and we were trying to deal with what was coming at it because nobody had any appreciation of the scale of what was coming towards us. and actually, in mid—march of the meeting we had with the republic of ireland ministers, in those minutes, you can see that the chief medical officer, our chief medical officer, is saying that he felt that the peak was around 1a weeks from there. so wrongly and i say absolutely wrongly, we felt that we had time and we didn't have time. and that's a source of great regret. let's speak to our ireland correspondent, sarah girvin, who is in belfast. another big morning at the inquiry and the former first minister rejecting suggestions the northern ireland executive "sleepwalked" into the pandemic.

yes, she absolutely did. over the last three weeks, that is how long the uk covert inquiry has been sitting here in belfast. we have heard a lot of talk about political dysfunction and how much that affected the decision made in northern ireland dealing with a pandemic. just remind you why that was the case, the executive, here in northern ireland, the devolved government, it hadn't been sitting for three years in the build—up to the pandemic. it had collapsed and was only up and going again for a matter of weeks. whenever the covert case was detected. politicians and political parties were not in a good place, to say the least. there has been a lot of questioning during the inquiry about leadership, but he was making the decisions on who was

plotting northern irelandpath. as we have heard from arlene foster, she has said that as first minister that she took responsibility for how the executive handled things. but, she did say that she thought northern ireland should have locked down sooner to save more lives. as you alluded to, she was asked if northern ireland had sleepwalked into the pandemic because of that lack of planning, because ministers were not in place, and she absolutely refuted that. she said that she found that offensive, and she rejected it entirely. now, it is not the first time we have heard from baroness foster at the uk covid inquiry. last year, she said that the uk government should have stepped in to fill the void when there were no stormont ministers in place because of the devolved government collapse from 2017 until 2020. we have heard from health officials that the lack of

ministerial guidance here in northern ireland it really affect how they could plan for the pandemic. northern ireland were said to be 18 months behind the rest of the united kingdom when it came to planning for such an eventuality. we are expecting to hear more from baroness foster late into this afternoon, and then, the covid inquiry finishes the belfast leg tomorrow after hearing three weeks of evidence on how northern ireland dealt with the pandemic. i of evidence on how northern ireland dealt with the pandemic.— dealt with the pandemic. i assume that a lot of _ dealt with the pandemic. i assume that a lot of the _ dealt with the pandemic. i assume that a lot of the families _ dealt with the pandemic. i assume that a lot of the families and - that a lot of the families and people affected by covid have been watching what the politicians have been saying to the inquiry? yes. been saying to the inquiry? yes, they absolutely _ been saying to the inquiry? yes, they absolutely have. _ been saying to the inquiry? 1&1: they absolutely have. family members of those who died during the pandemic here in northern ireland, and that was over 4000 people who died in that time, they have been here every day listening to the key

decision—makers: health officials, leading politicians, and they have been taking it all in. tomorrow, we are told we will hear a closing statement from those families, reflecting on all that they have heard. it has been a lot of information, through weeks of it, they are going to give us their full reaction tomorrow afternoon. we did get a lot of reaction from families yesterday after the first minister, michelle o'neill, deputy first minister at the time of the pandemic, apologised for the first time for a tender controversial funeral at the height of the pandemic in 2020. people went out into the streets in belfast at a time when covid restrictions capped public gatherings and funerals, and that really upset a lot of families here and because a public and political controversy, because many people felt a difference was made between them grieving and burying and having funerals for their loved ones, and what politicians were able

to do. the family members i spoke to did well, that apology, but they said that they were really disappointed it had taken four years. we do expect a full reflection on the last three weeks on evidence from the bereaved families tomorrow.— on evidence from the bereaved families tomorrow. thank you very much. i families tomorrow. thank you very much- i have _ families tomorrow. thank you very much. i have just _ families tomorrow. thank you very much. i have just caught _ families tomorrow. thank you very much. i have just caught out - families tomorrow. thank you very much. i have just caught out of - families tomorrow. thank you very | much. i have just caught out of the corner of my eye on the bbc iplayer that arlene foster has resumed giving evidence at the covid inquiry. if you do want to follow the proceedings this afternoon, you can do that on the bbc iplayer, where there is a continuous stream from the covid inquiry. emergency crews in west yorkshire have come up with a new way of rescuing pets caught in house fires. animal oxygen masks! they come in different sizes for cats and dogs, and kittens and puppies. our reporter cathy killick has been taking a look. hi, i'm sally from huddersfield feral. and what we're going to do today is just sort of demonstrate how to do oxygen therapy on a

couple of our animals. these fire crews from huddersfield are well used to rescuing people from the perils of fire and smoke, but now they can add pets to their life saving work. a local charity is equipping and training all west yorkshire's crews with specially designed oxygen masks to treat animals caught in house fires. so it goes over the face into the place and it can breathe the oxygen through. so it goes over the face into the place and it can breathe the oxygen through. the vital thing is just getting oxygen to these patients that have been compromised and to be able to put that equipment out and get it across the stations and the training, i'm super proud of what we've achieved. back dora the labrador is used to being a demo dog. in reality, the animals are usually unconscious when discovered by crews. the masks come in different sizes, so there's even one for eight week old cuthbert. sometimes if you've got sort of dazed cats, you're going to want to just sort

