all perform on the night.
However, US star Doja Cat has pulled out after members of her crew tested positive for Covid.
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-60228152
|
news_entertainment-arts-60228152
|
|
Ukraine crisis: Vladimir Putin's geopolitical jigsaw - BBC News
|
2022-02-02
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Invasion or fear strategy: the Russian leader keeps everyone guessing on his real plans for Ukraine.
|
Europe
|
Ever tried doing a jigsaw which has half the pieces missing?
It's frustrating. It's confusing. You never see the full picture.
Welcome to the world of Kremlin politics.
Puzzling out what Vladimir Putin is thinking and planning is challenging, to say the least. That's how the Kremlin likes it: keeping everyone guessing.
What is President Putin's plan for Ukraine? Is Moscow preparing a full-scale invasion? A more limited operation? Or is the sabre-rattling simply brinkmanship, coercive diplomacy (at its most coercive)?
The pieces of the puzzle we do have are causing concern in the West:
Washington has now replied in writing to Moscow's security demands. The Kremlin says it will analyse America's response.
In the meantime, the tough talking continues.
"Do not put Nato infrastructure on Ukrainian territory. We ask our 'partners' in Nato countries to get out. Get out from our borders. Get out from post-Soviet countries, because it's threatening to Russian people," says Yevgeny Popov.
Mr Popov, who hosts a talk show on state TV, is also an MP from the party of power, United Russia.
"Time is running out," Mr Popov warns me. "You have to make a decision. Fast."
"Otherwise it will be a tremendously dangerous reaction for the whole world. Some Western officials said that Russia has no balls. Guys, do you really want to see it?"
Russia has been staging military drills near Ukraine's borders
In public, Russian officials insist that Nato is a danger to Russia's national security.
I'm sceptical. I find it hard to believe that Moscow truly sees the alliance is a threat.
Only 6% of Russia's borders touch Nato countries; the Kremlin has good relations with some Nato members, like Italy and Hungary; it's even sold weapons systems to Nato member Turkey.
And keep in mind that Nato (in the shape of Norway) has been on Russia's border for more than 70 years.
Plus, there is no sign whatsoever of Ukraine, Georgia or other former Soviet states being accepted into Nato in the near future.
So why is the Kremlin fixating on the Nato alliance?
Partly for domestic reasons: to get the Russian people to unite against an alleged external enemy.
But also, perhaps, as an excuse to use this moment to reshape the European security order to Moscow's benefit; to re-establish Russia's sphere of influence and try to rewrite the results of the Cold War.
"Putin believes the West exploited Russian weakness in the 1990s, that Russia wasn't treated fairly and didn't get what it deserved. He wants to change that," believes Andrei Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, a think-tank linked to the authorities.
"His argument is very simple. Now the balance of powers has shifted, it's no longer the West-centred unipolar world. You should listen to us and take our concerns seriously."
So what will Moscow's next step be?
Without all the pieces of the jigsaw, we can only guess. It may depend on whether America's offer to negotiate with Russia on some aspects of European security will be enough to satisfy Vladimir Putin.
If it's not, if the Kremlin leader is determined to dismantle the current European security architecture, military confrontation is possible and long-term friction between East and West.
"I hope Putin will be satisfied with what he got so far," Mr Kortunov tells me. "I think to some extent he was successful. He enforced a dialogue on the West. So, he could argue his mission was accomplished; that keeping tensions on the Ukrainian border helped him incentivise the West to consider Russian proposals.
"But he may have a different interpretation. He may say the West is trying to engage Russia in endless and pointless negotiations and that Western penetration into Ukraine will continue.
"Domestically, though, Russian society is not eager for a big war on its doorstep. Russians are not eager to participate in a major military operation in Ukraine," Mr Kortunov adds.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Ukrainian Marta Yuzkiv is preparing to defend her country but says she doesn't want war
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60152007
|
news_world-europe-60152007
|
|
Ukraine war: 'Tanks in streets' as fighting hits Mariupol centre - BBC News
|
2022-03-21
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Street fighting hampers efforts to rescue civilians trapped in a bombed theatre, the mayor says.
|
Europe
|
Russian attacks have damaged or destroyed 80% of Mariupol's residential buildings, the mayor says
Efforts to rescue hundreds of people trapped in the basement of a bombed theatre in the besieged city of Mariupol are being hampered by intense battles in the area, the mayor says.
Vadym Boychenko told the BBC teams were only able to clear the rubble of the building during lulls in the fighting.
Ukrainian officials say Russia attacked the site, which was clearly marked as a civilian shelter. Moscow denies it.
Russian forces have encircled the city, which has no electricity, water or gas.
About 300,000 people are trapped inside, as food and medical supplies run out and Russia blocks the entry of humanitarian aid. Russian attacks have hit a hospital, a church and countless apartment blocks, with local officials estimating that about 80% of residential buildings are either damaged or destroyed, a third of them beyond repair.
Mariupol has seen some of the fiercest battles since Russia invaded Ukraine, three weeks ago. The location of the port city, on the Sea of Azov, is strategic for Russia, as it would help it create a land corridor between the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, controlled by Russian-backed separatists, and Crimea, the peninsula it invaded and annexed in 2014.
"[There is] street fighting in the city centre," Mr Boychenko said, confirming a claim made by Russia on Friday, when it said it was "tightening the noose" around the city.
"There are tanks... and artillery shelling, and all kinds of weapons fired in the area," the mayor said. "Our forces are doing everything they can to hold their positions in the city but the forces of the enemy are larger than ours, unfortunately."
Communication with the city is difficult, with the phone network said to be operational only a few hours a day. Amid unrelenting Russian attacks, residents spend most of their days in shelters and basements, rarely coming outside.
Mr Boychenko said, in a previous interview, that there was no city centre left. "There isn't a small piece of land in the city that doesn't have signs of war," he said.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The intense fighting means it is too dangerous for teams to clear the rubble of the destroyed theatre and rescue people from the basement, which withstood Wednesday's attack. "There's no opportunity to do that," Mr Boychenko said. "When it gets quiet for a bit, rubble is being cleared and people get out."
He said he could not provide an update on how many had already left the site. A day earlier, the country's human rights ombudsman said 130 people had been rescued, and that about 1,300 remained trapped.
Satellite images showed the Russian word for "children" had been emblazoned on the ground in two locations outside the imposing Soviet-era building, indicating the place was being used as a civilian shelter. Most of those inside are elderly people, women and children, who are living squeezed in dark rooms and corridors.
In a video address released on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said some of the people rescued were "seriously wounded" but that, at the moment, there was no information of deaths.
A picture of the theatre in Mariupol before the bombing, with the word "children" in Russian clearly visible
President Zelensky also accused Russia of a "war crime" for blocking the access of humanitarian aid to the besieged cities. "This is a totally deliberate tactic," he said. "They [Russian forces] have a clear order to do absolutely everything to make the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities an 'argument' for Ukrainians to co-operate with the occupiers."
The authorities in Mariupol say at least 2,500 people have been killed in the city since the start of the war, although they acknowledge that is an underestimate. Some of the dead are being left on streets, as it is too risky to collect them. Many end up being buried in mass graves.
Mr Boychenko, the Mariupol mayor, said 40,000 people had managed to leave the city in the last five days, and that 20,000 others were waiting to be evacuated. Residents are fleeing in private vehicles, he said, as attempts to create official humanitarian corridors have broken down, with Ukraine accusing Russia of attacking the city despite agreeing to ceasefires.
• None 'We knew something terrible was coming'
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60806973
|
news_world-europe-60806973
|
|
Boris Johnson: Ukraine paying the price for West's failure over Putin - BBC News
|
2022-03-17
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Boris Johnson says governments failed to "understand the threat” Vladimir Putin posed after he annexed Crimea.
|
UK Politics
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. President Putin "did not understand what he would encounter" in Ukraine, says Boris Johnson
Ukraine is "paying the price" for the West's failure to understand the threat posed by Vladimir Putin, the PM says.
Boris Johnson told the BBC the Russian president's invasion had "already failed" because he underestimated the "strength of resistance" in Ukraine.
But he blamed European countries who "went back to treating [Putin] as part of the community" after his annexing of Crimea in 2014.
He said the West needed to ensure it was "never again vulnerable to Putin's blackmail" - especially when it came to relying on Russian oil and gas.
But Labour criticised Mr Johnson for the visit, saying he was going "cap in hand from one dictator to another".
During his trip, Mr Johnson met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for an hour and 45 minutes for talks about ending reliance on Russian oil and gas.
Afterwards, Downing Street said the UK and Saudi Arabia had "agreed to collaborate to maintain stability in the energy market" and boost renewable energy sources.
A spokesman added the two countries had also agreed to boost co-operation in defence, security, trade and culture.
However, a number of MPs had called on the PM to cancel the visit over the Saudi government's human rights record. Last week 81 men were executed in one day.
The prime minister insisted that he did not "turn a blind eye" to the incidents and raised them with the country's officials.
But he said he had to be "realistic" and "look at the global picture" when it came to energy security.
President Vladimir Putin ordered the annexation of Crimea - a territory of Ukraine - in 2014. He subsequently backed an eastern rebellion by pro-Russian separatists, who have fought Ukrainian forces in an eight-year war that has claimed 14,000 lives.
Despite years of western sanctions, Russia remains firmly in control of Crimea, which it absorbed following a referendum vote discredited by much of the international community.
Speaking to BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg, the PM said: "If you look back at 2014 and what happened when Putin took part of Crimea... what we totally failed to understand [was] the threat that he posed and we renormalized.
"European countries went back to treating him as though he was part of the community.
"Ukraine is paying the price for that now."
He also pointed to the strength of the resistance in Ukraine, adding that Mr Putin was committing war crimes in the country.
Mr Johnson said: "He won't be able to crush and conquer Ukraine, because they've shown fundamentally that they have an indomitable spirit.
"He's got to withdraw. He's got to close this thing down. He's got to take back his his tanks and his armour. And there's got to be as a solution that respects the will of the of Ukrainian people."
After Russia began its invasion in Ukraine last month, numerous governments introduced sanctions to hit the country's economy.
And many countries - including the UK - pledged to phase out their use of the country's oil and gas to hit it even harder.
Mr Johnson said he planned to look to at solar, wind and to "make some big bets" on nuclear power going forward, but short-term solutions were also necessary.
"The UK has a historic and a long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia, which goes back many, many decades," said the PM.
"That should not in any way stop us from raising issues of human rights."
He added: "I want to be clear, we don't we don't just turn a blind eye, we don't wink at them, we don't ignore it, we raise it and we make the argument.
"But what we also try to do is look at the global picture and look at the the impact on the world economy, and particularly the impact on the UK [as a] consumer of hydrocarbons.
"We're in a transitional phase now and we've got to be realistic about the continuing transitional importance of hydrocarbons in our in our economies."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60765668
|
news_uk-politics-60765668
|
|
Ukraine war: Kyiv prepares for Russian attack - BBC News
|
2022-03-13
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
As Russian forces continue their slow advance, Kyiv's residents fear the worst for their city.
|
Europe
|
When the Russian offensive started, as sirens sounded in Kyiv for the first time, some people here feared that the city might fall by the afternoon.
Reports were coming in of a long convoy of armour and heavy weapons pushing down from the north-west. Military analysts had a high opinion of the Russian army. It had, they said, been professionalised, with invaluable experience of perfecting weapons and seasoning men in the war in Syria. The tactical errors I had seen the Russians commit when they tried to crush a rebellion in the republic of Chechnya in 1995 were, I was told, ancient history.
The consensus about the Ukrainian armed forces on the first day of the war was that they were much stronger than they had been in 2014, when they could not stop Russia seizing Crimea and establishing two breakaway enclaves in eastern Ukraine. But Russia had the numbers and the firepower. The Ukrainians, it was said, would rediscover the truth of an aphorism attributed to Stalin: "quantity has a quality of its own."
The first two weeks of the war proved that those predictions were wrong. The Russians blundered; the Ukrainians resisted. Around Kyiv the Russian advance stalled. In the south, it was a different story. They worked steadily towards opening a land corridor between Crimea and Moscow's enclaves in eastern Ukraine.
But it has been clear from the outset that control of Kyiv is crucial to winning arguments in politics as well as on the battlefield. While President Volodymyr Zelensky's government holds the city, he can claim not to be defeated, and President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin cannot claim victory.
The last couple of days have been bright and sunny, after more than a week of thick cloud. That means satellites have a clear view of movements on the ground. One conclusion is that the 40-mile Russian convoy north-west of Kyiv is slowly dispersing and reorganising. The latest word from the US Department of Defense is that the rear elements are catching up, but the vehicles closest to Kyiv are not moving.
The fighting around Kyiv has been concentrated in the north-west and has been going on since the first morning, when Russian airborne troops landed at a cargo airport near Hostomel and Irpin, small commuter towns that evacuees say are now badly damaged. They looked to be trying to secure a staging area for a push into Kyiv. But Ukrainian troops stopped them.
In the last few days, I have seen more defenders moving forward to continue the fight around Irpin and the Hostomel airport and heard steady artillery fire from the Ukrainian side from gunlines concealed in belts of thick woodland.
The heavily contested north-west is just a 20-minute drive from the centre of Kyiv, which has barely been touched, although sirens sound regular alerts.
In the week or so that I have been here the Ukrainians have improved their physical defences, which in places barely existed. Checkpoints that were just a few concrete blocks have become barricades. Across the city men have been filling and positioning sandbags. Kyiv's metalworkers have been busy. At strategic junctions, and on the dual carriageways that run out of Kyiv steel anti-tank obstacles stand ready.
Kyiv is a grand city of broad, sweeping avenues, bisected by narrower streets often paved with lumpy cobblestones. Many of the buildings have extensive basements and cellars. Street fighting here, if it happened, could grind on for months.
The city sprawls along both banks of the Dnieper, one of Europe's great rivers. Docks and marinas leading off the river are still frozen. Crossing the water under fire would be a formidable military undertaking. The bank on the west side of the river, near the government buildings and the great cathedrals, is steep and heavily wooded. Defenders would have many advantages.
But crossing the Dnieper might not be on Russia's agenda until it is able to control both banks. One theory is that the stalled offensive from the west and north-west is not just because of Ukrainian resistance and what appears to be the Russian army's own badly handled logistics. A column coming from the east has been moving slowly, and the generals might be waiting for it to catch up.
The Russians attempted to move a regiment of tanks into Kyiv's eastern approaches on Thursday. They were mauled badly as they rumbled slowly down a highway in broad daylight. Drone pictures showed that the tanks were bunched together making easy targets for Ukrainian artillery or drones. It was another tactical blunder for Moscow.
It is not clear whether Russia plans to encircle Kyiv or attempt to force a surrender by thrusting into the centre with armour supported by infantry. The choices are not great for them. Direct attacks have so far been stopped. Encircling a big city might take too many men.
One possibility is that President Putin expected the rapid collapse of a government that he has dismissed with contempt as a Nazi collaboration with the west and did not think his soldiers would need to do either.
It is certain that Putin and his generals are reassessing, regrouping and will not accept defeat. Putin's mission has been to restore Russia to what he believes is its rightful place as a world power. In a country the size of Ukraine - only Russia itself is bigger in Europe - victory in Kyiv is the most direct way for him to declare mission accomplished.
Without a doubt the Russian armed forces have been operating at half power and half speed. That is partly due to their own mistakes, and partly because the Ukrainians are proving to be formidable, nimble opponents. The stalled attacks around Kyiv have turned into a respite for the city's defenders, allowing them time to dig to improve defences that were rudimentary, and presumably to receive some of the increasingly sophisticated weapons that NATO is bringing into Ukraine.
A question that nags uncomfortably at the minds of many in Kyiv is whether President Putin will conclude that the time has come to turn the deadliest conventional weapons in Russia's arsenal against the city's defenders. So far that has not happened. If it does, many more people will die and terrible damage will be done.
Some people here do not believe President Putin will hammer Kyiv in the way that cities in eastern and southern Ukraine have been attacked. They argue Putin will hesitate to destroy an ancient city which has been at the centre of Russian culture, religion and history. Some of the same people also believed Russia would not invade.
Others fear that if Russian infantry and armour are held up, Putin and his generals will default to the tactics they are using in Mariupol in the south, surrounding the city and attempting to break the will of its defenders with artillery and air strikes. It is a method that worked well for the Russians in Syria, and in the 1990s when Grozny, the capital of the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya, was flattened.
The next few weeks will be critical for the future of Kyiv, and for the wider war over the future of Ukraine. If Russia cannot reactivate its attack on the capital, its defenders will grow in confidence and the strength and the morale of Russian forces, including conscripts, will take more blows.
If the Putin regime can find a way to end resistance here, the president will be closer to achieving his war aim of ending Ukraine's independence. Forcing the country back into Russia's orbit, in the face of what would most likely be a Nato-backed insurgency, would be an altogether more difficult job.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60714515
|
news_world-europe-60714515
|
|
Michael Conlan 'all good' after Leigh Wood retains WBA 'Regular' title with brutal knockout - BBC Sport
|
2022-03-13
|
[]
|
Leigh Wood produces a brutal last-round knockout of Michael Conlan to retain his WBA 'Regular' featherweight title amid worrying scenes.
| null |
Last updated on .From the section Boxing
Leigh Wood produced a brutal last-round knockout of Michael Conlan to retain his WBA 'Regular' featherweight title amid worrying scenes in Nottingham.
The powerful punch sent Conlan through the ropes and on to the floor and he was later carried from the arena on a stretcher and taken to hospital.
Conlan posted a video on Instagram on Sunday morning saying "I'm all good".
England's Wood had himself been knocked down in the first round and was losing before the late knockout.
Wood, who stopped his celebrations as his opponent received immediate medical treatment, told broadcaster Dazn immediately after the fight: "I just hope Michael is all right; I can't celebrate until I know he is.
"He is so tough and it was a bad knockout so I just want to see he is all right."
And Belfast fighter Conlan gave an update on his condition from hospital hours later, saying his CT scans were clear.
"Congrats to Leigh Wood, congrats to his team, that was the best shot of the night he got me with at the end," he said. "But it is what it is, I'll be back."
On Twitter, he followed up with: "Definitely want a rematch."
Conlan's words on Sunday morning will come as a huge relief for all concerned.
Wood was in tears at the post-fight news conference and admitted: "I'm in an emotional state and there have been some tears.
"I heard he is up and talking but I would like to see him."
Promoter Eddie Hearn called Wood's win "one of the greatest comebacks" but added "we're all praying for Michael".
"It looked a masterclass from Michael and coming into the 12th I could not see a way Leigh could turn the fight around," Hearn said.
"Michael was two ahead going into the last round - Leigh had to knock him out in the 12th and he did.
"I would love to celebrate but all our thoughts are with Michael."
Wood, 33, won the 'regular' version of the WBA title with a points win over China's Xu Can in July at Matchroom's Fight Camp, staged in Hearn's garden in Brentwood, Essex, because of Covid-19 restrictions.
Wood was set to fight at his hometown venue on the undercard of Carl Froch's IBF super-middleweight world title fight against Lucian Bute 10 years ago, but his bout did not go ahead.
However, Wood, who was in the crowd that day cheering on his fellow Nottingham boxer as he beat Bute with a fifth-round knockout, called the opportunity to fight in front of a crowd of just under 10,000 people at the same venue, the Motorpoint Arena, "a fairy tale".
His hopes nearly ended inside the opening three minutes when he was caught late in the first round by a brilliantly timed and brutally powerful overhand left.
Previously unbeaten, Conlan was fighting for a world title in his 17th professional fight after a glittering amateur career that earned him an Olympic bronze medal and gold medals in both the World and European Amateur Championships and was close to winning the fight in the second.
But Wood showed great character and desire, despite suffering a cut over his eye in the fourth round, as both men repeatedly traded blows in a hugely entertaining clash, which was described as the "best fight I've ever seen" by two-weight former world champion Carl Frampton.
Wood gradually started to work his way back into the fight, aided by some great shots to Conlan's body, before the away fighter was judged to have been knocked down in the 11th, despite arguments from his corner, who told referee Steve Gray their fighter had slipped.
But, after one minute 25 seconds of the final round, the fight ended in dramatic circumstances. Wood caught Conlan with a glancing blow to the head. Conlan dropped his arms, looking exhausted, and Wood landed the knockout blow.
The WBA 'super' featherweight belt is vacant, Mexican Emanuel Navarrette, is the WBO champion, and Mark Magsayo of the Philippines holds the WBC crown after ending the long reign of American Gary Russell Jr with a majority points decision win in January.
But Wood will be very keen to watch the fight for the IBF title as Spanish title holder Kiko Martinez takes on England's Josh Warrington in Warrington's home city of Leeds on 26 March.
If Warrington beats Martinez for the second time in his career, that could set up an all-English world title fight at a stadium, with Leeds United's Elland Road and Nottingham Forest's City Ground potential venues.
Hearn said: "If Leigh Wood fights in Nottingham again it will be at the City Ground - that has been his dream for a long time."
Caoimhin Agyarko extended his professional record to 11 wins from 11 contests.
He was never in trouble against Mexican Juan Carlos Rubio, who showed great courage to reach the final bell.
Two judges gave Agyarko every round (100-90), and the third judge called it 98-92, as the Belfast fighter kept hold of his WBA international middleweight title.
Former women's super-featherweight world champion Terri Harper got back to winning ways after stepping up to lightweight with a big points win over Argentina's Yamila Belen Abellaneda.
Harper, 25, said she was "embarrassed" by her loss to Alycia Baumgardner in November, which saw her relinquish the title she had held since July 2019.
Harper started well against Belen Abellaneda but sustained a bad-looking cut over her left eye in the third round.
Belen Abellaneda kept coming forward but took a lot of punishment with Harper having success with lefts to the head and body and some powerful uppercuts on her way to a deserved win.
Irish lightweight Gary Cully maintained his unbeaten record with his 14th professional win as he knocked out Miguel Vasquez in five rounds after earlier putting him down in the third.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/60724637
|
rt_boxing_60724637
|
|
Dizzee Rascal: Grime artist guilty of assaulting former partner - BBC News
|
2022-03-07
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The grime artist was found guilty of assaulting his former partner in London last year.
|
London
|
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
|
news_uk-england-london-60653545
|
|
Don't go to Ukraine, military boss tells Britons - BBC News
|
2022-03-07
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The head of the UK's armed forces also rejects Ukraine's call for a no-fly zone, saying it will not help.
|
UK
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: We have a direct line to Moscow, says UK chief of defence staff Adm Sir Tony Radakin
Britons should not head to Ukraine to fight and should instead help however they can from the UK, the head of the armed forces has said.
Speaking to the BBC, Adm Sir Tony Radakin rejected Ukraine's call for a no-fly zone saying it would not help tactically and might escalate fighting.
He urged the West to have confidence that they were doing the "right thing".
The invasion was not going well, Russia was becoming less powerful and it cannot continue, he said.
On Britons wanting to join the fight, Adm Radakin said that the "sound of gunfire" was not "something you want to rush to", and urged people to support Ukraine in sensible ways from the UK.
Asked whether Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had been right to say she would support any Briton who wanted to fight, he said: "We can all understand that sentiment, and that sentiment needs to be channelled into support for Ukraine."
Senior UK military officers are genuinely worried that some British troops - regulars or reservists - might try to join the battle in Ukraine and, in doing so, risk handing Russia a propaganda victory.
Last week the Chief of Defence People, Lt Gen James Swift, sent out a message to the chain of command stressing that UK military personnel were "not authorised" to travel there.
He said that if there was any suspicion that troops were trying to make their way to Ukraine then it should be reported immediately to the Service Police.
The message warned that if serving British military personnel went to fight in Ukraine then they were putting not only their lives in danger but they also risked giving "the mistaken perception" to Russia that Britain had sent in troops to engage in hostilities.
Adm Sir Tony Radakin has now underlined that message, saying it would be "unlawful and unhelpful".
At present the MoD does not believe there are any examples of full-time British military personnel going absent to fight in Ukraine. But it's harder for them to keep tabs on reservists who often also have another career.
In his interview with the BBC's Sunday Morning show, the defence chief painted a picture of Russian forces suffering from heavy losses and low morale, with kit failings and a massive military convoy stalled outside the capital, Kyiv.
The Kremlin has lost more troops in a week than the UK did in 20 years in Afghanistan, he said, and some "lead elements of Russian forces" have been decimated.
He described stories of soldiers whose morale had been so knocked they had abandoned the convoy destined for Kyiv to camp in the forest.
Ukrainian servicemen near Kyiv - a huge convoy of Russian troops has stopped its advance outside the capital
On Saturday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a fiery speech saying the West's reluctance to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine had given Russia "a green light" to continue bombarding towns and villages.
But Adm Radakin insisted such an intervention would not help.
"The advice that we, as senior military professionals are giving our politicians, is to avoid doing things that are tactically ineffective and definitely to avoid doing things that tactically might lead to miscalculation or escalation."
He said most of the shelling and destruction was coming from artillery, not Russian aircraft, and to police a no-fly zone could mean taking out Russian defence systems and shooting down Russian aircraft - leading to an escalation, he added.
Speaking later on the same programme, UK deputy prime minister Dominic Raab said he understood Ukraine's cri de coeur but insisted the West had been clear all along that it would not engage in direct military confrontation.
That would give succour to Russian President Vladimir Putin's argument that he was in conflict with the West, he said.
Mr Putin said on Saturday that any such move to implement a no-fly zone would be seen "as participation in an armed conflict by that country".
The West has to maintain calmness and responsibility and not react rashly to the latest "bizarre or ridiculous comment" from Mr Putin, he said.
"We are prepared, we are professional armed forces, we will approach this conflict with that level of professionalism and responsibility that you would expect.
"We will also be incredibly confident in our ability to face down President Putin," he added.
He gave an insight into relations with his counterpart, Gen Valery Gerasimov, head of Russian armed forces, explaining the Ministry of Defence has a direct line to Moscow's operational headquarters.
It is tested every day, he said, and he has used the line to tell Gen Gerasimov they need to speak. "I'm waiting for him to come back to me," he added.
Adm Radakin was also asked whether the West would know beforehand whether Mr Putin would use nuclear weapons.
He said he did not want to go into detail but there had been a "remarkable" level of intelligence in the months leading up to the invasion.
"There are some more discreet elements in terms of warning signs if this was going to start to chart a path towards nuclear escalation," he said.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60637185
|
news_uk-60637185
|
|
Manchester Arena bombing: Saffie Roussos's parents on hearing the truth - BBC News
|
2022-03-07
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The parents of the Manchester Arena bombing's youngest victim speak about their life since she died.
|
UK
|
Last month, the inquiry into the bombing of an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena heard its final scheduled evidence. The BBC's Judith Moritz has followed the family of Saffie-Rose Roussos - the youngest of the 22 victims - as they have uncovered details of their daughter's death while learning to live with their grief.
Saffie Roussos' bedroom looks just how you would expect an eight-year-old's room to look. Her name plate is on the door. Her vibrant My Little Pony dressing gown hangs on a peg. Her tiny pink Converse boots sit on a chair. And at the centre of it, her white bed is festooned with scatter cushions, fairy lights and pom poms.
Her artwork adorns the walls. A painting which reads, "I love mummy so much" and a drawing of the whole family, with "me, Saffie", written in felt tip.
But Saffie has never visited this room. And although the bed is beautifully made up, she'll never sleep in it. Saffie's childhood stopped abruptly when she was murdered in the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing.
Before she was killed, Saffie lived with her parents Lisa and Andrew, and brother Xander, in their flat above the family fish and chip shop in Leyland, Lancashire. But when the bomb went off, their lives were changed in a fraction of a second.
After the explosion they never returned home. They never opened up the chippy again. Lisa went through months of hospital treatment, and when it was over the family went on holiday to Dorset. And they decided to stay there for good.
"We just basically escaped. I suppose a bit like running away," says Andrew Roussos.
Saffie's things were packed up, and for a long time her parents found it too painful to go through them. Their move south gave them space, and put distance between them and the intensity of Manchester. There, the civic "bee" emblem had taken on a new dimension, spread across the city on posters, walls and tattoos. Lisa found it both supportive and stifling.
She says: "In the north, where it happened, they still talk about it now. They still think about the families and everybody, and that's beautiful and I wanted that. But at the same time, with us moving here, you can pick and choose when to look at it, when to face it. It's quiet, you've got the sea, the countryside. I think it was the best decision."
Lisa admits she had been torn. She initially did not want to move as she felt she was moving away from Saffie, wanting to be where she had lived.
It was a while before she realised that it would be possible to relocate, and still feel close to her little girl. "Saffie will always be with us," she says simply.
Lisa and Andrew started house-hunting. They needed a two-bedroom house, for themselves and Xander, but they decided to search for a three-bed. Saffie would have her own room again as her parents decided it was time to unpack her belongings, and create a new room for her.
Lisa explains they did not want to put her things away into cupboards or the loft, wanting instead to move forward with Saffie.
"We've changed the knobs on her wardrobe. Even though we wanted to keep her furniture, I've updated it a little bit because I know she would like new things.
The Roussos family is an intensely private unit. They take comfort in each other, and have largely eschewed public attention. But they have always wanted the world to know how special Saffie was to them. That is what led them to invite me to their home as part of the process of making our film about Saffie for Panorama.
I first met Andrew just weeks after the bombing, when Lisa was still in hospital and the family was reeling from the attack. He told me then that Saffie had always wanted to be famous for singing and dancing like her idol Ariana Grande.
He could never have imagined that her name would be connected with the singer's for the most tragic reasons. He said he was determined to reclaim the joy that had surrounded his daughter during her short life. That meant telling as wide an audience as possible about the wonder of his little girl and the happiness she brought.
We filmed an interview and I told Andrew to keep in touch. I also asked him if Lisa was likely to want to say anything publicly when the time was right. There was significant media interest in their story, and I wondered if she would be as keen to speak about Saffie as her husband.
A few weeks later, Andrew suggested that I visit the couple at Wythenshawe hospital in Manchester. Lisa had been so badly hurt in the attack that she was initially only given a 20% chance of survival. By the summer of 2017, they were living as a family in hospital accommodation while her treatment continued.
When I met Lisa, it was clear that the time was not right for her to do an interview. She was having to cope with her own rehabilitation while coming to terms with the news that her youngest child had not survived the atrocity. I had been invited to meet her as a journalist, but I am also a mum, and my heart went out to her on a personal level. I had been to the arena with my own children a few weeks before the bombing, I knew that it could have been me in Lisa's shoes. I struggled to find the right words to express my sympathy.
It took another two years before Lisa decided that she wanted to talk publicly about what she was going through, and another two before she reached the point of inviting me to see her daughter's room in Dorset. She said she wanted to show me something special.
Manchester Arena Bombing: Saffie's Story is on BBC One Monday 7 March at 20:00 or watch later on BBC iPlayer
There, we sat on Saffie's bed - she felt it was finally time to look through her daughter's baby box of keepsakes, something that she had found too painful after the attack, worried about the emotions it would unleash.
In fact, Lisa beams as she shows me the scan pictures, talking about the pregnancy and how Saffie would not stop moving, a real livewire as she had been throughout her life. Each treasure - her first lock of hair, her newborn ID bracelet - unlocks a memory and she basks in them.
She picks out a pair of miniature flip flops. "I bought them in Kefalonia. I remember pushing her in her pram with them on and they kept falling off."
