this is bbc news, i'mjane hill. the headlines... the majority of britain's trains are at a standstill — and many stations are all but empty, as millions of people face disruption. the biggest rail strike in three decades is underway. the prime minister calls on travellers to �*stay the course�* during the strikes — many have had to drive, cycle or walk to their destinations our company employs 50 drivers and today, it's a disaster, thanks to them. i think they deserve it but can we afford to give everybody a raise? striking workers are picketing stations, with no signs of a compromise in the dispute between rail management and unions. i don't think sunday will be the end of it, from what i can see.

if we can negotiate a deal this week, it can be, but otherwise we'll have to look at what campaigns we are going to put on going forward, and we think that other unions are going tojoin us in this dispute on the railway, and more broadly in society. it wasn't the employers that called the strike action. we wanted rmt. .. we wanted to do reform earlier. they have been discussing it with us, but they have not came forward with meaningful reform. in other news — ukraine is on verge of losing control of the key city of severodonetsk, its troops have been pushed back to just one factory there. allegations of corruption and sexual abuse at the united nations — whistleblowers call for an independent panel to investigate. one, two, three, four. dance music plays. star dj fatboy slim holds a music workshop to help people with mental health problems. and prince william.

the duke of cambridge turns a0 today. hello, good afternoon. deserted stations, empty tracks, and millions of frustrated passengers: the biggest rail strike in a generation is underway, crippling services across england, scotland and wales. only a fifth of trains are running today, and there's extra chaos in the capital with separate industrial action on the london underground. today's rail strike will be followed by two more, on thursday and saturday. network rail says passengers should only travel by train if absolutely necessary.

let's ta ke let's take a look at this map. the red lines on this map shows where limited services will operate but whole swathes of the country, where there are no lines, have no services at all. the dispute is between the rmt, the rail, maritime and transport workers union, and the companies which run britain's railways. it's centred on pay, job losses and changes to workers' terms and conditions.0ur business correspondent colletta smith has this report. it's been the quietest of starts at stations across britain with services starting late, if at all. from tiny commuter platforms to the biggest station concourses, puzzled passengers faced a skeleton timetable in some areas, while north of edinburgh, much of wales and many coastal towns have no service at all. i should have been on a train but i've had to get a national express now. so i'm on trains every day of the week for myjob, so i don't support it at all, no. while stations may be quiet inside, there's plenty happening outside.

the rail union rmt are striking over pay and redundancies, and have plans for more to come. i don't think sunday will be the end of it from what i can see. if we can negotiate a deal this week, it can be, but otherwise we will have to look at what campaigns we're going to put on going forward, and we think that other unions are going to join to this dispute on the railway. the government could have made a move to settle this dispute but instead they are escalating it. the lies that they are telling about railway workers and the railway industry are outrageous, but they can't resist it because this is a government that's a stranger to the truth. more than 40,000 union members from network rail and 13 train firms have walked out in the dispute. they say the government is the hidden hand blocking negotiations. the mood music from the cabinet this morning shows little hope of a deal soon. we need to get ready to stay the course, to stay the course, because these reforms, these improvements in the way we run our railways are in the interests of the travelling public. they will help to cut costs for fare payers up and down the country, but they are also in the interests of the railways, of

railway workers and their families. train operators say big technical and practical changes are needed across the industry. things have changed from how people travelled in the 1970s, '80s, '90s, where sunday was never seen as a busy travelling day for the public. it's now the opposite, it's one of the busiest days we have. we've got working practices that say that staff can just volunteer to come out on a sunday. that makes it very difficult to run a train service. of the few trains that are running today, most are broadly on time, though some have been impacted by delays, already, like this one. if your train has been cancelled or rearranged, you are entitled to some money back through the delay repay scheme, whether it is a season ticket or you havejust bought a one—off. 0n the london underground, there's a separate strike, with busy buses taking extra

passengers as lots of tube lines run a limited service. in many parts of yorkshire, a strike on arriva buses is also adding to commuters' woes. with further rail strikes planned on thursday and saturday, it seems most passengers are sticking to official advice and going nowhere unless they have to. coletta smith, bbc news. we have correspondents around the uk — in a moment we'll talk to lorna gordon in glasgow and mark hutchings in cardiff. but first to tim muffett at euston station in london — and we can see behind you tim some passengers are there, trying to catch a train? let's speak to tim muffett at london euston station.

i'v e i've travelled from london euston station many times and today it is practically deserted compared to what it usually is. there has been a steady stream of passengers but no more than 200 at any one time looking hopefully up at the information board and getting on the 20% or so trains compared to what we would possibly see leaving the station. i've been speaking to many of those passengers and asking why they've been travelling today since we've been told to avoid it and they say the journeys have been essential, a degree ceremony, wedding ceremony, a family event they did not want to miss and many were lucky the train they booked was not one of those that was cancelled and most people world—weary and resigned to what would happen this week because they've been forewarned about it but i think there is a real sense that if the strike were to go on beyond this week then patients would certainly worry a little thin. there is a picket line outside london euston station here, i've been talking to some of the striking railway workers there, grant shapps, the transport secretary, said some

of the union demands amounted to little more than a stunt and there was a pretty withering response to that. people said that grant shapps was praising railway workers as heroes during the pandemic and now heroes during the pandemic and now he is criticising them and they believe he should be focusing on trying to resolve this issue and as you been hearing this morning, really there is no sign of any compromise at the moment with both sides pulled apart. —— both sides poles apart. lorna gordon is in glasgow central station. i guess it's never looked so quiet. it has never looked so quiet, no rush hour this morning, fewer passengers you are just now, even fewer trains operating than there are passengers. just a handful if you look at the boards behind me and the last course for the train down to england from central goes in less

than half an hour and even then it's not going to london, it'sjust than half an hour and even then it's not going to london, it's just going to prove. the last train full stop is at 5pm. so no trains to cities including dundee, perth, aberdeen and inverness at all. a big psychological blow there as well as in terms of logistics. scotrail staff are not on strike but they are reliant on network rail to run the signal boxes and keep the tracks are safe. in total, there is usually a normal timetable of 2000 trains running in scotland fewer than 200 today. scots and's transport minister has written to the uk government urging more to settle this uk wide dispute saying modernisation must not come at any cost. they are calling for the full devolution of rail powers to scotland.

devolution of rail powers to scotland-— devolution of rail powers to scotland. ., ~ , ., , . devolution of rail powers to scotland. . ~' , . , scotland. thank you very much 'ust now. in scotland. thank you very much 'ust now. m from — scotland. thank you very much 'ust now. in from glasgow i scotland. thank you very much 'ust now. in from glasgow and i scotland. thank you very much just now. in from glasgow and london. | now. in from glasgow and london. let's talk about the politics of all this before we talk to our other guest. i think we can talk to political correspondent ian watson who is following all this at westminster. there is our next guest, a sneak preview. that is julie mcculloch. we will talk to her in a moment, about the topic of education and the impact it is having their but they are to ian watson. the two sides still seeming far apart. talk us through, remind us of the government line on this, to what extent they are involved, what they say each side could or should be doing here.— what they say each side could or should be doing here. yes, happy to t and should be doing here. yes, happy to try and help — should be doing here. yes, happy to try and help out _ should be doing here. yes, happy to try and help out on _ should be doing here. yes, happy to try and help out on that _ try and help out on that front. there is a big gap between what the unions want and what the employers are offering so network rail is one of the employers involved in this, they are offering a 3% pay increase,

