prices rise at their fastest rate for 30 years, driven by high increases in petrol and diesel costs. fuel and food prices have pushed the uk inflation rate to 7% in the year to march, the highest since 1992. business owners say they're feeling the pinch. itjust seems to be getting worse right now. over the last month, two months, things have increasingly got worse. borisjohnson is defended by cabinet colleagues after being fined for breaking covid laws, but a former tory party leader in scotland says he should resign. here in ukraine, terrible conditions in the besieged city of mariupol, with as many as 120,000 people trapped for weeks.

russia's stranglehold tightens — humanitarian corridors for civilians to escape remain blocked. uncovering war crimes — president biden says russia is committing genocide. we follow prosecutors, looking for evidence. the challenge for prosecutors will be to establish a line of command, from the grave to the top of the russian state, to show that crimes were notjust committed but ordered. the murder of the mp sir david amess — his killer is given a whole—life sentence, after tricking his way into a constituency surgery. and house—builders pledge to pay to remove unsafe cladding from medium and high buildings which they have worked on. and coming up on the bbc news channel, manchester city take a one—goal lead to madrid as they prepare to face spanish champions atletico in the quarterfinals of the champions league.

prices are going up at the fastest rate for 30 years, driven by a sharp rise in the cost of petrol and diesel. the inflation rate, which measures how much prices are increasing, rose to 7% in the year to march, up from 6.2% in february. inflation is now the highest it's been since 1992, and the cost of living is set to keep going up in the coming months, as the rise in the cap on energy prices takes effect, increasing gas and electricity bills for millions. 0ur economics correspondent, andy verity, has the details. table 1a, please. in this restaurant kitchen in eccles in greater manchester, global price pressures are feeding through to your pizza.

the flour that makes the dough has gone up, partly because russia and ukraine are among the world's biggest wheat explorers. they're also big exporters of cooking oil. vegetable oil has been a massive one for us. it's gone up £22 in the last year. a lot of that's been recent and to do with what's going on in ukraine but there's a shortage. we are only allowed to buy three barrels at a time. anything seen to be imported like tomatoes, they've gone up seven, £8 a case. mozzarella, about £2 a bag. everything's going up. we have not increased the price of a pizza, yet. we have to, there's no other way round it. everything's sort of against you at the moment. vat going back to 20%. it's stacking up. i think a lot of people will struggle. businesses like this one already facing inflation at its highest for 30 years and this month they've got a quadruple whammy. higher interest rates, higher wages, higher national insurance and soaring energy bills.

with that kind of cost pressure, they've got no choice but to pass it on to their customers. those customers are already feeling the squeeze from other costs. increased petrol, something we've noticed. heating, so we had our first updated build this month. l we've gone from paying £120 a month, to £360 a month. i -- updated bill. going around making sure that lights are turned off when you're not in the room. we've never lived like that. it underlines a key point, the upward pressure on prices is global. in europe this month they're expecting inflation of 7.5%. in the us, inflation has reached a a0 year high of 8.5%. the official russian inflation figure is 12.5%. in the uk, consumers can expect price to accelerate. the april inflation number is likely to be even higher. it could well be around 9%, when we get the april inflation report next month. so that points to a further squeeze on living standards and it's not going away anytime soon.

with raw materials prices overheating globally, there is little the bank of england can do to cool them by raising interest rates in the uk alone. most economists think this worldwide surge in the cost of living will get worse before it gets better. andy verity, bbc news. the transport secretary, grant shapps, has defended borisjohnson, who yesterday became the first sitting prime minister to have been found to have broken the law. mr shapps said mrjohnson hadn't acted with malice or intent. but the former scottish conservative party leader ruth davidson was highly critical, saying "the prime minister should walk". here's our deputy political editor, vicki young. he's broken the law and his own strict covid rules. boris johnson forced to apologise again and again for lockdown partying in downing street. i want to begin by repeating my apologies. mr speaker, i want to apologise.

