here are the headlines... the former conservative minister nusrat ghani says she was sacked from herjob because of her muslim faith. the government chief whip says that's false. the justice secretary says a formal complaint is needed to trigger an inquiry. it can only happen if the person making the complaint makes it formally — that's when the procedures kick in. and just to be clear about this, that advice was given to nus back in 2020. ms ghani has said she asked the prime minister in 2020 to launch a government inquiry — but he told her to use the internal conservative party complaint process — which she thought was �*not appropriate�*. the government says russia will face severe economic sanctions if it installs a puppet regime in ukraine. past two a 16—year—old boy fatally stabbed last night in the stretford area of manchester has been named as kennie carter. five teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murder. a british man has died in thailand —

reports say he was attacked with a knife in kanchanaburi, west of bangkok. a second man has been injured but it is not thought he has life—threatening injuries. injusta injust a few in just a few moments we will be joining viewers on bbc one. but before that, he is ros atkins. sorry, forgive me... covid restrictions may be coming to an end, but people across the uk are braced for extra pressure as the cost of living rises this year. energy bills are likely to increase from april, but it is notjust gas that is pushing up prices at their fastest rate for nearly 30 years. here are some of the less obvious items which have seen rapid price rises. for those families who still sit down to eat a traditional sunday roast lunch together, data from the kantar survey shows that prices of fresh beef rose by 8.6% in decemberfrom a year

earlier, and fresh lamb prices rose by 10%. prices of skincare products rose by 9.6% in the 12 weeks to boxing day compared with the same period a year earlier. furniture and other household goods also saw a steady rise in prices since the start of 2021, ons figures show. the 7.4% inflation rate of this category in december was the highest since comparable data began in 1989. and used—car prices grew by 28% during 2021, compared with a 7.3% increase the previous year, due to the global shortage of computer chips which led to a rise in the cost of manufacturing new cars. pete lambdon, owner of the quicksilver mail pub in yeovil, in somerset told me the effect that the rise in prices has had on his business. prices are definitely going up. we have noticed over the last day six to eight weeks, everything is going up. little bags of vegetables which we go down to the local supermarket to get some fresh veg,

a perfect example, recently one had gone from 49p to 56p, which is more than 5%. yes. other things as well, a perfect example is wine. wine is shooting up. during the pandemic our local supermarket had super offer, £6.50 for a bottle of wine, a reasonable house wine. it was two for a tenner. it did that for ages and ages, it wss a great offer for us publicans. guess what, that has gone, it is now 6.50 per bottle, that's a 30% increase. so all of this at some point you had to make a decision about what this was going to do to the prices of the finished meal you serve in the pub? that's correct. unfortunately we have had to tickle up the prices. most people shrug their shoulders and move on but we get one or two people getting grumpy about it, wondering why we have to put the price up. do you do a plated meal or pre—covid was it plated or was it carvery? it was a plated meal

and we cook everything on site. everything is done fresh. so what was the price, and what is the price now? it was 8.95 for roast beef on a sunday, now it is 9.95. the only thing different is some big fellas want a combination of all three meats, that is an extra pound, 10.95. the bottom line is you have gone for that option presumably rather than giving people four sprouts rather than six, giving them four potatoes. do you think this is a honest way to deal with this? because there are people that do that. there are people that do that. one of my chums with a pub along the road, instead of giving you a bottle of wine, he will give you a carafe of wine which is like 2.5 glasses.

saves him a glass. he will probably drink it himself! he hasn't broken his leg! careful, he might break the other one for you for revealing his secret is! but seriously, you said most people accept it, they might be a bit grumpy about it, but you are not losing customers at the moment. are you worried about the combination of you having to put up your prices and the fact people's household bills in other ways are going up might mean they may be a bit grumpy about it, but you are not losing customers at the moment. are you worried about the combination of you having to put up your prizes and the fact people's household bills in other ways are going up might mean they maybe eat out less, maybe not coming so often to the pub in an evening or for lunchtime in the week? that is exactly what is happening. we have quite a lot of couples who go and do shopping and then pop in for lunch. they used to come in times a week, now we only see them twice a week. since the pandemic, i'm amazed how many people i see at the local supermarket and they say, "we are going to come and see you when it is all over." ithink, crikey, i haven't seen them for two years! last question.

is there anything... we can't say the government can solve every problem, but is there anything they can do from your point of view as a businessman that would just make this all a little bit more manageable? ok, well, most publicans and restaurant owners will tell you that in april we have a cliff edge coming, because since the pandemic started, the chancellor kindly reduced the vat on food sales to 12.5%, which is what it is at the moment but in april it goes back up to 20%. also the living wage comes in in april, which goes up, national insurance contributions are going up, and the business rates... we were paying a third, which is very kind, and next year they are giving us a 50% discount, which means it's going up. so all of those things are coming right at the start of april. it is incredible. and with gas and electricity prices going up. the company i was with went bust and they put me onto another one, and my gas price hasn't doubled