1% they are offering a 3% pay increase, i% of that, one third of the increase, is dependent on modernising, as they call it, the railway system, getting rid of practices, more automation and booking offices involved in that. there are companies involved in direct negotiations with the unions are saying they want guaranteed no compulsory redundancies and an increase closer to inflation in pay, perhaps around 7%. there is a gap they are yet to be bridged but what is labour and the unions are calling for is for them to be directly involved in negotiations saying it's up involved in negotiations saying it's up to employers to sort all this out but in contract they have signed in the past year, with his train operating companies, it makes it very clear that if there is industrial action then you direction will come from the secretary of state for transport. in other words, companies will have to consult him and if there is any changes to employment conditions, they need a

written consent. they are not far away, they are looking in... with union saying they have to be more directly involved in the government saying we cannot get involved in the detail of all this, there has been 60 different meeting so far, they are simply urging the unions to accept what they would call modernisation of the railways given that we've had falling revenues since the covid pandemic. what was interesting was that the cabinet meeting this morning, borisjohnson himself said it was important we stay the course and that tends to suggest there will be very little movement for government potentially before the final strike on saturday, perhaps an attempt to avert further strikes but it looks like we are down for a week of disruption of the talks will resume again tomorrow and from labour's point of view, just a bonus complication here but keough starmer does not want to be seen to be too close to a union with no

links with labour, so he has told his most prominent mps, his front bench as not to go on ticket lines. —— keir starmer does not want to be seen to be too close. some have said they will and that includes a labour whip and embarrassingly, someone seen as close to keir starmer, the leader of the party in scotland, and asked sarwar, tweeting a photo of himself on a picket line saying solidarity with railway workers. —— anas sarwar tweeting a photo. i think there will be political consequences for the strike for both the government and the opposition. we see how ended the week progresses. thank you very much. that assessment of the latest. as promised, let's find out what impact these strikes are having on education.

i'm joined byjulie mcculloch, director of policy at the association of school and college leaders. gcse time, a—level time, difficult enough time for students and parents. what is your assessment? yes, we have these exams happening this week. we are actually not picking up that much from our members, so we have members running 22,000 schools around the country. we are not hearing a huge amount in terms of significant disruption and i think a lot of people travel to school locally, by foot, getting bosses, so there will be some localised disruption but you're not picking up a huge amount of disruption across the country. that is something. _ disruption across the country. that is something. i _ disruption across the country. that is something, i suppose, but i guess it is fair to say there will be members of yours, i thinkjulia is still there, yes, there will be members who at least have had advance notice of the date but they

will have had to come in some instances, change arrangements, make different arrangements, help out some students who perhaps were going to get into difficulty so it has involved extra organisation i'm guessing for some schools. it has, that's right- _ guessing for some schools. it has, that's right. some _ guessing for some schools. it has, that's right. some schools - guessing for some schools. it has, that's right. some schools have i guessing for some schools. it has, i that's right. some schools have done things like putting on minibuses, they sent those out to students who a noble struggle to get to exams so there has been some notice, school is able to do what they can to help, there is also some flexibility that there is also some flexibility that the exam boards have produced around the exam boards have produced around the start time for exams so bitter flexibility there if students are late that they can still come in and take the exams, so they are doing everything they can to make sure students are able to take their exams. �* . . . exams. and at a time when we are focused this _ exams. and at a time when we are focused this week _ exams. and at a time when we are focused this week for _ exams. and at a time when we are focused this week for various - focused this week for various reasons on rail infrastructure and the transport system, but you will be aware, there is a narrative that there could be other sectors that

will take strikes in the main teaching union has said there will be a ballot, any pay will not match inflation. what is your sense of the mood as much as you can generalise, of what teachers are hoping for? are teachers thinking, talking about potential strikes in your sector? we are potential strikes in your sector? - are waiting to hear what the government announcement will be about pay or support for teachers and staff next year. as you say, the two biggest teaching unions at the moment considering strike action depending on what happens, that is from the government. we are, teacher pay is hugely down in real terms, down one fifth in real terms since 2010 and we're looking at the increased of living expenses that we see down the track at the moment, there is real concern there and what we are hearing from our members as they are finding it very difficult

at the moment. we are hearing stories of recruiting for a really good jobs in teaching with no applicants coming forward. it is certainly something we need to be looking at and we need the government to be looking at that seriously. government to be looking at that seriousl . , ., seriously. right. it is a possibility. _ seriously. right. it is a possibility, could - seriously. right. it is a possibility, could you | seriously. right. it is a i possibility, could you say seriously. right. it is a - possibility, could you say that much? �* , ., possibility, could you say that much? �*, ., ., much? it's not something we are discussing _ much? it's not something we are discussing at _ much? it's not something we are discussing at the _ much? it's not something we are discussing at the moment - much? it's not something we are discussing at the moment with i much? it's not something we are l discussing at the moment with our members but certainly we think there could be significant disruption if some teaching unions decide to take this action and again the government needs to get round the table and look at what they can do to help. all right, thank you very much for staying us through all that, julie mcculloch they are from the association of school and college leaders and, well, there's a lot to keep up with, isn't there? it varies, the picture, depending where you are in the country of course but there is more mac background —— like there is more mac background —— like there is more background information, notjust on today but all week's disruption on our

website, that is the place to go where you can find the local section of the website to find out more on what is actually happening or not happening, i suppose in your area. the headlines on bbc news... as we've been discussing, the majority of britain's trains are at a standstill as many people face disruption in the first of a series of rail strikes, the biggest in 30 years. the prime minister has called on travellers to stay the course during these strikes, with people having to drive, cycle or walk to their destinations. and in other news, ukraine is on the verge of losing control of the

key city of severodonetsk with its troops pushed back to one place in the town. we will keep you up—to—date with the strike action news but let's look at some of the other day's news now. the governor of ukraine's eastern luhansk region says russian forces have almost captured the key city of severodonetsk. ukrainian troops are now said to be holding onto just one factory, where hundreds of civilians have been sheltering in recent weeks. heavy casualties have been reported on both sides. the city has been the main focus of russia's recent offensive in the east of ukraine, as our correspondent joe inwood reports. explosions. this is the battle for severodonetsk, but from the russian side. in the distance is the azot chemical plant, said to be the last holdout of ukrainian forces. a team from chinese state television joined chechen fighters as they tried to capture the destroyed city. "we are very close to the industrial zone of the plant," the commander

says, "and we are confident that we will take control of it." but the ukrainians say they are still fighting and have not given up on severodonetsk yet. that's despite massive artillery barrages that have turned a once bustling city into a wasteland. translation: the last day and night before were very hard. _ this night was relatively calm. but it is the calm before the storm. in fact, yesterday the russian army carried out defensive operations in several directions with lots of equipment and personnel. one of those directions was toshkivka, just to the south of severodonetsk but the other side of the river siverskyi donets. these are russian forces rolling through what is left of the town. the battle in the east is looking increasingly

difficult for the ukrainians, who say they urgently need more western military aid. but they need diplomatic support as well, and that came from a rather unlikely source here in the capital. hello, nice to meet you. really nice to meet you. hollywood actor ben stiller, also a un goodwill ambassador, in town to meet president zelensky, was trying to keep this conflict in the public eye. our news cycle goes so quickly that it's really hard to keep attention on these issues that maybe don't affect us directly, but they do have an effect on us overall. all the while, the destruction continues. this war is far from over, but there will be difficult days ahead. joe inwood, bbc news, kyiv. meanwhile, russia has threatened lithuania with serious consequences over a ban on the transport of goods to the russian territory of kaliningrad. the growing row follows

lithuania's decision to ban the transit of some goods to kaliningrad, which is bordered only by eu countries and has no land connection to the russian mainland. the enclave is strategically important to russia and was retained by russia after the break—up of the soviet union. kaliningrad is also the main base for russia's baltic fleet. well moscow says the ban breaks international law and has summoned the eu ambassador. here is what a government official in kaliningrad said. translation: we still hope the mind of our neighbours _ translation: we still hope the mind of our neighbours will— translation: we still hope the mind of our neighbours will overcome - translation: we still hope the mind of our neighbours will overcome the l of our neighbours will overcome the madness that they are doing now because, like the rest of the sanctions, this measure painfully hits on lithuania's economy. let's not forget our neighbours earned good money on kaliningrad transit. we hope to talk more about that element of the story a little bit later on this afternoon.