i once again offer a full apology. but is saying sorry enough to save his job? for now, cabinet colleagues think so. it's not defensible, and he has paid that fixed— penalty notice. the question, i suppose, in my mind is, you know, as individuals, none of us are perfect, no—one does, you know... we all err, we're all human. the question in my mind therefore is did he set out with malice to break the law? the answer, no. injune 2020, when rules were being broken in downing street, the uk was in lockdown. the blackmores lost their newborn daughter that month when she was four days old. covid restrictions kept the family apart. to know that through that time, we were literally only getting i a section of time with our baby girl and knowing that she was going i to die, and there was people having parties, and who made the rules. i

they're the ones who put that in place. - we're not the only people that lost somebody. - conservative mps insist they understand the public anger, but say ousting the prime minister when there's a war in ukraine would be wrong. the liberal democrats said he wasn't a decent man, and the snp condemned the culture of entitlement in downing street. labour piled in, too. the idea that we can't change leadership now because of the war in ukraine or because of the economic crisis, i think it's the other way round, that actually we need fresh leadership and we need leaders who can concentrate on the job in hand, which is tackling russian aggression and supporting ukraine and also here at home tackling the cost—of—living crisis. very few conservatives are publicly criticising mrjohnson. one of his fiercest critics, the scottish leader douglas ross, has retracted his call for him to go, but a colleague disagrees. i think that the prime minister should walk now because, one, he's been shown to have broken

the laws of the land that he himself set, because he presided over a culture in number 10 where there was persistent lawbreaking and because he went and told both the parliament and the country that no laws had been broken when they clearly had been. and he knew that they had been. mrjohnson, safe in number 10 for now, but the police investigation is far from over. vicki is in westminsterfor us now. the prime minister has been damaged, perhaps very damaged by the revelations he broke the law over lockdown, but he's under great pressure over the rising cost of living. he is, and i think any conservative mps out campaigning for those may elections are going to get some difficult feedback on the doorstep. i posed the question, is saying sorry enough for people, when it came to the rule breaking in downing street. tonight, i can tell you it hasn't been enough for onejustice minister, lord david wolfson, who

has resigned, becoming the first minister to resign over what's become known as partygate, and he's not happy with boris johnson become known as partygate, and he's not happy with borisjohnson at become known as partygate, and he's not happy with boris johnson at all. not happy with borisjohnson at all. he not happy with boris johnson at all. he says it's notjust a question of what happened in downing street or your own conduct, its also, perhaps more so, the official response to what took place. hasn't been much public dissent heading towards boris johnson from his own mps but i can tell you ministers and mps have told me they think eventually he will have to go, and certainly the possibility that this police investigation is ongoing and there will be more fines, that could be a real problem for him. students and graduates in england also face high charges on their loans in the immediate future, with interest rates of up to 12%, according to the institute for fiscal studies. it says student loans will be subject to what it calls a "roller coaster" of rates over the next couple of years and that rates will dip next march after a cap kicks in. 0ur education editor, branwenjeffreys, is here. what's going on here?

the interest you pay on your student loan is linked to a measure of the cost of living called the retail price index, so while you are at university is that rpi plus 3% and, when you graduate, that's the maximum you can play, depending on how much you earn. looking at the next few years, from the current 4.5%, it leaps up to 12% before then, six months later, it drops back to 7%, continues at that kind of level, until 2a, 2024, when it of level, until 24, 2024, when it drops to zero and then pumps up again. the economists at the institute for fiscal studies say the government could level out this roller—coaster of interest rates. it's not that these short—term fluctuations will have much impact on how much you pay. the loans are repaid over 30 years, so it's a small effect. the concern is some of these headline figures could put

people off going to university. the government told us today it believes the system is fair to students and graduates. when you leave university, how much you pay and the interest rates are linked to how much you earn. more from me shortly but now, with the latest on the war in ukraine, i hand you over to my colleague clive myrie in kyiv. russia is claiming more than 1,000 ukrainian troops have surrendered in the besieged southern city of mariupol. but ukraine says it still holds the city, which has for weeks been encircled by russian troops. they have been slowly pushing towards the centre but have faced stiff resistance. now it's unclear how much longer the ukrainians can hold on. gaining full control of mariupol would be a major gain for moscow, creating a bridge between crimea, which russia illegally annexed in 2014, and areas held by russian—led