The tears come, but they are mixed with laughter as Lisa remembers the happy moments. She and Andrew have spoken to me several times about the pattern grief has taken for them. They describe it as a constant never-ending presence that has evolved into something they are learning to live with.
At the same time, they have also reached the stage of wanting to find out more about what happened to Saffie. For a long time, they did not want to know a great level of detail. But as the public inquiry into the attack started in September 2020, their legal team prepared them for hard times ahead.
Finding out exactly what happened is hard to take… it's torture on top of torture
The couple had always believed that their daughter died within seconds of the bomb exploding, and that she had not suffered. But at the inquiry they learned that Saffie had lived for an hour, and that she had died as a result of blood loss from leg injuries. Her legs were never given tourniquets or splinted. Two sets of experts at the public inquiry are in dispute over whether she might have survived if she had received better emergency care.
Andrew says: "It was our biggest fear. Our minds were set to, 'right, a bomb detonated, she lost her life, and it went quickly'. So that's what we chose to carry on life with. Finding out exactly what happened is hard to take… It's torture on top of torture."
The couple have been represented at the public inquiry by Pete Weatherby QC, who explains: "Saffie was able to talk, able to drink water. In the ambulance something like 40 minutes after detonation she asked the ambulance staff if she was going to die. Therefore, the issue of whether there were further interventions that might have made a difference to Saffie became apparent."
The Roussos family solicitor, Nicola Brook, had to tell the couple Saffie had lived for a while, with an unknown degree of possibility about whether she could have survived. She then had to ask whether they wanted to explore that further.
"That is, without a shadow of a doubt, the hardest conversation I've ever had to have," she says.
Lisa and Andrew agreed they were ready to look into the intricacies of Saffie's case. But they have had very different approaches to the Manchester Arena Inquiry, which has been running for 18 months.
Andrew has followed nearly every day of the hearings by remote video link. Lisa has found them too distressing to listen to, and relies on Andrew to outline the main issues for her.
But when it came to giving evidence, both were determined to go into the witness box in person, and so they steeled themselves to make the trip from Dorset back up to Manchester. I joined them again that morning, as they packed their car for the trip, which Lisa confessed she had been dreading.
She said it had been causing her sleepless nights and she would not do it if she didn't have to. "I know it's going to be emotionally draining. But I just thought, 'Lisa, you've got to do it. You've got to do it for Saffie. She hasn't got that voice, so we have to give it to her.'"
At court, the couple told the inquiry about their experiences on the night of the attack. How Lisa lay on the floor of the arena foyer unable to move. And how Andrew spent all night searching for her and Saffie. He and Xander travelled to three hospitals, and only discovered that Saffie had died the following afternoon.
Andrew Roussos with his son outside the Manchester Arena following the bomb attack
The public inquiry has given him an opportunity to dig deep into what happened. He says, "What drives me, I suppose, is knowing the information. So I'm there representing us as a family and Saffie as our daughter. Even though the legal team are there to do that, I want to know. I want to scrutinise everybody to the point of getting to the truth."
Grieving for a child can destroy a marriage. But Lisa and Andrew each say they could not have managed without the other. Their characters complement each other. Andrew is passionate and talkative. Lisa is a calming presence.
The experience of speaking in court was draining for them both. Afterwards they were clearly exhausted, but relieved. Lisa said she was glad she had taken part as it was her one chance to say what she needed to say. "The build-up to it was awful but I do feel better now that I've done it," she says.
But the couple are clear that the inquiry has to make a real difference.
Andrew says he is angry lessons still need to be learned: "My argument is why didn't you learn from 7/7? Why didn't you learn from 9/11? Why didn't you learn from the Paris attacks in 2016? This wasn't the first terrorist attack."
He adds: "I just hope the whole process of this inquiry does what it set out to do. What it's meant to do. We're never going to stop this… but at least at the next attack we'll be more prepared."
Their time at court was not the only intense moment of the family's trip to Manchester.
Saffie used to love playing with her mobile phone. She had taken endless selfies with it. Naturally, she took it with her on the night of the Ariana Grande concert. But it shattered in the blast and when it was returned to her parents, it seemed beyond repair.
Lisa and Andrew told me they had tried everything to make it work again. They badly wanted to look at the photos on it, to have a last glimpse of Saffie's world. I asked them if they would trust me to take the phone away for forensic work.
In truth, I was not sure if I would be able to get any results, so I was thrilled when I was able to tell them that despite such extensive damage, I was able to have the phone reconstructed - and there were photos to look at.
The pictures were Saffie's last selfies. She took them in the car with Lisa on their way to the concert. The little girl is wearing her Ariana Grande T-shirt, and beaming, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life.
Tearfully, Lisa remembered them being taken. She said, "Me and Saffie were in the back of the car on the way to the arena. It's just so so sad… I wish I'd taken more pictures of me and her. You take them for granted because you don't think of the worst, ever. Why would you? But afterwards you realise how precious and important they are."
Although it is upsetting to see the selfies, Lisa and Andrew say they will always treasure them. They are determined that Saffie will always be a part of their lives. I ask Lisa about the concept of "closure" which is sometimes spoken about.
She says, "Who wants closure? It's the opposite. You can't have closure. You don't want closure. You want to take that memory with you forever. We want to take her with us forever. I want to talk about her. I want to remember her. I want everyone to remember her."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60579079
|
news_uk-60579079
|
|
Top US court backs right to be touched at execution by pastor - BBC News
|
2022-03-25
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Inmate John Henry Ramirez wants a pastor to touch him and say a prayer during his execution in Texas.
|
US & Canada
|
The top US court has ruled in favour of a Texas inmate who had argued it is his right to have his pastor touch him and offer a prayer during his execution.
John Henry Ramirez said the state's policy of not allowing spiritual advisers to touch inmates during executions violates their constitutional rights.
In an 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court said his request could be carried out.
Ramirez was sentenced to death for killing a man during a robbery in 2004.
After Ramirez sued Texas last August, lower courts rejected his requests for his pastor to physically touch him and audibly pray as he died, and declined to block his execution.
Just before he was due to be executed in September 2021, a federal judge rejected his request for a stay for religious reasons.
At the time, the judge said that Texas had "compelling interest" in maintaining an "orderly, safe and effective" execution process, such as by preventing anything interfering with intravenous lines used for lethal injections.
The Supreme Court issued a stay that same month, putting the execution on hold.
In a majority opinion for the Supreme Court released on Thursday, Chief Justice John Roberts rejected the federal judge's argument, noting that a chaplain could feasibly touch a part of the inmate's body away from the IV lines, like the lower leg.
Additionally, Justice Roberts said that Texas "appears to have long allowed prison chaplains to pray with inmates in the execution chamber" and has only prohibited the practice recently. Texas banned all religious chaplains from execution chambers in 2019 after the Supreme Court granted a prisoners' request for a Buddhist monk.
Only one Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, dissented in Thursday's ruling. He wrote that he believes Ramirez "has manufactured more than a decade of delay to evade the capital sentence".
Following Thursday's ruling, the case will head back to the lower courts - which had earlier ruled in favour of Texas - for more litigating.
In his opinion, Justice Roberts said that more court proceedings "might shed additional light on Texas's interests", adding that Ramirez is "likely to succeed in proving that his religious requests are sincerely based on a religious belief".
In a statement, Ramirez's attorney Seth Kretzer said the Supreme Court decision "clarified that the rule of law is as ubiquitous as God" and that he looks forward to "prevailing in the forthcoming litigation about the issue".
Ramirez, 37, was convicted of stabbing a man 29 times in a robbery 18 years ago that prosecutors said netted the sum of $1.25 (£0.95). After the murder, he fled to Mexico and remained a fugitive there for years before being arrested near the US border.
To date, three people have been executed in the US in 2022. Last year, 11 people were executed compared to 17 in 2020.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60864940
|
news_world-us-canada-60864940
|
|
Texts reveal wife of Supreme Court judge urged 2020 election overturn - BBC News
|
2022-03-25
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Text messages reveal Virginia Thomas pushed ex-President Trump's staff not to concede the election.
|
US & Canada
|
The wife of a US Supreme Court judge repeatedly pressed Trump White House staff to overturn the 2020 presidential election, US media has reported.
Virginia Thomas, wife of Justice Clarence Thomas, reportedly sent 29 text messages to former adviser Mark Meadows, urging him not to concede.
Ms Thomas called Joe Biden's victory "the greatest heist of our history".
The texts are among 2,320 messages Mr Meadows provided to a committee investigating the US Capitol riot.
In the text messages, seen by CBS News and The Washington Post, she urged Mr Meadows, who was Donald Trump's chief of staff, to "make a plan" in a bid to save his presidency.
"Do not concede. It takes time for the army who is gathering for his back", she wrote on 6 November. It is unclear if Mr Meadows responded.
Ms Thomas also appeared to push QAnon conspiracy theories and urged Mr Meadows to appoint Sidney Powell, a conspiracy theorist and lawyer, to head up Mr Trump's legal team.
"Sounds like Sidney and her team are getting inundated with evidence of fraud," Ms Thomas wrote. "Release the Kraken and save us from the left taking America down."
Mr Meadows told Ms Thomas that he intended to "stand firm" and said that he "will fight until there is no fight left".
The Trump campaign later distanced itself from Ms Powell, after she made dramatic claims of voter fraud, without providing any evidence, at several media events.
Virginia Thomas - who goes by Ginni - is a prominent Republican fundraiser. She was formerly associated with the Tea Party wing of the party, a hard-line conservative movement to which Mr Meadows was also affiliated during his time in the House of Representatives.
She has been married to conservative-leaning Justice Clarence Thomas for 35 years, and has insisted her activist work has no influence on her husband's work with the Supreme Court.
In 2010, she made headlines for asking Anita Hill to apologise for accusing Mr Thomas of harassment during his confirmation hearings in 1991.
Clarence Thomas, who was released from hospital on Friday after suffering from flu-like symptoms, is the longest-serving member of the US Supreme Court, having served since 1991.
He is considered extremely influential in American law, but for much of his career rarely spoke or asked questions in court until 2016 when he broke a 10-year silence.
Since the Covid pandemic began, however, Mr Thomas has become more vocal and participates in most oral arguments.
In February 2021 the Supreme Court rejected Donald Trump's challenges to the elections result, however Mr Thomas dissented from the decision, calling it "baffling".
The revelation of Ginni Thomas's conspiracy-minded text messages have prompted critics on the left to call for Clarence Thomas to be impeached and removed from his lifetime seat on the Supreme Court.
They point to his lone dissent from the Supreme Court decision ordering the release of White House documents to the congressional committee investigating the 6 January Capitol attack as evidence that he was secretly protecting his wife, who was closely involved in efforts to overturn Donald Trump's election defeat.
Mr Thomas's defenders counter that he should not be held responsible for the activities of his spouse and, in any regard, there are no ethical rules that apply to high court justices.
The impeachment process for Supreme Court justices is the same as those for US presidents - a majority vote in the House of Representatives and two-thirds to convict and remove in the US Senate. That's an unreachable bar given the current partisan divide of the latter chamber.
In fact, only one US Supreme Court justice has been impeached by the House in US history. Samuel Chase was accused of political bias and misdeeds in 1804. He was acquitted in the Senate by a comfortable margin.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: How the US marked the Capitol riot anniversary
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60871794
|
news_world-us-canada-60871794
|
|
Rishi Sunak denies link to Russia through firm part-owned by wife - BBC News
|
2022-03-25
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
An Indian software giant part-owned by the chancellor's wife has kept its presence in Moscow.
|
UK Politics
|
Rishi Sunak married Akshata Murty in 2009 and they have two children
Rishi Sunak has denied any connection with a multinational firm part-owned by his wife that has continued to operate in Russia during the war in Ukraine.
The chancellor said he had "nothing to do" with Infosys, in which his wife Akshata Murty holds shares.
He has urged UK firms to pull out of Russia to inflict "economic pain" on President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Sunak's spokesperson said Ms Murty had no role in Infosys's operational decisions.
The software giant was co-founded by Ms Murty's father Narayana, an Indian billionaire who retired from the company in 2014.
Founded in 1981, the firm has since expanded into a number of countries and operates an office in Moscow.
Its most recent annual report lists Ms Murty as holding 0.9% of the company's shares - reportedly worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
India has not followed Western countries, including the UK, in restricting trade with Russia via sanctions in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this month, Mr Sunak said the government would "fully support" UK firms that pull out of Russia voluntarily.
After meeting a group of leading British companies, the chancellor said he welcomed the "consensus on the need to inflict maximum economic pain on Putin and his regime".
"While I recognise that it may be challenging to wind down existing investments, I believe there is no argument for new investment in the Russian economy," he added.
"I am urging asset owners and managers to think very carefully about any investments that would in any sense support Putin and his regime."
Pressed on Infosys's presence in Russia on Thursday, Mr Sunak told Sky News: "I'm an elected politician, and I'm here to talk to you about what I'm responsible for. My wife is not."
He added that companies' operations were "up to them".
"We've put in place significant sanctions and all the companies we're responsible for are following those, as they rightly should," said the chancellor.
Narayana Murthy co-founded Infosys, often seen as the poster child of India's technology boom.
A spokesperson for the chancellor said Ms Murty was "one of thousands of minority shareholders in the company".
"It is a public company and neither her nor any member of her family have any involvement in the operational decisions of the company," they added.
Infosys said it had a "small team of employees based out of Russia" that "services some of our global clients, locally".
"We do not have any active business relationships with local Russian enterprises," it added.
"Infosys supports and advocates for peace between Russia and Ukraine".
Infosys has had connections in the past to Alfa Bank, one of Russia's biggest financial institutions, which was added to the UK's sanctions list on Thursday, having already been sanctioned by the US and EU.
In 2004, Mr Putin visited Infosys' headquarters in Bangalore, where he was given a guided tour by Narayana Murthy.
Mr Sunak met his future spouse while studying for an MBA at Stanford University in California. They married in 2009 and have two children.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60866778
|
news_uk-politics-60866778
|
|
Rishi Sunak faces questions over link to firm operating in Russia - BBC News
|
2022-03-25
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The chancellor's wife has a stake in an Indian multinational that has kept its office in Moscow.
|
UK Politics
|
Rishi Sunak married Akshata Murty in 2009 and they have two children
Rishi Sunak is coming under attack from political rivals over his wife's stake in an Indian multinational operating in Russia.
Labour said the chancellor has "very serious questions to answer" over Akshata Murty's shares in Infosys, a firm co-founded by her father.
Mr Sunak has said he has "nothing to do" with the company.
He has encouraged UK firms to sever ties with Russia to punish Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine.
Downing Street told reporters on Friday that Ms Murty's stake in Infosys was a "personal issue for the chancellor".
Software giant Infosys is one of India's biggest companies, with a presence in about 50 countries around the world.
It was co-founded by Ms Murty's billionaire father Narayana, who retired in 2014, but retains a small stake in it along with other members of his family.
Ms Murty's 0.9% shareholding in Infosys is thought to be worth more than £400m.
A spokesperson for Mr Sunak has said neither she nor any members of her family "have any involvement in the operational decisions of the company".
In 2016, Infosys set up an engineering centre in Moscow to support its customer, Ansaldo Energia, which was developing gas turbines to sell to Russian power plants, and other clients.
After Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, many global IT giants, including Oracle and SAP, suspended operations in the Russian Federation, and expressed solidarity with the Ukrainian people.
Infosys is among those who continue to operate there, saying it has a "small team of employees based out of Russia that services some of our global clients, locally".
"We do not have any active business relationships with local Russian enterprises," it added in a statement.
"Infosys supports and advocates for peace between Russia and Ukraine," the company said, and had committed $1m to "relief efforts for the victims of war from Ukraine".
The UK has restricted its trade with Russia via sanctions in the wake of its invasion last month - a move not replicated by India.
Mr Sunak has said he would support UK firms that voluntarily cut ties with Russia in a bid to inflict "economic pain" on President Vladimir Putin.
He has also urged British investors to "think very carefully" about whether investments could support Mr Putin, and he believed there was "no argument for new investment in the Russian economy".
Pressed on Infosys's presence in Russia on Thursday, Mr Sunak told Sky News he had "nothing to do" with the company.
Narayana Murthy founded Infosys in 1981 and the firm now has a presence in a number of countries
But on Friday, Labour's shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said Mr Sunak had "very serious questions to answer on this matter".
"It is really quite shocking that these allegations have now emerged that Rishi Sunak's family itself is benefiting from business in Russia," she told BBC News.
"The chancellor has explicitly called on business to divest from Russia in order to inflict economic pain and ensure that the sanctions are as deeply felt as possible," she added.
Asked whether Mr Sunak should ask his wife to sell her shares, Ms Haigh replied: "Given that he's called on business to stop doing business in Russia, of course he should be ensuring that his own family follows that advice as well."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Louise Haigh: Rishi Sunak has "very serious questions to answer".
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Christine Jardine said Mr Sunak "needs to come clean and declare any potential conflicts of interest".
"Openness and full transparency are key given the risks posed by financial connections to Russia," she added.
"The public deserves full transparency on this issue. It cannot be one rule for the chancellor and another for everyone else."
Infosys has had connections in the past to Alfa Bank, one of Russia's biggest financial institutions, which was added to the UK's sanctions list on Thursday, having already been sanctioned by the US and EU.
In 2004, Mr Putin visited Infosys' headquarters in Bangalore, where he was given a guided tour by Narayana Murthy.
Mr Sunak met his future spouse while studying for a business degree at Stanford University in California. They married in 2009 and have two children.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60876612
|
news_uk-politics-60876612
|
|
Ed Sheeran awaits verdict in 'traumatising' Shape of You copyright trial - BBC News
|
2022-03-22
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The star's lawyer says a copyright case over the song Shape of You should never have gone to court.
|
Entertainment & Arts
|
Shape of You won the Grammy Award for best pop solo performance in 2018
Ed Sheeran faces a wait of "days and weeks" to learn the outcome of a High Court trial over his hit Shape of You.
The star has been accused of copying part of the song from another artist.
In closing arguments, grime artist Sami Chokri's barrister said there was an "indisputable similarity between the works". But Mr Sheeran's lawyer said the case against him was "so strained as to be logically unintelligible".
Mr Justice Zacaroli said he would "take some time to consider my judgment".
The 11-day trial ended on Tuesday. Ian Mill QC, representing Mr Sheeran, said it had been "deeply traumatising" for the star and his co-writers, Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac.
He described the dispute as "terribly, terribly unfortunate" and argued that the case "should never have gone to trial".
Mr Sheeran, who has attended the court throughout, listened attentively to the closing arguments with his hands clasped together. During the trial, the superstar has been described as a "magpie" who "borrows" ideas from other artists.
The dispute revolves around similarities between Shape of You and Oh Why by Mr Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch.
The contentious part is the "Oh I, oh I, oh I" hook that follows the chorus in Shape of You. Mr Chokri and his co-writer Ross O'Donoghue say it is almost identical to the chorus of their song, which was released two years earlier.
This YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Ed Sheeran This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’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. YouTube content may contain adverts.
Their barrister Andrew Sutcliffe QC suggested the chances of the two songs being written independently were "minutely small" and accused Mr Sheeran of "inconsistencies" and "evasiveness" in his testimony.
Mr Sutcliffe also claimed "material documents" linked to the writing of Shape of You "have been lost or deleted, with no adequate explanation".
Mr Sheeran and his co-authors said they had disclosed all relevant material at their disposal.
The court heard how Shape of You was written "extraordinarily quickly" in October 2016, with the basic track completed in under an hour.
Mr Sutcliffe claimed this meant Mr Sheeran had entered the studio with the melody from Oh Why "consciously or unconsciously in his head".
"Such speed is indicative of copying," he said in a written closing statement.
Sami Chokri has described the High Court case as "the worst few weeks of my life"
Mr Sheeran's lawyer disagreed. "Speed is indicative of the genius of Mr Sheeran and his ability to work at a speed no-one else can," he told the court.
He added that all three writers "were categorically clear that they went into the writing session" with "no preconceived ideas as to whatever it was that they would write that day".
Mr Mill also argued that the similarities between the two songs were too "generic" to be protected by copyright.
"They comprise, in substance, the use of the first four notes of the minor pentatonic scale combined with the use of octaves and harmonies in a vocal chant," he argued.
However, Mr Sutcliffe argued that Oh Why's chorus was "extremely memorable" and an "earworm".
If Mr Sheeran did not consciously copy it, he said, a likely explanation was that it became "part of the echo chamber of references, songs and ideas that [he] holds in his mind, which re-surfaced in October 2016 without him realising it".
At the heart of the trial was the issue of whether Mr Sheeran had ever heard Oh Why. On the witness stand, he and his co-writers all denied prior knowledge of the song, saying they only became aware of it when the legal proceedings began.
The defendants insisted Mr Sheeran would have had the chance to hear it, describing a "concerted plan" to get the track into his hands in the hope of an endorsement.
To that end, they promoted Oh Why to several people in Mr Sheeran's circle, although not the star himself.
Giving evidence, Mr Chokri said he was certain one of them would have played Oh Why to the musician - but "I can't tell you exactly which because I don't know".
Sheeran's writing partner Johnny McDaid is also a member of chart-topping band Snow Patrol
Mr Sutcliffe said the chance that Mr Sheeran was not aware of Mr Chokri in 2016 was "vanishingly small" because they had both appeared on YouTube channel SBTV in 2010, they shared friends, and Mr Chokri had tweeted him and allegedly met him.
Mr Mill countered that there was no evidence that anyone had ever played Oh Why to Mr Sheeran.
Furthermore, he noted that no-one who had been sent the track had been specifically asked to pass it on to the star.
He claimed there were "hundreds of videos" on SBTV that Mr Sheeran "never saw or watched", and that Oh Why itself had never featured on the channel.
The implication that the star had "remembered, followed and sought out Sami Switch on another platform" six years after they had appeared on SBTV was a "preposterous jump", he said, adding: "It is quite clear from all the evidence that the promotion of Oh Why was an absolute failure".
Shape of You was the biggest hit of 2017 and remains the most-streamed song of all time on Spotify, with more than three billion plays.
It earns Mr Sheeran, Mr McDaid and Mr Mac about £5m a year, the court heard, despite almost 10% of the payments being frozen due to the ongoing dispute.
The case dates back to 2018, when the writers asked the High Court to declare they had not infringed Mr Chokri and Mr O'Donoghue's copyright.
In July 2018, the pair issued their own claim for "copyright infringement, damages and an account of profits in relation to the alleged infringement".
As the trial ended on Tuesday, Mr Justice Zacaroli told both sides he would deliver his judgment "as soon as I can".
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-60828120
|
news_entertainment-arts-60828120
|
|
Cabinet split over changing planning law to allow more wind farms - BBC News
|
2022-03-22
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Ministers are preparing plans to produce more energy in England but are at odds over how to do it.
|
UK Politics
|
Boris Johnson's cabinet is split over proposals to ease planning rules in England to enable more onshore wind farms, sources have told the BBC.
Ministers are next week due to set out plans to produce more energy in the UK to tackle spiralling household bills.
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is in favour of loosening planning regulations to make it easier to approve plans for more onshore wind.
But the BBC has been told other cabinet ministers strongly oppose the plans.
In 2015, planning laws were changed to give local councils tougher powers over whether onshore wind turbines were built in their areas. Labour have described this as an effective "moratorium" on onshore wind - and have called on the government to end it.
The government wants the UK to become more "energy independent", as the West tries to wean itself off Russian gas and oil.
Its "energy supply strategy" will focus on:
This week, Kwasi Kwarteng told the i newspaper "the prime minister has been very clear that onshore wind has got to be part of the mix and we've got to look at planning".
Speaking ahead of Wednesday's cabinet meeting - the last before the energy strategy is due to be unveiled - he said: "We are not saying we are going to scrap all planning rules and all of these things have got to be in line with community support."
Kwasi Kwarteng wants onshore wind to be part of the UK's energy mix
He described 2015 arguments against more onshore wind as "historic", as the government had not then committed to achieving "net zero" emissions by 2050.
"The circumstances today with Putin, Russia, Saudi Arabia, all of those things, mean that we've got to have more energy independence and I think onshore renewables are absolutely part of that," he added.
Downing Street sources told the BBC the government has "got to be open" to more onshore wind where it works, but that the "big wins are offshore".
Boris Johnson is thought to be particularly keen on offshore wind and nuclear power, telling nuclear industry leaders on Monday that he was "insanely frustrated" that the UK has "so little" nuclear capacity and was "moving so slowly" on building new reactors.
But multiple cabinet sources have told the BBC they are against relaxing planning laws for onshore wind, with one saying there was "very, very little" support for the idea.
Another cabinet source said ministers were generally united on the need for more offshore wind and nuclear power, but onshore wind would cause a "bigger problem" and needed more discussion.
Among the cabinet ministers opposed to more onshore wind turbines is Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, but the BBC understands he backs offshore developments.
The Westminster government has no say over planning laws in Scotland, where the majority of the UK's large scale wind farms are located.
Onshore wind is Scotland's main source of renewable energy, with about 70% of electricity generated in Scotland coming from onshore wind in 2020.
Onshore wind farms have been controversial among Tory MPs in the past, with David Cameron saying in 2014 that people were "fed up" with onshore wind farms being built, and Conservative activists criticising the visual impact of them on the landscape.
But in recent years government surveys have shown public support for onshore wind, albeit not always in the areas where turbines are built.
Some cabinet ministers we spoke to were "sceptical", rather than strongly against, more onshore wind.
Separately, the BBC has been told that Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg would back whatever would bring "cheap and reliable" energy to the UK, but has long been frustrated by what he views as its unreliability as an energy source.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60837170
|
news_uk-politics-60837170
|
|
Ukraine war: 'My city's being shelled, but mum won’t believe me' - BBC News
|
2022-03-04
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
These Ukrainians say their Russian relatives only trust the narratives they see on TV at home.
|
Europe
|
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
|
news_world-europe-60600487
|
|
Dizzee Rascal: Grime artist guilty of assaulting former partner - BBC News
|
2022-03-08
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The grime artist was found guilty of assaulting his former partner in London last year.
|
London
|
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
|
news_uk-england-london-60653545
|
|
Ukraine war: 'My city's being shelled, but mum won’t believe me' - BBC News
|
2022-03-05
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
These Ukrainians say their Russian relatives only trust the narratives they see on TV at home.
|
Europe
|
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
|
news_world-europe-60600487
|
|
War in Ukraine: Zelensky slams Nato over rejection of no-fly zone - BBC News
|
2022-03-05
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Zelensky said Nato has given Russia "a green light" to continue bombing Ukrainian towns and cities.
|
Europe
|
Ukraine's president has attacked Nato leaders over their refusal to implement a no-fly zone around the country.
In a fiery speech, Volodymyr Zelensky said the West's reluctance to intervene had given Russia "a green light" to continue bombarding towns and villages.
Nato has argued that a no-fly zone will result in confrontation with Moscow.
And Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, said on Saturday that any such move would be seen "as participation in an armed conflict by that country".
Referring to sanctions imposed on Russia by the West, the Russian leader said they were "akin to a declaration of war, but thank God it has not come to that".
In his speech from Kyiv, Mr Zelensky said he disagreed that direct action could "provoke Russia's direct aggression against Nato".
In angry comments, he said the argument reflected the "self-hypnosis of those who are weak, under-confident inside" and that Western reservations indicated that "not everyone considers the struggle for freedom to be Europe's number one goal".
"All the people who will die starting from this day will also die because of you. Because of your weakness, because of your disunity," a furious Mr Zelensky added.
On Friday, Nato's secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, warned that the introduction of a no-fly zone could lead to a "full-fledged war in Europe involving many more countries and causing much more human suffering".
The only way to impose a no-fly zone would be "by shooting down Russian planes," Stoltenberg said
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also ruled out the introduction of a no-fly zone, but told the BBC he was convinced Ukraine could win its war with Russia.
"I can't tell you how long this will go on," America's top diplomat said. "I can't tell you how long it will take. But the idea that Russia can subjugate to its will 45 million people who are ardently fighting for their future and their freedom, that does not involve Russia having its thumb on Ukraine, that tells you a lot."
As Russia's invasion of Ukraine enters its 10th day, Moscow's forces continue to heavily shell many cities.
In the south-eastern port city of Mariupol, the city's mayor has said that residents are under a "blockade" after days of "ruthless" attacks from Russian forces which has seen power and water shut off to the city's 450,00 strong population.
Vadim Boychenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app that the city was "simply being destroyed" and said officials were prioritising "the establishment of a ceasefire so that we can restore vital infrastructure and set up a humanitarian corridor to bring food and medicine into the city".
In Kyiv, a massive convoy stretching out over 40 miles (64km) remains stalled outside the city, but the Ukrainian capital has come under renewed assault, with explosions caused by intense shelling audible in the city centre.
There have also been unconfirmed reports of fresh fighting on Saturday in the north-eastern city of Sumy and of rocket attacks on the train station in Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, above a metro station where city residents are sheltering from shelling, and in the northern city of Chernihiv.
And the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, has warned that Russian troops have advanced within 20 miles (32km) of Ukraine's second biggest nuclear facility.
Russian forces have been shelling the city of Kharkiv for over a week
Her comments follow Friday's attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which she said reflected a "dangerous new escalation" in Russia's invasion. Moscow's ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, dismissed reports that Russian troops attacked the plant as "lies" and "disinformation".
Meanwhile in Russia, a new law signed by President Vladimir Putin that would impose prison terms of up to 15 years on people charged with spreading "fake news" about the war in Ukraine has seen several western media outlets, including the BBC, suspend operations in the country.
Tim Davie, the BBC's director-general, said the legislation "appears to criminalise the process of independent journalism" in Russia, while the Washington Post said it would remove bylines from pieces written by its reporters in Russia.
It comes as Sky News released dramatic footage of their correspondent Stuart Ramsey coming under fire outside Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Mr Zelensky addressed massive rallies in support of Ukraine in several cities across Europe, including the Czech capital, Prague, and the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.
He warned demonstrators: "If Ukraine does not survive, the whole of Europe will not survive."
But in the Serbian capital of Belgrade, some 4,000 people have taken part in a pro-Russian rally that marched from a monument of Russian Tsar Nicholas II to the Russian embassy.
Demonstrators sang the Serbian and Russian national anthems and carried Russian flags and pictures of President Vladimir Putin.
Elsewhere, in a sign that Western sanctions are starting to have a tangible impact, Italian police have seized the yachts of two of Russia's wealthiest oligarchs.
Officers seized a 213-ft (65-m) yacht worth $27m (£20m) owned by Alexey Mordashov, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and Russia's richest man, in the northern port of Imperia, officials told local media.
Another yacht, owned by Gennady Timchenko, another oligarch with close ties to Putin, has been impounded in Imperia, officials said.
Mordashov is worth an estimated $29bn and built his wealth around the Russian steel producer Severstal, while Timchenko is said to hold around $17bn of assets and made his fortune in oil trading.
Are you in the affected region including Mariupol and Volnovakha? 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/world-europe-60629175
|
news_world-europe-60629175
|
|
Sizewell C nuclear power station: Government to take 20% stake - BBC News
|
2022-03-27
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
French developer EDF will also take a 20% stake in the £20bn power station at Sizewell, in Suffolk.
|
Business
|
The government plans to take a 20% stake in a £20bn large-scale nuclear plant at Sizewell, the BBC has learned.
French developer EDF will also take a 20% stake in the Suffolk power station.