a former senior member of the united nations is calling for an external panel to investigate allegations of sexual abuse, fraud, and high—level corruption at the organisation. it comes after several former members of staff have told the bbc about stories of cover—ups, harassment, and bullying when they've complained about alleged wrongdoing. some have lost theirjobs after speaking out. sima kotecha from bbc newsnight has the story. the un says it aims to promote peace, dignity and equality on a healthy planet. but now several allegations have been made about the organisation, including that a former senior member of staff sexually harassed two women. martina worked as a senior adviser to unaids. in 2015, she was in thailand attending a work event. dr luis lores, a former un assistant secretary general, was also there. as part of leaving the work meeting, and we're going down the same elevator, he attacks me

in the elevator. he comes at me all of a sudden. i pleaded with him to stop. let me go. he was being very insistent. and he was pulling my arm. and i was... i had to block myself with the elevator door, too, to be able to stay in the elevator because i was afraid. in 2018, mr lores retired from the un. he says he has never harassed or assaulted anyone. the un says allegations of harassment against mr lores were investigated. but at this time, the un is not in a position to comment on the veracity of these claims. alleged corruption, fraud and management turning a blind eye when confronted with problems are what some of the whistleblowers

have told the bbc about. now, the woman who used to be in charge of tackling sexual harassment at the un says there needs to be an investigation. a group of people external to the united nations who don't have an investment in a job in it and so on, can sit and pull together a lot of the things that have been said, a lot of things that have been criticised about how the un works and so on. pull that together as a sort of an investigation of what's wrong and put together a really time limited, focused set of actions that will make change. in response to this allegation, the un said the secretary general has consistently emphasised a zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment and that he and the united nations administration is committed to protecting bona fide whistleblowers against retaliation. it said it remains open to any external review of its efforts to combat misconduct of any kind.

all of this has raised questions about whether the un should be allowed to handle complaints internally, something which it currently does. 26 minutes past two, a couple more stories to bring you before we take a look at the weather prospects. a famous floating restaurant in hong kong has sunk, days after it was towed away from the harbour where it operated for nearly 50 years. the owners of thejumbo say it capsized in the south china sea after encountering "adverse conditions". the queen, tom cruise and richard branson are among the guests who have eaten there. a former soldier has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his neighbours in a row over parking. colin reeves has been told he will serve a minimum term of 38 years.

he was convicted of stabbing jennifer and stephen chapple to death at their home in norton fitzwarren in somerset in november last year. cctv footage from the night of the murder showed the former royal engineer climbing over the fence to the couple's home. thousands of people have gathered at stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice. sunrise at the ancient stones was just before ten to five this morning. this year was the first time members of the public have been allowed to attend the solstice in person since 2019 because of the pandemic. looks beautiful, doesn't it? let's take a look at the weather prospects wherever you are in the country. now it's time for a look at the weather with carol kirkwood. hello again. for many parts of england and wales

today, it's going to be dry, sunny and warm. but in scotland and northern england, more cloud, in the sunshine 24-25 c england, more cloud, in the sunshine 211—25 c and as we head onto the evening and overnight, some low cloud, and murky conditions putting into northern and western scotland and northern ireland with patchy missed following across northern england. in between clear skies and lows of 9—13 c. the patchy missed will more rapidly —— make lift more rapidly. a lot of dry weather, sunshine, a bit more clout in the north and west but even so, travel further west and east, as far as scotland and you will run into sunny intervals. highs of 26—27.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines:

the biggest rail strike in three decades is underway. the majority of britain's trains are at a standstill — and many stations are all but empty, as millions of people face disruption. as millions of people it as millions of people is the first of a series of train strikes it is the first of a series of train strikes this week. the prime minister calls on travellers to 'stay the course' during the strikes — many have had to drive, cycle or walk to their destinations. striking workers are picketing stations, with no signs of a compromise in the dispute between rail management and unions. in other news — ukraine is on verge of losing control of the key city of severodonetsk, its troops have been pushed back to just one factory there. allegations of corruption and sexual abuse at the united nations — whistleblowers call for an independent panel to investigate.

and prince william, the duke of cambridge, turns a0 today. sport now and for full round up from the bbc sport centre. the sun is shining for the tennis? yes, it is the best time of year. wimbledon is now under a week away. and ryan peniston's great run on grass continues — he reached the quarter finals at queen's last week and he's now into the last 16 at eastbourne. the 26 year old, playing in only his second atp tour event, came from a set down to beat last month's french open quarter finalist holger rune. 6—1 in the deciding set. these are live pictures at the moment from bbc two and things have not been going that well for katie boulter, losing the first set to

karolina pliskova who was the runner—up in the last when wooden final last year. but katie boulter is now fighting back. —— the runner—up last year at wimbledon. pliskova has got real battling qualities, of course. katie boulter battling to save that point there. warming up for wimbledon — serena williams is playing herfirst competitive tennis in nearly a year today. the 23—time grand slam winner, who is now 40, hasn't played since her emotional exit from wimbledon last summer when she was forced to retire with an injury in the opening round. she plays in the women's doubles this evening at eastbourne alongside the world number three ons jabeur, who says it's been hard to keep their planned partnership a secret... i had known before the french open.

it was very hard to keep it a secret but i was super excited. then people were texting me and asking why i didn't tell them, but i couldn't because it was a secret. ben stokes has missed — because it was a secret. ben stokes has missed training _ because it was a secret. ben stokes has missed training today _ because it was a secret. ben stokes has missed training today ahead - because it was a secret. ben stokes has missed training today ahead of| has missed training today ahead of the third test match against new zealand. england hold a unassailable 2-0 zealand. england hold a unassailable 2—0 lead in the test series. ben stokes is yet to name a vice captain. the chairwoman of the football association has publicly backed england manager gareth southgate. his role's come under scrutiny after a poor run of recent form. but debbie hewitt says she's spoken to southgate to reassure him about his long term future, and has praised him for his resilience and accountability. rugby league has banned transgender players from women's international competition until further notice.

the ruling follows a decision by swimming's world governing body — fina — to restrict trans athletes�* participation. international rugby league says it needs more time before finalising its policy and wants to "balance the individual�*s right to participate against perceived risk to other pa rticipa nts". advocacy groups say the policy violates human rights. the ban will apply to the world cup in england in october. and the chief executive of the event john dutton has told the bbc... world rugby have announced that elite players will face an increased minimum of 12 days out of action following concussions, meaning most would miss their next match.

it follows rugby—specific research by independent experts. currently, a player can play a week if they pass return—to—play protocols. today, the rfu have said all players in the premiership, women's premier 15s and england sides will be offered microchipped mouthguards that can detect concussion. katie boulter is still trying to get over the line in eastbourne in the second set against karolina pliskova. you can keep up to date on all the action in the tennis today. all that and much more on the bbc sport website. studio: thanks for joining studio: thanks forjoining us. now we are going to return to the main topic, train strikes. more than 40,000 rmt members at all levels are expected to be taking part in industrial action, because proposals affect them all — including lower paid staff

like apprentices and station staff. this makes it the biggest rail dispute since 1989. but what are the reasons behind such a big decision from the unions? here's ben thompson to explain for us. de transport union the rmt says this is a dispute aboutjob security, a freeze on pay and management of the industry. it says network rail�*s plans to cut 2500 maintenance jobs would make accidents more likely because the roles are safety critical and it adds that many male workers have had their pay frozen for nearly three years, despite working throughout the pandemic —— rail workers. they say despite weeks of negotiations they have only been offered a 2% pay rise and network rail that saying they have been offered 3%, a 2% rise and another 1% if they meet efficiency and productivity targets. the union says thatis productivity targets. the union says that is not enough, as the cost of living soars and they are asking for 7.1%. living soars and they are asking for 7.196. ~ ., ,

