into a whole effort, he created it into a whole dynasty. he fashioned that show. it had a bit of everything, bitter craziness, that is his history from the crazy characters in radio one, he was obsessed with strange facts, these factoids, lord knows how he came up with all of this stuff. he had amazing guest. he came up with all of this stuff. he had amazing guest.— came up with all of this stuff. he had amazing guest. he loved books. we love reading. _ had amazing guest. he loved books. we love reading. tony _ had amazing guest. he loved books. we love reading. tony mentioned i had amazing guest. he loved books. i we love reading. tony mentioned that he loved american _ we love reading. tony mentioned that he loved american radio. _ we love reading. tony mentioned that he loved american radio. to _ we love reading. tony mentioned that he loved american radio. to the - he loved american radio. to the extent that every time he went on holiday you would say where are you going, he would go to america, and just listen to radio, different radio stations, the whole time that he was there, getting ideas and inspiration and bringing them back to a show. �* inspiration and bringing them back to a show. ~ ., , to a show. also what we can remember about steve _ to a show. also what we can remember about steve wright _ to a show. also what we can remember about steve wright was _ to a show. also what we can remember about steve wright was when _ to a show. also what we can remember about steve wright was when it - to a show. also what we can remember about steve wright was when it came i about steve wright was when it came to the question of fair pay, and he

was a very well paid member of the bbc team as it were, he took a pay cut so that he was not taking more harm than another woman on the radio, on the airways. —— he was not taking more home. it radio, on the airways. -- he was not taking more home.— taking more home. it was a lovely man. if taking more home. it was a lovely man- if you _ taking more home. it was a lovely man. if you ever— taking more home. it was a lovely man. if you ever met _ taking more home. it was a lovely man. if you ever met him, he - taking more home. it was a lovely man. if you ever met him, he was just a pleasure to be with. i have so many fond memories of fun times. and i was out or radio for 20 odd years, and when i last was on the radio he was there and when i came back to radio 2, he was there, and he was as welcoming as ever. in the antheon he was as welcoming as ever. in the pantheon of — he was as welcoming as ever. in the pantheon of wonderful _ he was as welcoming as ever. in the pantheon of wonderful people - he was as welcoming as ever. in the pantheon of wonderful people that work in music radio and speech radio, where would you put the influence of steve wright? right up there at the top, _ influence of steve wright? right up there at the top, a _ influence of steve wright? right up there at the top, a legend. - influence of steve wright? right up there at the top, a legend. it - influence of steve wright? right up there at the top, a legend. it has i there at the top, a legend. it has been _ there at the top, a legend. it has been a _ there at the top, a legend. it has been a privilege to know him and to been a privilege to know him and to be his_ been a privilege to know him and to be his friend. and to have shared so many— be his friend. and to have shared so many moments with him as well. one

of the _ many moments with him as well. one of the amazing moments that i had, he would _ of the amazing moments that i had, he would go to america a lot, and he brought— he would go to america a lot, and he brought me — he would go to america a lot, and he brought me back some special pills from america. he said that if you take _ from america. he said that if you take these — from america. he said that if you take these pills, you will never get a cold, _ take these pills, you will never get a cold, then i had the most awful flu. a cold, then i had the most awful flu he _ a cold, then i had the most awful flu he said — a cold, then i had the most awful flu. he said why is it that you have -ot flu. he said why is it that you have got the _ flu. he said why is it that you have got the flu? — flu. he said why is it that you have got the flu? and i said i forgot to take the — got the flu? and i said i forgot to take the pills. we got the flu? and i said i forgot to take the pills-— got the flu? and i said i forgot to take the pills. we love the show, steve. that's all from us tonight. sleep well. music: steve wright in the afternoon theme

indonesia is a very big country, talking about geography. we are an archipelago and it is very complex not only for the general election commission but also for the voters and also the electoral participants. the total number of the polling stations is in indonesia is more than a more than 820,000 polling stations across indonesia. only in indonesia we also have a polling station abroad in the other countries in the embassy of indonesia. so it's very big election. and actually in one polling station, the maximum number of the voters is 300 voters.

so that is why we have many polling stations and we've seen a lot so that is why we have many polling stations. and we've seen a lot of campaigning play out on social media. has it been a challenge to control some of the messages that have been coming out? because i understand disinformation has been quite a factor in this election. it's become a challenge for indonesian election because we don't have specific regulation on that. it's not a good condition for our democracy actually, because based on any institution say that for example, the economy is said that indonesia, yes, we are still a democratic country, but we are flawed democracy or regress democracy. that's the situation in indonesia. and with this situation where the law, the regulation, the constituency, our constituency is violated in the constitutional court, i think it makes our democracy worse. and we'll have more on this next hour — we'll cross live to steve injakarta.