Ministers hope the confirmation of two cornerstone investors will encourage infrastructure investors and pension funds to take up the remaining 60%.
Sizewell C is a key part of the new UK energy strategy, anticipated this week. However, no decision is expected yet on the future of Wylfa, in north Wales.
Government officials say new nuclear facilities at Wylfa could - like Sizewell - be one of the "big bets on nuclear" the prime minister has said are integral to plans to reduce UK reliance on fossil fuels over time.
It's not yet clear whether these additional ambitions will include large-scale plants, smaller reactors based on nuclear submarine technology, or both.
The government's strategy will also include plans for solar and wind power, as well as stimulating additional investment in oil and gas fields in UK waters.
Legislation allowing construction and financing costs to be added to customer bills, as Sizewell C is built over the next decade, is due for a second reading in the House of Commons next month. It made it through the Lords unamended and is expected to become law in the coming weeks having received strong support from MPs.
EDF has insisted the amount added per household will be relatively insignificant, at about £2 a year for the first phase, rising to a peak of £12 a year.
The total cost of Sizewell C is expected to be about £20bn. That is slightly less than the plant currently under construction at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, as Sizewell C will be a near-identical replica, creating cost savings.
However, those numbers are expected to rise as global inflationary pressures affect prices of steel, cement, wages and the large amounts of energy required to build plants of this size.
Groups opposed to the Sizewell plan say it is risky, expensive and endangers wildlife
The £20bn in capital (at current prices) is expected to be financed with about one-third in equity - or cash up front - and the remainder in debt borrowed from financial markets.
The government has already committed £100m to the project's development but taking a 20% stake in the equity would see that figure rise to around £1.5bn.
Nuclear industry insiders say proposed reforms to EU-wide financial regulations (Solvency II) will make it easier for pension funds and insurance companies to invest in long-term infrastructure assets like nuclear.
While some Suffolk business groups would welcome the jobs and skills that would be brought to the local economy, there is significant opposition to the plant both at a local level and more widely from those who argue big nuclear is slow, expensive, old fashioned, risky and threatens local wildlife.
Anti-Sizewell groups have mounted planning challenges and are expected to demand a judicial review of any approval.
Campaign group Stop Sizewell C said: "We are appalled the government plans to throw billions of pounds in taxpayers' money at Sizewell C and hit households with a nuclear tax on their bills when renewable solutions, insulation, efficiency and energy storage will achieve energy security faster, more cheaply and with much less risk."
However, the government is convinced it is a source of non-imported, low carbon, "always on" electricity and has a target for nuclear to contribute 25% of the UK's power needs.
Nuclear currently produces about 16% of UK power but, of the eight plants still in operation, all but one are due to be switched off by 2030. Only Hinkley Point C is currently under construction.
That plant alone will produce 7% of current needs when it comes online in 2026.
The government is also keen to accelerate the development of smaller reactors, of the kind being developed by Rolls Royce, but designs for these are still at an early stage.
Critics argue other technologies like solar and wind are cheaper, faster and greener to deploy.
While the current energy crisis, exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war, has made a powerful argument for weaning economies off volatile fossil fuels, it has also painfully demonstrated that point is still some way off.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60889001
|
news_business-60889001
|
|
Ukraine war: Kyiv prepares for Russian attack - BBC News
|
2022-03-11
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
As Russian forces continue their slow advance, Kyiv's residents fear the worst for their city.
|
Europe
|
When the Russian offensive started, as sirens sounded in Kyiv for the first time, some people here feared that the city might fall by the afternoon.
Reports were coming in of a long convoy of armour and heavy weapons pushing down from the north-west. Military analysts had a high opinion of the Russian army. It had, they said, been professionalised, with invaluable experience of perfecting weapons and seasoning men in the war in Syria. The tactical errors I had seen the Russians commit when they tried to crush a rebellion in the republic of Chechnya in 1995 were, I was told, ancient history.
The consensus about the Ukrainian armed forces on the first day of the war was that they were much stronger than they had been in 2014, when they could not stop Russia seizing Crimea and establishing two breakaway enclaves in eastern Ukraine. But Russia had the numbers and the firepower. The Ukrainians, it was said, would rediscover the truth of an aphorism attributed to Stalin: "quantity has a quality of its own."
The first two weeks of the war proved that those predictions were wrong. The Russians blundered; the Ukrainians resisted. Around Kyiv the Russian advance stalled. In the south, it was a different story. They worked steadily towards opening a land corridor between Crimea and Moscow's enclaves in eastern Ukraine.
But it has been clear from the outset that control of Kyiv is crucial to winning arguments in politics as well as on the battlefield. While President Volodymyr Zelensky's government holds the city, he can claim not to be defeated, and President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin cannot claim victory.
The last couple of days have been bright and sunny, after more than a week of thick cloud. That means satellites have a clear view of movements on the ground. One conclusion is that the 40-mile Russian convoy north-west of Kyiv is slowly dispersing and reorganising. The latest word from the US Department of Defense is that the rear elements are catching up, but the vehicles closest to Kyiv are not moving.
The fighting around Kyiv has been concentrated in the north-west and has been going on since the first morning, when Russian airborne troops landed at a cargo airport near Hostomel and Irpin, small commuter towns that evacuees say are now badly damaged. They looked to be trying to secure a staging area for a push into Kyiv. But Ukrainian troops stopped them.
In the last few days, I have seen more defenders moving forward to continue the fight around Irpin and the Hostomel airport and heard steady artillery fire from the Ukrainian side from gunlines concealed in belts of thick woodland.
The heavily contested north-west is just a 20-minute drive from the centre of Kyiv, which has barely been touched, although sirens sound regular alerts.
In the week or so that I have been here the Ukrainians have improved their physical defences, which in places barely existed. Checkpoints that were just a few concrete blocks have become barricades. Across the city men have been filling and positioning sandbags. Kyiv's metalworkers have been busy. At strategic junctions, and on the dual carriageways that run out of Kyiv steel anti-tank obstacles stand ready.
Kyiv is a grand city of broad, sweeping avenues, bisected by narrower streets often paved with lumpy cobblestones. Many of the buildings have extensive basements and cellars. Street fighting here, if it happened, could grind on for months.
The city sprawls along both banks of the Dnieper, one of Europe's great rivers. Docks and marinas leading off the river are still frozen. Crossing the water under fire would be a formidable military undertaking. The bank on the west side of the river, near the government buildings and the great cathedrals, is steep and heavily wooded. Defenders would have many advantages.
But crossing the Dnieper might not be on Russia's agenda until it is able to control both banks. One theory is that the stalled offensive from the west and north-west is not just because of Ukrainian resistance and what appears to be the Russian army's own badly handled logistics. A column coming from the east has been moving slowly, and the generals might be waiting for it to catch up.
The Russians attempted to move a regiment of tanks into Kyiv's eastern approaches on Thursday. They were mauled badly as they rumbled slowly down a highway in broad daylight. Drone pictures showed that the tanks were bunched together making easy targets for Ukrainian artillery or drones. It was another tactical blunder for Moscow.
It is not clear whether Russia plans to encircle Kyiv or attempt to force a surrender by thrusting into the centre with armour supported by infantry. The choices are not great for them. Direct attacks have so far been stopped. Encircling a big city might take too many men.
One possibility is that President Putin expected the rapid collapse of a government that he has dismissed with contempt as a Nazi collaboration with the west and did not think his soldiers would need to do either.
It is certain that Putin and his generals are reassessing, regrouping and will not accept defeat. Putin's mission has been to restore Russia to what he believes is its rightful place as a world power. In a country the size of Ukraine - only Russia itself is bigger in Europe - victory in Kyiv is the most direct way for him to declare mission accomplished.
Without a doubt the Russian armed forces have been operating at half power and half speed. That is partly due to their own mistakes, and partly because the Ukrainians are proving to be formidable, nimble opponents. The stalled attacks around Kyiv have turned into a respite for the city's defenders, allowing them time to dig to improve defences that were rudimentary, and presumably to receive some of the increasingly sophisticated weapons that NATO is bringing into Ukraine.
A question that nags uncomfortably at the minds of many in Kyiv is whether President Putin will conclude that the time has come to turn the deadliest conventional weapons in Russia's arsenal against the city's defenders. So far that has not happened. If it does, many more people will die and terrible damage will be done.
Some people here do not believe President Putin will hammer Kyiv in the way that cities in eastern and southern Ukraine have been attacked. They argue Putin will hesitate to destroy an ancient city which has been at the centre of Russian culture, religion and history. Some of the same people also believed Russia would not invade.
Others fear that if Russian infantry and armour are held up, Putin and his generals will default to the tactics they are using in Mariupol in the south, surrounding the city and attempting to break the will of its defenders with artillery and air strikes. It is a method that worked well for the Russians in Syria, and in the 1990s when Grozny, the capital of the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya, was flattened.
The next few weeks will be critical for the future of Kyiv, and for the wider war over the future of Ukraine. If Russia cannot reactivate its attack on the capital, its defenders will grow in confidence and the strength and the morale of Russian forces, including conscripts, will take more blows.
If the Putin regime can find a way to end resistance here, the president will be closer to achieving his war aim of ending Ukraine's independence. Forcing the country back into Russia's orbit, in the face of what would most likely be a Nato-backed insurgency, would be an altogether more difficult job.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60714515
|
news_world-europe-60714515
|
|
Sarah Everard: Met Police breached rights of vigil organisers - BBC News
|
2022-03-11
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Police forced the four vigil organisers to cancel their plans to mark the death of Sarah Everard.
|
London
|
The unofficial event that went on to be held at Clapham Common led to some women being physically restrained by police
The Met Police breached the rights of the organisers of a planned vigil for Sarah Everard, two judges have ruled.
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 on Clapham Common in south London to pay their respects to Ms Everard, who was murdered by a serving Met officer, Wayne Couzens.
The vigil, on 13 March, saw clashes between police and some of those there.
At a two-day hearing at the High Court in January, Jessica Leigh, Anna Birley, Henna Shah and Jamie Klingler 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
In a statement after the ruling, the women's solicitor Theodora Middleton said: "Today's judgment is a victory for women.
"Last March, women's voices were silenced. Today's judgment conclusively shows that the police were wrong to silence us.
"The decisions and actions by the Met Police in the run-up to the planned vigil for Sarah Everard last year were unlawful and the judgment sets a powerful precedent for protest rights.
"We came together one year and one day ago to organise a vigil on Clapham Common because Sarah Everard went missing from our neighbourhood. We felt sad and afraid.
"We were angry that women still weren't safe and we were tired of the burden to stay safe always weighing on our shoulders."
On Friday, Lord Justice Warby and Mr Justice Holgate released their ruling in favour of arguments made by the four women, who founded Reclaim These Streets (RTS) and planned the vigil, finding that the Met's actions were "not in accordance with the law".
In a summary of the ruling, Lord Justice Warby said the Met had "failed to perform its legal duty to consider whether the claimants might have a reasonable excuse for holding the gathering".
He added: "The relevant decisions of the (Met) were to make statements at meetings, in letters, and in a press statement, to the effect that the Covid-19 regulations in force at the time meant that holding the vigil would be unlawful.
"Those statements interfered with the claimants' rights because each had a 'chilling effect' and made at least some causal contribution to the decision to cancel the vigil."
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
Lawyers representing the four women told the court that notes of a Met gold command meeting the day before the proposed event included a statement that "we are seen as the bad guys at the moment and we don't want to aggravate this".
Tom Hickman QC said: "The most significant 'threat' identified was not public health but the perceived reputational risk to the (force), including in the event they were perceived to be permitting or facilitating the vigil."
The Met argued there was no exception for protest in the coronavirus rules at the time and it had "no obligation" to assess the public health risk.
At the time Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick faced calls for her to resign over the actions of her officers at the vigil
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.
Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe said the Met was "considering the judgment very carefully before deciding whether to appeal".
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan welcomed the High Court ruling and said the way the vigil was handled was one of the events in the past year that had "damaged confidence" in the Met.
He added: "We know tens of thousands of dedicated Met officers have gone above and beyond throughout this pandemic - but it is clear today that there are still serious lessons to be learned in how their duties are carried out."
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-60707646
|
news_uk-england-london-60707646
|
|
Angel Lynn: Kidnapped woman's abusive ex has sentence increased - BBC News
|
2022-03-23
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Angel Lynn was left with life-changing injuries after being kidnapped by her then boyfriend.
|
Leicester
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Angel Lynn: Woman's kidnap by then boyfriend caught on camera
The abusive former boyfriend of a woman left with life-changing injuries in a fall from a van has had his sentence for kidnapping her increased.
Angel Lynn was bundled into the van by Chay Bowskill before she was found injured on the A6 near Loughborough, Leicestershire, in 2020.
Bowskill's sentence of seven and a half years in a young offender institution has been increased to 12 years.
His sentence was reviewed following concerns it was too lenient.
Rocco Sansome, who was driving the van, had previously been sentenced to 21 months in a young offender institution and his sentence remains unchanged.
The Court of Appeal judges decided Bowskill's original sentence had "failed to reflect the seriousness" of the kidnap offence, and too much of a discount had been given to the sentence because of his age.
"Miss Lynn is likely to be severely disabled, mentally and physically, for the rest of her life, and will be dependent on others for all aspects of her care," Dame Victoria Sharp, President of the Queen's Bench Division, said.
She added the kidnap had been the "culmination of a pattern of abuse at the hands of Bowskill".
Angel Lynn, now 21, was left with serious brain damage as a result of the kidnap
Speaking following the ruling, Angel Lynn's aunt Jackie Chamberlain said the family had got "exactly what we wanted".
"We're absolutely elated at the result and we want to thank everybody involved, from the police to the judges today, the lady judge in charge, she's amazing. We really felt she got us as a family," she told BBC Radio Leicester's Ady Dayman.
"We can rest in the fact and know he [Bowskill] will not be anywhere near us for a very long time.
"We want to thank every person that complained about the sentence being unduly lenient.
"It gladdens your heart, it's amazing."
She said the family could now "move on" and concentrate on bringing Angel home.
"We don't want to think about those people anymore," she said.
"We've given them two years nearly of our lives and we don't want to give them any more thoughts whatsoever."
Angel Lynn is likely to be mentally and physically disabled for the rest of her life
Bowskill was previously sentenced to three years and three months for kidnap, two years for coercive and controlling behaviour, and two years and three months for perverting the course of justice - after he put pressure on his mother to withdraw her police statement.
These sentences were consecutive, meaning they were all added up to a total of seven and a half years.
The judges have now changed his sentence for kidnap to 12 years, but the sentences for the other charges are concurrent, meaning they all run at the same time.
Dame Sharp told Bowskill he must serve two-thirds of the sentence before he is eligible to be released.
The judges said they did not change Sansome's sentence for kidnap because "his role was a subsidiary one", he was remorseful, and there were no aggravating features of domestic abuse against Miss Lynn in relation to him.
Chay Bowskill, now 20, was also found guilty of coercive and controlling behaviour
The original trial at Leicester Crown Court heard Bowskill, of Empingham Drive, Syston, kidnapped Miss Lynn following an argument on 17 September 2020.
CCTV footage showed him lifting her up and carrying her across a road before putting her in the van.
Both were 19 at the time and had been in a relationship for about a year.
Judge Timothy Spencer QC described Bowskill's treatment of Miss Lynn during their relationship as "vile" and added: "She was belittled by you to a point she must have felt on a regular basis, worthless.
"You bombarded her with repulsive, degrading messages, sometimes within a timespan of a few hours.
"You controlled her freedom of movement by a variety of means and she was not allowed any sort of life apart from you."
It is still not clear whether Miss Lynn fell from the van accidentally, or whether she was trying to get away from Bowskill.
However, the jury did not think Bowskill had deliberately pushed her, and he was therefore found not guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and an alternative charge of inflicting grievous bodily harm.
The case was referred to the Court of Appeal by Solicitor General Alex Chalk QC MP.
"Angel Lynn was subjected to prolonged abuse by her partner, Chay Bowskill, which culminated in her suffering devastating and life-changing injuries," he said after the sentence was increased.
"No sentence can repair the damage caused by the cowardly actions of Bowskill, but I welcome the decision of the court to increase the punishment for his crimes."
Jackie Chamberlain (second from right) said the family could now "move on" and concentrate on bringing Angel home
Miss Lynn's family also thanked Women's Aid for their support in the appeal.
Farah Nazeer, chief executive of Women's Aid, said she welcomed the increased sentence.
"Lenient sentences in domestic abuse cases send a dangerous message - both to perpetrators and survivors of domestic abuse - about how seriously we treat violence against women in this country," she said.
"It is clear that better understanding of domestic abuse and coercive control will bring about improved sentencing in the future, which will ultimately lead to keeping more women safe.
"To prioritise the safety of women and girls, judges must send out a clear message that domestic abuse will not be tolerated."
Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-60847198
|
news_uk-england-leicestershire-60847198
|
|
Ed Sheeran awaits verdict in 'traumatising' Shape of You copyright trial - BBC News
|
2022-03-23
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The star's lawyer says a copyright case over the song Shape of You should never have gone to court.
|
Entertainment & Arts
|
Shape of You won the Grammy Award for best pop solo performance in 2018
Ed Sheeran faces a wait of "days and weeks" to learn the outcome of a High Court trial over his hit Shape of You.
The star has been accused of copying part of the song from another artist.
In closing arguments, grime artist Sami Chokri's barrister said there was an "indisputable similarity between the works". But Mr Sheeran's lawyer said the case against him was "so strained as to be logically unintelligible".
Mr Justice Zacaroli said he would "take some time to consider my judgment".
The 11-day trial ended on Tuesday. Ian Mill QC, representing Mr Sheeran, said it had been "deeply traumatising" for the star and his co-writers, Johnny McDaid and Steve Mac.
He described the dispute as "terribly, terribly unfortunate" and argued that the case "should never have gone to trial".
Mr Sheeran, who has attended the court throughout, listened attentively to the closing arguments with his hands clasped together. During the trial, the superstar has been described as a "magpie" who "borrows" ideas from other artists.
The dispute revolves around similarities between Shape of You and Oh Why by Mr Chokri, who performs under the name Sami Switch.
The contentious part is the "Oh I, oh I, oh I" hook that follows the chorus in Shape of You. Mr Chokri and his co-writer Ross O'Donoghue say it is almost identical to the chorus of their song, which was released two years earlier.
This YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Ed Sheeran This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’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. YouTube content may contain adverts.
Their barrister Andrew Sutcliffe QC suggested the chances of the two songs being written independently were "minutely small" and accused Mr Sheeran of "inconsistencies" and "evasiveness" in his testimony.
Mr Sutcliffe also claimed "material documents" linked to the writing of Shape of You "have been lost or deleted, with no adequate explanation".
Mr Sheeran and his co-authors said they had disclosed all relevant material at their disposal.
The court heard how Shape of You was written "extraordinarily quickly" in October 2016, with the basic track completed in under an hour.
Mr Sutcliffe claimed this meant Mr Sheeran had entered the studio with the melody from Oh Why "consciously or unconsciously in his head".
"Such speed is indicative of copying," he said in a written closing statement.
Sami Chokri has described the High Court case as "the worst few weeks of my life"
Mr Sheeran's lawyer disagreed. "Speed is indicative of the genius of Mr Sheeran and his ability to work at a speed no-one else can," he told the court.
He added that all three writers "were categorically clear that they went into the writing session" with "no preconceived ideas as to whatever it was that they would write that day".
Mr Mill also argued that the similarities between the two songs were too "generic" to be protected by copyright.
"They comprise, in substance, the use of the first four notes of the minor pentatonic scale combined with the use of octaves and harmonies in a vocal chant," he argued.
However, Mr Sutcliffe argued that Oh Why's chorus was "extremely memorable" and an "earworm".
If Mr Sheeran did not consciously copy it, he said, a likely explanation was that it became "part of the echo chamber of references, songs and ideas that [he] holds in his mind, which re-surfaced in October 2016 without him realising it".
At the heart of the trial was the issue of whether Mr Sheeran had ever heard Oh Why. On the witness stand, he and his co-writers all denied prior knowledge of the song, saying they only became aware of it when the legal proceedings began.
The defendants insisted Mr Sheeran would have had the chance to hear it, describing a "concerted plan" to get the track into his hands in the hope of an endorsement.
To that end, they promoted Oh Why to several people in Mr Sheeran's circle, although not the star himself.
Giving evidence, Mr Chokri said he was certain one of them would have played Oh Why to the musician - but "I can't tell you exactly which because I don't know".
Sheeran's writing partner Johnny McDaid is also a member of chart-topping band Snow Patrol
Mr Sutcliffe said the chance that Mr Sheeran was not aware of Mr Chokri in 2016 was "vanishingly small" because they had both appeared on YouTube channel SBTV in 2010, they shared friends, and Mr Chokri had tweeted him and allegedly met him.
Mr Mill countered that there was no evidence that anyone had ever played Oh Why to Mr Sheeran.
Furthermore, he noted that no-one who had been sent the track had been specifically asked to pass it on to the star.
He claimed there were "hundreds of videos" on SBTV that Mr Sheeran "never saw or watched", and that Oh Why itself had never featured on the channel.
The implication that the star had "remembered, followed and sought out Sami Switch on another platform" six years after they had appeared on SBTV was a "preposterous jump", he said, adding: "It is quite clear from all the evidence that the promotion of Oh Why was an absolute failure".
Shape of You was the biggest hit of 2017 and remains the most-streamed song of all time on Spotify, with more than three billion plays.
It earns Mr Sheeran, Mr McDaid and Mr Mac about £5m a year, the court heard, despite almost 10% of the payments being frozen due to the ongoing dispute.
The case dates back to 2018, when the writers asked the High Court to declare they had not infringed Mr Chokri and Mr O'Donoghue's copyright.
In July 2018, the pair issued their own claim for "copyright infringement, damages and an account of profits in relation to the alleged infringement".
As the trial ended on Tuesday, Mr Justice Zacaroli told both sides he would deliver his judgment "as soon as I can".
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-60828120
|
news_entertainment-arts-60828120
|
|
Cabinet split over changing planning law to allow more wind farms - BBC News
|
2022-03-23
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Ministers are preparing plans to produce more energy in England but are at odds over how to do it.
|
UK Politics
|
Boris Johnson's cabinet is split over proposals to ease planning rules in England to enable more onshore wind farms, sources have told the BBC.
Ministers are next week due to set out plans to produce more energy in the UK to tackle spiralling household bills.
Business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is in favour of loosening planning regulations to make it easier to approve plans for more onshore wind.
But the BBC has been told other cabinet ministers strongly oppose the plans.
In 2015, planning laws were changed to give local councils tougher powers over whether onshore wind turbines were built in their areas. Labour have described this as an effective "moratorium" on onshore wind - and have called on the government to end it.
The government wants the UK to become more "energy independent", as the West tries to wean itself off Russian gas and oil.
Its "energy supply strategy" will focus on:
This week, Kwasi Kwarteng told the i newspaper "the prime minister has been very clear that onshore wind has got to be part of the mix and we've got to look at planning".
Speaking ahead of Wednesday's cabinet meeting - the last before the energy strategy is due to be unveiled - he said: "We are not saying we are going to scrap all planning rules and all of these things have got to be in line with community support."
Kwasi Kwarteng wants onshore wind to be part of the UK's energy mix
He described 2015 arguments against more onshore wind as "historic", as the government had not then committed to achieving "net zero" emissions by 2050.
"The circumstances today with Putin, Russia, Saudi Arabia, all of those things, mean that we've got to have more energy independence and I think onshore renewables are absolutely part of that," he added.
Downing Street sources told the BBC the government has "got to be open" to more onshore wind where it works, but that the "big wins are offshore".
Boris Johnson is thought to be particularly keen on offshore wind and nuclear power, telling nuclear industry leaders on Monday that he was "insanely frustrated" that the UK has "so little" nuclear capacity and was "moving so slowly" on building new reactors.
But multiple cabinet sources have told the BBC they are against relaxing planning laws for onshore wind, with one saying there was "very, very little" support for the idea.
Another cabinet source said ministers were generally united on the need for more offshore wind and nuclear power, but onshore wind would cause a "bigger problem" and needed more discussion.
Among the cabinet ministers opposed to more onshore wind turbines is Scottish Secretary Alister Jack, but the BBC understands he backs offshore developments.
The Westminster government has no say over planning laws in Scotland, where the majority of the UK's large scale wind farms are located.
Onshore wind is Scotland's main source of renewable energy, with about 70% of electricity generated in Scotland coming from onshore wind in 2020.
Onshore wind farms have been controversial among Tory MPs in the past, with David Cameron saying in 2014 that people were "fed up" with onshore wind farms being built, and Conservative activists criticising the visual impact of them on the landscape.
But in recent years government surveys have shown public support for onshore wind, albeit not always in the areas where turbines are built.
Some cabinet ministers we spoke to were "sceptical", rather than strongly against, more onshore wind.
Separately, the BBC has been told that Brexit opportunities minister Jacob Rees-Mogg would back whatever would bring "cheap and reliable" energy to the UK, but has long been frustrated by what he views as its unreliability as an energy source.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60837170
|
news_uk-politics-60837170
|
|
Ukraine war: 'Tanks in streets' as fighting hits Mariupol centre - BBC News
|
2022-03-19
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Street fighting hampers efforts to rescue civilians trapped in a bombed theatre, the mayor says.
|
Europe
|
Russian attacks have damaged or destroyed 80% of Mariupol's residential buildings, the mayor says
Efforts to rescue hundreds of people trapped in the basement of a bombed theatre in the besieged city of Mariupol are being hampered by intense battles in the area, the mayor says.
Vadym Boychenko told the BBC teams were only able to clear the rubble of the building during lulls in the fighting.
Ukrainian officials say Russia attacked the site, which was clearly marked as a civilian shelter. Moscow denies it.
Russian forces have encircled the city, which has no electricity, water or gas.
About 300,000 people are trapped inside, as food and medical supplies run out and Russia blocks the entry of humanitarian aid. Russian attacks have hit a hospital, a church and countless apartment blocks, with local officials estimating that about 80% of residential buildings are either damaged or destroyed, a third of them beyond repair.
Mariupol has seen some of the fiercest battles since Russia invaded Ukraine, three weeks ago. The location of the port city, on the Sea of Azov, is strategic for Russia, as it would help it create a land corridor between the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, controlled by Russian-backed separatists, and Crimea, the peninsula it invaded and annexed in 2014.
"[There is] street fighting in the city centre," Mr Boychenko said, confirming a claim made by Russia on Friday, when it said it was "tightening the noose" around the city.
"There are tanks... and artillery shelling, and all kinds of weapons fired in the area," the mayor said. "Our forces are doing everything they can to hold their positions in the city but the forces of the enemy are larger than ours, unfortunately."
Communication with the city is difficult, with the phone network said to be operational only a few hours a day. Amid unrelenting Russian attacks, residents spend most of their days in shelters and basements, rarely coming outside.
Mr Boychenko said, in a previous interview, that there was no city centre left. "There isn't a small piece of land in the city that doesn't have signs of war," he said.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The intense fighting means it is too dangerous for teams to clear the rubble of the destroyed theatre and rescue people from the basement, which withstood Wednesday's attack. "There's no opportunity to do that," Mr Boychenko said. "When it gets quiet for a bit, rubble is being cleared and people get out."
He said he could not provide an update on how many had already left the site. A day earlier, the country's human rights ombudsman said 130 people had been rescued, and that about 1,300 remained trapped.
Satellite images showed the Russian word for "children" had been emblazoned on the ground in two locations outside the imposing Soviet-era building, indicating the place was being used as a civilian shelter. Most of those inside are elderly people, women and children, who are living squeezed in dark rooms and corridors.
In a video address released on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said some of the people rescued were "seriously wounded" but that, at the moment, there was no information of deaths.
A picture of the theatre in Mariupol before the bombing, with the word "children" in Russian clearly visible
President Zelensky also accused Russia of a "war crime" for blocking the access of humanitarian aid to the besieged cities. "This is a totally deliberate tactic," he said. "They [Russian forces] have a clear order to do absolutely everything to make the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities an 'argument' for Ukrainians to co-operate with the occupiers."
The authorities in Mariupol say at least 2,500 people have been killed in the city since the start of the war, although they acknowledge that is an underestimate. Some of the dead are being left on streets, as it is too risky to collect them. Many end up being buried in mass graves.
Mr Boychenko, the Mariupol mayor, said 40,000 people had managed to leave the city in the last five days, and that 20,000 others were waiting to be evacuated. Residents are fleeing in private vehicles, he said, as attempts to create official humanitarian corridors have broken down, with Ukraine accusing Russia of attacking the city despite agreeing to ceasefires.
• None 'We knew something terrible was coming'
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60806973
|
news_world-europe-60806973
|
|
Don't go to Ukraine, military boss tells Britons - BBC News
|
2022-03-06
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The head of the UK's armed forces also rejects Ukraine's call for a no-fly zone, saying it will not help.
|
UK
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: We have a direct line to Moscow, says UK chief of defence staff Adm Sir Tony Radakin
Britons should not head to Ukraine to fight and should instead help however they can from the UK, the head of the armed forces has said.
Speaking to the BBC, Adm Sir Tony Radakin rejected Ukraine's call for a no-fly zone saying it would not help tactically and might escalate fighting.
He urged the West to have confidence that they were doing the "right thing".
The invasion was not going well, Russia was becoming less powerful and it cannot continue, he said.
On Britons wanting to join the fight, Adm Radakin said that the "sound of gunfire" was not "something you want to rush to", and urged people to support Ukraine in sensible ways from the UK.
Asked whether Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had been right to say she would support any Briton who wanted to fight, he said: "We can all understand that sentiment, and that sentiment needs to be channelled into support for Ukraine."
Senior UK military officers are genuinely worried that some British troops - regulars or reservists - might try to join the battle in Ukraine and, in doing so, risk handing Russia a propaganda victory.
Last week the Chief of Defence People, Lt Gen James Swift, sent out a message to the chain of command stressing that UK military personnel were "not authorised" to travel there.
He said that if there was any suspicion that troops were trying to make their way to Ukraine then it should be reported immediately to the Service Police.
The message warned that if serving British military personnel went to fight in Ukraine then they were putting not only their lives in danger but they also risked giving "the mistaken perception" to Russia that Britain had sent in troops to engage in hostilities.
Adm Sir Tony Radakin has now underlined that message, saying it would be "unlawful and unhelpful".
At present the MoD does not believe there are any examples of full-time British military personnel going absent to fight in Ukraine. But it's harder for them to keep tabs on reservists who often also have another career.
In his interview with the BBC's Sunday Morning show, the defence chief painted a picture of Russian forces suffering from heavy losses and low morale, with kit failings and a massive military convoy stalled outside the capital, Kyiv.
The Kremlin has lost more troops in a week than the UK did in 20 years in Afghanistan, he said, and some "lead elements of Russian forces" have been decimated.
He described stories of soldiers whose morale had been so knocked they had abandoned the convoy destined for Kyiv to camp in the forest.
Ukrainian servicemen near Kyiv - a huge convoy of Russian troops has stopped its advance outside the capital
On Saturday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a fiery speech saying the West's reluctance to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine had given Russia "a green light" to continue bombarding towns and villages.
But Adm Radakin insisted such an intervention would not help.
"The advice that we, as senior military professionals are giving our politicians, is to avoid doing things that are tactically ineffective and definitely to avoid doing things that tactically might lead to miscalculation or escalation."