living soars and they are asking for 7.196. . ., y ., , 7.196. we are firmly of the belief that the only — 7.196. we are firmly of the belief that the only way _ 7.196. we are firmly of the belief that the only way for _ 7.196. we are firmly of the belief that the only way for us - 7.196. we are firmly of the belief that the only way for us to - 7.196. we are firmly of the belief| that the only way for us to settle this dispute is for grant shapps and the government to allow these companies to negotiate and let the parties _ companies to negotiate and let the parties reach a reasonable agreement, that will enter the disruption of the service, secure 'obs disruption of the service, secure jobs and — disruption of the service, secure jobs and allow a decent transport system _ jobs and allow a decent transport system to— jobs and allow a decent transport system to be developed in this countrx — system to be developed in this count . ., , system to be developed in this count . ., country. the transport secretary grant shapps — country. the transport secretary grant shapps said _ country. the transport secretary grant shapps said it _ country. the transport secretary grant shapps said it was - country. the transport secretary grant shapps said it was a - country. the transport secretary grant shapps said it was a stunt | country. the transport secretary l grant shapps said it was a stunt to to suggest he was interfering in talks and described the strikes as a bid to derail reform. indie talks and described the strikes as a bid to derail reform.— bid to derail reform. we no longer need to limit _ bid to derail reform. we no longer need to limit growth _ bid to derail reform. we no longer need to limit growth need - bid to derail reform. we no longer need to limit growth need to - bid to derail reform. we no longer need to limit growth need to have| need to limit growth need to have people _ need to limit growth need to have people walking _ need to limit growth need to have people walking along _ need to limit growth need to have people walking along dangerously need to limit growth need to have i people walking along dangerously —— we no _ people walking along dangerously —— we no longer— people walking along dangerously —— we no longer need _ people walking along dangerously —— we no longer need people _ people walking along dangerously —— we no longer need people walking i we no longer need people walking along _ we no longer need people walking along dangerously— we no longer need people walking along dangerously alongside i we no longer need people walking along dangerously alongside the i along dangerously alongside the tracks_ along dangerously alongside the tracks to — along dangerously alongside the tracks to check _ along dangerously alongside the tracks to check those _ along dangerously alongside the tracks to check those tracks. i along dangerously alongside the tracks to check those tracks. we along dangerously alongside the i tracks to check those tracks. we can now have _ tracks to check those tracks. we can now have good — tracks to check those tracks. we can now have good reasons _ tracks to check those tracks. we can now have good reasons why, - tracks to check those tracks. we can now have good reasons why, and i tracks to check those tracks. we can. now have good reasons why, and that is the _ now have good reasons why, and that is the kind _ now have good reasons why, and that is the kind of— now have good reasons why, and that is the kind of modernisation - now have good reasons why, and that is the kind of modernisation which i is the kind of modernisation which would _ is the kind of modernisation which would improve _ is the kind of modernisation which would improve safety— is the kind of modernisation which would improve safety which - is the kind of modernisation which would improve safety which has. is the kind of modernisation which i would improve safety which has been held back _ would improve safety which has been held back he — would improve safety which has been held back. , ., . ., held back. he says a change in workin: held back. he says a change in working habits _ held back. he says a change in working habits brought - held back. he says a change in working habits brought about i held back. he says a change in. working habits brought about by held back. he says a change in i working habits brought about by the pandemic means the uk rail industry needs to modernise to survive but is

that really the case? figures from the office for road and rail say in march passenger numbers were 60% of pre—pandemic levels and that could suggest long—term changes in our travel habits with more of us now working from home for at least some of the time. but more recently passenger numbers have been rising and the latest data shows by may the number of passengers had risen to between 86—92% of pre—pandemic levels and the unions say there are also bigger problems with the way that the industry is run. £16 billion was pumped into the industry by taxpayers during the pandemic to keep the network going but the rmt says that just keep the network going but the rmt says thatjust helped boost profits for private businesses, subcontractors and operators who, they claim, made £500 million in profit last year. on top of that there is a cost of leasing passenger carriages and other train vehicles

for so—called rolling stock, for private companies, and the rmt says that a subbase firm must make a record £3 billion in revenue in 2021. we asked network rail and the department for transport about that figure but they say they were not sure how it had been calculated and could not provide alternative. everyone agrees that the rail industry needs reforming but there are still be questions about how thatis are still be questions about how that is done, where the money is saved and invested, and how best to predict demand to make the service fit for the future. ben thompson there with a sense of what today is all about. well, let's take a look now at how the disruption today has been affecting people's lives — this report by richard galpin. there are no trains from this station — there are no trains from this station today... _ earlier this morning, the impact of the strike laid bare. no rush of commuters in search of coffee and tea at this cafe farncombe in surrey.

for the cafe owner, it's distressing. he's onlyjust now getting his business back up and running after covid. for us, itjust feels disastrous. we got a big hit from thejubilee, people weren't travelling, it was a very long weekend. you know, 70% of our business is from commuters and if we haven't got that then literally, as you can see, you know, we are making coffee for ourselves and twiddling our thumbs a little bit. trains across the country are now stationary and this could continue for several days. for many, the disruption caused a big blow. i was going to penzance to paint somebody�*s house, and now it looks like i won't be going all week, so, yeah, that's really kind of screwed me up. it is ridiculous. i work for the nhs, i have to be there on time and... i know, i get it, things are tough right now but i don't think... i think we should all fulfil our duty and do our role, right? as tourists we can't - actually go anywhere other than where we can walk to.

it's a bit tricky to get around. while all this is causing disruption for many people, there are plenty of others who are not affected at all because they work from home and are very happy to do so. my working life changed forever. the pandemic forced my company to take steps to actually make it possible for me to work from home, which simply wasn't on the cards before. my company have said that they would prefer me to work from home during strike days. this is going to save me money, it's going to save me time, and i think i will be a more productive employee. for those planning social events it will be more difficult and expensive without the trains running. a couple of years ago we booked to see the dreamgirls in leeds. we are a group of wonderful theatre ladies, let's say. our passion is to go and watch the theatre as often as we can. the matinee will fall on this thursday, which happens to be

my big, big birthday. we always go by train, it's far easier to come into bradford, to the theatres there, or to go into leeds. plan b is taxis, and adding on extra expense, really. and there is no sign the disruption will end any time soon, with more strikes planned for thursday and saturday. richard galpin, bbc news. let's talk to a man who takes the temperature of these kind of situations. joining me now is travel editor for the independent, simon calder. he is outside swindon station. i want to work today, and it is a very long walk a cycled past me, so you have been very busy today? i started at 20 to four — have been very busy today? i started at 20 to four in _ have been very busy today? i started at 20 to four in the _ have been very busy today? i started at 20 to four in the morning, - at 20 to four in the morning, catching one of the overnight trains to gatwick which was supposed to be

running, despite the strike, because this only applied to people signing on for work from midnight onwards but i went to london blackfriars on the train did not run because of a shortage of drivers. a group heading for the airport came together and got a taxi which was not a possibility when the last rail strike was on in 1989, the fact we got an uber, but since then i have been travelling relatively happily, the trains within london itself, although the tube is not working. you can use the elizabeth line which is running a very efficient service from paddington station in the west through the city of london to canary wharf and abbey wood in south—east london. everything starts closing down from about six o'clock and

while the train operators are running this service they are very keen for everyone to know, don't get stranded and plan yourjourney, so if you were hoping to go from king's cross to edinburgh, you are too late. the last train left at two o'clock. it late. the last train left at two o'clock. , ., ., , ., ., o'clock. it is grim for anyone who has commitments _ o'clock. it is grim for anyone who has commitments that _ o'clock. it is grim for anyone who has commitments that they i o'clock. it is grim for anyone who has commitments that they can't| has commitments that they can't change. you are a resource you have travelled around a lot, but some of those modes of transport you have mentioned, someone might bank on getting one of those bytes you can rent but they might have been taken and you might try to get a taxi but they might not be available, it is a real challenge? i they might not be available, it is a real challenge?— real challenge? i am in a part of the country _ real challenge? i am in a part of the country which _ real challenge? i am in a part of the country which is _ real challenge? i am in a part of the country which is super i real challenge? i am in a part of| the country which is super served real challenge? i am in a part of- the country which is super served by trains and here at swindon, one of the great railway towns, there are three trains per hour coming from paddington in less than one hour,

and the same applies on a number of the main intercity routes to and from london but once you get from here to cardiff, for example, you can't go any further and there are no trains west or north of cardiff. in scotland nothing is running north of the line from glasgow and inside counties are cut off. cornwall and dorset and so many lovely seaside resorts from bournemouth to bognor regis to blackpool, they are all inaccessible. £317 regis to blackpool, they are all inaccessible.— regis to blackpool, they are all inaccessible. on that final point, without wishing _ inaccessible. on that final point, without wishing to _ inaccessible. on that final point, without wishing to be _ inaccessible. on that final point, without wishing to be doom i inaccessible. on that final point, without wishing to be doom and | inaccessible. on that final point, i without wishing to be doom and gloom because we have not got through these three strikes, but people will be thinking, can i rely on trains and other modes of transport this summer? ., , and other modes of transport this summer? . , f . and other modes of transport this summer? . , , . ., . ., , summer? really difficult and clearly the union and _ summer? really difficult and clearly the union and the _ summer? really difficult and clearly the union and the government i summer? really difficult and clearly the union and the government are i summer? really difficult and clearly the union and the government are a| the union and the government are a long way apart but i did speak to the senior assistant general secretary of the rmt who is very