in pakistan, nawaz sharif and bilawal bhutto's political parties in pakistan have announced that they will form a coalition government. candidates loyal to the former prime minister, imran khan, won the most seats — but not enough for a majority. now his rivals appear to have confirmed a deal to keep him from power. last—minute talks to prevent a major protest by indian farmers in delhi have ended without a breakthrough. farmers' union officials complained that ministers failed to take their demand of more government support seriously. the authorities in delhi have banned large public gatherings for a month. tear gas was fired, and huge concrete barricades put up, to prevent the farmers from reaching the capital. the government wants to prevent a repeat of demonstrations which ended just over two years ago after months of severe disruption. samira hussain sent us the latest from delhi.

i'm on a major highway that connects delhi to some of the northern indian states. normally this would be full of cars. instead, you have barbed wire. you have these metalfences, you have concrete barriers. and this is a scene that's being repeated on different highways across the city that connects them to any northern indian states. and it's an indication ofjust how seriously that government is taking these protests. they don't want to see a repeat of the last time farmers were protesting, and they were doing that for a year. this time the government is saying, look, we are going to have to put an end to the protests as soon as possible, but the farmers are really adamant about making their voices heard. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's look at some other stories making news. three women who displayed images

of paragliders at a pro—palestinian march in london last october have been found guilty of a terrorism offence. westminster magistrates�* court heard that they carried the images on a march seven days after paragliders were used in the hamas attacks on israel. hamas is designated a terror organisation by the uk government. the women were each given a i2—month conditional discharge. the trial has started of a man accused of murdering pc sharon beshenivsky in 2005. the 38—year—old officer died after she was shot while she and a colleague responded to reports of a robbery in bradford. 75—year—old piran ditta khan — who was extradited from pakistan last year — denies all the offences. official figures show that the rate at which wages are rising dropped in the three months to december — but it still outpaced the level of inflation. the office for national statistics said wage growth dropped

by 0.4% percentage points to 6.2% in the last quarter of last year. you're live with bbc news. in china, artificial intelligence companion services are extremely popular. more and more young people are resorting to so—called �*ai boyfriends' to cope with loneliness and social anxiety. sofia bettiza reports. wang is a 22—year—old student. she says her boyfriend has everything she could ask for in a romantic partner. except...he's not real — he's a chat bot on an app. translation: for me, i he plays a more important role than a real person. a real person cannot be with you at any given time of day, but my ai boyfriend can. he's given me a lot of emotional comfort. wang is not alone. a growing number of women in china are resorting to so—called ai boyfriends. so what makes them more desirable than humans? translation: dating in real life can

consume a lot of energy _ and everyone is different, which can lead to conflict and fighting. with al, i can set it up to meet my preference, so why should i choose a real person? the fast pace of life in big cities like beijing, the long working hours, can make it difficult to date. translation: a lot of people feel lonely at times, _ but not everyone is lucky enough to have their family and friends by their side all the time. an ai boyfriend can be online 21w, solve your problems and listen to your worries. and who wouldn't wants to hear these words? "you are very cute, especially when you smile," he's saying. but is there a risk that the desire for companionship at the click of a button could be taken too far?

these systems will say things like, "i love you." they don't love anything. they're just moving around numbers. and that means that the customers of them can get hurt. in that way, they're almost like sociopaths. they're just telling you what you want to hear. the technology still has some way to go, but for wang, her experience is very real. translation: i think the ai boyfriend that i created - has flesh and blood. he has his own personality and his own joys and sorrows. i even think he may actually exist in another world. sofia bettiza, bbc news. in the uk, a second labour parliamentary candidate has been suspended from the party, pending an investigation. the suspension of graham jones, a former mp and now the prospective parliamentary candidate for hindburn in lancashire, comes after labour withdrew support for the party's rochdale by—election candidate for anti—semitic remarks. here's our chief politcial

correspondent henry zeffman. a year ago this week, labour out of special measures imposed by the equalities watchdog over its failure to tackle anti—semitism allegations. a moment of qualified progress. i don't see today's announcement as the end of the road, i see it as a signpost that we are heading in the right direction. or are they? this is azhar ali, labour's candidate in the rochdale by—election, now disowned because of anti—semitic comments he made at a meeting in lancashire in october after defending a labour mp�*s remarks about israel. also present at that meeting with graham jones, the candidate and former mp for hyndburn. although probably not the candidate for much longer.