of wrap them in a towel, make sure that they feel really nice and secure. so what you would do is you would just gently place them of the snout of the animal. obviously the priority is human life. but what we wanted to do was to increase the chances of the crews being able to save animal lives, because obviously you've got the devastation to the potential homes, the families and owners. but then also, if they do lose pets within that fire, that's an additional sort of tragedy that goes on top of that. in trials, the kits have proved easy to use and effective saving a cat's life within ten days of deployment. so they now have their own slot on board. a lot of the time if we go to a property fire, animals are the first ones to be running out because they're a lot quicker, but it saves people putting themselves at unnecessary risk. we could turn up and if there's an animal inside, the owners might be running inside, which means there's someone else for us to deal with. it reassures the people,

and obviously a lot of people do love their animals, so it's reassuring and we do the best we can. the kits also come with aromatherapy wipes that have a marked effect in calming distressed animals handy in the inevitable trauma of a fire. it means crews can depart on jobs, knowing they can save all life — animal as well as human categories. a clever idea. manchester's troubled co—op live arena finally opened its doors to the public at the fourth attempt last night, following a series of highly—publicised problems and delays forced it to call off its first events. after shows by peter kay, olivia rodrigo, take that and others were cancelled or moved, elbow became the first to perform at the venue. our entertainment correspondent colin patterson was there. good evening, manchester! cheering this was the moment co—op live finally got under way. # i'm the dashboard hula girl of nodding self—deception...# elbow in their home

town of manchester. afterwards, a chance to get fans to review both the band and the venue. elbow are amazing. and the venue is really good! much better than after all - the trouble and all the concern — it's a fantastic venue. and the venue was really great. yeah, really organised. missing a couple of hooks on the back of the ladies' toilet stalls...! laughter we were worried we'd have to bring hard hats, and we didn't! _ earlier, fiona and adam were about to play their own small part in the history of the venue. first in the queue, first into the co—op arena — how is it feeling? awesome. exciting. cannot wait. at last! been here since 1:00, looking forward to getting in to see them now. are you nervous at all? no. only that we don't get to the front! nice and easy, yeah? and then, the moment the doors opened. woohoo! after opening night being cancelled on three previous occasions, a gig was actually going ahead. you go through something like this, you go to bed at night with the demons. before the show, the boss of co—op live gave us a tour.

as much as i love doing these interviews with you — and i think this is our third one — i don't think we'll be doing a fourth. he acknowledged that when it came to the venue's reputation, a lot of work had to be done. manchester's business community have spoken about how they feel embarrassed by what's happened. what would you say to them? so what i'd say to them is, let's make sure we put this in perspective. we're going to have the largest economic impact of any project to date in manchester — period. what are you embarrassed about? we're going to fill up hotel rooms. i have 1,000 people that will work in this building every night — 120 nights our first year. i have 10,000 people we paid to go build this building privately. you have nothing to be embarrassed about. but co—op live was finally, finally live. by the way, i look forward to never seeing you again! colin paterson, bbc news. now it's time for a look

at the weather with ben rich. it is not sunny everywhere on the satellite picture. we can see this strike of plaid. this is where the front bringing some outbreaks of rain. misty and murky close to some north sea coasts. north east england and north—east scotland. some sunshine to speak of, parts of wales and southern counties of england, just the odd shower here or there. sunshine across northern ireland, in northern scotland, the sunniest spot seeing 24—25. so, where you have blue skies overhead, yes, it feels quite warm out there. through this evening and overnight, the weather front continuing to bring splashes of rain, also saying misty and murky for some north sea coasts, some clear skies perhaps filling in with patches of mist and file, slightly cooler than the last couple of nights for some of us, generally,

between nine and 12 degrees. for thursday, our weather front bringing clad in splashes of rain. some heavy rain developing across parts of east anglia, the north midlands, north wales, in parts of northern england. to the north of that, sunny spells, someone, temperatures up to 22—23 and islands. one or two sharp showers and thunderstorms breaking out, we could see some of those four northern ireland far north of england. here is our rain band, some uncertainty about the position of it, possibly a bit further south, it looks like south wales and southern england will see some spells of warm sunshine, but also a scattering of heavy showers. moving into friday, still an old weather front, bringing cloud and rain, one or two sharp showers, especially in western scotland, temperatures are reaching 22-20 scotland, temperatures are reaching 22—20 deliveries. a little cooler for some north sea coasts. into that weekend, we are between weather systems. low pressure moving

eastwards, high pressure trying to build from the west, not making an awful lot of progress. we will see some dry weather and spells of sunshine, especially across the north of the uk, western scotland is not quite as warm as they have been. further south, a greater chance of seeing some showers, even greater spells of rain, still warm in any sunshine.

live from london. this is bbc news. president volodymyr zelensky has cancelled all upcoming foreign visits,

as ukraine struggles to contain russia's new cross—border incursion. the eu urges georgia to withdraw its �*foreign influence law', as protesters threaten more demonstrations against it. a huge manhunt continues in france to find an escaped prisoner, after two prison officers were killed when an armed gang ambushed their van. the bbc has learned that more than 10 million litres of raw sewage were illegally pumped into windermere in the lake district earlier this year. hello, welcome to bbc news now. three hours of fast—moving news, interviews and reaction. the us secretary of state antony blinken has announced the release joe biden has