warm about relations with the employers, network rail and the train operators, so i'm clutching at straws and hoping that we don't have to come back here week after week during the summer. it will also be interesting to see how the trains are run and how people have coped. a guy at paddington said they were down to about 20% because the laptop lot have stayed at home, was the quote. lot have stayed at home, was the ruote. ., lot have stayed at home, was the ruote. . ., ., , ,, ., quote. thanks for 'oining us. simon calder quote. thanks for 'oining us. simon carderthere — quote. thanks for 'oining us. simon calder there at i quote. thanks forjoining us. simon calder there at swindon _ quote. thanks forjoining us. simon calder there at swindon station. i quote. thanks forjoining us. simonj calder there at swindon station. we will bring you a further update on what is happening around the country at the top of the hour. he's a world—renowned dj, best known for performing for tens of thousands of fans at festivals around the world — but in recent days fatboy slim has been staging a home—town gig with a difference. as part of an nhs project

to help people with severe mental health problems, he's been hosting a music workshop in hove. annabel rackham has been finding out more. one, two, three, four. dance music plays. is music the key to helping your mental health? at this workshop in brighton, norman cook, better known as fatboy slim, is teaching dj first timers about the difference music can make. that's it, bang on. music has helped me tremendously during my own mental health journey. as a dj, what i try and do is help people escape, and sometimes it's good to escape your life or your stress for a couple of hours. and i've always done that for a living but then at times in my life when things have been falling apart, ifind that i'm doing it to myself as much as everybody. i need those two hours where ijust lose myself to music and dance and flashing lights. it's a very powerful kind of therapy for me. everyone here is recovering from severe mental health problems

and have spent a lot of time in hospital. i'm jess, i'm a drummer, and i'm from brighton. i'm amber, i'm 26, i'm _ from eastbourne, and i love to sing. i've been in dark places, pre and post—covid. i think there is a lot of stigma attached to mental health, it needs to not be there so much. i've been in psychiatric hospitals at parts of my life, but i don't think it's something to be ashamed of any more. oh, right, that was bang on. i was already on there and he came over. i how you doing? i'm good, thank you. at first i wasjust doing the fading in and out, i then he got me on the reverb and changing the pitch. i doing something like this, i itjust proves to me i can step outside of my everyday routine, even though before i even got i to the door i stopped — _ "amber, can you actually do this?" anxiety just overtook. the feeling i feel now will mean.

that i will push myself next time. it wasjoyous being involved in this workshop because the people hadn't ever seen or touched decks before. i kind of take it for granted because they are the tools of my trade, but seeing someone go, "ooh, you can do that," it's a beautiful thing. there's a lot to it, isn't there? i know, yeah! the organisers hope other mental health services in the uk can find funding for more music workshops like this. you hear that too? brilliant. and what about the chance to work with one of the world's best djs? it'sjust incredible, - it's like a dream come true. it's now pushed me to get myself a dj deck. annabel rackham, bbc news, brighton. people with hiv can now have full careers in the british armed forces. until today, potential recruits living with the virus had been banned from joining, while serving members were not deployed overseas.

the ministry of defence says the change in policy recognises advances in the management, treatment and prevention of hiv. i'm joined by lieutenant commander oliver brown, a serving member of the royal navy who was diagnosed with hiv in 2019. thanks forjoining us. explain your story because it is not that many years and since you were diagnosed with hiv? i years and since you were diagnosed with hiv? ., , years and since you were diagnosed with hiv? ., ., .,, years and since you were diagnosed with hiv? ., ., ., ., with hiv? i was diagnosed out of the blue in 2019, — with hiv? i was diagnosed out of the blue in 2019, cycling _ with hiv? i was diagnosed out of the blue in 2019, cycling through - blue in 2019, cycling through central london, i went into a brick wall, and ended up in a&e where it happened to do testing as a trial for hiv and that is where the story started, did not know or expect it and got the diagnosis as a result of that. ., . , and got the diagnosis as a result of that. ., ., , ., , ., that. you had been in the navy for some years _ that. you had been in the navy for some years at _ that. you had been in the navy for some years at this _ that. you had been in the navy for some years at this point? - that. you had been in the navy for some years at this point? yes. i that. you had been in the navy for. some years at this point? yes. apart from the impact _ some years at this point? jazz apart from the impact of a some years at this point? 1a; apart from the impact of a diagnosis of something you knew nothing about,

you can't have had any symptoms presumably?— you can't have had any symptoms resumabl ? ., , ., ., presumably? there was no indication that i was living _ presumably? there was no indication that i was living with _ presumably? there was no indication that i was living with hiv _ presumably? there was no indication that i was living with hiv at - presumably? there was no indication that i was living with hiv at that i that i was living with hiv at that time and i was working in london and had been working long hours with no idea. ., had been working long hours with no idea._ absolutely. i i idea. you felt fine? absolutely. i had three thoughts _ idea. you felt fine? absolutely. i had three thoughts which - idea. you felt fine? absolutely. i had three thoughts which was, i idea. you felt fine? absolutely. i i had three thoughts which was, what is my life going to be like and when will i die and do i still have a job? my reference point was the musical rent so significantly out of date to what is now the case. because the medication as you are a testament to, they have been such advancesin testament to, they have been such advances in science so even at the time you were diagnosed in 2019, you did not realise that? yes. time you were diagnosed in 2019, you did not realise that?— did not realise that? yes, i had been living _ did not realise that? yes, i had been living with _ did not realise that? yes, i had been living with 28 _ did not realise that? yes, i had been living with 28 years i did not realise that? yes, i had been living with 28 years of i did not realise that? yes, i had i been living with 28 years of stigma but now i have got two years of understanding, because there is one simple thing, undetectable equals

un—transmissible because i can't pass it on, the virus is suppressed down with the medication i'm on life is not impacted in any other way apart, one tiny tablet. you is not impacted in any other way apart, one tiny tablet.— is not impacted in any other way apart, one tiny tablet. you said one ofthe apart, one tiny tablet. you said one of the things _ apart, one tiny tablet. you said one of the things that _ apart, one tiny tablet. you said one of the things that went _ apart, one tiny tablet. you said one of the things that went through i apart, one tiny tablet. you said one | of the things that went through your head was, we will i still have a job, so talk us through the reaction of the navy and what your employer said to you? what went through your mind? 1 said to you? what went through your mind? ., 1' said to you? what went through your mind? . ,, ., ., , ., mind? i walked out of the hospital not knowing _ mind? i walked out of the hospital not knowing and _ mind? i walked out of the hospital not knowing and i _ mind? i walked out of the hospital not knowing and i spoke _ mind? i walked out of the hospital not knowing and i spoke to i mind? i walked out of the hospital not knowing and i spoke to the i mind? i walked out of the hospital. not knowing and i spoke to the team i worked with and it took three days to truly understand but i was going to truly understand but i was going to end up as medically limited deployable, so having a label that said i could not quite do everything and i then went into the policies and i then went into the policies and went, why? hang on a minute. is my understanding accelerated i grew in confidence and so, actually, this is not right. —— as my understanding

accelerated. let's say, why is this the case? 50 accelerated. let's say, why is this the case? 11" the case? so in 2019 it did your emlo er the case? so in 2019 it did your employer say — the case? so in 2019 it did your employer say there _ the case? so in 2019 it did your employer say there are - the case? so in 2019 it did your employer say there are things i the case? so in 2019 it did your i employer say there are things you have been doing perfectly well until now which you are not allowed to do? one year not going to be deployed what everything settles, and then i was going to have to almostjump through hoops before i deployed in my role and that had more of a mental impact than it did a physical and in practice but the mental impact of hiv is significant. you don't die from it but people die because of it and the consequences of the stigma and the effect on your mental health. this of the stigma and the effect on your mental health.— mental health. this big policy chan . e mental health. this big policy change today. _ mental health. this big policy change today, goodness, i mental health. this big policy change today, goodness, ifi mental health. this big policy i change today, goodness, if this had been there in 2019 when you went to your boss, it would have been different? fix, your boss, it would have been different?— your boss, it would have been different? �* , a, a, , c, different? a year after my diagnosis i was at rock — different? a year after my diagnosis i was at rock bottom _ different? a year after my diagnosis i was at rock bottom with _ different? a year after my diagnosis i was at rock bottom with my - different? a year after my diagnosis| i was at rock bottom with my mental health and i said, do you know what,