but gone up by about a0%. now here's ros atkins, who is taking a look at china's zero—covid strategy. in europe, there are millions of cases of covid every week. in china, there are very few. and china's commitment to its zero covid strategy remains as strong as ever. translation: china's overall situation remains stable - and regional clusters of locally transmitted cases can be effectively controlled within a short period of time. and this is what effective control means in practice. they discovered three asymptomatic cases — three — and that is led, within a very short period of time to a city with over1 million people being shut down. zero covid means lockdowns. it means testing on a huge scale. it means disinfecting public transport ahead

of a busy travel season. it means quarantine camps for those suspected of having covid. as well as that, officials are warning against ordering things from overseas. they believe omicron may have arrived in beijing via infected mailfrom canada. there is even a hamster cull in hong kong after cases were traced to a pet shop. the virus may have first been identified in china but, as you can see, it very much wants to keep it out now — and so far, largely, it has. there have beenjust over 100,000 cases recorded in china since the start of the pandemic, almost two years ago. compare that to the us and the uk, where there have been tens of millions. and china's low case numbers have meant a low official death toll, too. here, you can see china compared with the uk and us with the us heading towards a million deaths, china is in the low thousands. in fact, there hasn't been a covid death in china for months and supporters of zero covid say that that makes the case. they also point to

the chinese economy. official data shows that china's gdp grew by over 8% last year — that exceeded most expectations. there are, though, caveats. my colleague mariko oi explains. now, china's strict zero covid policy has meant that some major cities started to go back into lockdown from last month, due to the omicron variant, and we have yet to see the full impact of that. for now, though, china believes its zero covid strategy has worked, for the economy and for public health. but sooner, rather than later, it faces a decision — how long to stick with zero covid? and it may have its hand forced. we know omicron is highly transmissible and variants pose a challenge to zero covid policies. we've seen that in australia. the arrival of the delta variant forced the government to change tack.

prime minister scott morrison abandoned zero covid last year, saying that australia would now live with the virus. or there's new zealand. while visiting from overseas remains limited, prime ministerjacinda ardern did say this last october. elimination was important because we did not have vaccines. now, we do. so we can begin to change the way we do things. vaccines. they are the route out of zero covid. vaccinate the population, then ease restrictions — that's the theory. and according to chinese government health officials, over 1.2 billion people in china have been vaccinated — that's nearly 90% of the population. we also know two of china's vaccines, sinopharm and sinovac have been approved for emergency use by the who, but there's an issue. when it comes to omicron, the reality is that china will be still reliant on its zero covid strategy. neither sinopharm or sinovac do give a high degree of support

against the omicron or against the delta strains, of course, which we are still worried about. that's right. there is evidence that china's vaccines are not as effective as western vaccines, like moderna and pfizer. a top chinese official admitted last april that its vaccines don't have very high rates of protection. now, the same official later said he had been misinterpreted. but lynette ong from the university of toronto says this issue is real. so already, we have seen a number of reasons why ending zero covid isn't easy for china. it has succeeded in minimising covid deaths but it also does not want to admit the limitations of its vaccines and, in turn, those limitations mean its population is less protected. as well as that, because cases are low, china has a population without any natural immunity

from prior infection. and because of all of these reasons — and others, too — a recent study by china's center for disease control concluded this, that if western strategies were adopted, it: . and so for now, keeping covid out remains a priority for china. and there are two other factors that are relevant to this. the first — well, that's the winter olympics, in beijing this february. china does not want any covid disruptions during this moment on the world stage, so foreign spectators are barred, tickets are not being sold, and such measures appear to be popular. translation: as bei'ing is china's capital city,h the prevention measures here are definitely a bit stricter. tickets not being sold is a way of epidemic prevention, so i support it. the other key event this year

is the national party congress in october. it's held every five years — these pictures are from the last one in 2017. and this congress decides the future leadership of the chinese communist party and, in turn, the leadership of china. now, president xi jinping is already the most powerful chinese ruler since chairman mao. but in 2018, he abolished presidential term limits and this autumn, we are expecting him to be confirmed for a third term. that looks all but certain. but it remains a politically sensitive moment and president xi does not want rising covid cases to complicate that. he has, though, talked of life beyond covid. translation: we must do everything necessary to clear the shadow - of the pandemic and boost economic and social recovery and development so that the sunshine of hope may light up the future of humanity. and that is the rub — how to move clear of "the shadow of the pandemic" when that will involve letting the virus in with all of the uncertainty that comes with that. the eurasia group cannot see that

decision being taken in the short—term. in a recent report, it concludes: . and as we consider this, bear in mind what the world health organisation recently said about the uk. i'm saying i can see where the end is, i can see light at the end of the tunnel, but i really do anticipate, right throughout the world, a bumpyjourney ahead during 2022. "light at the end of the tunnel," says the who. president xi talked of "the sunshine of hope". but china and the west are in two quite different places. the west has lost many more people but it's edging towards a life not dominated by the management of this virus. china, with its strict lockdowns and travel restrictions, is not. and for all the political, pr and public health reasons we've considered, it's unlikely to make that move anytime soon.