sarah rainsford live in kyiv, thank ou news. sarah rainsford live in kyiv, thank you very _ news.kyiv, thank you very much. the - news. sarah rainsford live in kyiv, thank you very much. the image l news. sarah rainsford live in kyiv, l thank you very much. the image you can see on screen is new york where we expect to hear from the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov he was due to hold a news conference. we might get further details about what transpired between ukraine and russia. as sarah said, there are various claims. the awaiting media for sergei lavrov who was speaking at the ukraine and new york. —— he was speaking at the un in new york. here in the uk, royal mail could be allowed to reduce letter deliveries to five or even three days a week. these are among the options being considered by the communications watchdog, ofcom. it says a universal postal service risks becoming unsustainable following a large fall in the numbers of letters we send. the prime minister says he's opposed to any cuts in key services provided by the royal mail. here's our business correspondent,

sarah rainsford there. this - get some kind of news. sarah rainsford there.ord there. this is the i get some kind of news. sarah - rainsford there. this is the russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov, who has now called for an emergency session of the un security council — he says that he wants that to happen within the next few hours, that would be 8pm uk time, so 3pm us time. according for that session to sit, thus the only time we will find out from ukraine what exactly happened with the downing of this military transport plane carrying 65 ukrainian soldiers designed to be taking part in a prisoner exchange. russia has call it a barbaric act of terrorism. so with 65 prisoners of war and crew taking the death total to 75 in that crash of a plane close to 75 in that crash of a plane close to the ukrainian border. here in the uk, royal mail could be allowed to reduce letter deliveries to five or even three days a week. these are among the options being considered by the communications watchdog, ofcom. it says a universal postal service risks becoming unsustai

sarah rainsford there, do stay safe _ previously.sly. sarah rainsford there, do stay safe there in _ previously. sarah rainsford there, do stay safe there in kyiv. - stay with us here on bbc news. we are waiting for rishi sunak to give a statement to parliament very shortly on those overnight air strikes in yemen. stay with us for that. good afternoon. more heavy rain and strengthening winds as storm joceleyn rolls in from the west, and this just serves to hamper the clear up this just serves to hamper the clear up after storm isha from sunday night with trees and is already weak and the ground already saturated as well, so worsening conditions through today, and then tonight severe gales developing in the far north and west. for the rest of today, wind warnings coming into force in much of the northern half of the uk, heavy rain across north—west england in south—west scotland and wales, some places could see as much as 60 millimetres of rain. it is largely dry in the south and east, very mild with a lot of cloud and outbreaks of dr

sarah, thank you. sarah rainsford _ moved around. sarah, thank you.ng there. l the latest police recorded crime figures for england and wales show that offences including knives or sharp instruments increased by 5% to almost 19,000 in the year to last september. but they remain lower than the year ending march 2020, at the start of the covid pandemic. the policing area with the worst statistics and highest overall crime rate for its population was, once again, cleveland. our home affairs correspondent, june kelly, reports from hartlepool. it can be very scary at night. we've got three padlocks on our back gate. i got broken into last year. i didn't want to go to work. i was getting my neighbours to check on my house while i was at work, in case they came back. hartlepool, a town with a strong sense of community, but in some areas, people speak of a constant worry, and they won't go on camera because they're frightened of reprisals. what about the police response? i rang the police, they never came out, nothing. took a crime number and that's it. nothi

sarah rainsford, bbc news, warsaw.ve become the first in the uk to receive a new type of treatment, which is far less toxic than chemotherapy. as well as being much gentler on the body, the drug is able to be administered at home, as michelle roberts reports. life's getting back to normal for ii—year—old arthur. he's been clear of cancer for almost a year now. he was one of the first children in the uk to try out a new type of cancer drug. blinatumomab or blina can replace big chunks of aggressive chemotherapy. the news came that actually there was still some residual cancer, so that particular chemo phase had not worked as expected. for arthur, blina was then the only real option to tackle his blood cancer. you can see the picc line that goes into his pyjamas and actually there on the right—hand side, the pump that was separately at that point, not yet in the backpack. all of the kit can be carried in a small bag. although he had to wear it day and night, it gave him back his freedom. doctors say it's a much kinder al

sarah rainsford, bbc news, warsaw. china's population has fallen for the second year in a row. last year — more than double the decline in 2022. the drop is due to a steep increase in the total number of deaths, many linked to the covid pandemic, and another fall in the birth rate. the trend towards an increasingly ageing population is of concern to the chinese government which needs working—age people to drive the economy and pay taxes. a story now about one of our bbc sport colleagues — the football commentator chris wise, who had a special "hat trick" to report recently. not goals....but babies. all three arrived safely, and our reporter sophia seth has been to meet the family. meet emil, alba and ava. having triplets not only came as a shock to their parents, chris and hannah, but also the sonographer at the nine—week scan. she looked really visibly nervous. both of our first thought was that something was really wrong. she said, "i can see a heartbeat, but i can actually see three heartbeats." finding out that there were three of them wasjust mind blowing, i would say. it