He said most of the shelling and destruction was coming from artillery, not Russian aircraft, and to police a no-fly zone could mean taking out Russian defence systems and shooting down Russian aircraft - leading to an escalation, he added.
Speaking later on the same programme, UK deputy prime minister Dominic Raab said he understood Ukraine's cri de coeur but insisted the West had been clear all along that it would not engage in direct military confrontation.
That would give succour to Russian President Vladimir Putin's argument that he was in conflict with the West, he said.
Mr Putin said on Saturday that any such move to implement a no-fly zone would be seen "as participation in an armed conflict by that country".
The West has to maintain calmness and responsibility and not react rashly to the latest "bizarre or ridiculous comment" from Mr Putin, he said.
"We are prepared, we are professional armed forces, we will approach this conflict with that level of professionalism and responsibility that you would expect.
"We will also be incredibly confident in our ability to face down President Putin," he added.
He gave an insight into relations with his counterpart, Gen Valery Gerasimov, head of Russian armed forces, explaining the Ministry of Defence has a direct line to Moscow's operational headquarters.
It is tested every day, he said, and he has used the line to tell Gen Gerasimov they need to speak. "I'm waiting for him to come back to me," he added.
Adm Radakin was also asked whether the West would know beforehand whether Mr Putin would use nuclear weapons.
He said he did not want to go into detail but there had been a "remarkable" level of intelligence in the months leading up to the invasion.
"There are some more discreet elements in terms of warning signs if this was going to start to chart a path towards nuclear escalation," he said.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60637185
|
news_uk-60637185
|
|
Top US court backs right to be touched at execution by pastor - BBC News
|
2022-03-24
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Inmate John Henry Ramirez wants a pastor to touch him and say a prayer during his execution in Texas.
|
US & Canada
|
The top US court has ruled in favour of a Texas inmate who had argued it is his right to have his pastor touch him and offer a prayer during his execution.
John Henry Ramirez said the state's policy of not allowing spiritual advisers to touch inmates during executions violates their constitutional rights.
In an 8-1 ruling, the Supreme Court said his request could be carried out.
Ramirez was sentenced to death for killing a man during a robbery in 2004.
After Ramirez sued Texas last August, lower courts rejected his requests for his pastor to physically touch him and audibly pray as he died, and declined to block his execution.
Just before he was due to be executed in September 2021, a federal judge rejected his request for a stay for religious reasons.
At the time, the judge said that Texas had "compelling interest" in maintaining an "orderly, safe and effective" execution process, such as by preventing anything interfering with intravenous lines used for lethal injections.
The Supreme Court issued a stay that same month, putting the execution on hold.
In a majority opinion for the Supreme Court released on Thursday, Chief Justice John Roberts rejected the federal judge's argument, noting that a chaplain could feasibly touch a part of the inmate's body away from the IV lines, like the lower leg.
Additionally, Justice Roberts said that Texas "appears to have long allowed prison chaplains to pray with inmates in the execution chamber" and has only prohibited the practice recently. Texas banned all religious chaplains from execution chambers in 2019 after the Supreme Court granted a prisoners' request for a Buddhist monk.
Only one Supreme Court Justice, Clarence Thomas, dissented in Thursday's ruling. He wrote that he believes Ramirez "has manufactured more than a decade of delay to evade the capital sentence".
Following Thursday's ruling, the case will head back to the lower courts - which had earlier ruled in favour of Texas - for more litigating.
In his opinion, Justice Roberts said that more court proceedings "might shed additional light on Texas's interests", adding that Ramirez is "likely to succeed in proving that his religious requests are sincerely based on a religious belief".
In a statement, Ramirez's attorney Seth Kretzer said the Supreme Court decision "clarified that the rule of law is as ubiquitous as God" and that he looks forward to "prevailing in the forthcoming litigation about the issue".
Ramirez, 37, was convicted of stabbing a man 29 times in a robbery 18 years ago that prosecutors said netted the sum of $1.25 (£0.95). After the murder, he fled to Mexico and remained a fugitive there for years before being arrested near the US border.
To date, three people have been executed in the US in 2022. Last year, 11 people were executed compared to 17 in 2020.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-60864940
|
news_world-us-canada-60864940
|
|
Rishi Sunak denies link to Russia through firm part-owned by wife - BBC News
|
2022-03-24
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
An Indian software giant part-owned by the chancellor's wife has kept its presence in Moscow.
|
UK Politics
|
Rishi Sunak married Akshata Murty in 2009 and they have two children
Rishi Sunak has denied any connection with a multinational firm part-owned by his wife that has continued to operate in Russia during the war in Ukraine.
The chancellor said he had "nothing to do" with Infosys, in which his wife Akshata Murty holds shares.
He has urged UK firms to pull out of Russia to inflict "economic pain" on President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Sunak's spokesperson said Ms Murty had no role in Infosys's operational decisions.
The software giant was co-founded by Ms Murty's father Narayana, an Indian billionaire who retired from the company in 2014.
Founded in 1981, the firm has since expanded into a number of countries and operates an office in Moscow.
Its most recent annual report lists Ms Murty as holding 0.9% of the company's shares - reportedly worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
India has not followed Western countries, including the UK, in restricting trade with Russia via sanctions in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this month, Mr Sunak said the government would "fully support" UK firms that pull out of Russia voluntarily.
After meeting a group of leading British companies, the chancellor said he welcomed the "consensus on the need to inflict maximum economic pain on Putin and his regime".
"While I recognise that it may be challenging to wind down existing investments, I believe there is no argument for new investment in the Russian economy," he added.
"I am urging asset owners and managers to think very carefully about any investments that would in any sense support Putin and his regime."
Pressed on Infosys's presence in Russia on Thursday, Mr Sunak told Sky News: "I'm an elected politician, and I'm here to talk to you about what I'm responsible for. My wife is not."
He added that companies' operations were "up to them".
"We've put in place significant sanctions and all the companies we're responsible for are following those, as they rightly should," said the chancellor.
Narayana Murthy co-founded Infosys, often seen as the poster child of India's technology boom.
A spokesperson for the chancellor said Ms Murty was "one of thousands of minority shareholders in the company".
"It is a public company and neither her nor any member of her family have any involvement in the operational decisions of the company," they added.
Infosys said it had a "small team of employees based out of Russia" that "services some of our global clients, locally".
"We do not have any active business relationships with local Russian enterprises," it added.
"Infosys supports and advocates for peace between Russia and Ukraine".
Infosys has had connections in the past to Alfa Bank, one of Russia's biggest financial institutions, which was added to the UK's sanctions list on Thursday, having already been sanctioned by the US and EU.
In 2004, Mr Putin visited Infosys' headquarters in Bangalore, where he was given a guided tour by Narayana Murthy.
Mr Sunak met his future spouse while studying for an MBA at Stanford University in California. They married in 2009 and have two children.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60866778
|
news_uk-politics-60866778
|
|
Western leaders meet to discuss Ukraine support - BBC News
|
2022-03-24
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
President Joe Biden joins leaders of Nato, the EU and G7 in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
|
Europe
|
President Biden is expected to discuss natural gas supplies, as the EU moves to reduce exposure to Russia
US President Joe Biden joins fellow Western leaders in Brussels on Thursday for three summits on Russia's war in Ukraine, a month after the invasion began.
Nato, the G7 and the EU are all holding meetings, in a display of unity rarely seen by the West.
Mr Biden will take part in all three, the first ever visit by a US president to an EU summit in Brussels.
But his visit to Brussels is not just about symbolism.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has given the Western defensive alliance Nato a renewed sense of purpose. And as the EU attempts to sever energy ties with Russia, it needs to forge and reinforce other relationships, particularly with the US.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was due to appear by video link at all three summits.
Nato's 30 presidents and prime ministers will agree greater support for Ukraine and new troop deployments for Eastern allies. Their aim is to show solidarity to Kyiv, though only up to a point.
Many, but not all, have been willing to supply weapons. The UK said it would use both the G7 and Nato meetings to "substantively increase defensive lethal aid to Ukraine".
But the alliance has also made clear it won't become more directly involved and Mr Zelensky's repeated requests for a no-fly zone over Ukraine have pretty much been ignored.
Nor is it clear how Nato would respond if Russia were to dramatically escalate the conflict in Ukraine - such as an attack on a Western weapons convoy, the use of chemical, or even tactical nuclear weapons. Nato's red lines have so far been drawn at its borders.
For the past few weeks, 30,000 Nato troops from 25 countries have been training in Norway as part of Exercise Cold Response, a long-planned exercise that has now taken on more significance.
Soldiers from Sweden, which is not part of Nato, joined thousands of troops on exercise in Norway
Like Ukraine, Norway borders Russia. The key difference is that, as a Nato member, Norway is covered by a commitment to "collective defence" - an attack on one is an attack on all.
"I think an exercise like this is pretty good to have, to prove to countries like Russia… that you don't want to mess with Nato," a young Norwegian conscript called Peder told the BBC.
Nato leaders are focused on how to boost their own defences. They've already sent thousands more troops to the alliance's eastern flank, along with more air defence batteries, warships and aircraft.
This, says Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, is the "new normal" following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia will get exactly what it didn't want - more, not less Nato near its border. Nato battlegroups will stretch all the way from the Baltic to the Black Sea for the foreseeable future.
Two EU countries that are not members of Nato - Sweden and Finland - contributed troops to the exercise in Norway. They appear to be edging closer and closer to Nato in the wake of Russia's invasion.
President Trump once questioned the very existence of Nato and French President Emmanuel Macron once called it "brain dead". But President Biden's visit to Brussels is proof that he sees it as being more important than ever to curb a more aggressive Russia.
Defence strategy will also play a part in an EU summit where leaders will approve plans that aim to pull member states closer together on military planning, intelligence and procurement. One ambition is to have a rapidly deployable force of 5,000 troops.
It's all part of the theme of "strategic autonomy" championed by Mr Macron.
The argument is that a more sovereign Europe is a safer Europe, whether that's by securing reliable supplies of energy and semiconductor chips or by boosting military spending.
But the trickiest subject for the European Union's 27 member states is fast becoming the future of energy supplies, as they try to look beyond Russia.
After an initial, dizzying display of unity on sanctions across all 27 member states there are now obvious ruptures over what to do next.
EU leaders have reacted fast to Russia's invasion with a series of hard-hitting sanctions
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has publicly denounced the idea of banning Russian gas and oil imports, arguing it will drag Europe into a recession. "Sanctions must not hit the European states harder than the Russian leadership. That is our principle," he said on the eve of the summit.
Soaring energy prices are also a concern to be discussed by EU leaders on Friday.
But there are nations agitating for action as they voice deep discomfort about handing cash to the Kremlin via energy payments. "It's blood money," said one central European diplomat. "I don't think some countries understand the gravity of the situation."
President Biden's ability to offer Europe more US Liquefied Natural Gas is a key watch at Thursday's summit. The US is the world's largest producer of natural gas.
He is also expected to announce more sanctions on Russian political figures as well as so-called oligarchs.
But the prospect of fresh EU sanctions this week is being played down. Some in Brussels call it "fatigue", while others insist it's the right time to take stock.
• None Nato to send more troops to eastern Europe
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60849917
|
news_world-europe-60849917
|
|
Ukraine war: Kyiv prepares for Russian attack - BBC News
|
2022-03-12
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
As Russian forces continue their slow advance, Kyiv's residents fear the worst for their city.
|
Europe
|
When the Russian offensive started, as sirens sounded in Kyiv for the first time, some people here feared that the city might fall by the afternoon.
Reports were coming in of a long convoy of armour and heavy weapons pushing down from the north-west. Military analysts had a high opinion of the Russian army. It had, they said, been professionalised, with invaluable experience of perfecting weapons and seasoning men in the war in Syria. The tactical errors I had seen the Russians commit when they tried to crush a rebellion in the republic of Chechnya in 1995 were, I was told, ancient history.
The consensus about the Ukrainian armed forces on the first day of the war was that they were much stronger than they had been in 2014, when they could not stop Russia seizing Crimea and establishing two breakaway enclaves in eastern Ukraine. But Russia had the numbers and the firepower. The Ukrainians, it was said, would rediscover the truth of an aphorism attributed to Stalin: "quantity has a quality of its own."
The first two weeks of the war proved that those predictions were wrong. The Russians blundered; the Ukrainians resisted. Around Kyiv the Russian advance stalled. In the south, it was a different story. They worked steadily towards opening a land corridor between Crimea and Moscow's enclaves in eastern Ukraine.
But it has been clear from the outset that control of Kyiv is crucial to winning arguments in politics as well as on the battlefield. While President Volodymyr Zelensky's government holds the city, he can claim not to be defeated, and President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin cannot claim victory.
The last couple of days have been bright and sunny, after more than a week of thick cloud. That means satellites have a clear view of movements on the ground. One conclusion is that the 40-mile Russian convoy north-west of Kyiv is slowly dispersing and reorganising. The latest word from the US Department of Defense is that the rear elements are catching up, but the vehicles closest to Kyiv are not moving.
The fighting around Kyiv has been concentrated in the north-west and has been going on since the first morning, when Russian airborne troops landed at a cargo airport near Hostomel and Irpin, small commuter towns that evacuees say are now badly damaged. They looked to be trying to secure a staging area for a push into Kyiv. But Ukrainian troops stopped them.
In the last few days, I have seen more defenders moving forward to continue the fight around Irpin and the Hostomel airport and heard steady artillery fire from the Ukrainian side from gunlines concealed in belts of thick woodland.
The heavily contested north-west is just a 20-minute drive from the centre of Kyiv, which has barely been touched, although sirens sound regular alerts.
In the week or so that I have been here the Ukrainians have improved their physical defences, which in places barely existed. Checkpoints that were just a few concrete blocks have become barricades. Across the city men have been filling and positioning sandbags. Kyiv's metalworkers have been busy. At strategic junctions, and on the dual carriageways that run out of Kyiv steel anti-tank obstacles stand ready.
Kyiv is a grand city of broad, sweeping avenues, bisected by narrower streets often paved with lumpy cobblestones. Many of the buildings have extensive basements and cellars. Street fighting here, if it happened, could grind on for months.
The city sprawls along both banks of the Dnieper, one of Europe's great rivers. Docks and marinas leading off the river are still frozen. Crossing the water under fire would be a formidable military undertaking. The bank on the west side of the river, near the government buildings and the great cathedrals, is steep and heavily wooded. Defenders would have many advantages.
But crossing the Dnieper might not be on Russia's agenda until it is able to control both banks. One theory is that the stalled offensive from the west and north-west is not just because of Ukrainian resistance and what appears to be the Russian army's own badly handled logistics. A column coming from the east has been moving slowly, and the generals might be waiting for it to catch up.
The Russians attempted to move a regiment of tanks into Kyiv's eastern approaches on Thursday. They were mauled badly as they rumbled slowly down a highway in broad daylight. Drone pictures showed that the tanks were bunched together making easy targets for Ukrainian artillery or drones. It was another tactical blunder for Moscow.
It is not clear whether Russia plans to encircle Kyiv or attempt to force a surrender by thrusting into the centre with armour supported by infantry. The choices are not great for them. Direct attacks have so far been stopped. Encircling a big city might take too many men.
One possibility is that President Putin expected the rapid collapse of a government that he has dismissed with contempt as a Nazi collaboration with the west and did not think his soldiers would need to do either.
It is certain that Putin and his generals are reassessing, regrouping and will not accept defeat. Putin's mission has been to restore Russia to what he believes is its rightful place as a world power. In a country the size of Ukraine - only Russia itself is bigger in Europe - victory in Kyiv is the most direct way for him to declare mission accomplished.
Without a doubt the Russian armed forces have been operating at half power and half speed. That is partly due to their own mistakes, and partly because the Ukrainians are proving to be formidable, nimble opponents. The stalled attacks around Kyiv have turned into a respite for the city's defenders, allowing them time to dig to improve defences that were rudimentary, and presumably to receive some of the increasingly sophisticated weapons that NATO is bringing into Ukraine.
A question that nags uncomfortably at the minds of many in Kyiv is whether President Putin will conclude that the time has come to turn the deadliest conventional weapons in Russia's arsenal against the city's defenders. So far that has not happened. If it does, many more people will die and terrible damage will be done.
Some people here do not believe President Putin will hammer Kyiv in the way that cities in eastern and southern Ukraine have been attacked. They argue Putin will hesitate to destroy an ancient city which has been at the centre of Russian culture, religion and history. Some of the same people also believed Russia would not invade.
Others fear that if Russian infantry and armour are held up, Putin and his generals will default to the tactics they are using in Mariupol in the south, surrounding the city and attempting to break the will of its defenders with artillery and air strikes. It is a method that worked well for the Russians in Syria, and in the 1990s when Grozny, the capital of the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya, was flattened.
The next few weeks will be critical for the future of Kyiv, and for the wider war over the future of Ukraine. If Russia cannot reactivate its attack on the capital, its defenders will grow in confidence and the strength and the morale of Russian forces, including conscripts, will take more blows.
If the Putin regime can find a way to end resistance here, the president will be closer to achieving his war aim of ending Ukraine's independence. Forcing the country back into Russia's orbit, in the face of what would most likely be a Nato-backed insurgency, would be an altogether more difficult job.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60714515
|
news_world-europe-60714515
|
|
Saudi Arabia: Johnson says he raised human rights in energy talks - BBC News
|
2022-03-16
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Boris Johnson's visit aims to build a coalition against President Putin, and secure energy supplies.
|
UK Politics
|
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is one of the few western leaders to visit Saudi Arabia since the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he raised human rights when meeting Gulf leaders for talks about ending reliance on Russian oil and gas after the invasion of Ukraine.
He discussed energy security and other issues in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday.
He said a global coalition was needed "to deal with the new reality we face".
But critics have expressed concerns about the human rights records of the countries.
Last weekend, Saudi Arabia carried out a mass execution of 81 men in one day, and its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been implicated in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
On Wednesday, Saudi news agency SPA announced three further executions, in what the Reprieve group described as a "provocative act" designed to "flaunt the Crown Prince's power".
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said "going cap in hand from dictator to dictator is not an energy strategy".
Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of Mr Khashoggi, told the BBC Mr Johnson should not be "doing deals" with Crown Prince Salman unless he insisted "on the truth and justice for Jamal's murder".
Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner told MPs Mr Johnson was on "a begging mission to the Saudi prince" after failing to invest in home-grown energy.
But Mr Johnson said if western countries wanted to "avoid being blackmailed" by Russia's President Vladimir Putin, they needed to move away from using his country's fossil fuels and explore other partnerships.
In the Saudi capital, Riyadh, Mr Johnson told the BBC he raised human rights and "what we can do to stabilise oil prices" in his meeting with Crown Prince Salman.
When asked if the recent executions were discussed, Mr Johnson said "in spite of the news that you've referred to, things are changing in Saudi Arabia", adding, "that's why we see value in the partnership".
Earlier, he pointed towards Saudi Arabia announcing a £1bn investment in green aviation fuel in the UK as "the kind of thing we want to encourage".
The prime minister inspected a guard of honour after arriving at Abu Dhabi airport
Mr Johnson landed at Abu Dhabi airport in the UAE, where he was met by British Ambassador to the UAE Patrick Moody.
He then travelled to the Saudi capital, where he met Crown Prince Salman and Saudi ministers.
Recent executions in Saudi Arabia have drawn criticism from MPs and human rights groups.
Tory MP Crispin Blunt said the executions left Mr Johnson with "exquisite difficulties" in asking Saudi Arabia for help with oil supplies.
One of the world's largest oil producers and influential on the international stage, Saudi Arabia is ruled by a monarchy which restricts political rights and civil liberties.
The rise of Crown Prince Salman as de-facto ruler in 2017 has seen moves towards liberalising some laws and diversifying the economy.
But the Saudi government's image has been damaged in recent years, particularly by the assassination of the prominent US-based journalist in 2018, Mr Khashoggi.
He was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. Saudi Arabia said he had been killed in a "rogue operation" by a team of agents sent to persuade him to return to the kingdom.
But a UN investigator concluded that Mr Khashoggi was "the victim of a deliberate, premeditated execution" for which the Saudi state was responsible. Crown Prince Salman denied any role.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Mohammed bin Salman is asked: "Did you order the murder of Jamal Khashoggi?"
Mr Khashoggi's fiancee Ms Cengiz, who accompanied him to the entrance of the consulate, said Mr Johnson's rationale for meeting Crown Prince Salman was a "flawed argument".
He "should not run from the arms of one unpredictable tyrant" to another, she said.
"Johnson must demand to know the truth and to get justice for the brutal killing of Jamal and for all human rights abuses," Ms Cengiz said. "He cannot act as though nothing has happened. This would be so shameful."
Opposition parties and some Conservatives too are uneasy about the government's association with Saudi Arabia - and have been for years.
That's more acute after dozens of executions there a few days ago.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said going cap in hand from dictator to dictator is no substitute for an energy strategy.
But for the government, handling the fallout of the conflict in Ukraine means what are described as "hard-headed" decisions, even if it's "distasteful".
With huge diplomatic and economic forces at play, there are no straightforward options.
Disentangling Russia's economy from the West's may seem a diplomatic no-brainer, but the cost and complications of doing so simply can't be ignored.
Read more from Laura here.
The energy talks come during a global spike in energy prices driven by tight supplies, President Putin's invasion of Ukraine and western attempts to reduce dependence on Russian oil and gas.
Saudi Arabia is the largest producer in the oil cartel Opec and has the spare capacity to help lower prices by increasing supplies.
Mr Johnson was hoping to convince Crown Prince Salman to boost his kingdom's oil production and garner his support for action against Russia.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said while the UK did not agree with "every single policy of Saudi Arabia or the UAE", they "do not pose a threat to global security in the way that Vladimir Putin does".
"We need to bring those countries into the circle of influence of the UK and pull countries away from dependence on Russia," she said.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf states have so far refrained from overtly condemning Russia, although they did vote in favour of a UN resolution denouncing the invasion of Ukraine.
Their muted reaction has caused some consternation among western nations including the UK, Dr Tobias Borck, a researcher of Middle East security at the RUSI think tank says.
"In the past 10 years this idea has taken hold in the Gulf that the West doesn't stand for anything anymore, that the West is no longer willing to wield its power in the world," Dr Borck told the BBC.
He said Mr Johnson's trip was a vital opportunity to rebuild relations with the Gulf states and convey to them why the invasion of Ukraine "is a watershed moment for European security".
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Keir Starmer says that “going cap-in-hand from dictator to dictator” is not an energy policy.
Meanwhile, Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities continued as the worst war Europe has seen in decades entered its 21st day.
The attacks came as Ukraine and Russia held peace talks, after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky conceded that Nato membership was not on the table, in an apparent concession to Moscow.
Mr Zelensky said the talks were becoming "more realistic", while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said there was "some hope for compromise".
The Ukrainian president addressed the US Congress by video link, having made similar appearances in parliaments across Europe, including the UK's.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60754163
|
news_uk-politics-60754163
|
|
Boris Johnson: Ukraine paying the price for West's failure over Putin - BBC News
|
2022-03-16
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Boris Johnson says governments failed to "understand the threat” Vladimir Putin posed after he annexed Crimea.
|
UK Politics
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. President Putin "did not understand what he would encounter" in Ukraine, says Boris Johnson
Ukraine is "paying the price" for the West's failure to understand the threat posed by Vladimir Putin, the PM says.
Boris Johnson told the BBC the Russian president's invasion had "already failed" because he underestimated the "strength of resistance" in Ukraine.
But he blamed European countries who "went back to treating [Putin] as part of the community" after his annexing of Crimea in 2014.
He said the West needed to ensure it was "never again vulnerable to Putin's blackmail" - especially when it came to relying on Russian oil and gas.
But Labour criticised Mr Johnson for the visit, saying he was going "cap in hand from one dictator to another".
During his trip, Mr Johnson met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for an hour and 45 minutes for talks about ending reliance on Russian oil and gas.
Afterwards, Downing Street said the UK and Saudi Arabia had "agreed to collaborate to maintain stability in the energy market" and boost renewable energy sources.
A spokesman added the two countries had also agreed to boost co-operation in defence, security, trade and culture.
However, a number of MPs had called on the PM to cancel the visit over the Saudi government's human rights record. Last week 81 men were executed in one day.
The prime minister insisted that he did not "turn a blind eye" to the incidents and raised them with the country's officials.
But he said he had to be "realistic" and "look at the global picture" when it came to energy security.
President Vladimir Putin ordered the annexation of Crimea - a territory of Ukraine - in 2014. He subsequently backed an eastern rebellion by pro-Russian separatists, who have fought Ukrainian forces in an eight-year war that has claimed 14,000 lives.
Despite years of western sanctions, Russia remains firmly in control of Crimea, which it absorbed following a referendum vote discredited by much of the international community.
Speaking to BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg, the PM said: "If you look back at 2014 and what happened when Putin took part of Crimea... what we totally failed to understand [was] the threat that he posed and we renormalized.
"European countries went back to treating him as though he was part of the community.
"Ukraine is paying the price for that now."
He also pointed to the strength of the resistance in Ukraine, adding that Mr Putin was committing war crimes in the country.
Mr Johnson said: "He won't be able to crush and conquer Ukraine, because they've shown fundamentally that they have an indomitable spirit.
"He's got to withdraw. He's got to close this thing down. He's got to take back his his tanks and his armour. And there's got to be as a solution that respects the will of the of Ukrainian people."
After Russia began its invasion in Ukraine last month, numerous governments introduced sanctions to hit the country's economy.
And many countries - including the UK - pledged to phase out their use of the country's oil and gas to hit it even harder.
Mr Johnson said he planned to look to at solar, wind and to "make some big bets" on nuclear power going forward, but short-term solutions were also necessary.
"The UK has a historic and a long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia, which goes back many, many decades," said the PM.
"That should not in any way stop us from raising issues of human rights."
He added: "I want to be clear, we don't we don't just turn a blind eye, we don't wink at them, we don't ignore it, we raise it and we make the argument.
"But what we also try to do is look at the global picture and look at the the impact on the world economy, and particularly the impact on the UK [as a] consumer of hydrocarbons.
"We're in a transitional phase now and we've got to be realistic about the continuing transitional importance of hydrocarbons in our in our economies."
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60765668
|
news_uk-politics-60765668
|
|
Ukraine war: 'Tanks in streets' as fighting hits Mariupol centre - BBC News
|
2022-03-20
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Street fighting hampers efforts to rescue civilians trapped in a bombed theatre, the mayor says.
|
Europe
|
Russian attacks have damaged or destroyed 80% of Mariupol's residential buildings, the mayor says
Efforts to rescue hundreds of people trapped in the basement of a bombed theatre in the besieged city of Mariupol are being hampered by intense battles in the area, the mayor says.
Vadym Boychenko told the BBC teams were only able to clear the rubble of the building during lulls in the fighting.
Ukrainian officials say Russia attacked the site, which was clearly marked as a civilian shelter. Moscow denies it.
Russian forces have encircled the city, which has no electricity, water or gas.
About 300,000 people are trapped inside, as food and medical supplies run out and Russia blocks the entry of humanitarian aid. Russian attacks have hit a hospital, a church and countless apartment blocks, with local officials estimating that about 80% of residential buildings are either damaged or destroyed, a third of them beyond repair.
Mariupol has seen some of the fiercest battles since Russia invaded Ukraine, three weeks ago. The location of the port city, on the Sea of Azov, is strategic for Russia, as it would help it create a land corridor between the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, controlled by Russian-backed separatists, and Crimea, the peninsula it invaded and annexed in 2014.
"[There is] street fighting in the city centre," Mr Boychenko said, confirming a claim made by Russia on Friday, when it said it was "tightening the noose" around the city.
"There are tanks... and artillery shelling, and all kinds of weapons fired in the area," the mayor said. "Our forces are doing everything they can to hold their positions in the city but the forces of the enemy are larger than ours, unfortunately."
Communication with the city is difficult, with the phone network said to be operational only a few hours a day. Amid unrelenting Russian attacks, residents spend most of their days in shelters and basements, rarely coming outside.
Mr Boychenko said, in a previous interview, that there was no city centre left. "There isn't a small piece of land in the city that doesn't have signs of war," he said.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The intense fighting means it is too dangerous for teams to clear the rubble of the destroyed theatre and rescue people from the basement, which withstood Wednesday's attack. "There's no opportunity to do that," Mr Boychenko said. "When it gets quiet for a bit, rubble is being cleared and people get out."
He said he could not provide an update on how many had already left the site. A day earlier, the country's human rights ombudsman said 130 people had been rescued, and that about 1,300 remained trapped.
Satellite images showed the Russian word for "children" had been emblazoned on the ground in two locations outside the imposing Soviet-era building, indicating the place was being used as a civilian shelter. Most of those inside are elderly people, women and children, who are living squeezed in dark rooms and corridors.
In a video address released on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said some of the people rescued were "seriously wounded" but that, at the moment, there was no information of deaths.
A picture of the theatre in Mariupol before the bombing, with the word "children" in Russian clearly visible
President Zelensky also accused Russia of a "war crime" for blocking the access of humanitarian aid to the besieged cities. "This is a totally deliberate tactic," he said. "They [Russian forces] have a clear order to do absolutely everything to make the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities an 'argument' for Ukrainians to co-operate with the occupiers."
The authorities in Mariupol say at least 2,500 people have been killed in the city since the start of the war, although they acknowledge that is an underestimate. Some of the dead are being left on streets, as it is too risky to collect them. Many end up being buried in mass graves.
Mr Boychenko, the Mariupol mayor, said 40,000 people had managed to leave the city in the last five days, and that 20,000 others were waiting to be evacuated. Residents are fleeing in private vehicles, he said, as attempts to create official humanitarian corridors have broken down, with Ukraine accusing Russia of attacking the city despite agreeing to ceasefires.
• None 'We knew something terrible was coming'
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60806973
|
news_world-europe-60806973
|
|
A$AP Rocky arrested in connection with shooting - BBC News
|
2022-04-21
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The rapper was taken into custody at Los Angeles airport as he returned from a holiday with Rihanna.
|
Entertainment & Arts
|
The star's lawyer confirmed he had been arrested, but declined to make any further comments
The rapper A$AP Rocky has been arrested in connection with a shooting last November, Los Angeles police have said.
The star was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday as he returned from a holiday with his girlfriend, Rihanna.
Police had been investigating the star, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, for his potential involvement in a non-fatal shooting in Hollywood last year.
He was released on bail of $550,000 (£421,000) shortly after his arrest.
The Los Angeles Police Department said the arrest was made in connection with an "argument between two acquaintances" which resulted in shots being fired.
The victim later told police that Mayers, who was walking with two others, approached him with a handgun on the street. They claimed Mayers shot at him three to four times and that he believed one of the bullets grazed his left hand, according to police reports obtained by NBC News.
In a statement on Twitter, LAPD said the victim had sustained a "minor injury" after which his assailants "fled on foot".
Mayers' lawyer, Alan Jackson, confirmed that his client had been arrested but declined to make any further comments.
The rapper will make his first appearance in court on 17 August.
The star was previously given a two-year suspended sentence for his role in a brawl in Stockholm in August 2019.
The rapper and two members of his entourage were convicted of kicking and beating a 19-year-old man after an argument. They said they acted in self-defence, but the court rejected their argument.
The case drew worldwide media attention after then-US president Donald Trump unsuccessfully tried to secure Mayer's release from prison as he awaited trial.