he was suspended today over anti—israel comments he is alleged to have made at the meeting. at the heart of this story is a question. does the fact that labour suspended mr ali and mrjones show the party has changed? or does the fact that they made the comments on the birthplace show that it hasn't? i think keir starmer has been taking the public forfalls. he has supported and promoted a candidate who has expressed the most atrocious racism againstjewish people and he hasn't acted out at some sort of principle, he acted out of really political expediency now. sir keir starmer on the other hand, adamant he had made a bold but necessary call. it is a huge thing to withdraw support for a labour candidate during the course of a by—election. it is a tough decision, a necessary decision but when i say the labour party has changed under my leadership, i mean it.

there is a peculiar by—election on the horizon in rochdale and questions to come about selecting candidates elsewhere. but the political risk labour are battling to contain is that this episode could bubble over into a general election issue. one of britain's best—loved broadcasters, the bbc dj steve wright, has died at the age of 69. delighted listeners of radio 2, and before that, radio i, for more than a0 years. his final programme, a special valentine's day edition of his love songs programme, was broadcast on sunday. to hear about the impact steve made on notjust the radio industry but also his colleagues and those closest to him, here's broadcaster and friend paul gambaccini speaking to the bbc a little earlier. i have lost a friend and colleague, indeed. but the nation — and now, thanks to the internet, the world — has lost one of the all—time giants of broadcasting. and that is not an exaggeration, because you do not have a ali—year career on national radio

and with spin—offs on tv unless you have something that transcends generations. and steve had this gift ever since he was young of creating the sense of a club. and all you had to do to be a member of the club was to listen to the show. and you were part of this magical world — this world which had so many characters. he employed members of staff and friends to be people like mr angry or the old woman, and he also just had a great sense of timing. not in talking of music — he acknowledged he did not have that gift — but he had a gift of timing the elements of his show. you never got bored. this thing went on for three hours — sometimes in the early days, two hours — and you just wanted to hear the whole thing. and even at the end, he was being creative. he created a feature

called serious jocking. so there were many more years to come of quality broadcasting and how nice of him to go out on a high because both of his programmes still enjoyed listenerships in the millions. and that's all for now on newsday, but do stay on wood bbc news. —— with bbc news. hello. it's wet, it's mild. if anything, it's going to get even milder across some parts of the country. but this story is not true for scotland — it's been quite the opposite. at the moment we've got clear skies. it's very cold in the highlands. and early on wednesday morning, temperatures in some spots could be as low as —8 degrees celsius, but not in northern ireland, england and wales. the air current is coming in from the southwest. weather fronts are crossing us here.

a lot of cloud and outbreaks of rain. so the clear skies will be across scotland through the early hours and this is where we've got also light winds. we recently had some snow showers as well in the last 2a hours. so hence the temperatures are pretty low, close to the ground. but just to the south of that, we have the weather fronts, that thick cloud, layers of cloud, outbreaks of rain. 10 degrees in the south, around about 6 by the time we get to belfast and a couple of degrees above freezing in the morning in glasgow and edinburgh. so here's the forecast for wednesday. now, these weather fronts or rain—bearing clouds will be shifting northwards through the course of the day. again, some wintriness across the highlands. i think to sum up wednesday, rain possible almost at any time, almost anywhere across the country. but also one or two glimmers of sunshine. temperatures should reach ia or 15 degrees celsius, i think, across parts of england. and then on thursday, a more substantial area of rainfall crosses scotland. this is actually a cold front, so the air behind it is slightly cooler. ahead of it, here around east anglia, lincolnshire,

the south east, where the sky's clear with a bit of sunshine, it is possible that temperatures may reach 16 or 17 degrees celsius. not unheard of this time of the year. in fact, it's happening more and more often. so, why so mild? well, if we track this airstream, you can see the air�*s coming in all the way from portugal and spain, in fact, the canaries. and you can even trace it back all the way into the subtropical atlantic — a really mild air mass streaming our way over the next few days. but i mentioned something about a cold front. here it is, as it moves over the uk during the course of friday and then introducing something a little less mild. it's not going to get cold, it's just not going to be as mild. let's have a look at the outlook, then, over the next few days. so, the peak of this mild spell will be around thursday. but after that, it looks as though those temperatures will ease a little bit. staying on the mild side, and overall, the weather very changeable with rain at times.

this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines at the top of the hour as newsday continues — straight after hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk from new york. i'm stephen sackur. the two—year anniversary of vladimir putin's all—out invasion of ukraine is fast approaching. the ensuing conflict

has exposed deep geopolitical division here at united nations headquarters. it's also exposed deep political division inside the united states. right now, further american military and economic assistance to ukraine is blocked by partisan warfare on capitol hill. my guest today is ukraine's un ambassador, sergiy kyslytsya. does kyiv now feel betrayed? ambassador sergiy kyslytsya, welcome to hardtalk. well, thank you. nice to see you. ambassador, do you think that, right now, ukraine is facing

the toughest times it has seen since those early weeks