sarah rainsford, bbc news, warsaw. election now turns to the new hampshire primary. but the republican debate before the primary has been cancelled. nikki haley, one of the lead challengers to frontrunner donald trump, refused to participate unless mr trump took part. the former president has not yet attended a debate but still won this week's iowa caucus by a record margin. meanwhile, one of trump's other primary challengers, florida governor ron desantis, has turned his focus to a later race. he has already relocated some of his campaign staff to south carolina, where he hopes to pressure haley, a former state governor. joining me live is lisa kashinsky, a politics reporter for politico. she is covering the 2024 presidential election and is based in new hampshire for now. that is where all the action is right now. lisa, we saw in iowa just 100,000 people, a tiny percentage of the state turn out to caucus. what is the situation in new hamphire? are voters more fired up for a primary, a different methodology? yes, and

that was sarah rainsford.ng now to the middle east, and the united nations says one of its large compounds in gaza sheltering displaced palestinians was struck by tank shelling, killing at least nine people. the un said the attack hit a vocational training centre housing 30,000 displaced people in khan younis, southern gaza's main city. the director of gaza affairs for the un palestinian refugee agency said 75 were wounded, in addition to those killed. he warned that the death toll would likely rise. the head of the un palestinian refugee agency, philippe lazzarini, called the attack "a blatant disregard of basic rules of war." the us responded with a statement from a national security council spokesperson saying: khan younis continues to be at the heart of the violence. 0ur correspondent mark lowen has more from jerusalem. now, this is a city in southern gaza where authorities have issued evacuation orders for three parts of the city thought to contain more than 500,000 people and there is intense fighting ar

let's speak now to sarah rainsford in kyiv.raine's not denying shooting this plane down, and president zelensky has been responding in the last few moments. that's right, no denials but no outright admission either from here in ukraine and in fact ukraine was very quiet even though we asked for comment for many hours, i think a sign of the caution with which it is treating these reports coming from russia but certainly we have heard from volodymyr zelensky in the last moments, who's made a statement, talking about accusing russia of playing with the emotions of ukraine and ukrainian people with these claims that ukraine's prisoners of war have been killed and were on board the plane. ukraine is saying it has no verified and confirmed information that there were in fact prisoners, ukrainian prisoners on board the plane but what we do have is a statement from the general staff here at which does appear to be an implicit acknowledgement that impact ukraine may well have brought that plane down and it seems to be a justification. i

that was sarah rainsford. let's look at the middle east now.ted nations says one of its large compounds in gaza sheltering displaced palestinians was struck by tank shelling, killing at least nine people. the united nations said the attack hit a vocational training centre housing 30,000 displaced people in khan younis, southern gaza's main city. the director of gaza affairs for the un palestinian refugee agency said 75 were wounded, in additon to those killed. he warned that the death toll would likely rise. the head of the un palestinian refugee agency, philippe lazzarini, called the attack "a blatant disregard of basic rules of war." the us responded with a statement from a national security council spokesperson, saying: khan younis continues to be at the heart of the violence. 0ur correspondent mark lowen has more from jerusalem. now, this is a city in southern gaza where authorities have issued evacuation orders for three parts of the city thought to contain more than 500,000 people and there is intense fighting around three hospitals and k

our eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford sent us this update from a bomb shelter in kyiv.eople have left this area. we�*re just down here for the moment so we can talk to you. but this is the second air raid today. the first one was earlier this morning before 6:00, and it lasted for two and a half hours, which is the longest siren that�*s sounded here since the beginning of this month. and it heralded the arrival in ukraine, as you said, of several dozen russian missiles. we�*re talking about 41 missiles, according to the ukrainian authorities. now, they appear to be targeting specifically kyiv and kharkiv, ukraine�*s second city, which is, of course, very close to the border with russia. and that fact, i think, is critical to understanding what has happened. hardship has been pretty badly hit. again, we know that at least five people have been killed. we know that several dozen people have been injured there. we�*ve seen pictures from the scene of rubble, an apartment building very, very badly damaged. i�*ve spoken to a contact there, a woman called natalya, who told me

that was - eastern european correspondence sarah rainsford.y questions are still unclear including where the war goes from here. rajan menon, the director of the grand strategy programme at the think tank defence priorities, shared his analysis. in the middle of the war when there is a lot of firing going back and forth and lots of objects in the sky, it's a very, very easy to make mistakes so the russians today or ukrainian should have known that this was a plane carrying ukrainian prisoners of war all well and good in reality in the middle of war is very difficult to do this. quite clear that the russians will make as much out of this as possible and i think their line look to be it was a deliberate shootdown. i don't think that's the case investigations is something that ukraine probably will welcome. that ukraine probably will welcome-— that ukraine probably will welcome. �*, ., ., ., welcome. let's move on to the middle east. — the united nations says one of its large compounds in gaza sheltering displaced palestinians was struck by tank