i'm alone and isolated because no one speaks about it, and i took that plunge to speak about it which shone the spotlight and i wanted to make the spotlight and i wanted to make the difference to one other person so that one person behind me did not feel the same. so that one person behind me did not feel the same-— feel the same. today is a big step forward? a massive _ feel the same. today is a big step forward? a massive message - feel the same. today is a big step| forward? a massive message from government _ forward? a massive message from government that _ forward? a massive message from government that it _ forward? a massive message from government that it is _ forward? a massive message from government that it is ok _ forward? a massive message from government that it is ok with - forward? a massive message from government that it is ok with hiv. | government that it is ok with hiv. fantastic. lovely to have you with us. that is lieutenant commander oliver brown who is with the royal navy. the duke of cambridge is celebrating his 40th birthday today. it comes at a time of increasing responsibility for prince william — as our royal correspondent, daniela relph, now reports. the duke of cambridge out selling the big issue a couple of weeks ago. these aren't the traditional royal portraits released to celebrate a royal birthday, but this is how prince william wanted his 40th officially marked. it's an insight into what comes next for him. homelessness will be

a key campaigning issue. back in 2009, william slept out on the streets of london for a night, with the centrepoint chief executive seyi obakin, and he's still actively involved. he's invested in the problem, and he's invested in trying to find a solution for those who are affected by the problem. and long may it continue, is what i say. on a personal level, marriage to kate and fatherhood have suited him. their children were some of the stars of the show over the platinum jubilee weekend. and his focus on his family will see a big move this summer when the cambridges leave london to set up home in windsor. the move here has been driven by personal reasons. behind the castle walls, there is greater freedom for the family than they currently have in london. the children will go to school nearby. but it also puts william closer to his grandmother, at a time when he is stepping up his official duties.

one unresolved issue is the fallout with his brother, prince harry. i do know from sources very close to william that he is still very hurt about some of the things that his brother and his sister—in—law have said and done. there's not the closeness there once was, and i think there's probably quite a few bridges to be rebuilt before they get to that stage. the years ahead will be filled with significant change. but for now, at 40, the once cautious, contained prince has become a more open, confident future king. daniela relph, bbc news. one more quick story before we have a look at the weather forecast. a mischievous meerkat has had a lucky escape after he was plucked from the sea by the captain of a cargo ship after going overboard. the meerkat went into the sea off cornwall after he and another meerkat escaped from a caged box when they were being transported from the scilly isles to a zoo in devon. his rescuer spoke to the bbc. she was in a cat box and they'd managed to push the lid up enough,

well, push the top of it up enough to get the gate out, and broke out that way. and they were just running around, hiding under everything, really. and we managed to catch one and then the other one, off he went along the side of the ship, here, right over the side. got into my swimming shorts and jumped in after him, really. i was quite worried he would drown, because i think they are not known for their swimming. the traditional man overboard drill, you don't go jumping in yourself. but, again, it was a bit rescue drill. and the meerkats are now safely at the axe valley zoo in axminster, settling into their new home. now it's time for a look at the weather with carol kirkwood. for england and wales mostly dry and sunny but for scotland and northern ireland and the far north of england we have been prone to more cloud and the odd spot of drizzle and that is reflected in the temperatures, the

afternoon temperatures 12—18 and in the warm sunshine 24—25. as we head on through the evening and overnight low cloud and mist and murky conditions pushing across northern and western scotland and northern ireland and also patchy mist in england but in between clear skies and overnight lows of 9—13. the patchy mist lifts rapidly tomorrow and for england and wales and scotland, a lot of dry weather and sunshine, more cloud in the north and the west but even so, travel further east in northern ireland as well as scotland and you run into some sunny intervals. temperatures ranging from 12—26 or 27.

this is bbc news. the headlines... the majority of britain's trains are at a standstill — and many stations are all but empty, as millions of people face disruption in the first of a series of rail strikes — the biggest in 30 years. the prime minister calls on travellers to 'stay the course' during the strikes — many have had to drive, cycle or walk to their destinations. our company employs 50 drivers and today, it's a disaster, thanks to them. i think they deserve it but can we afford to give everybody a raise? striking workers are picketing stations, with no signs of a compromise in the dispute between rail management and unions. i don't think sunday will be the end of it, from what i can see. if we can negotiate a deal

this week, it can be, but otherwise we'll have to look at what campaigns we are going to put on going forward, and we think that other unions are going tojoin us in this dispute on the railway, and more broadly in society. it wasn't the employers that called the strike action. we wanted rmt. .. we wanted to do reform earlier. they have been discussing it with us, but they have not came forward with meaningful reform. in other news — ukraine is on verge of losing control of the key city of severodonetsk: its troops have been pushed back to just one factory there. allegations of corruption and sexual abuse at the united nations — whistleblowers call for an independent panel to investigate. one, two, three, four. star dj fatboy slim holds a music workshop — to help people with mental health problems.

also this hour... prince william, the duke of cambridge, turns a0 today. good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at one. deserted stations, empty tracks, and millions of frustrated passengers — the biggest rail strike in a generation is underway, crippling services across england, scotland and wales. only a fifth of trains are running today, and there's more chaos in the capital with separate industrial action on the london underground. today's rail strike will be followed by two more on thursday and saturday. network rail says passengers should only travel by train if absolutely necessary. the red lines on this map shows where limited

services will operate —— but whole swathes of the country — where there are no lines — have no services at all. the dispute is between the rail, maritime and transport workers union and the companies which run britain's railways: it's centred on pay, job losses and changes to workers' terms and conditions. our business correspondent colletta smith has this report. it's been the quietest of starts at stations across britain with services starting late, if at all. from tiny commuter platforms to the biggest station concourses, puzzled passengers faced a skeleton timetable in some areas, while north of edinburgh, much of wales and many coastal towns have no service at all. i should have been on a train but i've had to get a national express now. so i'm on trains every day of the week for myjob, so i don't support it at all, no. while stations may be quiet inside, there's plenty happening outside. the rail union rmt are striking over pay and redundancies, and have plans for more to come.

i don't think sunday will be the end of it from what i can see. if we can negotiate a deal this week, it can be, but otherwise we will have to look at what campaigns we're going to put on going forward, and we think that other unions are going to join to this dispute on the railway. the government could have made a move to settle this dispute but instead they are escalating it. the lies that they are telling about railway workers and the railway industry are outrageous, but they can't resist it because this is a government that's a stranger to the truth. more than 40,000 union members from network rail and 13 train firms have walked out in the dispute. they say the government is the hidden hand blocking negotiations. the mood music from the cabinet this morning shows little hope of a deal soon. we need to get ready to stay the course, to stay the course, because these reforms, these improvements in the way we run our railways are in the interests of the travelling public. they will help to cut costs for fare payers up and down the country,

but they are also in the interests of the railways, of railway workers and their families. train operators say big technical and practical changes are needed across the industry. things have changed from how people travelled in the 1970s, '80s, '90s, where sunday was never seen as a busy travelling day for the public. it's now the opposite, it's one of the busiest days we have. we've got working practices that say that staff can just volunteer to come out on a sunday. that makes it very difficult to run a train service. of the few trains that are running today, most are broadly on time, though some have been impacted by delays, already, like this one. if your train has been cancelled or rearranged, you are entitled to some money back through the delay repay scheme, whether it is a season ticket or you havejust bought a one—off. on the london underground, there's a separate strike, with busy buses taking extra passengers as lots of tube lines run a limited service. in many parts of yorkshire,