separatists in the donbas region. it would enable thousands of troops to be deployed to the east for a new offensive planned there. but caught in the middle is mariupol. its mayor says around 21,000 civilians have been killed and 120,000 remain trapped. 0ur correspondent tom bateman reports now from zaporizhia, where some people displaced from mariupol have ended up. a warning — his report contains upsetting images. this is a city reduced to darkness and death. russia's troops now occupy the theatre that was bombed as hundreds sheltered. their six—week siege of mariupol has brought it to the brink of falling. state tv in moscow showed these unverified pictures claiming they are ukrainian soldiers surrendering. but the city's defenders posted their own videos,

holed up in the port and a factory, still fighting, but their position seems desperate. we won't give up, says this marine, but we are encircled with no resupply of ammunition or food. 100 miles north, just over the russian line, europe's 21st—century war is fought amid mud and rage in the trenches. mariupol�*s capture could see a push north, here. if mariupol falls, what will happen here? translation: well, we won't let this place turn into mariupol. _ they're holding on. vitali shows me their soviet—era launchers. they also have brand—new western weapons but they want more, with the war about to move to a decisive phase. they're completely dug in, here. as you can see. and the russians are that way.

about four, five miles from here, within artillery range. and you can see they're ready for a long and grinding fight. they've been entrenched for 45 days. translation: we are on our own soil. we expect them, to bury as many of them as possible. the more troops they send our way, the more fertile our land gets. russia's siege has killed thousands of civilians in mariupol and unleashed an appalling struggle for survival for the residents that remain. and these are the children of president putin's war. this hospital, north of the front line, is taking patients from mariupol and, like those in this ward, from elsewhere in the south and east. the doctors tell me they're treating

children with injuries they usually see in soldiers, straight from the battlefield. for mariupol�*s survivors, whole lives are packed into a few bags. and they carry the fresh horrors of this war. lena and timothy are homeless. their apartment block obliterated in an air strike. ukraine's leaders call mariupol the heart of their war effort but they fear soon it could stop beating. tom bateman, bbc news, zaporizhzhia, in south—east ukraine. president biden says the evidence appears to suggest, that russia is committing genocide in ukraine. he says it's becoming "clearer and clearer" that vladimir putin wants to "wipe out the idea of even being ukrainian". over the past two weeks, russian forces have been withdrawing from the north around the capital, after failing to enter kyiv.

their retreat from the areas shown here in purple has allowed a clearer picture to emerge of the terrible damage and destruction left in their wake. our correspondent mark lowen has visited the towns of bucha and borodyanka, travelling with those trying to document evidence of war crimes committed by russian troops. his report contains upsetting details. ten more. the numbers, the mass graves, the contempt for life. some so badly charred, they're just the pieces for ukraine to pick up. the man and the inhuman. what happened here in bucha and elsewhere are notjust sins, says ukraine, but war crimes. french investigators and other international teams are helping prepare a lawsuit against russia. ukraine's prosecutor general says

they've already opened more than 6,000 cases. a lot of people speak about genocide of ukrainian people, and actually they have all grounds to speak about genocide. vladimir putin himself, he is president of aggressor. do you believe you will ever see him judged in an international war crimes court? it is very important, actually. it's very important to hold court to stop dictators. the challenge for prosecutors will be to establish a line of command from the grave to the top of the russian state, to show that crimes are notjust committed but ordered. perhaps that will help give ukrainians a sense of accountability, and that from such suffering can comejustice. the long road to that goal, past a landscape of horror, is led notjust for the state, but by volunteer investigators,

a grassroots army fighting for the truth. they come to borodyanka, gutted from the air in a relentless assault tearing out its heart. amidst the ruins, banned cluster bombs. the destroyed ground is fertile for the team building their case. we're trying to tell the world the truth, and we're trying not to let russia formulate their lying narratives about the war in ukraine. we're trying to show to people that those war crimes which russian troops are committing became, like, a pattern of their behaviour. among the shattered sea of victims are oksana and her husband nikola. they escaped. their apartment didn't. with the need to tell this story