Mayers and Rihanna are expecting a child later this year
Born in New York, Mayers was one of the biggest break-out stars of the 2010s, earning eight platinum singles in the US including Wild For The Night, Everyday, LSD and A$AP Forever.
He rose to fame after being championed by Drake, and has worked with artists including Alicia Keys, Lana Del Rey, Skepta, Selena Gomez and Kendrick Lamar.
His relationship with the billionaire musician and fashion mogul Rihanna was confirmed last year. In an interview with GQ magazine last May, Mayers called Rihanna the "love of my life" and "the One".
The couple announced they were having a baby in January. In March, Rihanna told Elle magazine she was in her third trimester.
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-61174333
|
news_entertainment-arts-61174333
|
|
Russia's war ignites Orban's tightest election challenge in Hungary - BBC News
|
2022-04-03
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
For the first time since 2010, Hungary's prime minister faces a real fight for election victory.
|
Europe
|
Ukrainians have fled the war across Hungary's eastern border
"Peace or War" is at stake screams the headline in the tabloid Metropol, handed out to morning commuters flocking through the Western Station in Budapest. And there's a neat blue cross in the box next to the "peace" option.
That's the slogan of Viktor Orban's Fidesz party, as it battles to win a record fourth consecutive term in office in elections on Sunday.
After 12 years in power, they face their first genuine challenge from an opposition alliance of six parties that has united under one candidate: Peter Marki-Zay.
And Russia's war in Ukraine has given added impetus to the race.
Hungary shares a border with Ukraine and has taken in more than half a million refugees so far. Mr Orban insists that by helping the people, but refusing to supply weapons to Ukraine, only he can keep Hungary out of the war.
His party's slogan of peace or war may be simplistic, but it is effective. And it is broadcast, printed, and lit up in bright letters wherever you look in Hungary.
It interrupts any music you play on YouTube, and even videos that include international coverage of the war in Ukraine.
The government has spent eight times more on its campaign than all the opposition parties combined, according to a group of critical monitoring organisations. It helps that the ruling party has the support of a largely pliant media.
The opposition's catch-phrase, on the other hand, is "Orban or Europe".
Their candidate Peter Marki-Zay argues that Hungary should join Poland, the UK and others in supplying arms to Ukraine. And if called upon, and only within a Nato framework, should even consider sending troops.
The opposition complains that Fidesz has isolated Hungary from the European mainstream, from consensual democracy, fairness and decency. And that in this war Mr Orban has even alienated Hungary's closest allies - Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - the other members of the Visegrad-4 group.
A V4 defence ministers' meeting was abruptly cancelled this week, with the Czech defence minister accusing Mr Orban of valuing Russian oil over Ukrainian blood.
But it was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky whose message hit home hardest.
"There can be no Russian branches in Europe that divide the EU from within," he said in an address to the Danish parliament on Wednesday. "This must stop, and Europe must stop listening to the excuses of Budapest."
Hungary gets 85% of its gas and 64% of its oil from Russia, through a pipeline that deliberately circumvents Ukraine. However, a Hungary-Russia deal to expand the Paks nuclear power station south of Budapest with Russian finance and technology looks increasingly jeopardised by the war.
And with Hungary's election campaign reaching its peak, President Zelensky chose the recent EU summit to address a very personal message to Mr Orban.
"Listen, Viktor, do you know what's going on in Mariupol? And you hesitate whether to impose sanctions or not? And you hesitate whether to let weapons through or not? And you hesitate whether to trade with Russia or not? There is no time to hesitate. It's already time to decide."
Mr Zelensky also made a poignant reference to Budapest's famous shoe monument on the banks of the Danube.
Look at those shoes. And you will see how mass killings can happen again in today's world. That's what Russia is doing today. The same shoes. In Mariupol, there are the same people
The 60 pairs of bronze shoes remember Hungary's Jews, murdered and pushed into the river by Hungarian fascists in the winter of 1944.
Days after his speech, Ukrainians in Budapest arranged new shoes among the bronze ones on the Danube embankment, decorated with flowers and the blue and yellow ribbons of the Ukrainian flag - in memory of all the dead in Mariupol and elsewhere in Ukraine, victims of the Russian invasion.
Hungarians laid shoes beside the Danube this week in memory of the victims of Russia's bombardment of Mariupol
The idea that Hungary is isolated from an otherwise pro-Ukraine Europe is an argument the government side bitterly rejects.
Ahead of the vote, Mr Orban told his final campaign rally: "If the opposition wins on Sunday, the next day they will start delivering weapons to Ukraine, and close the taps on the Russian gas pipelines. Our heart is with [the Ukrainians], but Hungary has to stand up for its own interests."
The election arithmetic suggests a closer race than the government would like.
According to opposition paper Nepszava, Fidesz is assured of victory in 41 of the country's 106 individual constituencies, while the opposition alliance can count on 33.
That leaves 32 battleground districts where the opposition has to break through. The remaining 93 seats in Hungary's 199 seat Parliament are divided according to party lists.
Different polling agencies suggest a record turnout - perhaps as high as 80%, compared with 70% four years ago.
In a country of 9.7 million, the electorate was split almost evenly - 2.6 million apiece - four years ago. Pollsters reckon that this election will be decided by between 300,000 and 600,000 voters who are either undecided or uncommitted, and who are in the cross-hairs of campaigners from both sides.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Hungarian PM Viktor Orban says the country could host peace talks
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60952882
|
news_world-europe-60952882
|
|
The heavy losses of an elite Russian regiment in Ukraine - BBC News
|
2022-04-03
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The 331st Guards Parachute Regiment based in Kostroma, Russia, has lost many soldiers in Ukraine.
|
Europe
|
Some of the 39 Russian soldiers from the 331st regiment who are known to have died
In any war, there are units that distinguish themselves and others that become symbolic of failure. The 331st Guards Parachute Regiment had high hopes of being the first, but now represents the disintegration of Russia's plan for a quick war.
The regiment's commanding officer, Col Sergei Sukharev, was killed in Ukraine on 13 March, and was posthumously awarded the Hero of the Russian Federation medal. At his funeral, deputy defence minister Gen Yuri Sadovenko said the colonel "lived for the future, for the future of our people, a future without Nazism".
Col Sergei Sukharev, commander of the Kostroma 331st regiment, was also killed
Casualties among Russian forces are not widely reported in Russia itself, but using open source material, the BBC has pieced together the story of their advance, and found that at least 39 other members of the elite 331st regiment have died.
The men were part of a column that advanced into Ukraine from Belarus, led by Russia's airborne forces, known by the acronym VDV. Their presence underlined the priority of their objective - advancing on the capital, Kyiv.
That advance swiftly got drawn into a destructive stalemate in districts on the outskirts of Kyiv which soon became synonymous with the viciousness of the war: Bucha, Irpin, and Hostomel.
Videos that emerged online from these battles showed combat vehicles used by Russian airborne forces with "V" signs painted onto them.
One video we found shows several damaged light armoured vehicles from the VDV, abandoned after an attack by Ukrainian special forces. Another shows several vehicles from the Russian airborne forces apparently abandoned.
The men in the 331st regarded themselves as the pick of Russia's army. In a video posted online last May, a general tells soldiers of the 331st Parachute Regiment that they are "the best of the best". The unit served in the Balkans, Chechnya, and the 2014 Russian intervention in the Donbas region of Ukraine, and regularly took part in Red Square parades in Moscow.
The 331st was also a showcase for Russia's policy of replacing national service soldiers with contraktniki - professionals under contract. It is understandable why the generals should have given it an important role in the invasion.
A comment on a post mourning Maj Sergei Krylov reads: "We are proud of you, thank you for supporting peace. Russian hero Major Krylov. RIP" - this post is no longer public
From early March, reports began to circulate of deaths in the 331st. It took time for bodies to be returned to Kostroma, the community where it is based, 300km north-east of Moscow.
As the funerals started, an anguished conversation began playing out on social media. Memorial walls on V'Kontakte - the Russian equivalent of Facebook - pledge "eternal memory" and feature pictures of candles.
The wife of Sergei Lobachyov mourns her "reliable, loving and caring husband"
A woman who says she was the wife of Warrant Officer Sergei Lobachyov writes: "Seryozha, my most reliable, loving and caring husband. Now you are in heaven and you will protect us from there! You will always live in our hearts and you will forever be a real hero to me!"
Although many posts appear to accept Kremlin explanations that the war is being waged against Ukrainian fascists, some also display anxiety about the lack of reliable information.
On the memorial wall for Sergeant Sergei Duganov, one woman wrote: "Nobody knows anything. The 331st regiment is disappearing. Almost every day, photos of our Kostroma boys get published. It sends shivers down my spine. What's happening? When will this end? When will people stop dying?"
Her post was followed by another, which exclaimed: "Kostroma has lost so many young men, what a tragedy". Another pleaded: "God, how many more death notifications shall we receive? Please have mercy on our boys, help them survive, return them back home to their wives and mothers. I'm begging you!"
Yanosh Leonov's partner writes: You are a real hero, you are the best father, a loved and loving husband, a loyal friend and a real fighter.
Speaking out about the war in Russia carries great risks, but there are hints of a loss of faith in the Kremlin's arguments for war. On the memorial page for one sergeant, a woman asks: "Why aren't children of MPs on the frontline? The majority of them live in Europe anyway. Ordinary boys are dying for no good reason." Another uses an expletive to describe President Vladimir Putin, and goes on to say that by deciding to "play war" he has "sent thousands of guys to die".
For the most part though, those reacting on social media remain true to the official narrative.
The top Ukrainian comment on a post mourning Ravshan Zhakbayev reads: Everyone who steps on our soil to occupy it will get buried in it. Welcome to hell! A later comment reads: Eternal memory to you, our hero, our protector. Thanks for all.(((
On some V'Kontakte memorial walls, Ukrainians have posted comments mocking the dead men. "Over 15,000 have died already and they will continue on dying as long as they'll keep on marching on our land. Nobody invited you freaking saviours," reads one.
"Alexander, go away you bloody Nazi," a Russian responds to another mocking post. "Our soldiers are real heroes. Russians have never killed civilians nor children, which is something you can't say about Ukrainians."
The fury of those online exchanges is nothing, though, to the experiences of the VDV forces, who have been hit by Ukrainian artillery, ambushes, and infantry assaults during weeks of bloody combat.
In these close-quarter battles, they have discovered what earlier VDV units learned in Afghanistan - that armoured vehicles designed to be light enough to be carried on planes do not give much protection from enemy fire. From the roads outside Hostomel airfield, to a side street in Bucha, or a road junction in Irpin, videos taken by Ukrainians have shown burnt out and abandoned vehicles belonging to the airborne group.
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 Rob Lee 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.
These scraps of phone footage also speak to a more basic failure. In these shattered neighbourhoods around Kyiv, the Russian paratroopers were outmatched by the Ukrainians. And given that the defenders were in many cases simply local defence units or reservists, that speaks to a basic failure in the VDV's system of training and recruitment.
Ukrainians have latched on to the 331st's losses, making excited claims that the regiment has been "wiped out". Ilya Ponamarev, a former Russian MP and opposition figure who now lives in Kyiv, says people there see the regiment's fate "as a perfect example of karma".
During the 2014 fighting in the Donbas, the 331st was held responsible by Ukrainians for killing hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers at Ilovaisk, in breach of a ceasefire agreement.
However, while the regiment has suffered considerably, Ukrainian claims that they have been wiped out are an exaggeration. It is likely, though, that the 331st Parachute Regiment may have been withdrawn from Ukraine recently - certainly unidentified elements of the VDV task force to which it belonged were filmed on 29 March pulling back into Belarus.
Photographs of some of the Russian soldiers from the 331 regiment who have died
As for the price of failure, it mounts daily. At the time of writing, BBC Newsnight had compiled a list of 39 named members of the 331st Parachute Regiment killed in Ukraine. But since none of those fatalities is more recent than the 13 March, it can be supposed that dozens more will emerge in the coming weeks.
Kostroma locals have told us they believe that around 100 members of the regiment may have died. And many families will never receive their loved one's body because it was left behind on the battlefield.
Even a conservative projection of the deaths we now know about, and their dates, suggest that the town's losses in a few weeks in Ukraine already exceed those from the conflicts in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
The regiment that set off full of confidence in February has acquired the type of reputation that no soldiers would ever want.
The BBC has so far verified the deaths of 39 soldiers from the 331st regiment: Klim Abramov, Cpl Artem Arbuzov, Oleg Bedoshvili, Capt (Co Cdr) Yurii Borisov, Snr Lt Ilya Chernyshev, Cpl Yuri Degtaryov, Konstantin Dobrynin, Sasha Dolkin, Sgt Sergei Duganov, Kiril Fedoseyev, Andrey Kovalevsky, Maj Sergei Krylov, Stanislav Kutelev, Cpl Yanosh Leonov, Sgt Alexander Limonov, Snr WO Sergei Lobachyo, Cpl Ivan Mamzurin, Cpl Ilya Martynenko, Lt Lev Ovchinnikov, Maksim Ovchinnikov, Cpl Leonid Panteleyev, Maj Oleg Patskalyev, Sgt Stanislav Petrutik, Sgt Roman Pomelov, Snr WO Pavel Rudenko, Snr Lt Alexander Shalygin, Sgt Nikolai Smirnov, Col Sergei Sukharev, Maxim Svetlenko, Snr Lt Nikolai Symov, Daniil Titov, Maxim Trokai, Ivan Turyev, Sgt Maxim Vorotyntsev, Capt Alexei Vyshegorodtsev, Alexei Yelimov, Cpl Artem Yergin, Sgt Ravshan Zhakbaev, Cpl Danila Zudkov
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60946340
|
news_world-europe-60946340
|
|
Rwanda asylum seekers: What does the UK's deal mean? - BBC News
|
2022-04-17
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Some asylum seekers arriving in the UK will be sent to Rwanda but what's in the deal for the two nations?
|
UK
|
Home Secretary Priti Patel travelled to Rwandan capital Kigali to sign the deal
There was only muted applause from a handful of officials as the politicians shook hands in the Kigali Conference Centre, smiling awkwardly for the cameras.
But Home Secretary Priti Patel hailed the Rwandan deal as a world first, a major milestone. And it is. Potentially.
Some nations have attempted to outsource their asylum processing offshore. But no country has ever tried to export its asylum responsibilities before.
What the deal envisages is an end to the system of protection for those fleeing war and persecution that Britain signed up to more than 70 years ago.
Last year 28,526 people crossed the Channel in small boats
Instead of claiming asylum when they arrive in Britain, those fleeing persecution or war will have to find a legal and safe route to the UK or, for most, face being packed off to Africa. There are currently very few such routes and none available to the citizens of countries that make up the bulk of those granted refugee status in Britain.
What is an asylum seeker form Iraq or Iran, say, supposed to do? They are faced with Catch 22. They can only claim asylum to Britain on British soil. But in reaching the UK, they make themselves inadmissible for asylum.
For the home secretary and the prime minister, that appears to be the long-term aim: to stop all asylum seekers from coming to Britain. Instead, we are promised a network of safe routes from UN-run refugee camps.
As things stand, the UK is a passive recipient of those asking for sanctuary. The government has no control over who the asylum seekers are. The new plan would mean politicians could pick and choose.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
"It's a striking fact that around seven out of 10 of those arriving in small boats last year were men under 40, paying people smugglers to queue jump and taking up our capacity to help genuine women and child refugees," was how the prime minister put it.
Boris Johnson knew what buttons he was pressing when he said: "We can't ask the British taxpayer to write a blank cheque to cover the costs of anyone who might want to come and live here."
There is concern the UK is being taken for a ride by people simply seeking a better life.
He conflated the thousands of people risking their lives to reach the Kent coast in small boats with "economic migrants taking advantage of the asylum system".
The problem with this argument is that a substantial majority of those who cross the channel are subsequently granted refugee status by the UK government. Home Office officials decide they do indeed have a well-founded fear of persecution in their country of origin.
It was noticeable how upbeat the home secretary was as she jetted to Kigali to sign on the dotted line.
Priti Patel has faced a great deal of criticism in recent weeks, often from MPs on her own side. But she sees the Rwandan deal, nine months in the making, as an opportunity to defeat the "evil people smugglers" whose activities in the Channel are so humiliating for a government that promised to take back control of Britain's borders.
I sense this home secretary relishes the opportunity of a battle against "the naysayers", her "political opponents" who "condemn everything" without a plan of their own, and the asylum "lawyers who are fleecing the British taxpayer".
That is an argument that would play well with her core support, burnish her Brexit credentials, and helpfully change the conversation from visa delays and "partygate".
One can see, then, why the UK government would want this deal, but what about the Rwandans? Are they happy about it?
We don't know all the details of the arrangement, but there is an initial £120m for educational projects and other money to assist with processing sent by the UK.
Rwandan ministers believe the arrival of motivated migrants will help boost their economy and the deal itself will encourage further investment.
But one wonders what the ordinary Rwandan will think of a rich European country sending its problem to a small African state.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61114542
|
news_uk-61114542
|
|
Johnny Depp lawyers say Amber Heard giving 'performance of her life' - BBC News
|
2022-04-13
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Amber Heard "concocted a role as a victim", the former spouses' defamation trial is told.
|
US & Canada
|
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard divorced in May 2016
Lawyers for Johnny Depp branded Amber Heard a liar, "obsessed" with her image, in opening arguments of the defamation trial between the former spouses.
The case was brought after an article by Ms Heard in which she claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse.
But Ms Heard's team argued Mr Depp brought her to court simply to "destroy her".
Mr Depp, 58, has denied any abuse and has sued his ex-wife for $50m (£38m).
Ms Heard has in turn, sued him, with a $100m counterclaim.
Hordes of fans have already gathered outside the Virginia court for the trial, expected to last up to seven weeks.
At issue in the trial is Ms Heard's 2018 opinion piece in the Washington Post, describing herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse". Mr Depp says the article - which does not mention him by name - is defamatory and derailed his career.
Beginning a day of opening arguments, Camille Vasquez, a lawyer for Mr Depp, told jurors Ms Heard had been the aggressor throughout the relationship.
Ms Heard concocted a role for herself as victim, Ms Vasquez said, once Mr Depp had asked her for a divorce in attempt to "avoid humiliation".
"She is obsessed with her public image," she said. "She has been living and breathing this role for years now and she is preparing to give the performance of her life."
Lawyers for Ms Heard instead claimed the actress had endured emotional, verbal and physical harassment at the hands of Mr Depp.
Mr Depp wants to "haunt her, to wreck her career", attorney Ben Rottenborn said.
Christi Dembrowski, Mr Depp's older sister, was first on the witness stand. Responding to questions from Mr Depp's lawyer, Ms Dembrowski described a volatile childhood, shaped by their mother's abuse.
"Mom would, she would scream, she would yell. She would hit [Dad], call him names," Ms Dembrowski said. Mr Depp never fought back, she said.
Ms Dembrowski described her famous sibling as a gentle and loving brother, son and father to his two children.
According to Ms Dembrowski, her brother's demeanour changed when he became involved with Ms Heard. "He seemed sadder," she said.
Ms Heard would often insult Mr Depp, Ms Dembrowski said, recalling an instance when Dior wanted to hire Mr Depp for an advertisement campaign.
"She [Ms Heard] said, 'Dior, why would Dior want to do business with you? You don't have style... She called him an old fat man," Ms Dembrowski said.
Mr Depp's sister told jurors she was "devastated" by the news that Mr Depp would marry Ms Heard, and fearful that her brother's relationship was mirroring that of their parents.
"If I'm honest, I debated going [to the wedding]," she said. "I wanted to make sure that I showed up anyway, because I wanted to make sure, honestly, that my little brother knew I was going to be there no matter what."
Ms Dembrowski is the first of an estimated 120 witnesses who will be called to testify in Virginia in the coming weeks, helping to sketch competing accounts of Mr Depp and Ms Heard's relationship.
On Sunday, ahead of the trial, Ms Heard released a statement to Instagram, writing that she has "always maintained a love for Johnny".
"It brings me great pain to have to live out the details of our past life together in front of the world," she said.
The words were delivered with a flourish, the beginning of a case about how Johnny Depp had been wounded, emotionally and materially by the words of Amber Heard. Benjamin Chew, leading Johnny Depp's legal team, laid out what we are about to witness, a case that will try to portray Amber Heard as a liar, a "troubled" and "manipulative" woman who was, they say, the real abuser.
The opening statement was delivered with all the slickness of a Hollywood movie, you almost felt there was going to be a round of applause at the end but, inside the court, all was calm.
Johnny Depp sat silently, carefully watching the lawyers' presentations to the jury of 11. Amber Heard, impassive, attentive, occasionally appearing to take notes.
Watching was a crowd made up largely of Depp fans. Before court proceedings began they were warned to keep phones hidden, not to take pictures, there would be no shouting of 'we love you, Johnny.' But as it began there was not a murmur or a sign of movement. Confidence was high that this would vindicate their idol.
This is going to be, they feel, the full story with evidence from forensic experts, a counsellor, the police and friends. Johnny Depp may have lost his case in London - this they feel will be different.
Amber Heard's legal team then presented the challenge. Yes, she had accused him of abuse but that was not what her article in the Washington Post was about. She did not name Johnny Depp, she did not write the headline and in America there is a special constitutional protection for words written in the newspapers.
Most lawyers would agree that bringing a successful libel action in America is much harder than in the UK and in the case in Britain, the judge came down firmly on the side of Amber Heard's version of events.
Today, however, was just an overture. Jurors were warned that what was to come would be graphic, neither side said they wanted to reveal the details of their turbulent private life and celebrity friends but that is now where we are.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61082790
|
news_world-us-canada-61082790
|
|
Kemarni Watson Darby: Man guilty of murdering partner's son, 3 - BBC News
|
2022-04-13
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Kemarni Watson Darby suffered weeks of beatings before the fatal attack at his West Bromwich home.
|
Birmingham & Black Country
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
A man has been found guilty of murdering his partner's three-year-old son after inflicting more than 20 rib fractures over weeks of beatings.
Nathaniel Pope left Kemarni Watson Darby with injuries comparable to a car crash or fall from height.
Kemarni's mother Alicia Watson was convicted of causing or allowing her son's death at her West Bromwich flat.
Watson and Pope were also found guilty of child cruelty charges at Birmingham Crown Court.
Several jurors were in tears as the verdicts were read out after the 20-week trial.
Judge Mrs Justice Tipples also became emotional as she ordered the panel to be discharged from future jury service for life due to the "awful nature of the facts" they had had to consider.
Kemarni, who was known as a noisy, energetic and cheerful three-year-old, had been the victim of what was described in court as a "brutal assault".
Jurors heard it was one of several attacks the boy had suffered while living with Watson, 30, and her partner Pope, 32, at the flat in West Bromwich.
Kemarni's body had 34 separate areas of external injuries which acted as a "silent witness" to the crimes, the court was told.
The pair had tried to pass this off as accidental and Watson told the police he was a "boisterous boy" who was "always running into things".
Jurors were shown a photograph of Kemarni with an injury to his right eye as well as one showing him eating near a clump of his own hair, which Watson claimed he had cut off.
Prosecutors said they deliberately beat the boy's abdomen rather than more obviously visible areas of his body.
Prosecutor Tony Badenoch QC said: "It's Kemarni's body that spoke the loudest, with the most clarity, in this courtroom. His squeezed, battered and lifeless, oxygen-starved body cannot lie."
The three-year-old died on the afternoon of 5 June 2018 after his ribcage was "crushed" at the two-bedroom flat.
Alicia Watson and Nathaniel Pope blamed each other from the witness box
Kemarni had expressed a wish not to go back to his mother's flat after contact visits with his dad, the court heard.
A safeguarding review by Sandwell Children's Safeguarding Partnership will reveal whether opportunities were missed to save him.
No safeguarding concerns about Kemarni had been identified before his death and he had had no involvement with children's social care, the partnership said.
Their chair, Lesley Hagger, said the case was "deeply upsetting" and they would look to publish their report "as soon as possible".
"It is vital that sad cases like these are thoroughly looked at and, where there are areas for improvement, that any necessary changes are made," she added.
Although in its statement the Sandwell Safeguarding Partnership said there had been no prior contact with children's services, the review it's carrying out will want to ask why? This was a vulnerable three-year-old who was living with his mother - a regular cannabis user - and her partner - a convicted drug dealer.
We learned during the trial that the nursery which Kemarni had attended had raised some concerns about his well-being, but it's not clear to whom those concerns were raised and what action, if any, was taken.
Kemarni's tragic and short life seems to have been lived under the radar, and perhaps if any lessons are learned from the safeguarding review it will be to see whether more can be done to pick up on cases like his.
Alicia Watson said Kemarni's injuries had been caused by accidents or fights with other children
Both adults routinely abused drugs, the prosecution told the court, and neighbours said there had been a "constant smell of weed from the flat".
Pope, a former warehouse worker, had been jailed for four months for smashing a mother's head repeatedly into a rail on a bus in London in 2011 in front of her children and then dragging her off by her hair.
But the details were kept from the jury after legal arguments.
He had also previously been convicted of burglary and possession of heroin with intent to supply.
Pope told jurors he had "just told some of the truth" about himself in evidence but insisted he had never hurt Kemarni in any way.
Watson was said in court to have a "zero to a 100" temper and it emerged she spent money on cannabis and driving lessons at a time when her son lost his nursery place due to a lack of funds.
During her six days of evidence she accused barristers of lying and dismissed the case against her as "disgustingly wrong".
Kemarni lived in a small flat with drug users Alicia Watson and Nathaniel Pope
Watson insisted Pope must have attacked Kemarni while she was away and claimed to be horrified at "learning" of his internal injuries.
But Mr Badenoch told her she had acted with him in the abuse "for days, months and hours on end".
The pair, who blamed each other from the witness box, were also convicted of one count of child cruelty, relating to rib fractures and an abdominal injury before Kemarni's death.
They were also separately found guilty of two further counts of child cruelty in relation to other children. Watson was cleared of murdering her son.
Det Insp James Mahon described the investigation as a "horrific case for everyone involved".
"It's absolutely awful that the two people who were supposed to look after him the most were those that caused injury, and in the end his death," he added.
Their sentencing will take place at a later date.
Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: newsonline.westmidlands@bbc.co.uk
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-60996115
|
news_uk-england-birmingham-60996115
|
|
Tanis: Fossil found of dinosaur killed in asteroid strike, scientists claim - BBC News
|
2022-04-07
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Remains are unearthed of a dinosaur that may have died on the very day a space rock hit Earth.
|
Science & Environment
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Sir David Attenborough seeks expert help to understand the significance of the fossil leg
The limb, complete with skin, is just one of a series of remarkable finds emerging from the Tanis fossil site in the US State of North Dakota.
But it's not just their exquisite condition that's turning heads - it's what these ancient specimens are purported to represent.
The claim is the Tanis creatures were killed and entombed on the actual day a giant asteroid struck Earth.
The day 66 million years ago when the reign of the dinosaurs ended and the rise of mammals began.
Very few dinosaur remains have been found in the rocks that record even the final few thousand years before the impact. To have a specimen from the cataclysm itself would be extraordinary.
The BBC has spent three years filming at Tanis for a show to be broadcast on 15 April, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.
Sir David will review the discoveries, many that will be getting their first public viewing.
Along with that leg, there are fish that breathed in impact debris as it rained down from the sky.
We see a fossil turtle that was skewered by a wooden stake; the remains of small mammals and the burrows they made; skin from a horned triceratops; the embryo of a flying pterosaur inside its egg; and what appears to be a fragment from the asteroid impactor itself.
"We've got so many details with this site that tell us what happened moment by moment, it's almost like watching it play out in the movies. You look at the rock column, you look at the fossils there, and it brings you back to that day," says Robert DePalma, the University of Manchester, UK, graduate student who leads the Tanis dig.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Robert DePalma: "Dinosaurs and the impact are two things that are absolutely linked in our minds"
It's now widely accepted that a roughly 12km-wide space rock hit our planet to cause the last mass extinction.
The impact site has been identified in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Yucatan Peninsula. That's some 3,000km away from Tanis, but such was the energy imparted in the event, its devastation was felt far and wide.
The remains of animals and plants seem to have been rolled together into a sediment dump by waves of river water set in train by unimaginable earth tremors. Aquatic organisms are mixed in with the land-based creatures.
The sturgeon and paddlefish in this fossil tangle are key. They have small particles stuck in their gills. These are the spherules of molten rock kicked out from the impact that then fell back across the planet. The fish would have breathed in the particles as they entered the river.
The spherules have been linked chemically and by radiometric dating to the Mexican impact location, and in two of the particles recovered from preserved tree resin there are also tiny inclusions that imply an extra-terrestrial origin.
"When we noticed there were inclusions within these little glass spherules, we chemically analysed them at the Diamond X-ray synchrotron near Oxford," explains Prof Phil Manning, who is Mr DePalma's PhD supervisor at Manchester.
"We were able to pull apart the chemistry and identify the composition of that material. All the evidence, all of the chemical data, from that study suggests strongly that we're looking at a piece of the impactor; of the asteroid that ended it for the dinosaurs."
The existence of Tanis, and the claims made for it, first emerged in the public sphere in the New Yorker Magazine in 2019. This caused a furore at the time.
Science usually demands the initial presentation of new discoveries is made in the pages of a scholarly journal. A few peer-reviewed papers have now been published, and the dig team promises many more as it works through the meticulous process of extracting, preparing and describing the fossils.
To make its TV programme, the BBC called in outside consultants to examine a number of the finds.
Prof Paul Barrett from London's Natural History Museum looked at the leg. He's an expert in ornithischian (mostly plant-eating) dinosaurs.
"It's a Thescelosaurus. It's from a group that we didn't have any previous record of what its skin looked like, and it shows very conclusively that these animals were very scaly like lizards. They weren't feathered like their meat-eating contemporaries.
"This looks like an animal whose leg has simply been ripped off really quickly. There's no evidence on the leg of disease, there are no obvious pathologies, there's no trace of the leg being scavenged, such as bite marks or bits of it that are missing," he tells me.
"So, the best idea that we have is that this is an animal that died more or less instantaneously."
Artwork: The thinking is that a water surge buried all the creatures at Tanis
The big question is whether this dinosaur did actually die on the day the asteroid struck, as a direct result of the ensuing cataclysm. The Tanis team thinks it very likely did, given the limb's position in the dig sediments.
If that is the case, it would be quite the discovery.
But Prof Steve Brusatte from University of Edinburgh says he's sceptical - for the time being.
He's acted as another of the BBC's outside consultants. He wants to see the arguments presented in more peer-reviewed articles, and for some palaeo-scientists with very specific specialisms to go into the site to give their independent assessment.
Prof Brusatte says it's possible, for example, that animals that had died before the impact were exhumed by the violence on the day and then re-interred in a way that made their deaths appear concurrent.
"Those fish with the spherules in their gills, they're an absolute calling card for the asteroid. But for some of the other claims - I'd say they have a lot circumstantial evidence that hasn't yet been presented to the jury," he says.
"For some of these discoveries, though, does it even matter if they died on the day or years before? The pterosaur egg with a pterosaur baby inside is super-rare; there's nothing else like it from North America. It doesn't all have to be about the asteroid."
A pterosaur embryo inside an egg, found at the Tanis site...
...here digitally extracted and constructed into a model
There's no doubting the pterosaur egg is special.