a strike on arriva buses is also adding to commuters' woes. with further rail strikes planned on thursday and saturday, it seems most passengers are sticking to official advice and going nowhere unless they have to. coletta smith, bbc news. as you would expect, or correspond out keeping an eye around the country. in a moment we'll talk to simonjones at dartford station, but first to rowan bridge who is at manchester piccadilly station. not n ot ofte n not often you see manchester piccadilly looking like that, rowan. no, it's very much a ghost town. if you look behind me, you can see there are very few people on the platform. i spoke to network rail earlier and they said there was one third of the number of people passing through the station this

morning compared to a normal busy tuesday because there are very few services running from your today, only around half a dozen or so running through the station and if you look at the departure board, you can basically see you can go on for directions, north to york and back, east to leeds and back, west to liverpool and back south to london and potentially the south coast and back but that is about it with a skeleton service and trans— pennine express running services between here and leeds, part of yorkshire, saying they are running 11% of the normal services and that means most people have heeded the advice to only really travel if they have to as when you talk to people here, it is largely day—trippers and tourist coming through who are not as bothered about the strike action and most people have decided to work from home or take an alternative form of transport. the station here will close early with services finishing at 6:30pm at the station itself closes at seven bm but that's not the end of the destruction of the strike may end today but the disruption carries on into non—strike days with more misery for

commuters right through into the weekend. ~ ,,., , commuters right through into the weekend. ~ , ., �* commuters right through into the weekend. , ., �* ., . weekend. absolutely. you've touched on this a bit — weekend. absolutely. you've touched on this a bit but _ weekend. absolutely. you've touched on this a bit but i'm _ weekend. absolutely. you've touched on this a bit but i'm interested - weekend. absolutely. you've touched on this a bit but i'm interested in - on this a bit but i'm interested in a bit more of what people are saying to you. what is there sense or the balance of the disruption to their lives and where they are trying to go versus what they might feel about the action being taken? yes. go versus what they might feel about the action being taken?— the action being taken? yes. the issue is that _ the action being taken? yes. the issue is that a _ the action being taken? yes. the issue is that a lot _ the action being taken? yes. the issue is that a lot of _ the action being taken? yes. the issue is that a lot of people - the action being taken? yes. the issue is that a lot of people have | issue is that a lot of people have been affected by this. you have people with hospital appointments and difficult places to get to, having to find different ways of travelling and they are extremely... . i've heard voices on bbc radio 5 live on radio four who were sympathetic but the striker multiple might cause in the sense that they understand the anger of the cost of living rises that people are facing with 3% on the table for rail workers so there is a real split in opinion as to whether this is a

justified striker not in some sympathy for the awning the fight goes on, the less people have sympathy with the strikers. thank ou, we sympathy with the strikers. thank you. we will _ sympathy with the strikers. thank you, we will see _ sympathy with the strikers. thank you, we will see how— sympathy with the strikers. thank you, we will see how things - sympathy with the strikers. thank you, we will see how things go i sympathy with the strikers. thank i you, we will see how things go over the next week. simonjones is at dartford station. at circe picture where you are, so i will be. . . at circe picture where you are, so i will be. . , ., ., , ., ., will be. this is normally one of kent's bigger— will be. this is normally one of kent's bigger stations - will be. this is normally one of kent's bigger stations but - will be. this is normally one of kent's bigger stations but not| kent's bigger stations but not today. —— assess the picture where you are, simon. take a look at the station and a bit like manchester, it is really very quiet and in fact for a lot of the day, there's been more south—eastern staff here than passengers with people listening to the advice to stay at home and work from home as they possibly can and south—eastern, which runs the services in kent and sussex say 35 of their 180 stations are open today so you get a sense of how widespread this disruption is and passengers

are feeling it, too, and mixed views among the passengers with one person i spoke to actually working on the latest series of love ireland ever in mallorca and he managed to get back today, he finished his work over there and we made his way from the airport to dartford but his journey came to a shuddering halt wondering how you could complete the last of his journey and finally get home. —— working on love island. to make matters worse, his phone had run out ofjuice and to one person i spoke who has a urgent medical appointment tomorrow but said she would begin herjourney today despite the issues today because she was worried about the disruption likely to be caused tomorrow as well so she said she was setting up in plenty of time and that gives you an idea of how people are being affected and this will continue into the rest of the week and tonight we

are told that the last service from here up to london bridge is at 5:15pm so the network coming to a halt with those few services running very early and it was a similar picture this morning with at london bridge around 8% of the normal passenger numbers they would on a tuesday morning.— tuesday morning. thank you very much. we'll find out how the rail strike is affecting different parts of the uk. our scotland correspondent lorna gordon is at glasgow central station. extremely quiet here today, this is scots and's busiest train station usually butjust look scots and's busiest train station usually but just look at scots and's busiest train station usually butjust look at it, it's virtually empty, no rush hour this morning, fewer passengers herejust now, even fewer trains operating than there are passengers, just a handful if you look at the boards

behind with the last cross—border train down to england from central goesin train down to england from central goes in a less than half an hour and even then it's not going to london, just to prove. the last train. —— the last train full stop out of central is at 5pm. no trains north of the central belt so no trains to cities like dundee, perth, aberdeen and inverness with a big psychological blow in terms of logistics. of course cottrell staff are not on strike, they are reliant on network rail to run the signal boxes and keep the tracks say. in total, there is normally a normal timetable of 2000 trains running, fewer than 200 today. scotland's transport minister has written to the uk government urging them to do more to settle this uk wide dispute saying modernisation must not come at any cost, still calling for the

full devolution of rail powers to scotland. our wales correspondent mark hutchings is at cardiff central station — he gave us this update. pretty much not many trains and not many people on them i think is a fair assessment of the welsh rail network today, down to less than 10% of normal services with a complete wipe—out in all and west wales with certain trains running out of cardiff and that is because they are on track, it is only managed by transport for wales who are not directly at least involved in this dispute. here it is a about the dealings between cardiff and london —— about the links between cardiff and london. the welsh government like the scottish government criticising ministers in the uk and saying the uk government chose to

promote conflict and as for normal rates, around 3% travel by rail in a normal day and less than a today with people making alternative arrangements, most of them, it's one of those days were if you can find a train, you can probably find a seat. that the situation in cardiff. —— that's the situation in cardiff. i'm joined now by nick garnell, managing director of gourmet coffee bar and kitchen, a company operating cafes and kiosks across britain's railway stations. that's in a few parts of the country and that is your focus, your raise on that which is serving passengers and commuters. —— that is your raison d'etre. you might guess, trains are not running, we are not serving coffee. we were out at crewe

today and it was so quiet that we opened up this morning to see how it would go and we've now closed there. i mean, the day is not done but i think i would be very surprised if we take 10% even of what we would normally take on a busy tuesday. goodness, you would only take 10%. that is difficult. this is as things stand day one of at least three and you've heard the warnings to people not to travel unless they are absolutely... unless it is absently necessary, coming after the pandemic, what does this mean for you as a business? flat pandemic, what does this mean for you as a business?— you as a business? not 'ust for us, there are hundreds, _ you as a business? notjust for us, there are hundreds, probably - there are hundreds, probably thousands of shops and cafe is, and newsagents on railways and lots of businesses close to it but obviously we've had a very bad businesses close to it but obviously we've had a very had two years in the pandemic, railand we've had a very had two years in the pandemic, rail and hospitality both have badly hit with passenger numbers coming back in the tragedy of all this is numbers were back to maybe 80% of where they were before

they started and people are starting to get back into the habit of coming into offices or where ever the place of work is, maybe not five days a week but on a regular basis and this sets the whole thing back. it's bad news for us in the short term and he will really struggle to get through the cash flow of it with it having an impact on our staff, having to sort of reduce the man—hours over the days this week and if there was another strike, that would get worse but the structural damage it does to the railways just when we are getting back to something close to normal is really deeply depressing, i think. , normal is really deeply depressing, i think. . ., i. normal is really deeply depressing, ithink. . ., ., ., i think. yes, do you and your team have any sympathy _ i think. yes, do you and your team have any sympathy with _ i think. yes, do you and your team have any sympathy with the - i think. yes, do you and your team l have any sympathy with the reasons behind this?— behind this? yeah, we work closely with everybody _ behind this? yeah, we work closely with everybody and _ behind this? yeah, we work closely with everybody and the _ behind this? yeah, we work closely with everybody and the rail - with everybody and the rail operators and indeed network rail are our landlords so we have a commercial relationship with them,