comes the duty to collect it. translation: our home was our cosy nest. - we were planning our. children's birthday here. my mother got outjust before the strike. - it's hard to describe our terror. it's more like hate. it's very important to say - what happened because these are notjust war crimes. russia will not stop until it destroys our country. - freedom and safety, what ukrainians held dear, has been destroyed. their solace now would be punishment for those who have broken this country. mark lowen, bbc news, borodyanka. we began our ukraine coverage tonight with the appalling situation in mariupol, a city subjected to a medieval siege for several weeks now. incessantly bombed and shelled by russian forces, it's hard to imagine what will be left for a victor to claim. but, following russia's failure

to take the capital here, mariupol would be a handy prize, linking russia by land to illegally annexed crimea. that would be a badly needed winfoeradimir putin that he can sell to russians, no matter the appalling conditions in the city right now, no matter how many people die. that's it from me and the team here in kyiv. now back to you, reeta, in the studio in london. our top story this evening. prices rise at their fastest rate in 30 years as the uk inflation rate hits 7%, driven by high increases in petrol and diesel costs. coming up, the manager of northern ireland's women's football team, kenny shiels, apologises for his comments that female players are more emotional. in sportsday, liverpool looking to finish the job against benfica and

take a place in the finals. jurgen klopp says the big weekend tie will not affect the team he picks tonight. a deal has been reached between the government and dozens of developers for repairs to be carried out on medium and high rise residential buildings which have dangerous cladding. it's thought about half a million homeowners are living in unsafe properties, with flammable cladding and other fire safety defects. it comes nearly five years after the grenfell tower fire in london, in which 72 people died. our north of england correspondent judith moritz has the latest. shrouded in wrap, this building in manchester is on its way to being made fire safe. work started before it was clear who would pay. now the company which built it, belway, has said it will pick up the bill, one of more than 30 developers to

sign a government pledge. for those living here, like the webbs, it's a big relief. they say they cannot quite believe it yet. once i get a letter from belway saying, don't worry, we are going to cover everything, then i will be dancing around this room and jumping on the balcony. but i can't do that because we are not allowed out on the balcony. i think it's been going over such a long time now that the relief has to be very cautious relief, really. the new agreement only covers buildings which are taller than 11 metres, and is currently voluntary, although it will become legally enforceable. there are still eligible developers who have not signed the pledge, and the government says that if they don't, they could be banned from new construction. people living in the buildings whose developers cannot be traced said they think it will take longer and be more complicated to sort things out. as you come through here, j you look at the scaffolding. you can't miss it.

sally ann dove lives in a building which is also having its unsafe cladding replaced. the developer hasn't signed the new agreement and her costs are still mounting. it's not for me to be over the moon about because i'm still in limbo. i i still have... i still technically owe thousands and nearly £100,000. - i get an invoice - currently for £13,500 every quarter, and that should be paid within 30 days. _ can you afford it? no, i don't think anyone - could afford that kind of money. the scheme will include funds for work done on buildings whose developers cannot be traced. it will come from an industry—wide levy charged on new residential buildings in england. where we find this unfair is the proposal that we should pay for everybody else's bills. we built a minority of these buildings, the overseas developers,

commercial companies, other developers that have since gone bust, they built the rest and proposing raising a further £3 billion over ten years not just from the larger builders but also on every home that's built. the government says it today's announcement is just the first phase involving the uk's largest house builders and it will continue to pursue all those responsible. judith moritz, bbc news, manchester. more than 250 people have died in south africa's worst floods for 60 years. hillsides have been washed away, homes have collapsed and dozens of people are still missing in the kwazulu natal province. the country's president, cyril ramaphosa, who's visiting some of the most badly affected areas, described the situation as a catastrophe of enormous proportions. shipping at durban, south africa's busiest port, has been suspended. the man who murdered the conservative mp sir david amess in essex last year will spend the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced to a whole—life term. sir david's family said there was "no elation"