With modern X-ray technology it's possible to determine the chemistry and properties of the egg shell. It was likely leathery rather than hard, which may indicate the pterosaur mother buried the egg in sand or sediment like a turtle.
It's also possible with X-ray tomography to extract virtually the bones of the pterosaur chick inside, to print them and reconstruct what the animal would have looked like. Mr DePalma has done this.
The baby pterosaur was probably a type of azhdarchid, a group of flying reptiles whose adult wings could reach more than 10m from tip to tip.
Mr DePalma gave a special lecture on the Tanis discoveries to an audience at the US space agency Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center on Wednesday. He and Prof Manning will also present their latest data to the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in May.
Dinosaurs: The Final Day with Sir David Attenborough will be broadcast on BBC One on 15 April at 18:30 BST. A version has been made for the US science series Nova on the PBS network to be broadcast later in the year.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61013740
|
news_science-environment-61013740
|
|
Will the UK's energy strategy work? - BBC News
|
2022-04-07
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The plan aims to increase UK electricity generation from nuclear, wind, hydrogen and solar sources.
|
Business
|
It's worth noting what this strategy is - and what it is not.
It is not a plan to cushion the UK economy from the immediate cost of living crisis caused in large part by rocketing international energy prices.
It is the government's attempt to increase the UK's resilience to future energy shocks.
It does set out a plan to wean the UK off fossil fuels but acknowledges that we are not in a position to do that just yet.
It also does not involve significant government spending beyond that which has already been committed and to its critics it's a plan that fails to hit any of its various targets.
New nuclear power forms the centrepiece of the plan.
In addition to advanced plans to approve two new reactors at Sizewell in Suffolk during this parliament, Wyfla in Anglesey is named as a candidate to host either a large scale plant, smaller modular reactors or possibly both in the next parliament.
The prime minister and the business secretary's enthusiasm for more onshore wind - the cheapest and quickest forms of renewable energy to deploy - has been tempered by fears that public and backbench MP opinion is divided.
Communities that want them, and the energy bill discounts that living near turbines could bring, will still be encouraged to have them.
Targets for hydrogen production are doubled with a plan to have a working facility by 2025, while targets for solar and offshore wind have been increased.
The conflict in Ukraine has made a powerful argument for weaning the UK off fossil fuels in the long term but have also exposed the continued international reliance on them.
Ministers are convinced that in the short term the world needs more gas. In the long term less.
Plans to accelerate North Sea oil and gas projects will prompt dismay from environmental groups who argue that it will make little difference to energy prices that are set internationally. But supporters say it makes no sense to import liquefied gas from the US, Qatar and elsewhere when domestic production that can provide UK jobs and domestic tax revenues is closer to hand.
Above all, this is a plan to secure future supply rather than reduce demand.
Policies to reduce household and business consumption are largely limited to tax breaks to introduce privately funded energy saving measures.
To its advocates it's the moment when the government called time on a decade of drift in energy policy, to its critics it's a plan full of reheated ideas that has come too late.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61019261
|
news_business-61019261
|
|
Depp and Heard marriage ended in 'mutual abuse', says therapist - BBC News
|
2022-04-14
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
A psychotherapist tells the court of a volatile dynamic between the couple during therapy sessions.
|
US & Canada
|
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's former couples therapist said the pair engaged in "mutual abuse" during the final months of their stormy marriage.
Video testimony by Dr Laurel Anderson was played for jurors on the third day of the $50m (£38m) defamation trial in Virginia.
Mr Depp has sued his ex-wife over a story she wrote in which she described herself as a victim of domestic violence. He denies any abuse.
In testimony recorded in February and played for jurors on Thursday, Ms Anderson said she had seen the famous couple for several therapy sessions between October and December 2015. Ms Heard filed for divorce in May 2016 after just 15 months of marriage.
The psychotherapist described a volatile dynamic between Mr Depp and Ms Heard, with both threatening to walk out of sessions amid arguments.
In sessions without Mr Depp present, Ms Anderson said, Ms Heard reported physical assault at the hands of her then-husband. On one occasion Ms Heard came to her office with several small bruises on her face, she testified.
On more than one occasion Ms Heard initiated violent interactions in an effort to prevent Mr Depp from leaving, Ms Anderson said.
"It was a point of pride to her, if she felt disrespected, to initiate a fight," Ms Anderson told jurors. "If he was going to leave her to de-escalate from the fight, she would strike him to keep him there, she would rather be in a fight than have him leave."
Ms Anderson said that Mr Depp was often interrupted by Ms Heard during the therapy sessions.
"Ms Heard had a jackhammer style of talking," the clinical psychologist said. "She was very amped up. He had trouble talking at a similar pace. He was cut off a lot."
Ms Anderson testified to both Ms Heard and Mr Depp's family history of domestic violence. Ms Heard was beaten by her father, she said, and Mr Depp was beaten by his mother.
Mr Depp had been "well controlled" for decades before meeting Ms Heard, Ms Anderson said, and did not engage in violence with past partners. "With Ms Heard, he was triggered. They engaged in what I saw as mutual abuse."
At issue in the trial is Ms Heard's 2018 opinion piece in the Washington Post, describing herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse". Mr Depp says the article - which does not mention him by name - is defamatory and derailed his career.
Jurors have so far been presented with duelling accounts of Depp and Heard's relationship.
Ms Heard's team has portrayed Mr Depp as a physically and sexually abusive partner prone to drug and alcohol binges.
Mr Depp's team has presented Ms Heard's claims of domestic violence as a "hoax" and a calculated strategy to ruin his reputation.
Also on Thursday, a former personal assistant to Ms Heard, Kate James, testified about what allegedly happened when she asked her then-boss for a salary increase.
Ms James said: "She [Ms Heard] leapt up out of her chair, put her face approximately four inches from my face. She was spitting in my face, telling me how dare you ask me for the salary you're asking for."
The trial, expected to last at least six weeks, is being broadcast live and will involve a number of high-profile witnesses, including James Franco, Paul Bettany and Elon Musk.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61114768
|
news_world-us-canada-61114768
|
|
Russia's war ignites Orban's tightest election challenge in Hungary - BBC News
|
2022-04-04
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
For the first time since 2010, Hungary's prime minister faces a real fight for election victory.
|
Europe
|
Ukrainians have fled the war across Hungary's eastern border
"Peace or War" is at stake screams the headline in the tabloid Metropol, handed out to morning commuters flocking through the Western Station in Budapest. And there's a neat blue cross in the box next to the "peace" option.
That's the slogan of Viktor Orban's Fidesz party, as it battles to win a record fourth consecutive term in office in elections on Sunday.
After 12 years in power, they face their first genuine challenge from an opposition alliance of six parties that has united under one candidate: Peter Marki-Zay.
And Russia's war in Ukraine has given added impetus to the race.
Hungary shares a border with Ukraine and has taken in more than half a million refugees so far. Mr Orban insists that by helping the people, but refusing to supply weapons to Ukraine, only he can keep Hungary out of the war.
His party's slogan of peace or war may be simplistic, but it is effective. And it is broadcast, printed, and lit up in bright letters wherever you look in Hungary.
It interrupts any music you play on YouTube, and even videos that include international coverage of the war in Ukraine.
The government has spent eight times more on its campaign than all the opposition parties combined, according to a group of critical monitoring organisations. It helps that the ruling party has the support of a largely pliant media.
The opposition's catch-phrase, on the other hand, is "Orban or Europe".
Their candidate Peter Marki-Zay argues that Hungary should join Poland, the UK and others in supplying arms to Ukraine. And if called upon, and only within a Nato framework, should even consider sending troops.
The opposition complains that Fidesz has isolated Hungary from the European mainstream, from consensual democracy, fairness and decency. And that in this war Mr Orban has even alienated Hungary's closest allies - Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - the other members of the Visegrad-4 group.
A V4 defence ministers' meeting was abruptly cancelled this week, with the Czech defence minister accusing Mr Orban of valuing Russian oil over Ukrainian blood.
But it was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky whose message hit home hardest.
"There can be no Russian branches in Europe that divide the EU from within," he said in an address to the Danish parliament on Wednesday. "This must stop, and Europe must stop listening to the excuses of Budapest."
Hungary gets 85% of its gas and 64% of its oil from Russia, through a pipeline that deliberately circumvents Ukraine. However, a Hungary-Russia deal to expand the Paks nuclear power station south of Budapest with Russian finance and technology looks increasingly jeopardised by the war.
And with Hungary's election campaign reaching its peak, President Zelensky chose the recent EU summit to address a very personal message to Mr Orban.
"Listen, Viktor, do you know what's going on in Mariupol? And you hesitate whether to impose sanctions or not? And you hesitate whether to let weapons through or not? And you hesitate whether to trade with Russia or not? There is no time to hesitate. It's already time to decide."
Mr Zelensky also made a poignant reference to Budapest's famous shoe monument on the banks of the Danube.
Look at those shoes. And you will see how mass killings can happen again in today's world. That's what Russia is doing today. The same shoes. In Mariupol, there are the same people
The 60 pairs of bronze shoes remember Hungary's Jews, murdered and pushed into the river by Hungarian fascists in the winter of 1944.
Days after his speech, Ukrainians in Budapest arranged new shoes among the bronze ones on the Danube embankment, decorated with flowers and the blue and yellow ribbons of the Ukrainian flag - in memory of all the dead in Mariupol and elsewhere in Ukraine, victims of the Russian invasion.
Hungarians laid shoes beside the Danube this week in memory of the victims of Russia's bombardment of Mariupol
The idea that Hungary is isolated from an otherwise pro-Ukraine Europe is an argument the government side bitterly rejects.
Ahead of the vote, Mr Orban told his final campaign rally: "If the opposition wins on Sunday, the next day they will start delivering weapons to Ukraine, and close the taps on the Russian gas pipelines. Our heart is with [the Ukrainians], but Hungary has to stand up for its own interests."
The election arithmetic suggests a closer race than the government would like.
According to opposition paper Nepszava, Fidesz is assured of victory in 41 of the country's 106 individual constituencies, while the opposition alliance can count on 33.
That leaves 32 battleground districts where the opposition has to break through. The remaining 93 seats in Hungary's 199 seat Parliament are divided according to party lists.
Different polling agencies suggest a record turnout - perhaps as high as 80%, compared with 70% four years ago.
In a country of 9.7 million, the electorate was split almost evenly - 2.6 million apiece - four years ago. Pollsters reckon that this election will be decided by between 300,000 and 600,000 voters who are either undecided or uncommitted, and who are in the cross-hairs of campaigners from both sides.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Hungarian PM Viktor Orban says the country could host peace talks
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60952882
|
news_world-europe-60952882
|
|
Logan Mwangi: Boy, 5, treated like prisoner, murder trial told - BBC News
|
2022-04-04
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Logan Mwangi's body was found with 56 external injuries and severe damage to his abdominal area.
|
Wales
|
Angharad Williamson and John Cole are both charged with Logan Mwangi's murder
A five-year-old boy was treated like a prisoner in the days before his death, a murder trial has heard.
Logan Mwangi was made to face the wall as his step-father John Cole put food in his room, jurors at Cardiff Crown Court were told.
Cole, 40, is on trial with partner Angharad Williamson, 31, and a youth, 14, who all deny murdering Logan.
His body was found in the River Ogmore in Sarn, Bridgend, last July with 56 external injuries.
Cole has previously admitted a charge of perverting the course of justice.
On Monday, he said he is "not proud" of how he treated Logan, but did not punch him in the stomach before he died.
Logan had suffered severe internal damage to his abdominal area
Under cross-examination by Ms Williamson's barrister, Peter Rouch QC, he explained how Logan behaved during his isolation for Covid in the days before he died.
He said they kept the boy in his room with a baby gate over the doorway, making him face the wall when anyone came in, but Logan had tried to find ways to get out of the room.
"He gave both of us angry looks," Cole said.
Prosecutor Caroline Rees QC suggested in the days leading to Logan's death he was treated like a "prisoner" in his bedroom.
"Taking food to his room and making him face the wall as you put the food to the room," she said.
"You treated that little boy like a prisoner and in the week before Logan's death he was largely confined to the room and made to face the wall when food was delivered to him.
"How did you think that made that little boy feel?"
Cole replied: "We were trying our best we possibly could."
Logan was found dead in the River Ogmore in Sarn, Bridgend county, last July
The defendant - who is 6ft 4in tall and "between 14 and 15 stone" - told the jury he could talk "in a forceful voice".
Ms Williamson's barrister, Peter Rouch QC asked Cole about an argument with Ms Williamson, suggesting he was getting angry with Logan "flinching when he came near".
"Angharad said words to the effect that you are always picking on Logan," the barrister added.
This was something Cole denied.
The barrister also said Cole had hit Logan "twice in the stomach", but the defendant replied: "I did not hit Logan in the stomach."
Cole also denied encouraging the teenage defendant to "sweep the boy's legs" if he moved.
Mr Rouch said Ms Williamson then threatened to leave Cole and ran out of the house saying, "I am sick of these rows, I am sick of it," to which John Cole is alleged to have replied: "If you do, I will kill him."
Cole denied this, saying the row was caused by his partner picking up Logan by the arms and shaking him.
John Cole has admitted a charge of perverting the course of justice
Mr Rouch referred to a neighbour texting another neighbour saying "baldy is going bananas", referring to his behaviour before the boy's death.
Cole previously told the jury he did "clip the boy's head" and "tapped him on the hand" to discipline him.
He said: "I am not proud of what I did, but I have admitted what I have done."
The jury were shown the black Nike holdall bag that the couple put Logan's body into.
Mr Rouch said it had been measured by police and was 2ft 2in (67cm) in length, adding: "Logan was 3ft 5in. How did you get him into the bag?"
Asked, "did you cram him in?", Cole replied: "I don't remember. I wasn't thinking clearly."
Asked again about moving Logan's body, John Cole said: "I regret doing that - what I did was disgusting and I deserve whatever I get for that."
Under cross examination, Cole said Logan was alive and "still misbehaving" when he went to bed but did not believe his partner would have hurt the boy.
He told the court Ms Williamson said Logan's death had been a "freak accident" but he did not ask her more because he "didn't want to know the answer".
"There was a dead child, and you didn't want to know the answer?" asked Caroline Rees QC.
"I knew I didn't kill Logan, so the answer I was going to get was too horrific and I didn't want to know."
The defendant told the court Ms Williamson had on a number of occasions said she could not cope with Logan's behaviour and talked about "handing him into social services".
Cole has admitted a charge of perverting the course of justice, which Ms Williamson and the 14-year-old deny.
The two adults are also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child, which they both deny.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60984765
|
news_uk-wales-60984765
|
|
Partygate: No easy return for Boris Johnson after Easter break - BBC News
|
2022-04-18
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Boris Johnson is expected to face questions from MPs on Tuesday after being fined for breaching Covid rules.
|
UK Politics
|
Boris Johnson will face MPs for the first time since he was fined for Covid breaches
There will be no easing back into work for the prime minister after this Easter break.
On Tuesday he'll face MPs for the first time since he was fined for breaching Covid rules - and then address fellow Tory MPs in the evening.
It'll come a week after the prime minister, his wife and the chancellor received fines for attending a birthday gathering for the PM in No 10 in the Cabinet Room.
On Wednesday, he faces a Prime Minister's Questions from the opposition, after a weekend where the Sunday Times reported claims he was involved in "instigating" a leaving do in November 2020, which Downing Street deny.
All the while he will be hoping more fines don't land in his inbox from police investigating Covid breaches in government.
So, what's the plan? And where does more potential jeopardy lie?
No 10 sources stress he will apologise again to MPs for Covid breaches in Downing Street, and say he understands the strength of feeling around breaches of Covid restrictions at the heart of government.
Boris Johnson may want to focus on issues such as the Ukraine crisis and the plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
As one source put it, there is "quite a bit to update Parliament on".
But opposition parties will want to turn the attention to him becoming the first serving prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The timing of the fines came as a surprise, with the prime minister's director of communications coordinating the response while floating on a felucca boat down the Nile on holiday with no electricity and only a power bank.
Speaking after the fine - the prime minister said people "had the right to expect better" from him and it "did not occur" to him at the time that the "brief" gathering in the Cabinet Room to mark his birthday in June 2020 could be in contravention of Covid lockdown rules.
Opposition parties strongly believe the prime minister deliberately misled parliament by previously saying rules in No 10 were followed at all times - and are looking at various mechanisms to hold him to account about this. Labour sources say options under consideration include forcing a vote on whether he misled Parliament or referring him to a parliamentary committee to investigate.
There's no suggestion the prime minister would lose any vote against him, but opposition parties are likely to strongly criticise any Tory MPs who may be forced to publicly defend his actions.
After fresh allegations in the Sunday Times that at a leaving drinks for his director of communications, Lee Cain, in November 2020 the prime minister poured drinks at the gathering Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said - if the reports were true - then the prime minister had a "hand in instigating" at least one of the parties.
She added he had "deliberately misled the British people at every turn".
Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner has heavily criticised the PM's involvement in the parties
The newspaper cited a source claiming it was not a leaving do, but a press office Friday afternoon drinks, until the prime minister showed up.
No 10 have not denied that this event took place, but have strongly denied that the prime minister instigated it - with sources pointing to the reports that alcohol was already on the table when the prime minister showed up.
One individual present at the event told the BBC that people were instead having a drink at the office at the end of the day and the prime minister had popped in to say goodbye to Lee Cain.
Those close to him also stress he turned up at his own press office with people "by definition" allowed to be there on that day.
Some of those present at the gathering have also told the BBC they have not been questioned by the police about this specific gathering.
However, there is concern among some Tory MPs that further fines or bad headlines could be yet to come.
The gathering he has been fined for so far is considered by many as a more minor event - a gathering in the Cabinet Room ahead of a meeting on Covid where people wished him happy birthday.
While he paid the fine, No 10 insiders have said the prime minister did not believe it was wrong to step into this gathering to allow people who worked for him to say happy birthday, and that it "didn't feel like a party".
Police are still wading through evidence surrounding other events - such as two now infamous Downing Street garden drinks events.
The prime minister's defence in coming weeks is likely to focus on not being aware that turning up at these gatherings in a place, one source described "he was allowed to be" with "people who were allowed to be there" was disallowed.
But should further fines be issued, or more egregious breaches found, this argument could prove much harder to make both to the British public - but also to some of his own MPs.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61140292
|
news_uk-politics-61140292
|
|
Sabina Nessa: Evil killer struck after marriage ended - BBC News
|
2022-04-08
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Koci Selamaj attacked Sabina Nessa after the abusive marriage he relied on to stay in the UK ended.
|
UK
|
A garden in Sabina Nessa's memory is planned for the primary school where she taught
In the months before he beat and strangled Sabina Nessa, Koci Selamaj had unleashed his violent personality behind closed doors.
Yet his Romanian wife, who was the victim of his violence, was also the key to his long-term life in the UK. The collapse of his marriage came shortly before he brutally murdered 28-year-old teacher Sabina.
Selamaj has now been sentenced for her murder - but questions linger about the Albanian's immigration history and whether he married so he could stay in the UK.
The Home Office says at the time of the murder, Selamaj had the right to be in the UK but officials have refused to give details. However, it has emerged that he entered illegally in 2015, arriving on a lorry after living in Greece. He based himself in Eastbourne, east Sussex, working as a pizza delivery driver and garage attendant. He married his wife on 5 November 2018 and they lived in a flat behind a row shops in Eastbourne.
As an EU citizen, his wife had greater UK immigration rights. Earlier that year, the UK government had announced the EU Settlement Scheme which gave EU nationals and - crucially for Selamaj - their spouses, permission to remain here after Brexit.
With his position in the UK secure, Selamaj now had the freedom to travel in and out of the country.
In the Albanian capital Tirana, the BBC has seen police documents showing Selamaj had no criminal record there. They also detail his regular return visits to his home country - beginning two months after his wedding. He went back six times in two and a half years.
Koci Selamaj had no previous convictions but the prosecution described how, more than once, he had put his hands round his wife's throat
But by the summer of 2021, Selamaj's marriage had broken down because of his violent behaviour. His wife moved out of their home.
The prosecution at the Old Bailey described how more than once he put his hands around her throat - a precursor to how he killed Sabina Nessa. His wife, who we are not naming, worked at Eastbourne's Grand Hotel and on 17 September - the day of Sabina's murder - Selamaj booked a room there.
When Selamaj became argumentative at the check-in desk, staff noticed his home address was close by and called 101. No officer was sent, although police say the operator dealt with the call correctly.
Selamaj later met his wife in his car in the hotel car park where he asked her to have sex with him. She rejected him and Selamaj drove off alone.
He first drove to Brighton and then travelled to south-east London, parking in Pegler Square, in Kidbrooke. He had no connection with this suburban area with its new build blocks of flats, miles from where he lived. CCTV captured him buying a rolling pin at the local Sainsbury's, which he apparently considered using as a weapon.
Meanwhile, at the end of a working week, Sabina Nessa, who lived locally, was on her way to meet a friend for a Friday night out. In the past she had discussed with friends the importance of sticking to the main road but on that evening she was running late. She took a shortcut through Cator Park, close to Pegler Square.
CCTV footage later revealed how Selamaj, who had been loitering in the park, spotted Sabina, checked she was alone and ran towards her. He struck her 34 times with a metal traffic triangle, carried her off unconscious and strangled her. Sabina's body, covered in grass, was discovered the following day by a dog walker.
"The way he had left Sabina's body, together with the fact that he had propositioned his wife for sex earlier in the day, says to me without a shadow of a doubt that it was a sexually motivated killing," says Det Ch Insp Neil John, who led the Metropolitan Police murder investigation.
Vigils were held for Ms Nessa after her death, including this one in Eastbourne
Selamaj then drove back to Eastbourne, stopping on the way in Tunbridge Wells, in Kent, to dump the murder weapon in a river. Just after midnight he strode through the lobby of Eastbourne's Grand Hotel and made his way to the room he had booked earlier.
Frustratingly for detectives, Selamaj left no forensic evidence at the scene. However, his murder weapon, the metal traffic triangle, gave them a vital clue. "On the cameras we could see that fluorescent glint going out of the park in a certain direction," said DCI John. "That was the breakthrough. It all followed from that."
Working around the clock, going through footage from local cameras, the murder team began closing in on the killer. After five days of studying the footage, they worked out what they thought he looked like and what he was wearing."
That was really good going by the team," says DCI John. "We had literally hundreds of hours of CCTV in the office."
The registration plate of his silver Nissan Micra had been picked up by roadside cameras. A week after Sabina's body was found, police identified Selamaj as the prime suspect.
Overnight, police forced the door of Selamaj's Eastbourne flat and arrested him. He didn't say anything. He was lying on the bed and was described as calm and compliant. The search team found his trainers. Blood on them was analysed and linked him to Sabina.
Selamaj's silence continued during police interviews. But when he was charged he suddenly asked: "What will happen if I tell you everything?" Because he had been charged, detectives could not probe him further.
At his first court appearance he indicated he would be pleading not guilty. But in February, at the Old Bailey and with Sabina's family watching, he was asked to enter a formal plea. There was a pause as a packed courtroom waited. Selamaj broke the silence with the word: "Guilty".
"He is an evil coward," added DCI John, who also described him as "an unknown quantity" because of his refusal to engage with police and the fact that he has no criminal record.
Selamaj refused to come to court for the sentencing and so Sabina's family faced an empty dock with their victim impact statements.
The barrister who headed Selamaj's legal team, Lewis Power QC, has spent months representing a man who has failed to engage or give any explanation for what he has done. "He has shown no remorse. He is as cold as ice," Mr Power told the BBC.
Selamaj was recently transferred from prison to Broadmoor high security hospital so his mental state can be assessed as he begins his 36 year sentence.
Koci Selamaj's parents are in a state of misery, his uncle Bardhosh told the BBC
Thousands of miles away in the maritime village of Borsh, in southern Albania, Bardhosh Selamaj told the BBC he was astounded his nephew was now a convicted murderer in the UK.
He said Selamaj - his brother's son - was born in the Albanian city of Elbasan, before the family moved to neighbouring Greece. While Selamaj's parents returned to Albania, he and his siblings remained, thinking their prospects were better there.
As for Selamaj's retired parents, Bardhosh reflects: "We are poor and we had high hopes for them and their family. Now they don't know what to say or do. They are in a state of misery."
Selamaj's last trip to his home country was in September last year. He stayed for just under a week and on 9 September boarded a budget flight back to Luton.
By then his marriage looked to be over. He knew this meant his future in the UK was in jeopardy. Eight days later he had brutally murdered Sabina Nessa.
Sabina's elder sister, Jebina Islam, says the family are angry at Selamaj's refusal to say anything about his crime.
Sabina was the second of four sisters. "When I saw him I was just thinking what a horrible vile animal he is. I'm upset that he wouldn't answer any questions," says Jebina.
"That will stay with me for the rest of my life. Why did he carry out such a horrific attack on my sister?"
Jebina Islam is angry that Selamaj refuses to say why he attacked her sister
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60799021
|
news_uk-60799021
|
|
Ukraine: Six weeks of devastation and defiance as world grapples with the crisis - BBC News
|
2022-04-08
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The BBC's Jeremy Bowen takes stock of the war and its significance for the world.
|
Europe
|
Predictions at the start of the invasion of a quick Russian victory have been upended by the Ukrainians' willingness to fight, but the war is settling into a long struggle that could still endanger the wider world too.
Remember how it was in Kyiv after the Russians invaded: thousands cramming bitterly cold railway platforms, pushing and shoving to get any train heading away from the Russians. At the height of it, in the week that straddled the end of February and the beginning of March, 50,000 people were moving west from Kyiv station every single day. Rusty carriages that looked as if they had spent years pensioned off in some siding were hauled back into service so the railway company could lay on dozens of extra services.
Most of the passengers were women and children. Men stayed. The law stated they could not leave the country as Ukraine needed them to fight. I did not see any press gangs. Mostly, it was a nation of willing volunteers. Kyiv's population of around four million halved. Some of the women who didn't leave put on uniforms to fight. Outside a volunteer centre I met a woman called Katrine hugging Nikita, her 18-month-old son. It was a brief reunion as her unit rotated through Kyiv. Katrine was a sniper, who said she was ready to kill to give her son a future.
Katrine hugs her son before going into battle
As I drove into Kyiv from the south a few days into the invasion, a Russian convoy 40 miles long was heading towards the city from the north and north-west, from Belarus, Russia's ally. Belarus is the sort of neighbour Russia's President Vladimir Putin wants. Its leader, Alexander Lukashenko, is happy to have Putin's patronage and to accept a role as Russia's client state. Even so Lukashenko did not send his troops into Ukraine, which many outsiders had assumed was part of the Kremlin's battle plan. Perhaps even Putin accepted that loyalty has its limits.
Everyone in Kyiv feared the worst. The city centre was mostly empty, except for armed and anxious men at checkpoints who were ready to believe that anyone behaving in a way they didn't like was a Russian saboteur. The rumble of explosions rolled in from the edge of the city. Everyone feared the all-powerful Russians were about to encircle Kyiv and attack.
On my first night I decided not to sleep in the hotel shelter, at the second basement level. It was overcrowded and airless, and the city centre had not been hit. It felt like a gamble. But as I write this, six weeks later, in the same hotel room on the fourth floor, Kyiv's beautiful and historic centre has still not been attacked, even though it is well within range of Russia's missiles and air force.
In six weeks, so much has changed. The long convoy got bogged down and destroyed. The Russians retreated. The war is far from over, but the Ukrainians won the battle of Kyiv. The first battle. There could be another.
Ukrainian willingness to fight and die upended every prediction of a swift Russian victory. At a military funeral of a soldier killed stopping the Russian advance, his mother and sister sobbed, clutching his portrait. Volleys were fired over his coffin, and hundreds of his comrades lined up to sing their national anthem and roar patriotic slogans.
They looked like who they were, volunteers with ages that ran from late teens to late middle age, wearing a range of uniforms and carrying a variety of weapons. Ukraine also has much more professional-looking, highly trained soldiers.
Together with clever leadership, sharp tactics and Nato weapons they have fought so well that the world's perception of their country has changed. At a photo opportunity at the Nato meeting in Brussels this week foreign ministers of some of the world's most powerful democracies were jostling to get close to the guest of honour, their Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba. Differences are emerging in the North Atlantic Alliance and the European Union about how to increase the pressure on Russia, but they all wanted a little Ukrainian stardust.
In war, leadership has always been critical, and in modern war the messages on the media battlefield are more significant than ever. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is winning that part of the war. Instead of heading for safer ground he stayed, swapping suits for khaki t-shirts.
It is ironic that one of Putin's arguments for Ukraine to be in Russia's orbit is that it is not a proper country. His own actions, along with Zelensky's well-judged messages as he leads a remarkable feat of mobilisation, are sharpening the national identity of Ukrainians.
Another factor for Ukrainian success is that humans caught up in wars adapt fast, once the shock wears off. In a trendy part of Kyiv hipster craft makers repurposed their workshop to turn out steel barriers with vicious spikes to rip tyres. In the basement of a volunteer depot young women tore up sheets to make fuses for Molotov cocktails. The air in the unventilated space was heavy with petrol vapour. Checkpoints in Kyiv went from jumpy armed men with barriers made of a few tyres - to well-fortified sandbagged strongpoints.
Ukrainian defiance has also been a key factor. Thousands of volunteers signed up to learn how to handle weapons and fight. Among them were two young men we've followed ever since, university students Dmytro Kisilenko, aged 18, and his friend Maksym Lutsyk, who's 19. When they signed up to fight at the beginning of March the volunteers of their age looked like young guys off to a festival. Now they have seen action on the front line, and like every other Ukrainian have had their view of the world and the lives they will lead in it shaken.
The two young soldiers, Maksym and Dmytro, have been in Kyiv this week buying the new gear they'll need when they're rotated into the battles of the east in a few days. For Maksym, like all Ukrainians, this is the fight of their lives.
"We are not fighting here only for our country's life, we are fighting for the life of the whole civilised world because the biggest goal for us is to defend our freedoms and rights in Europe, in and out of our country. Every one of us understands that there will not be freedom in the whole world while Russia occupies our territories."
Weeks as a frontline soldier have changed Dmytro. "Human life matters, your relatives or friends. Your country matters, first of all… I become more systematic and unfortunately more ruthless because of the latest news and what I have already been through. Ruthless to Russian soldiers, ruthless to all the situations. I've become more like a soldier."
Russia suffered a serious defeat around Kyiv and had to pull back. But it has not lost the war, and is grinding out territorial gains in the east and south. Since they left the Kyiv Oblast the damage they have done is clearer than ever.
The damage to property is extensive. I have seen terrible devastation in the centres of towns like Irpin and Borodyanka. Far more serious, and alarming, is what has been done to civilians and other non-combatants. I have seen dead bodies, some definitely civilians, left where they were killed by the Russians. The evidence that war crimes were perpetrated by Russian troops is becoming overwhelming. Accusations have also been levelled at Ukrainian forces, after a video emerged that appeared to show their soldiers killing wounded Russians who were lying helpless on the ground.
This war is a world crisis not just because the Russians have driven a tank through international law, or for what they have done to civilians, but because it has brought the biggest military powers with nuclear weapons closer to a potential confrontation than at any time since the Cold War that ended with the fall of the Soviet Union, culminating in 1991.
The 21st Century now has its own Cold War, with the same risks attached if it gets hot. The head of defence intelligence in Ukraine, Maj Gen Kyrylo Budanov, told me that the risks of not confronting Putin's Russia are much worse for Nato than risking escalation by standing up to him and sending Ukraine the much more lethal arsenal it wants.