sarah, thank you. sarah rainsford.old, after being carbon—dated by experts. the remains were found last year in bellaghy. 0ur correspondent sara girvin reports. in october last year, this bogland revealed a secret it had been keeping for more than 2,000 years. a bone protruding through soil launched a police investigation. the remains discovered as a result have been carbon—dated to around 500 bc. the remains were very well preserved. there was bone, skin, fingernails, toenails and a kidney were located. we were able to determine that the age of the remains would have been between about 13 and 17 years at the time of death, and possibly a male. for somebody from northern ireland to be part of this find, for all of our communities, is incredibly interesting. it took three days of painstaking work to recover the remains in the bogland behind me. it's so unstable that this is as close as we can be for safety reasons. much more work is now needed to find out more about the boy and how he got here — more than 2,000 years ag

sarah rainsford is in ukraine for us now.ying — what is kyiv saying? ukraine took a while to make any comment but we have had two statements this evening from the military intelligence service and also from the chief of staff. i think they amount really to an implicit acknowledgement that ukraine did shoot down that plane, but crucially what there isn't is information about who or what was on board. ukraine has confirmed a prisoner swap was planned for today and that did not happen. but it also said usually russia would give information about the kind of transport it could use and the routes used for the prisoner swap so it can happen safely, and again that didn't happen this time. i think as well what is interesting, the chief of staff is underlining very firmly why it might target a russian cargo plane. it is saying, pointing to the fact there has been a real increase in military strikes from the belgorod region into the kharkiv region of ukraine in particular recently with lots of civilian casualties and those planes are u

sarah rainsford- — around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news.ing the pandemic. and also the government's use of mobile messaging apps like whatsapp. earlier today he announced an external review into the scottish government's use of mobile messaging apps like whatsapp. there is a gap, regardless of the records management plan, the mobile messaging policy, there is clearly a gap that exists in relation to how material in informal communications should be retained, in relation to a statutory public inquiry and that is why i have instructed an externally led review to look at how this issue and other issues such as what ministers and cabinet secretaries should do. should they, for example, change device in the midst particularly of an emergency such as a pandemic or anything that is analogous to that? you're live with bbc news. let's spend the next few minutes on a story here in the uk that we have been covering that has made so many headlines. you will remember it from last year, we have been covering it today. the sentencing of a man with paranoi

let's go to kyiv and speak with the correspondent sarah rainsford.eneral staff over there said it would continue to strike at the terrorist that from russia. is that indirect confirmation that they did destroy this plane? >> there was no direct even reference to the plane coming down in that statement from the general staff. it didn't even mention the ilyushin-76, but it did make their does make clear why it might be firing missiles of transport planes in the area. it specify that there is an increased threat from the belgorod region to particularly kharkiv in northeast ukraine, where we have seen in the last few days and last few weeks a real increase in missile attacks, hitting residential buildings and killing and wounding dozens of civilians in kharkiv. what the general staff's point was, without confirming it had fired a missile that took down the il-76 plane, what it said was there is a threat commit military planes bring missiles that are launched across the border, and as you state, it said we would carry on firing back. christian: a russian

rainsford has been following this developing story from the kharkiv region in ukraine.ansport plane in the belgorod region. lots more statements, but very little clarity still about exactly what has happened. we do know that that plane came down, but what we don't know is exactly how and why it came down and crucially, we don't know who or what was on board the plane. now, russia has been saying from the very beginning that the plane was carrying ukrainian prisoners of war. ukraine says it has no reliable information about that and certainly we have seen no physical evidence of it. certainly we've seen no physical evidence of it. russia hasn't presented any evidence of its claims at this point. in terms of whether or not it was ukraine that shot the plane down, well, there has been no actual denial of that from here in ukraine. there have been statements that have defended ukraine's right to defend itself, particularly here in the kharkiv region, where i am now. this is an area which has come under very intense missile strikes for the whole of this war, but particularly

live now to our eastern europe correspondent — sarah rainsford — who's in kyiv.id it would continue to strike at the terrorist threat from russia, is that an indirect confirmation that the did then destroy this plan? there was no direct reference to the plane coming out in that statement from the general stuff, it didn't even mention or talk about what happened at all, but it made it clear why it might be firing missiles at transport planes in that area. it specified very much that there is an increased threat from there is an increased threat from the belgorod region particularly to kharkiv in the north of the ukraine where we have seen in the last few days and that's what you weeks a real increase in missile attacks in residence serial buildings and getting dozens of civilians in kharkiv, so what the general stuff point was about without saying or confirming it had fighter missile answered on a plane, what it said was there was a threat, military bands bring missiles which are launched across the border, and is it said, they said they will continue firing back.

i have been speaking to sarah rainsford, our correspondent in kyiv, right now.they had to go down into the roof, they had to go down into the bunker. this was the second air raid this morning, the longer siren that sounded here since the beginning of this month, it lasted two and a half hours. �* . ., ., hours. and it heralded the arrival in ukraine of— hours. and it heralded the arrival in ukraine of seven _ hours. and it heralded the arrival in ukraine of seven dozen - hours. and it heralded the arrival| in ukraine of seven dozen russian missiles, we are talking about 41 missiles, we are talking about 41 missiles according to the ukrainian authorities. they appear to be targeting specifically kyiv and kharkiv, ukraine's second city which is of course very close to the border with russia, and that fact i think it's critical to understanding what has happened. kharkiv has been pretty badly hit again. we know that at least five people have been killed and several dozen people have been injured there, and we have seen pictures from the scene of rubble and apartmen