following the killer's sentencing, and they would "struggle through each day for the rest of our lives". our home affairs correspondent dominic casciani reports from the old bailey. a crime that shocked a town, the murder of an mp in this church in an leigh—on—sea, a crime that united the political world and the country, all wanting justice for sir david amess and his grieving family. today, that day of reckoning at the old bailey, where ali harbi ali, the self—confessed terrorist, would learn his fate. during the trial, he had used the witness box to spout islamic state propaganda. today, his defence barrister told the court he instructed her to say nothing at all. but mrjustice sweeney had plenty to say. when it came to sentence, there was no doubt in mr

justice sweeney's mind — ali harbi ali had carefully prepared a murder of a public servant for a terrorist cause, an attack, struck at the very heart of democracy. that meant he crossed the legal line for a whole—life order and he will never get out of jail. no sense of victory in the family's statement, read by the head of counterterrorism. "there is no elation in our family today following the sentencing. our amazing husband and father has been taken from us in an appalling and violent manner. nothing will ever compensate for that." the grief of a family and a community triggered a national debate, how open should mps be in an age of terrorism? today, a former mp and family friend said sir david was a man who loved to perform his public duty. i don't think david would have wanted this, in his name, to result in any undue distancing of mp5 from their constituents.

he was a man who wanted to meet his constituents. sir david's and he said it breaks their heart that he would have greeted the murderer with a smile, a killer who left court today knowing he will die in jail. sir lindsay hoyle, the speaker of the house of commons, said his desire to strengthen the security of mps was greater than before. we note that spending is up and many mps have installed panic alarms. mike freo, one of the mps targeted by ali harbi ali, says that his staff where stab proof vests but there are questions about how far security can go. perhaps one that the coroner can answer, if there is an inquest into the death of sir david. we await to find out if that will go ahead. the scottish liberal democrats have launched their manifesto for next month's council elections, with a pledge to channel extra powers to local authorities.

leader alex cole hamilton said too many policies were set by central government ministers who were "far from the consequences of their decisions". the party wants to give councillors more control over funding, transport, planning, energy and housing. the manager of northern ireland's women's football team, kenny shiels, has been strongly criticised for his claim that female teams concede goals in clusters because they are "more emotional than men". his comments, for which he has apologised, came after a 5—0 defeat to england which left his side unable to qualify for next year's women's world cup. jo currie has more. in just a few words, kenny shiels undermined decades of progress. it was supposed to be a night for making strides forward with the biggest crowd for a women's match in northern ireland. instead it was a claim from the team's manager that put him in the spotlight. in the women's game, when a team concedes a goal, they conced a second one

within a very short period of time because girls, women are more emotional than men, so they take a goal and they don't take that very well. shiels was speaking after a heavy defeat to england ended their hopes of making the world cup. in apologising today, he said he was proud to manage a group of players who are role models for girls and boys across the country, adding he was an advocate for the women's game and passionate about developing opportunities for women and girls to flourish. but the reaction to his remarks has been understandably strong. they're such outdated views. to stereotype like that. the comments are damaging because people willjust take what they read and that's their perception and therefore that's their reality. the fact is, the women's game's come along way. it's not only women who have taken exception to the comments. former england striker ian wright tweeted: england and northern ireland are miles apart in terms of investment and development, but shiels has

led his side to this summer's euros, their first major tournament, and he'll be hoping it's that that's remembered. jo currie, bbc news. time for a look at the weather. here's stav daneos. good afternoon, not a bad day today for many of us, a better day across the north compared to yesterday. in the north compared to yesterday. in the run—up to easter, it looks like it's going to stay pretty warm with some sunshine but increasing chance of rain over the easter weekend. showers through parts of england and wales, some of them heavy but they are fizzling out. this evening and overnight, dry for most, some cloud running into southern and western areas through the early hours. nowhere is going to be particularly cold, lows of 6—9. starting on a humid note into tomorrow but some rain in western scotland and northern ireland. that's about it,

fewer showers in england and wales.