"This is a war of aggression in the heart of Europe that completely destroys existing political and military security systems. If the world swallows Putin's aggression and offers no radical solution, it will be repeated over and over again," he said.
Kyiv is much calmer now than in the icy first days of the invasion. It's very different in the east, where soldiers are gathering, and thousands of civilians are leaving everything they've ever known. The invasion of Ukraine took many by surprise. But the crisis between Russia and the West was brewing for years. Many, not just politicians, refused to recognise the signs.
A collective amnesia settled over the wars of former Yugoslavia of the 1990s. Europe, it was assumed, was too wise, rich and self-interested to still be that old continent where blood could be spilled to change borders and topple governments. Now we know that view was complacent and wrong. Western leaders are having to think very hard and very quickly about how to readjust to this new era's challenges and dangers.
This is going to be a long, attritional struggle. The stakes are high. If it escalates into a fight to the finish between Putin's presidency and Ukraine's independence the wider world will face even worse danger.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Maksym Lutsyk,19 (left) and Dmytro Kisilenko, 18 are at war with three days training.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61027292
|
news_world-europe-61027292
|
|
Dizzee Rascal: Grime artist sentenced for assaulting former fiancee - BBC News
|
2022-04-08
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The grime artist was given a community order with a 24-week curfew and told to wear an electronic tag.
|
London
|
The rapper, whose real name is Dylan Kwabena Mills, had denied assault by beating
Grime artist Dizzee Rascal has been handed a one-year restraining order and a 24-week curfew for assaulting his former fiancee.
The rapper, whose real name is Dylan Kwabena Mills, had denied assault by beating.
But the 37-year-old, of Sevenoaks, Kent, was found guilty of attacking Cassandra Jones in Streatham, south London, in June 2021.
The couple had two children before they split up in February 2021.
In last month's trial at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court, the judge said he had been "abusive and aggressive".
The court heard the artist behind chart-topping singles Bonkers and Dance Wiv Me, was "frustrated" over custody arrangements and the pair had an argument when he dropped off their daughter at the property.
Mills had assaulted Ms Jones by pressing his forehead against hers and pushing her to the ground during a "chaotic" row, the trial heard, when he accused her of causing injuries to his arm.
District judge Polly Gledhill, sentencing him at Croydon Magistrates' Court, told him she wanted him to work on how he thinks and behaves as he "lost his temper and used violence".
The rapper appeared at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court last month for the trial
After reading pre-sentence reports, she told Mills that he had shown "no remorse for this matter" and "you continue to place the blame on Ms Jones - the victim in this case".
He was given a community order with a 24-week curfew and told he must wear an electronic tag.
The judge said she was "satisfied" giving him an additional 12-month restraining order was a "necessary and proportionate" measure.
Mills was also ordered to pay £2,190 in costs and a £95 surcharge.
Judge Gledhill said Ms Jones had been "rocked to her core" by the attack and left with panic attacks and needing anxiety medication.
A Press Association photographer said Mills smashed his camera outside court
She told Mills the incident was made more serious because it was "a violation of the trust and security of the people in an intimate family relationship", it happened in front of children, and it took place "in the victim's home" where "a person is entitled to feel safe".
The judge also said he displayed aggressive behaviour after his trial ended, when he took a camera from a PA news agency photographer and threw it into the road, smashing it, outside the court.
Mills' defence lawyer. Sallie Bennett-Jenkins QC. told the court a pre-sentence report showed a low risk of reoffending and described the assault as "wholly isolated" and "short-lived".
She said: "His concern and only concern was that his children were thriving and had focused on raising his children ... who he wants to have a happy family."
As a parent, he provides "warmth, love and affection to his children", who "love and respect him", she added, and work has been undertaken with his ex-partner to sort out their settlement and childcare arrangements.
The rapper will appear again at Croydon Magistrates' Court next year
Ms Bennett-Jenkins said Mills, who had no previous convictions, had carried out charity work during the pandemic, including backing a kitchen which helped youngsters in London.
The court heard about other charity work Mills has done, though it was told it "does not distract from the seriousness of the offence".
Mills released his debut album, Boy In Da Corner, in 2003. His seventh studio album E3 AF, which refers to his east London postcode and African heritage, is due out on 30 October.
He was made an MBE for services to music in the Queen's Birthday Honours in 2020 and performed at festivals in August including Live At Lydiard in Swindon and Boardmasters in Cornwall.
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-61037308
|
news_uk-england-london-61037308
|
|
Logan Mwangi: Boy, 5, treated like prisoner, murder trial told - BBC News
|
2022-04-05
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Logan Mwangi's body was found with 56 external injuries and severe damage to his abdominal area.
|
Wales
|
Angharad Williamson and John Cole are both charged with Logan Mwangi's murder
A five-year-old boy was treated like a prisoner in the days before his death, a murder trial has heard.
Logan Mwangi was made to face the wall as his step-father John Cole put food in his room, jurors at Cardiff Crown Court were told.
Cole, 40, is on trial with partner Angharad Williamson, 31, and a youth, 14, who all deny murdering Logan.
His body was found in the River Ogmore in Sarn, Bridgend, last July with 56 external injuries.
Cole has previously admitted a charge of perverting the course of justice.
On Monday, he said he is "not proud" of how he treated Logan, but did not punch him in the stomach before he died.
Logan had suffered severe internal damage to his abdominal area
Under cross-examination by Ms Williamson's barrister, Peter Rouch QC, he explained how Logan behaved during his isolation for Covid in the days before he died.
He said they kept the boy in his room with a baby gate over the doorway, making him face the wall when anyone came in, but Logan had tried to find ways to get out of the room.
"He gave both of us angry looks," Cole said.
Prosecutor Caroline Rees QC suggested in the days leading to Logan's death he was treated like a "prisoner" in his bedroom.
"Taking food to his room and making him face the wall as you put the food to the room," she said.
"You treated that little boy like a prisoner and in the week before Logan's death he was largely confined to the room and made to face the wall when food was delivered to him.
"How did you think that made that little boy feel?"
Cole replied: "We were trying our best we possibly could."
Logan was found dead in the River Ogmore in Sarn, Bridgend county, last July
The defendant - who is 6ft 4in tall and "between 14 and 15 stone" - told the jury he could talk "in a forceful voice".
Ms Williamson's barrister, Peter Rouch QC asked Cole about an argument with Ms Williamson, suggesting he was getting angry with Logan "flinching when he came near".
"Angharad said words to the effect that you are always picking on Logan," the barrister added.
This was something Cole denied.
The barrister also said Cole had hit Logan "twice in the stomach", but the defendant replied: "I did not hit Logan in the stomach."
Cole also denied encouraging the teenage defendant to "sweep the boy's legs" if he moved.
Mr Rouch said Ms Williamson then threatened to leave Cole and ran out of the house saying, "I am sick of these rows, I am sick of it," to which John Cole is alleged to have replied: "If you do, I will kill him."
Cole denied this, saying the row was caused by his partner picking up Logan by the arms and shaking him.
John Cole has admitted a charge of perverting the course of justice
Mr Rouch referred to a neighbour texting another neighbour saying "baldy is going bananas", referring to his behaviour before the boy's death.
Cole previously told the jury he did "clip the boy's head" and "tapped him on the hand" to discipline him.
He said: "I am not proud of what I did, but I have admitted what I have done."
The jury were shown the black Nike holdall bag that the couple put Logan's body into.
Mr Rouch said it had been measured by police and was 2ft 2in (67cm) in length, adding: "Logan was 3ft 5in. How did you get him into the bag?"
Asked, "did you cram him in?", Cole replied: "I don't remember. I wasn't thinking clearly."
Asked again about moving Logan's body, John Cole said: "I regret doing that - what I did was disgusting and I deserve whatever I get for that."
Under cross examination, Cole said Logan was alive and "still misbehaving" when he went to bed but did not believe his partner would have hurt the boy.
He told the court Ms Williamson said Logan's death had been a "freak accident" but he did not ask her more because he "didn't want to know the answer".
"There was a dead child, and you didn't want to know the answer?" asked Caroline Rees QC.
"I knew I didn't kill Logan, so the answer I was going to get was too horrific and I didn't want to know."
The defendant told the court Ms Williamson had on a number of occasions said she could not cope with Logan's behaviour and talked about "handing him into social services".
Cole has admitted a charge of perverting the course of justice, which Ms Williamson and the 14-year-old deny.
The two adults are also charged with causing or allowing the death of a child, which they both deny.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-60984765
|
news_uk-wales-60984765
|
|
Channel 4 stars speak out on privatisation plan - BBC News
|
2022-04-05
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Kirstie Allsopp and Matt Lucas voice concerns about a government plan to privatise the broadcaster.
|
Entertainment & Arts
|
Kirstie Allsopp said she was afraid that "profit will be king"
Channel 4 stars Matt Lucas and Kirstie Allsopp are among the figures who have raised concerns about the government's plan to privatise the broadcaster.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries tweeted on Monday that "government ownership is holding Channel 4 back".
She said selling it to a private owner would give it "the tools and freedom to flourish and thrive as a public service broadcaster long into the future".
But Allsopp described her argument as "a load of utter twaddle".
The Location, Location, Location host tweeted: "C4 was set up to foster the British film & TV industry and it has done that job admirably."
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 Kirstie Allsopp 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.
Great British Bake Off co-host Lucas tweeted a link to a petition that claims privatisation would "seriously undermine programming aimed at all the communities, across generations, that make up this country".
However, Channel 4 News' new main anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy pointed out that "editorial independence and funding of news can be ring-fenced" if the government wishes.
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 2 by Krishnan Guru-Murthy 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.
Channel 4 is currently publicly-owned but funded by adverts. It commissions all its programmes from independent production companies rather than making them itself. Privatisation would see it sold to a private company.
Ms Dorries said "government ownership is holding Channel 4 back from competing against streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon".
She said the proceeds would be put "into independent production and creative skills in priority parts of the country".
In response, Channel 4 said the decision to move forward with the sell-off was "disappointing" and ignored "significant public interest concerns".
The channel's former head of news and current affairs, Dorothy Byrne, told BBC Radio 4: "The argument doesn't stack up because Channel 4 is not there to compete with Netflix and Amazon.
"It is there to provide a public service to the people of Britain with really important programmes like Channel 4 News or Unreported World, which Netflix or Amazon would never make."
She told the Today programme that "if you wanted to support independent production companies, you would invent Channel 4, which is exactly what Margaret Thatcher did".
The Channel 4 show It's a Sin has been nominated for 11 Bafta awards
One of Ms Dorries' predecessors as culture secretary, fellow Conservative MP Jeremy Hunt, said he was not in favour of the privatisation.
"As it stands, Channel Four provides competition to the BBC on what's called public service broadcasting - the kinds of programmes that are not commercially viable - and I think it'd be a shame to lose that," he told Sky News.
Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell told the Today programme that privatisation "doesn't make sense" and will do "a great deal of damage to jobs and opportunities in the creative industries".
Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, signed an open letter to Ms Dorries, strongly urging her "to reconsider this extraordinary and confusing decision".
Some programme and film-makers have flagged up times when Channel 4 supported them.
Alan Davies tweeted "most of us in comedy had our first gigs on Channel 4 before the BBC hired us".
Filmmaker Asif Kapedia noted that all his short films had been financed by Channel 4, while Empire State of Mind creator Sathnam Sanghera posted that it was the only mainstream channel "that would touch my argument on empire".
Conservative MP Julian Knight, chair of the House of Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee, wrote on Twitter that privatisation "can work for C4" but is "a big risk".
He said it "must be part of a thorough overhaul of all public service broadcasting", adding: "If this is in the media bill I will support the government."
He also questioned whether the privatisation was "being done for revenge for Channel 4's biased coverage of the likes of Brexit and personal attacks on the PM".
Mr Knight's predecessor as the committee's chair, Conservative MP Damian Collins,said he supported privatisation because the channel's spending on programme-making had declined in recent years.
"If we do nothing in a landscape where traditional broadcasters have got declining incomes, declining amounts of money they can spend making new programmes, will Channel 4 be sustainable? For me, that's the test.
"Actually, private ownership and the injection of money that could come from that could be good for making Channel 4 sustainable long term and then, as a consequence, excellent news for the UK production sector."
GB News presenter Dan Wootton tweeted that the sale of Channel 4 was "not before time", adding that "if they can operate in the private sector, good on them".
Plans for the sale, on which there has been a public consultation, will be included in May's Queen's Speech.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60993888
|
news_entertainment-arts-60993888
|
|
Joe Root steps down as England Test captain following West Indies defeat - BBC Sport
|
2022-04-15
|
[]
|
Joe Root steps down as England Test captain, citing the "toll" and "impact" the role has had on him.
| null |
Joe Root has stepped down as England Test captain, citing the "toll" and "impact" the role has had on him.
The 31-year-old was appointed Sir Alastair Cook's successor in 2017, and holds the record for the highest number of matches and wins as captain.
But his last series as skipper ended in defeat by West Indies, the 10-wicket third Test loss stretching England's winless run to nine matches.
Root initially said he wanted to stay on but now says "the timing is right".
"It has been the most challenging decision I have had to make in my career - but having discussed this with my family and those closest to me, I know the timing is right," said Root, who has not stepped down as an England player.
"I am immensely proud to have captained my country and will look back on the past five years with enormous pride.
"It has been an honour to have done the job and to have been a custodian of what is the pinnacle of English cricket.
"I have loved leading my country, but recently it's hit home how much of a toll it has taken on me and the impact it has had on me away from the game."
Root's tally of 5,295 runs as captain is the most by any England captain, and he scored 14 centuries while holding the position.
England's second-highest Test run scorer of all time, he led his country in a record 64 Tests and has overseen the most wins (27) but also the most defeats (26).
His notable series losses include two 4-0 Ashes defeats in Australia, in 2017-18 and 2021-22.
"I am excited to continue representing the Three Lions and producing performances that will enable the team to succeed," Root added.
"I look forward to helping the next captain, my team-mates and coaches in whatever way I can."
'He has led by example'
Last month's series defeat in the Caribbean followed England's 4-0 Ashes defeat at the hands of Australia and is their fourth series loss in a row - fifth if including the unfinished series against India, in which England trail 2-1.
England have won one of their past 17 Tests, their worst run since the 1980s.
They are in the process of appointing a new managing director and men's head coach, following the departures of Ashley Giles and Chris Silverwood after the Ashes.
It had been expected a decision on Root's future would be made once those positions had been filled.
"Joe has been an exceptional role model during his tenure, balancing the demands of Test captaincy whilst continuing to shine brilliantly through his own personal performances," said England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief executive Tom Harrison.
"He has led by example, and that has resulted in more Test wins than any other England captain, alongside a number of famous series home and away victories.
"Joe's leadership qualities were exemplified by how he led the team through some of the most difficult and uncertain times we have known, playing during the pandemic all over the world, which speaks volumes for him as a leader and as a person.
"I know that every single person who has played or worked under Joe's captaincy will speak of his integrity and humility as a person, as much as his determination and example as a leader.
"Off the field, Joe has been no different. It has been a privilege and a huge pleasure to have worked with him in his capacity as our Test captain, and I know he'll continue to drive English cricket forward as a senior player, offering his wealth of experience and advice to support his successor."
I think it's the right decision on all sorts of fronts. I think Root had run his course and there were plenty arguing for him to have gone after the Ashes, but they tried this red-ball reset - to try to move on in a new direction in the Caribbean - which went wrong.
Anyone who had been there as I was on that last day in Grenada to see England collapse again and lose that match would have realised that it was time for change. It's not the captain's fault that England batted badly - they batted badly throughout his captaincy - it was just an indication to me that the team needed a new direction.
I'm not surprised by this news. It is the right thing. I interviewed him after that game and he looked exhausted. There is so much more to this job than simply leading a team out on to the field. It's a massive job, a huge responsibility. No-one has done it longer, he's got a young family.
He's really had this job in his heart. Joe Root is a thoroughly good man and it is sad that he's gone but England captains are like prime ministers - you walk into the Downing Street waving and cheering and everyone is glad to see you, and you slip out the back afterwards in a rather unseemly exit. That's just how it works.
You don't really want to put these vast characters, match-winning people into these manacles that the captaincy gives you. Having said that, I don't see any other option than Ben Stokes. If you are going to bring someone in from outside, it has to be somebody who can be sure of keeping his place.
You need somebody, in my view, who is experienced and doesn't have to do it forever. There is a strong argument for a short-term captain, if it be Ben - but he's got an injured knee at the moment.
Stuart Broad and James Anderson are not stupid suggestions at all. Those two are vastly experienced. The problem is that they're aged bowlers who could fall in a heap, so then where are you? That's the issue about making one of them captain.
Plus, they are both pretty angry that they were left out of that tour of the West Indies and that boil has to be lanced as well.
If you look at English cricket at the moment, they haven't got a chairman, there is talk all the time about the chief executive leaving (whether he is or not it is still extremely unsettling), there is no coach, managing director and now no captain. That is the reality of where English cricket at the moment.
They have won one match in the last 17. There is a hell of a lot to do.
'He's done his absolute best' - reaction
Root's England team-mate Ben Stokes paid tribute to Root, thanking the Yorkshire batsman for having "given everything".
Former England assistant head coach Paul Farbrace told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I think Joe has made a sensible decision. Joe has carried not only the captaincy and the team but the batting as well on his broad shoulders for quite some time. I think he has made the right decision and I'm pleased that he has been able to make that decision.
"He is such a good team person and such a good person in that dressing room, he will have no problems getting on with his job because all he cares about is England cricket. He's not a bloke with a huge ego.
"There's been a lot of stick about him tactically but the most important thing with any captain is that you've got the dressing room behind you and he's definitely got that. We haven't got the quality in our Test match team at the moment.
"This isn't about Joe Root being a poor captain and why England haven't played well, we simply haven't got a team that is capable of challenging in the world at the moment but Joe has done his absolute best to help the team play the best they can. How he has maintained his form has been fantastic."
Former England captain David Gower told BBC Radio 5 Live: "There's been so much talk about the possibility and it was always a question of whether Joe would make his own decision or if someone would make that decision for him.
"He's had time to think since the end of that West Indies tour about his role and, the stark fact is, under his leadership over the last 12-18 months, nothing much has gone right.
"At some stage you get to the point - and I remember this from all those years ago - where you realise that whatever you say or do, it's not going to inspire a team any more. You end up saying the same thing, you end up repeating the same. Even if you have new personnel, the atmosphere remains the same.
"A lot of people, including me, had decided it was time for a new voice."
Darren Gough, Yorkshire's interim director of cricket, said: "I was surprised by the criticism. I think you have to look deeper than that. With everything that has been going on in English cricket, I don't think you can blame the captain.
"He's had a lot of criticism. I think what probably hurt him - it's come from a lot of guys who played the game and captained England as well, some of his closest mates. Unfortunately, we're always looking for someone to blame.
"Rather than criticise, you have to look at 27 Test wins. And the pressure he was under with the team he's got around him, to still keep scoring hundreds in that period tells me that he's got a strong character and he's a great player."
• None Specs Gonzales dives into the multiverse to put things right on the timeline
• None Who is the greatest Premier League player never to have lifted the trophy?
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/60895801
|
rt_cricket_60895801
|
|
Depp and Heard marriage ended in 'mutual abuse', says therapist - BBC News
|
2022-04-15
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
A psychotherapist tells the court of a volatile dynamic between the couple during therapy sessions.
|
US & Canada
|
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's former couples therapist said the pair engaged in "mutual abuse" during the final months of their stormy marriage.
Video testimony by Dr Laurel Anderson was played for jurors on the third day of the $50m (£38m) defamation trial in Virginia.
Mr Depp has sued his ex-wife over a story she wrote in which she described herself as a victim of domestic violence. He denies any abuse.
In testimony recorded in February and played for jurors on Thursday, Ms Anderson said she had seen the famous couple for several therapy sessions between October and December 2015. Ms Heard filed for divorce in May 2016 after just 15 months of marriage.
The psychotherapist described a volatile dynamic between Mr Depp and Ms Heard, with both threatening to walk out of sessions amid arguments.
In sessions without Mr Depp present, Ms Anderson said, Ms Heard reported physical assault at the hands of her then-husband. On one occasion Ms Heard came to her office with several small bruises on her face, she testified.
On more than one occasion Ms Heard initiated violent interactions in an effort to prevent Mr Depp from leaving, Ms Anderson said.
"It was a point of pride to her, if she felt disrespected, to initiate a fight," Ms Anderson told jurors. "If he was going to leave her to de-escalate from the fight, she would strike him to keep him there, she would rather be in a fight than have him leave."
Ms Anderson said that Mr Depp was often interrupted by Ms Heard during the therapy sessions.
"Ms Heard had a jackhammer style of talking," the clinical psychologist said. "She was very amped up. He had trouble talking at a similar pace. He was cut off a lot."
Ms Anderson testified to both Ms Heard and Mr Depp's family history of domestic violence. Ms Heard was beaten by her father, she said, and Mr Depp was beaten by his mother.
Mr Depp had been "well controlled" for decades before meeting Ms Heard, Ms Anderson said, and did not engage in violence with past partners. "With Ms Heard, he was triggered. They engaged in what I saw as mutual abuse."
At issue in the trial is Ms Heard's 2018 opinion piece in the Washington Post, describing herself as a "public figure representing domestic abuse". Mr Depp says the article - which does not mention him by name - is defamatory and derailed his career.
Jurors have so far been presented with duelling accounts of Depp and Heard's relationship.
Ms Heard's team has portrayed Mr Depp as a physically and sexually abusive partner prone to drug and alcohol binges.
Mr Depp's team has presented Ms Heard's claims of domestic violence as a "hoax" and a calculated strategy to ruin his reputation.
Also on Thursday, a former personal assistant to Ms Heard, Kate James, testified about what allegedly happened when she asked her then-boss for a salary increase.
Ms James said: "She [Ms Heard] leapt up out of her chair, put her face approximately four inches from my face. She was spitting in my face, telling me how dare you ask me for the salary you're asking for."
The trial, expected to last at least six weeks, is being broadcast live and will involve a number of high-profile witnesses, including James Franco, Paul Bettany and Elon Musk.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61114768
|
news_world-us-canada-61114768
|
|
Marjorie Taylor Greene: I did not call for violent capitol insurrection - BBC News
|
2022-04-23
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene is on trial for allegedly violating a Civil War era law.
|
US & Canada
|
A US congresswoman has denied calling for an "insurrection" in Washington as part of a trial challenging her right to stand for re-election.
Marjorie Taylor Greene is being tried under a Civil War era law that bars officials from holding office if they violate their oath to protect the US.
The Georgia Republican, a close ally to Donald Trump, is one of the party's most right-wing members in Congress.
Democrats claim she played a key role in the 6 January US Capitol riot.
On Friday, Ms Greene, 47, became the first sitting lawmaker to testify under oath about her alleged role in the attack in 2021, as Congress was meeting to cement Joe Biden's election victory over Mr Trump.
She testified to the Georgia courtroom that she "had no knowledge of any attempt" to illegally interfere with vote counting in Congress that day.
She also repeated false claims that Mr Trump actually won the election.
The case centres around a provision of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution - the "Insurrectionist Disqualification Clause" - which prohibits elected representatives from seeking office again if they "engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof".
Democrats may seek to use the same argument to bar Mr Trump from running if he attempts to throw his hat into the 2024 presidential election.
In a filing ahead of the trial, lawyers for Ms Greene said that she "vigorously denies that she aided and engaged in insurrection to obstruct the peaceful transfer of presidential power".
In court, Ms Greene said: "I don't support violence of any kind," and denied having ever called for violence in her social media posts and media appearances.
Prosecutors allege that she made coded calls to arms on public platforms.
For example, on 5 January, one day before the riot, Ms Greene said in an interview: "This is our 1776 moment", in what lawyers said was a reference to the year that the US declared independence from Britain, triggering a war.
Under oath, she said that she had no memory of that statement and denied that references to 1776 amounted to a secret call for violence. The Georgia state seal hanging in the court, she noted, has the year "1776" written on it, prompting a laugh from the judge.
Her lawyers have described her support for the 6 January riot as protected speech under the US Constitution's First Amendment, which covers the right to free expression.
The effort to ban Ms Greene from running is being led by Free Speech for People, a group that advocates for campaign finance reform. A similar suit against North Carolina Republican Madison Cawthorn was dismissed by a federal judge last month.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Ros Atkins on... the US Capitol riot anniversary
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61196311
|
news_world-us-canada-61196311
|
|
Who allowed the energy price cap to rise so much? And other questions - BBC News
|
2022-04-01
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
As a new price cap takes effect, causing energy bills to soar, we answer your questions.
|
Business
|
Millions of households are facing a £700 a year rise in energy costs, alongside hikes in the cost of council tax, water bills and other utilities.
It has led to warnings that many people on lower incomes will be forced to choose between paying for heating, or food.
A selection of your questions have been answered by:
Why do we pay more using a prepayment meter? - Gary Steventon
For the 4.5 million people on prepayment meters, the price of energy has now risen by an average £708 - to £2,017 a year.
That compares to an annual rise of £693 - to £1,971 - for those on standard tariffs, paid by direct debit.
Energy regulator Ofgem's argument is that there are higher fixed costs associated with running a prepayment meter.
Charities and some suppliers have said that these customers are often among the most vulnerable and should be given more help by the government.
Who allowed the price cap to increase by so much, especially when the energy companies have made record profits? - Chris Yaxley
The price cap, covering England, Wales and Scotland, is set every six months by energy regulator Ofgem. It is designed to reflect the costs faced by suppliers and to prevent profiteering.
There has been a huge rise this time, owing to the rising cost energy companies pay for gas. This is now being passed on to customers.
There has been a debate about whether energy companies should be taxed more, with the money raised used to help those struggling with bills.
Energy companies argue that their retail arms are making very little, or no, profit. While the energy generation business is having a much better time of it, they argue that they are already heavily taxed.
Gas prices do not increase by themselves. What is causing the increase? - John Ashburn
There are a host of reasons why the wholesale price of gas - paid by energy companies - has been volatile. At present it is about six times higher than it was a year ago.
One reason is the surge in demand for energy, as businesses and economies get going again after the lifting of Covid restrictions. There is also the ongoing issue of a shortage of gas storage across Europe.
A further rise in the price cap - predicted to push up the typical household energy bill by another £600 a year - is expected in October.
This is mainly because of the potential restriction of Russian gas supplies - linked to the war in Ukraine.
While we get very little gas from Russia in the UK, we are affected by the global price of gas.
Can people forced to work from home ask employers to contribute to energy bills? - Andrew Green
There is nothing to stop you asking. What response you get from your employer is down to them.
Some employers have offered temporary grants and payments, to help their staff pay their energy bills.
Unions and employees themselves are likely to point to the rising cost of living - including higher energy bills - to ask for higher salaries.
Will giving up Netflix, Amazon Prime, alcohol and mobile phones offset the rising cost? - Leslie Cox
The average UK household spends about £916 on alcohol each year.
Some mobile phone deals exceed £80 a month but, depending on your contract, you may be able to switch to a SIM-only deal for as little as £36 a year.
Giving up all of these costs could save between £1,132 and £2,056 a year.
A 54% rise in the energy price cap means a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity will now pay £1,971 per year.
So, going without could make a difference.
But even then, a further rise pushing the annual bill up to £2,600 should be expected in October, analysts have told the BBC.
How is the assistance provided going to help pensioners who have been robbed of a triple-lock increase? Dave
The triple-lock, a policy used to set the rise in state pensions, was suspended last year because it followed the average rise in wages and would have meant an increase of 8%.
At the time that seemed like a big increase, but inflation is now 6.2%.
Instead of the state pension going up by 8%, it's going up by 3.1% - based on the rate of inflation in September last year, which is a much smaller pay rise for state pensioners.
Changes announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the Spring Statement were mostly aimed at working people who pay National Insurance. There has not been any specific new support for pensioners.
Why have tariffs on 100% renewable electricity gone up? - Karl Oldham
Eco providers are still affected by wholesale prices, which are driving bill rises.
These providers try to buy in advance from renewable sources, and invest in schemes for renewable generation.
But ultimately, at present, they have to source electricity from the National Grid - some of which is generated from gas.
As a result, they are not immune to the situation in the wider market, and prices charged by renewable generators have been going up too.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60954102
|
news_business-60954102
|
|
Starmer wants Carrie Johnson named if fined for parties - BBC News
|
2022-04-01
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The Labour leader says people in Downing Street who broke the rules should not keep it secret.
|
UK Politics
|
Carrie Johnson is reported to have attended lockdown parties
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for Carrie Johnson to be named if she is fined over Partygate.
He said he agreed with the "general argument" that families should not be dragged into politics.
But he said the public was entitled to know if the PM's wife had been fined for partying while the rest of the country was following the rules.
Downing Street has promised to reveal if Boris Johnson is fined for breaking lockdown laws.
Twenty fixed penalty notices (FPNs) were issued earlier this week as a result of the Metropolitan Police's inquiry into parties at Number Ten that broke Covid rules.
But the police will not disclose who has been fined or which events the fines relate to and Mr Johnson has said he will not comment until the investigation is complete.
The PM is known to have attended at least three of the events being investigated and Mrs Johnson is also reported to have been at some of them.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: PM and Carrie should say if they are fined - Starmer
Sir Keir told BBC Breakfast he had no desire to "personally attack" the prime minister's wife.
But he said the lockdown rules introduced by those in Downing Street had been "really hard" for families all over the country. People had missed funerals, births, and visits to elderly relatives - and it had "really hurt," he added.
The Labour leader said the idea that those in Number 10 who had made the rules could keep it secret if they had broken them - to protect their privacy - was "utterly unacceptable".
Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said the situation for declaring FPNs was different for elected officials than for others being investigated as part of the Partygate allegations.
"From a personal point of view as a politician, I think I'm in a different situation - if I got a Fixed Penalty Notice, I would tell you," he added.
FPNs are a sanction for breaking the law and mean a fine, which needs to be paid within 28 days or contested.
If someone chooses to contest the notice, the police will review the case and decide whether to withdraw the fine or take the matter to court.
Accepting an FPN does not lead to a criminal record. It is the equivalent of a minor speeding offence, to divert people from the courts.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60952767
|
news_uk-politics-60952767
|
|
Roy Reynolds: 'Barbaric murder' of man found in Carrickfergus reservoir - BBC News
|
2022-04-01
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The body of 54-year-old Roy Reynolds was found in North Woodburn Reservoir on Monday.
|
Northern Ireland
|
Two men appeared in court charged over the murder of Roy Reynolds
A man whose body was found in a County Antrim reservoir earlier this week was subjected to a "barbaric and horrific" murder, a court has been told.
The body of Roy Reynolds, 54, was found in North Woodburn Reservoir near Carrickfergus on Monday morning.
Two men appeared at Belfast Magistrates' Court on Friday charged over the killing.
Michael Campbell, 32, of East Way in the Rathcoole estate, Newtownabbey, is accused of Mr Reynolds' murder.
Robert Mervyn Fulton, 68, from Belfast Road, Ballyclare, faces a count of assisting in the disposal of the body.
The court was told that police were contacted by a member of the public who had witnessed a man dragging a naked body from Mr Campbell's flat early on Monday morning.
It was put then in the boot of a car belonging to and driven by Mr Fulton.
An investigating detective said that when the vehicle was stopped by police a blood-stained Mr Campbell was in the passenger seat.
Large quantities of blood were also detected in the boot and bumper of the car.
Mr Fulton told police that a man had been left at a dam in Carrickfergus, but was unsure if he was dead or alive.
Police went to Mr Campbell's home where they discovered blood-covered walls and clear signs of a disturbance.
A blood-stained knife and screwdriver were also found, along with an electric hedge trimmer on a sofa.
Meanwhile, another member of the public on a walk at North Woodburn Reservoir reported finding Mr Reynolds' body in shallow water.
"The body was naked, with jeans and underwear around his ankles, and a breeze block positioned under his arm," the detective said.
During interviews, Mr Campbell made admissions, but claimed that he acted in self-defence.
Mr Fulton accepted using his car to transport the body for disposal, having left his home earlier that morning to travel to Rathcoole.
He claimed to have been asked to bring the hedge trimmer and plastic sheeting found inside the boot of his car.
The court heard Mr Fulton was previously in a relationship with Mr Campbell's mother and remained "infatuated" with her.
Flowers left at the reservoir after the body was found
Although a post-mortem has been carried out, no cause of death has been confirmed at this stage.
But the detective said: "This man suffered a brutal, sustained attack. It is barbaric, the injuries he suffered."
Opposing Mr Campbell's application for bail, she said he allegedly posted a recent video on Facebook while armed with a knife and making threats to harm Mr Reynolds.
"I think the actual threat was to cut out his heart," the detective claimed.
Mr Campbell's barrister argued that he had fully cooperated with police and gave reasons why he allegedly acted in self-defence.
"He indicates there was a verbal argument, both parties had been drinking and he was attacked by the deceased," he said.
Mr Fulton's solicitor said that he has physical and mental disabilities.
But the detective responded that he had been able to drive to the scene of the killing in the middle of the night and respond when Mr Campbell requested something to weigh the body down.
"Mr Fulton, at his home address, drilled two holes in a breeze block in order to put rope in it to dispose of the body," she disclosed.
The solicitor said his client had played no physical role in the murder and had "never touched the body".
He added that Mr Fulton was "in terror of" Mr Campbell.
The solicitor also said Mr Fulton had been set up in a "honeypot trap" which involved his home being partially signed over into a woman's name.
Bail was refused for both defendants.
The case will appear back before the courts on 29 April.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60956503
|
news_uk-northern-ireland-60956503
|
|
Concerns over handling of fines for Covid breaches - BBC News
|
2022-04-01
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
An ex-insider told the BBC it would be "disgraceful" if junior, but not senior, staff received fines.
|
UK Politics
|
Concerns have been expressed by current and former Whitehall staff about fines issued to those who broke Covid laws by going to parties in government offices.
The government has not confirmed reports that attendees at a leaving party in June 2020 have been fined.
But one former insider told the BBC they had heard junior members of staff had been fined, while senior staff had not, and that this was "disgraceful".
No 10 has confirmed the prime minister has not received a fine so far.
One other government source said police had targeted "low-hanging fruit", and another agreed this appeared to be the police's approach.
But a Whitehall insider cautioned it was too early to say until the process was complete and all the fines had been issued.
The Metropolitan Police launched an investigation earlier this year following reports of parties in Downing Street and other government buildings in breach of coronavirus lockdown rules.
On Tuesday, the police confirmed they were issuing 20 fines as a result of the inquiry and said more could follow.
Reports have suggested the first tranche of fines related to a leaving do on 18 June 2020 for a No 10 adviser.
The police have said they will not be disclosing the names of those who are receiving a fine, nor the events to which the fines relate.
Civil servants have not been provided with help for legal costs and are being advised to pay any fines they receive.
Senior staff and politicians have paid for private legal advice.
A recipient can contest a fine, in which case the police will review the case to decide whether or not to withdraw the fine or take the matter to court.
The prime minister is known to have attended at least three of the events being investigated by police and his wife Carrie Johnson is also reported to have been at some of them.
Speaking to the BBC, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said he agreed with the "general argument" that families should not be dragged into politics.
But he said the public was entitled to know if the wife of the prime minister who had set the rules the rest of the country was following had been fined for breaking them.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60957670
|
news_uk-politics-60957670
|
|
Ukraine: Six weeks of devastation and defiance as world grapples with the crisis - BBC News
|
2022-04-09
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
The BBC's Jeremy Bowen takes stock of the war and its significance for the world.
|
Europe
|
Predictions at the start of the invasion of a quick Russian victory have been upended by the Ukrainians' willingness to fight, but the war is settling into a long struggle that could still endanger the wider world too.
Remember how it was in Kyiv after the Russians invaded: thousands cramming bitterly cold railway platforms, pushing and shoving to get any train heading away from the Russians. At the height of it, in the week that straddled the end of February and the beginning of March, 50,000 people were moving west from Kyiv station every single day. Rusty carriages that looked as if they had spent years pensioned off in some siding were hauled back into service so the railway company could lay on dozens of extra services.
Most of the passengers were women and children. Men stayed. The law stated they could not leave the country as Ukraine needed them to fight. I did not see any press gangs. Mostly, it was a nation of willing volunteers. Kyiv's population of around four million halved. Some of the women who didn't leave put on uniforms to fight. Outside a volunteer centre I met a woman called Katrine hugging Nikita, her 18-month-old son. It was a brief reunion as her unit rotated through Kyiv. Katrine was a sniper, who said she was ready to kill to give her son a future.
Katrine hugs her son before going into battle
As I drove into Kyiv from the south a few days into the invasion, a Russian convoy 40 miles long was heading towards the city from the north and north-west, from Belarus, Russia's ally. Belarus is the sort of neighbour Russia's President Vladimir Putin wants. Its leader, Alexander Lukashenko, is happy to have Putin's patronage and to accept a role as Russia's client state. Even so Lukashenko did not send his troops into Ukraine, which many outsiders had assumed was part of the Kremlin's battle plan. Perhaps even Putin accepted that loyalty has its limits.
Everyone in Kyiv feared the worst. The city centre was mostly empty, except for armed and anxious men at checkpoints who were ready to believe that anyone behaving in a way they didn't like was a Russian saboteur. The rumble of explosions rolled in from the edge of the city. Everyone feared the all-powerful Russians were about to encircle Kyiv and attack.
On my first night I decided not to sleep in the hotel shelter, at the second basement level. It was overcrowded and airless, and the city centre had not been hit. It felt like a gamble. But as I write this, six weeks later, in the same hotel room on the fourth floor, Kyiv's beautiful and historic centre has still not been attacked, even though it is well within range of Russia's missiles and air force.
In six weeks, so much has changed. The long convoy got bogged down and destroyed. The Russians retreated. The war is far from over, but the Ukrainians won the battle of Kyiv. The first battle. There could be another.
Ukrainian willingness to fight and die upended every prediction of a swift Russian victory. At a military funeral of a soldier killed stopping the Russian advance, his mother and sister sobbed, clutching his portrait. Volleys were fired over his coffin, and hundreds of his comrades lined up to sing their national anthem and roar patriotic slogans.
They looked like who they were, volunteers with ages that ran from late teens to late middle age, wearing a range of uniforms and carrying a variety of weapons. Ukraine also has much more professional-looking, highly trained soldiers.
Together with clever leadership, sharp tactics and Nato weapons they have fought so well that the world's perception of their country has changed. At a photo opportunity at the Nato meeting in Brussels this week foreign ministers of some of the world's most powerful democracies were jostling to get close to the guest of honour, their Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba. Differences are emerging in the North Atlantic Alliance and the European Union about how to increase the pressure on Russia, but they all wanted a little Ukrainian stardust.
In war, leadership has always been critical, and in modern war the messages on the media battlefield are more significant than ever. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky is winning that part of the war. Instead of heading for safer ground he stayed, swapping suits for khaki t-shirts.
It is ironic that one of Putin's arguments for Ukraine to be in Russia's orbit is that it is not a proper country. His own actions, along with Zelensky's well-judged messages as he leads a remarkable feat of mobilisation, are sharpening the national identity of Ukrainians.
Another factor for Ukrainian success is that humans caught up in wars adapt fast, once the shock wears off. In a trendy part of Kyiv hipster craft makers repurposed their workshop to turn out steel barriers with vicious spikes to rip tyres. In the basement of a volunteer depot young women tore up sheets to make fuses for Molotov cocktails. The air in the unventilated space was heavy with petrol vapour. Checkpoints in Kyiv went from jumpy armed men with barriers made of a few tyres - to well-fortified sandbagged strongpoints.
Ukrainian defiance has also been a key factor. Thousands of volunteers signed up to learn how to handle weapons and fight. Among them were two young men we've followed ever since, university students Dmytro Kisilenko, aged 18, and his friend Maksym Lutsyk, who's 19. When they signed up to fight at the beginning of March the volunteers of their age looked like young guys off to a festival. Now they have seen action on the front line, and like every other Ukrainian have had their view of the world and the lives they will lead in it shaken.
The two young soldiers, Maksym and Dmytro, have been in Kyiv this week buying the new gear they'll need when they're rotated into the battles of the east in a few days. For Maksym, like all Ukrainians, this is the fight of their lives.
"We are not fighting here only for our country's life, we are fighting for the life of the whole civilised world because the biggest goal for us is to defend our freedoms and rights in Europe, in and out of our country. Every one of us understands that there will not be freedom in the whole world while Russia occupies our territories."
Weeks as a frontline soldier have changed Dmytro. "Human life matters, your relatives or friends. Your country matters, first of all… I become more systematic and unfortunately more ruthless because of the latest news and what I have already been through. Ruthless to Russian soldiers, ruthless to all the situations. I've become more like a soldier."
Russia suffered a serious defeat around Kyiv and had to pull back. But it has not lost the war, and is grinding out territorial gains in the east and south. Since they left the Kyiv Oblast the damage they have done is clearer than ever.
The damage to property is extensive. I have seen terrible devastation in the centres of towns like Irpin and Borodyanka. Far more serious, and alarming, is what has been done to civilians and other non-combatants. I have seen dead bodies, some definitely civilians, left where they were killed by the Russians. The evidence that war crimes were perpetrated by Russian troops is becoming overwhelming. Accusations have also been levelled at Ukrainian forces, after a video emerged that appeared to show their soldiers killing wounded Russians who were lying helpless on the ground.
This war is a world crisis not just because the Russians have driven a tank through international law, or for what they have done to civilians, but because it has brought the biggest military powers with nuclear weapons closer to a potential confrontation than at any time since the Cold War that ended with the fall of the Soviet Union, culminating in 1991.
The 21st Century now has its own Cold War, with the same risks attached if it gets hot. The head of defence intelligence in Ukraine, Maj Gen Kyrylo Budanov, told me that the risks of not confronting Putin's Russia are much worse for Nato than risking escalation by standing up to him and sending Ukraine the much more lethal arsenal it wants.
"This is a war of aggression in the heart of Europe that completely destroys existing political and military security systems. If the world swallows Putin's aggression and offers no radical solution, it will be repeated over and over again," he said.
Kyiv is much calmer now than in the icy first days of the invasion. It's very different in the east, where soldiers are gathering, and thousands of civilians are leaving everything they've ever known. The invasion of Ukraine took many by surprise. But the crisis between Russia and the West was brewing for years. Many, not just politicians, refused to recognise the signs.
A collective amnesia settled over the wars of former Yugoslavia of the 1990s. Europe, it was assumed, was too wise, rich and self-interested to still be that old continent where blood could be spilled to change borders and topple governments. Now we know that view was complacent and wrong. Western leaders are having to think very hard and very quickly about how to readjust to this new era's challenges and dangers.
This is going to be a long, attritional struggle. The stakes are high. If it escalates into a fight to the finish between Putin's presidency and Ukraine's independence the wider world will face even worse danger.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Maksym Lutsyk,19 (left) and Dmytro Kisilenko, 18 are at war with three days training.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61027292
|
news_world-europe-61027292
|
|
Partygate: No easy return for Boris Johnson after Easter break - BBC News
|
2022-04-19
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Boris Johnson is expected to face questions from MPs on Tuesday after being fined for breaching Covid rules.
|
UK Politics
|
Boris Johnson will face MPs for the first time since he was fined for Covid breaches
There will be no easing back into work for the prime minister after this Easter break.
On Tuesday he'll face MPs for the first time since he was fined for breaching Covid rules - and then address fellow Tory MPs in the evening.
It'll come a week after the prime minister, his wife and the chancellor received fines for attending a birthday gathering for the PM in No 10 in the Cabinet Room.
On Wednesday, he faces a Prime Minister's Questions from the opposition, after a weekend where the Sunday Times reported claims he was involved in "instigating" a leaving do in November 2020, which Downing Street deny.
All the while he will be hoping more fines don't land in his inbox from police investigating Covid breaches in government.
So, what's the plan? And where does more potential jeopardy lie?
No 10 sources stress he will apologise again to MPs for Covid breaches in Downing Street, and say he understands the strength of feeling around breaches of Covid restrictions at the heart of government.
Boris Johnson may want to focus on issues such as the Ukraine crisis and the plan to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
As one source put it, there is "quite a bit to update Parliament on".
But opposition parties will want to turn the attention to him becoming the first serving prime minister to be sanctioned for breaking the law.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The timing of the fines came as a surprise, with the prime minister's director of communications coordinating the response while floating on a felucca boat down the Nile on holiday with no electricity and only a power bank.
Speaking after the fine - the prime minister said people "had the right to expect better" from him and it "did not occur" to him at the time that the "brief" gathering in the Cabinet Room to mark his birthday in June 2020 could be in contravention of Covid lockdown rules.
Opposition parties strongly believe the prime minister deliberately misled parliament by previously saying rules in No 10 were followed at all times - and are looking at various mechanisms to hold him to account about this. Labour sources say options under consideration include forcing a vote on whether he misled Parliament or referring him to a parliamentary committee to investigate.
There's no suggestion the prime minister would lose any vote against him, but opposition parties are likely to strongly criticise any Tory MPs who may be forced to publicly defend his actions.
After fresh allegations in the Sunday Times that at a leaving drinks for his director of communications, Lee Cain, in November 2020 the prime minister poured drinks at the gathering Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner said - if the reports were true - then the prime minister had a "hand in instigating" at least one of the parties.
She added he had "deliberately misled the British people at every turn".
Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner has heavily criticised the PM's involvement in the parties
The newspaper cited a source claiming it was not a leaving do, but a press office Friday afternoon drinks, until the prime minister showed up.
No 10 have not denied that this event took place, but have strongly denied that the prime minister instigated it - with sources pointing to the reports that alcohol was already on the table when the prime minister showed up.
One individual present at the event told the BBC that people were instead having a drink at the office at the end of the day and the prime minister had popped in to say goodbye to Lee Cain.
Those close to him also stress he turned up at his own press office with people "by definition" allowed to be there on that day.
Some of those present at the gathering have also told the BBC they have not been questioned by the police about this specific gathering.
However, there is concern among some Tory MPs that further fines or bad headlines could be yet to come.
The gathering he has been fined for so far is considered by many as a more minor event - a gathering in the Cabinet Room ahead of a meeting on Covid where people wished him happy birthday.
While he paid the fine, No 10 insiders have said the prime minister did not believe it was wrong to step into this gathering to allow people who worked for him to say happy birthday, and that it "didn't feel like a party".
Police are still wading through evidence surrounding other events - such as two now infamous Downing Street garden drinks events.
The prime minister's defence in coming weeks is likely to focus on not being aware that turning up at these gatherings in a place, one source described "he was allowed to be" with "people who were allowed to be there" was disallowed.
But should further fines be issued, or more egregious breaches found, this argument could prove much harder to make both to the British public - but also to some of his own MPs.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61140292
|
news_uk-politics-61140292
|
|
Tanis: Fossil found of dinosaur killed in asteroid strike, scientists claim - BBC News
|
2022-04-06
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Remains are unearthed of a dinosaur that may have died on the very day a space rock hit Earth.
|
Science & Environment
|
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Sir David Attenborough seeks expert help to understand the significance of the fossil leg
The limb, complete with skin, is just one of a series of remarkable finds emerging from the Tanis fossil site in the US State of North Dakota.
But it's not just their exquisite condition that's turning heads - it's what these ancient specimens are purported to represent.
The claim is the Tanis creatures were killed and entombed on the actual day a giant asteroid struck Earth.
The day 66 million years ago when the reign of the dinosaurs ended and the rise of mammals began.
Very few dinosaur remains have been found in the rocks that record even the final few thousand years before the impact. To have a specimen from the cataclysm itself would be extraordinary.
The BBC has spent three years filming at Tanis for a show to be broadcast on 15 April, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.
Sir David will review the discoveries, many that will be getting their first public viewing.
Along with that leg, there are fish that breathed in impact debris as it rained down from the sky.
We see a fossil turtle that was skewered by a wooden stake; the remains of small mammals and the burrows they made; skin from a horned triceratops; the embryo of a flying pterosaur inside its egg; and what appears to be a fragment from the asteroid impactor itself.
"We've got so many details with this site that tell us what happened moment by moment, it's almost like watching it play out in the movies. You look at the rock column, you look at the fossils there, and it brings you back to that day," says Robert DePalma, the University of Manchester, UK, graduate student who leads the Tanis dig.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Robert DePalma: "Dinosaurs and the impact are two things that are absolutely linked in our minds"
It's now widely accepted that a roughly 12km-wide space rock hit our planet to cause the last mass extinction.
The impact site has been identified in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Yucatan Peninsula. That's some 3,000km away from Tanis, but such was the energy imparted in the event, its devastation was felt far and wide.
The remains of animals and plants seem to have been rolled together into a sediment dump by waves of river water set in train by unimaginable earth tremors. Aquatic organisms are mixed in with the land-based creatures.
The sturgeon and paddlefish in this fossil tangle are key. They have small particles stuck in their gills. These are the spherules of molten rock kicked out from the impact that then fell back across the planet. The fish would have breathed in the particles as they entered the river.
The spherules have been linked chemically and by radiometric dating to the Mexican impact location, and in two of the particles recovered from preserved tree resin there are also tiny inclusions that imply an extra-terrestrial origin.
"When we noticed there were inclusions within these little glass spherules, we chemically analysed them at the Diamond X-ray synchrotron near Oxford," explains Prof Phil Manning, who is Mr DePalma's PhD supervisor at Manchester.
"We were able to pull apart the chemistry and identify the composition of that material. All the evidence, all of the chemical data, from that study suggests strongly that we're looking at a piece of the impactor; of the asteroid that ended it for the dinosaurs."
The existence of Tanis, and the claims made for it, first emerged in the public sphere in the New Yorker Magazine in 2019. This caused a furore at the time.
Science usually demands the initial presentation of new discoveries is made in the pages of a scholarly journal. A few peer-reviewed papers have now been published, and the dig team promises many more as it works through the meticulous process of extracting, preparing and describing the fossils.
To make its TV programme, the BBC called in outside consultants to examine a number of the finds.
Prof Paul Barrett from London's Natural History Museum looked at the leg. He's an expert in ornithischian (mostly plant-eating) dinosaurs.
"It's a Thescelosaurus. It's from a group that we didn't have any previous record of what its skin looked like, and it shows very conclusively that these animals were very scaly like lizards. They weren't feathered like their meat-eating contemporaries.
"This looks like an animal whose leg has simply been ripped off really quickly. There's no evidence on the leg of disease, there are no obvious pathologies, there's no trace of the leg being scavenged, such as bite marks or bits of it that are missing," he tells me.
"So, the best idea that we have is that this is an animal that died more or less instantaneously."
Artwork: The thinking is that a water surge buried all the creatures at Tanis
The big question is whether this dinosaur did actually die on the day the asteroid struck, as a direct result of the ensuing cataclysm. The Tanis team thinks it very likely did, given the limb's position in the dig sediments.
If that is the case, it would be quite the discovery.
But Prof Steve Brusatte from University of Edinburgh says he's sceptical - for the time being.
He's acted as another of the BBC's outside consultants. He wants to see the arguments presented in more peer-reviewed articles, and for some palaeo-scientists with very specific specialisms to go into the site to give their independent assessment.
Prof Brusatte says it's possible, for example, that animals that had died before the impact were exhumed by the violence on the day and then re-interred in a way that made their deaths appear concurrent.
"Those fish with the spherules in their gills, they're an absolute calling card for the asteroid. But for some of the other claims - I'd say they have a lot circumstantial evidence that hasn't yet been presented to the jury," he says.
"For some of these discoveries, though, does it even matter if they died on the day or years before? The pterosaur egg with a pterosaur baby inside is super-rare; there's nothing else like it from North America. It doesn't all have to be about the asteroid."
A pterosaur embryo inside an egg, found at the Tanis site...
...here digitally extracted and constructed into a model
There's no doubting the pterosaur egg is special.
With modern X-ray technology it's possible to determine the chemistry and properties of the egg shell. It was likely leathery rather than hard, which may indicate the pterosaur mother buried the egg in sand or sediment like a turtle.
It's also possible with X-ray tomography to extract virtually the bones of the pterosaur chick inside, to print them and reconstruct what the animal would have looked like. Mr DePalma has done this.
The baby pterosaur was probably a type of azhdarchid, a group of flying reptiles whose adult wings could reach more than 10m from tip to tip.
Mr DePalma gave a special lecture on the Tanis discoveries to an audience at the US space agency Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Center on Wednesday. He and Prof Manning will also present their latest data to the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in May.
Dinosaurs: The Final Day with Sir David Attenborough will be broadcast on BBC One on 15 April at 18:30 BST. A version has been made for the US science series Nova on the PBS network to be broadcast later in the year.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-61013740
|
news_science-environment-61013740
|
|
Channel 4 stars speak out on privatisation plan - BBC News
|
2022-04-06
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
Kirstie Allsopp and Matt Lucas voice concerns about a government plan to privatise the broadcaster.
|
Entertainment & Arts
|
Kirstie Allsopp said she was afraid that "profit will be king"
Channel 4 stars Matt Lucas and Kirstie Allsopp are among the figures who have raised concerns about the government's plan to privatise the broadcaster.
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries tweeted on Monday that "government ownership is holding Channel 4 back".
She said selling it to a private owner would give it "the tools and freedom to flourish and thrive as a public service broadcaster long into the future".
But Allsopp described her argument as "a load of utter twaddle".
The Location, Location, Location host tweeted: "C4 was set up to foster the British film & TV industry and it has done that job admirably."
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 Kirstie Allsopp 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.
Great British Bake Off co-host Lucas tweeted a link to a petition that claims privatisation would "seriously undermine programming aimed at all the communities, across generations, that make up this country".
However, Channel 4 News' new main anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy pointed out that "editorial independence and funding of news can be ring-fenced" if the government wishes.
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 2 by Krishnan Guru-Murthy 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.
Channel 4 is currently publicly-owned but funded by adverts. It commissions all its programmes from independent production companies rather than making them itself. Privatisation would see it sold to a private company.
Ms Dorries said "government ownership is holding Channel 4 back from competing against streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon".
She said the proceeds would be put "into independent production and creative skills in priority parts of the country".
In response, Channel 4 said the decision to move forward with the sell-off was "disappointing" and ignored "significant public interest concerns".
The channel's former head of news and current affairs, Dorothy Byrne, told BBC Radio 4: "The argument doesn't stack up because Channel 4 is not there to compete with Netflix and Amazon.
"It is there to provide a public service to the people of Britain with really important programmes like Channel 4 News or Unreported World, which Netflix or Amazon would never make."
She told the Today programme that "if you wanted to support independent production companies, you would invent Channel 4, which is exactly what Margaret Thatcher did".
The Channel 4 show It's a Sin has been nominated for 11 Bafta awards
One of Ms Dorries' predecessors as culture secretary, fellow Conservative MP Jeremy Hunt, said he was not in favour of the privatisation.
"As it stands, Channel Four provides competition to the BBC on what's called public service broadcasting - the kinds of programmes that are not commercially viable - and I think it'd be a shame to lose that," he told Sky News.
Shadow Culture Secretary Lucy Powell told the Today programme that privatisation "doesn't make sense" and will do "a great deal of damage to jobs and opportunities in the creative industries".
Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin, signed an open letter to Ms Dorries, strongly urging her "to reconsider this extraordinary and confusing decision".
Some programme and film-makers have flagged up times when Channel 4 supported them.
Alan Davies tweeted "most of us in comedy had our first gigs on Channel 4 before the BBC hired us".
Filmmaker Asif Kapedia noted that all his short films had been financed by Channel 4, while Empire State of Mind creator Sathnam Sanghera posted that it was the only mainstream channel "that would touch my argument on empire".
Conservative MP Julian Knight, chair of the House of Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee, wrote on Twitter that privatisation "can work for C4" but is "a big risk".
He said it "must be part of a thorough overhaul of all public service broadcasting", adding: "If this is in the media bill I will support the government."
He also questioned whether the privatisation was "being done for revenge for Channel 4's biased coverage of the likes of Brexit and personal attacks on the PM".
Mr Knight's predecessor as the committee's chair, Conservative MP Damian Collins,said he supported privatisation because the channel's spending on programme-making had declined in recent years.
"If we do nothing in a landscape where traditional broadcasters have got declining incomes, declining amounts of money they can spend making new programmes, will Channel 4 be sustainable? For me, that's the test.
"Actually, private ownership and the injection of money that could come from that could be good for making Channel 4 sustainable long term and then, as a consequence, excellent news for the UK production sector."
GB News presenter Dan Wootton tweeted that the sale of Channel 4 was "not before time", adding that "if they can operate in the private sector, good on them".
Plans for the sale, on which there has been a public consultation, will be included in May's Queen's Speech.
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60993888
|
news_entertainment-arts-60993888
|
|
Ed Sheeran wins Shape of You copyright case and hits out at 'baseless' claims - BBC News
|
2022-04-06
|
['https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews']
|
After the High Court judgement, the singer says such "baseless" claims "are way too common now".
|
Entertainment & Arts
|
Ed Sheeran and his co-writers said the case had caused "immense" stress
Ed Sheeran has won a High Court copyright battle over his 2017 hit Shape of You.
A judge ruled on Wednesday that the singer-songwriter had not plagiarised the 2015 song Oh Why by Sami Chokri.
Chokri, a grime artist who performs under the name Sami Switch, had claimed the "Oh I" hook in Sheeran's track was "strikingly similar" to an "Oh why" refrain in his own track.
After the ruling, Sheeran said such "baseless" claims "are way too common".
In a video on social media, he said there was now a culture "where a claim is made with the idea that a settlement will be cheaper than taking it to court, even if there's no basis for the claim".
He added: "It's really damaging to the songwriting industry. There's only so many notes and very few chords used in pop music.
"Coincidence is bound to happen if 60,000 songs are being released every day on Spotify. That's 22 million songs a year and there's only 12 notes that are available."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch Ed Sheeran's Shape of You and Sami Chokri's Oh Why
Shape of You was the UK's best-selling song of 2017 in the UK and is Spotify's most-streamed ever.
Judge Antony Zacaroli ruled that Sheeran had "neither deliberately nor subconsciously copied" Chokri's song.
He acknowledged there were "similarities between the one-bar phrase" in Shape of You and Oh Why, but said "such similarities are only a starting point for a possible infringement" of copyright.
After studying the musical elements, he said there were "differences between the relevant parts" of the songs, which "provide compelling evidence that the 'Oh I' phrase" in Sheeran's song "originated from sources other than Oh Why".
This YouTube post cannot be displayed in your browser. Please enable Javascript or try a different browser. View original content on YouTube The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. YouTube content may contain adverts. Skip youtube video by Ed Sheeran This article contains content provided by Google YouTube. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read Google’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. YouTube content may contain adverts.
He added that there was only a "speculative foundation" for the defence's case that Sheeran had heard Chokri's song before writing Shape of You. "I find, as a matter of fact, that he had not heard it," he said.
Sheeran wrote his chart-topping track with two collaborators, Snow Patrol's John McDaid and producer Steven McCutcheon, who all denied having previously heard Oh Why.
The case dates back to 2018, when the trio asked the High Court to declare they had not infringed the copyright of Chokri and his co-writer Ross O'Donoghue. That led to an 11-day trial in London last month.
This ruling will come as a huge relief to Ed Sheeran, who took the unusual step of pre-emptively suing Sami Chokri and Ross O'Donoghue in 2018 in an attempt to clear his name.
He was stung by the accusation that he'd deliberately copied another writer's work without giving them credit. On the witness stand, the star was often terse and abrupt as he explained how, in several other instances, he shared royalties with writers who inspired him. Even on Shape of You, he protested, some of the profits went to the writers of TLC's No Scrubs.
He later sang Nina Simone's Feeling Good and Blackstreet's No Diggity on the stand in an attempt to prove the melody he was accused of stealing was commonplace in pop music.
Chokri was more emotional. He said he felt "robbed" by an artist he respected, and that he wished the trial had never come to court. However, he remained adamant that Sheeran had heard and copied his song.
In the end, the judge disagreed. In order for copyright infringement to be proved, Chokri needed to prove that Sheeran had listened to his song - otherwise the similarities would just be coincidence. But Mr Justice Zacaroli said Chokri's team had failed to establish that Oh Why had ever graced Sheeran's speakers.
As a star who has faced his fair share of copyright claims, Sheeran will presumably hope this verdict makes future litigants think twice.
The Shape of You songwriters took legal action in 2018 after the track's royalties were frozen when Chokri and O'Donoghue asked the Performing Rights Society (PRS) to add them to the hit's credits as co-writers.
Shape of You earns Sheeran, McDaid and McCutcheon about £5m a year, the court heard, despite almost 10% of the payments having being frozen due to the dispute.
In his ruling, Mr Justice Zacaroli said Sheeran and his collaborators were justified in thinking the request from Chokri and O'Donoghue to be named as co-writers "was a tactic designed to extract a settlement".
After the initial legal action, Chokri and O'Donoghue launched a counter-claim alleging copyright infringement.
Sami Chokri described the High Court case as "the worst few weeks of my life"
In a joint statement after the judgement, Sheeran, McDaid and McCutcheon said their mental health and creativity had suffered as a result of the case, as well as their wallets.
"There was a lot of talk throughout this case about cost," they said. "But there is more than just a financial cost. There is a cost on creativity. When we are tangled up in law suits, we are not making music or playing shows.
"There is a cost on our mental health. The stress this causes on all sides is immense. It affects so many aspects of our everyday lives and the lives of our families and friends. We are not corporations. We are not entities. We are human beings."
Giving evidence last month, Sheeran denied that he "borrows" ideas from unknown songwriters without acknowledgement, insisting he was always "completely fair" in crediting people who contribute to his work.
Andrew Sutcliffe QC, representing Chokri and O'Donoghue, labelled Sheeran a "magpie", claiming he "habitually copies" other artists and that it was "extremely likely" he had previously heard Oh Why.
In closing arguments last month, Mr Sutcliffe said there was an "indisputable similarity between the works". But Sheeran's lawyer said the case against him was "so strained as to be logically unintelligible".
Forensic musicologists were called by both sides to argue the case, giving contrasting views. One said the songs were "distinctly different" but the other argued they contained "significant similarities".
Ian Mill QC, representing Sheeran, said the case had been "deeply traumatising" for the star and his collaborators, while Chokri described the High Court case as "the worst few weeks of my life".
|
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-61006984
|
news_entertainment-arts-61006984
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.