many of the strikers are colleagues we work with on a daily basis at stations and we very much see ourselves as part of the infrastructure and service offered to passengers so we understand why the unions would want to be fighting their corner for a the unions would want to be fighting their cornerfor a pay the unions would want to be fighting their corner for a pay increase given the way inflation is going and we also understand why network rail and the rail operators need to bring in some improvements, structural improvements to the railway, not least to try and stem the tide on the investment that has had to go into profit a lot about the sadness is that both of those causes any long—term are best served by providing reliable trains to passengers. that is what will provide for the jobs and provide for the infrastructure and provide for long—term future false up the infrastructure and provide for long-term future false up- the infrastructure and provide for long-term future false up thank you so much for— long-term future false up thank you so much forjoining _ long-term future false up thank you so much forjoining us. _ long-term future false up thank you so much forjoining us. the - long-term future false up thank you | so much forjoining us. the managing director of gourmet coffee bar and

kitchen. you can keep up—to—date with everything happening with the railway strikes and for the rest of the week. background information on local information depending on where you are in the country on the website which is on now. let's look at some of the other day's news now and the governor of ukraine's eastern luhansk region says russian forces have almost captured the key city of severodonetsk. ukrainian troops are now said to be holding onto just one factory, where hundreds of civilians have been sheltering in recent weeks. heavy casualties have been reported on both sides. the city has been the main focus of russia's recent offensive in the east of ukraine, as our correspondent joe inwood reports. explosions. this is the battle for severodonetsk, but from the russian side. in the distance is the azot chemical plant, said to be the last holdout of ukrainian forces. a team from chinese state television joined chechen fighters as they tried to capture

the destroyed city. "we are very close to the industrial zone of the plant," the commander says, "and we are confident that we will take control of it." but the ukrainians say they are still fighting and have not given up on severodonetsk yet. that's despite massive artillery barrages that have turned a once bustling city into a wasteland. translation: the last day and night before were very hard. _ this night was relatively calm. but it is the calm before the storm. in fact, yesterday the russian army carried out defensive operations in several directions with lots of equipment and personnel.

one of those directions was toshkivka, just to the south of severodonetsk but the other side of the river siverskyi donets. these are russian forces rolling through what is left of the town. the battle in the east is looking increasingly difficult for the ukrainians, who say they urgently need more western military aid. but they need diplomatic support as well, and that came from a rather unlikely source here in the capital. hello, nice to meet you. really nice to meet you. hollywood actor ben stiller, also a un goodwill ambassador, in town to meet president zelensky, was trying to keep this conflict in the public eye. our news cycle goes so quickly that it's really hard to keep attention on these issues that maybe don't affect us directly, but they do have an effect on us overall. all the while, the destruction continues. this war is far from over, but there will be difficult days ahead. joe inwood, bbc news, kyiv. meanwhile, russia has threatened lithuania with serious consequences over a ban on the transport of goods to the russian

territory of kaliningrad. the growing row follows lithuania's decision to ban the transit of some goods to kaliningrad, which is bordered only by eu countries and has no land connection to the russian mainland. the enclave is strategically important to russia and was retained by russia after the break—up of the soviet union. kaliningrad is also the main base for russia's baltic fleet. well moscow says the ban breaks international law and has summoned the eu ambassador. here is what a government official in kaliningrad said. translation: we still hope the mind of our. neighbours will overcome the madness that they are doing now because, like the rest of the sanctions, this measure painfully hits on lithuania's economy. let's not forget our neighbours earned good money on kaliningrad transit.

i'm joined now by lithuania's ambassador to the european union, arnoldas pranckevicius. thank you forjoining us at a time in russia has warned lithuania, told lithuania it will retaliate with serious action. what is your understanding of what russia means by that? understanding of what russia means b that? ., , , ., understanding of what russia means b that? , ., by that? probably we need to ask russia itself _ by that? probably we need to ask russia itself and _ by that? probably we need to ask russia itself and i _ by that? probably we need to ask russia itself and i do _ by that? probably we need to ask russia itself and i do not - by that? probably we need to ask russia itself and i do not want. by that? probably we need to ask russia itself and i do not want to | russia itself and i do not want to in any way speculate about that but what is important to say is that russia is engaging not only in aggressive... but in misinformation because indeed there is no kaliningrad blockade. the only thing

thatis kaliningrad blockade. the only thing that is there is the sanctions and last weekend, the full sanctions package which includes the import bans on steel came into effect and our officials had the sanctions. lithuania has been one of the most active... of the response to russia's were on ukraine. this is a decision of all of us together united and all 27 member states have an obligation to fully implement them.

the warnings from russia, i wonder what impact that is having domestically, back at home. ido i do apologise, we have lost the line. there was a few glitches there, i'm sorry, just on whatever line he was on there from brussels but telling us, the ambassador, telling us that the eu sanctions are entirely appropriate and that is a joined up, joint effort by the member nations and has to be stuck to. apologies there but we certainly got a few minutes with the ambassador there in brussels. lithuania's ambassador to the european union. it is 2a minutes past three. let's bring a few pieces

of domestic news. a former soldier has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of two of his neighbours in a row over parking. colin reeves has been told he will serve a minimum term of 38 years. he was convicted of stabbing jennifer and stephen chapple to death at their home in norton fitzwarren in somerset in november last year. what you are looking at their is cctv footage from the night of the murder which showed the 35—year—old former royal engineer climbing over the fence to the couple's home. a life sentence handed down today with a minimum term of 38 years. the highest administrative court in france has upheld a ban on the burkini — a muslim swimming costume — in public swimming pools. it rejected an appeal

filed last month by the french city of grenoble. the court said it could not allow what it called "selective exceptions to the rules to satisfy religious demands", saying this would undermine equal treatment. grenoble's plan to allow full— body burkinis had sparked anger among conservative and far—right groups. an inquiry has found that the belfast health trust failed to intervene quickly enough in the practice of a doctor which led to northern ireland's largest patient recall. more than 5000 former patients of neurologist michael watt were invited to have their cases examined for possible misdiagnoses. let's speak to our ireland correspondent emma vardy. 5000 people, desperately worrying times, explain more about this case for people who do not know, emma.

yeah, a huge patient recall, starting back in 2018 when thousands of patients began to receive these letters basically tailing them they needed to come back into be reassessed —— make basically telling them. that was doctor michael watt as he was then known. this created a lot of concern, a lot of unanswered questions of patient and it has taken a long time really to get a few answers and what was discovered was that in about one fifth of patients recalled, there had been no appropriate management plan and there had not been an appropriate prescription that they had been given and i think the patients were dealing with neurological conditions such as those who suffered from strokes from pink things like parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and this inquiry was set “p sclerosis and this inquiry was set up to see why complaints that were

raised over a number of years were not taken seriously off early enough in the headline conclusion is that belfast trust did not intervene soon enough and when you dig a little deeper, what the inquiry found as there was a culture where doctors were inhibited from raising concerns about medical colleagues as well which led to perhaps around ten years, this inquiry has found, of red flags coming up across a long period which led to this huge patient recall because of the work of one doctor. patient recall because of the work of one doctor-— patient recall because of the work of one doctor. ., ~ , ., , . now it's time for a look at the weather with carol kirkwood. for england and wales mostly dry and sunny but for scotland and northern ireland and the far north of england we have been prone to more cloud and the odd spot of drizzle and that is reflected in the temperatures, the afternoon temperatures 12—18 and in the warm sunshine 24—25. as we head on through the evening

and overnight low cloud and mist and murky conditions pushing across northern and western scotland and northern ireland and also patchy mist in england but in between clear skies and overnight lows of 9—13. the patchy mist lifts rapidly tomorrow and for england and wales and scotland, a lot of dry weather and sunshine, more cloud in the north and the west but even so, travel further east in northern ireland as well as scotland and you run into some sunny intervals. temperatures ranging from 12—26 or 27.

hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: the majority of britain's trains are at a standstill — and many stations are all but empty, as millions of people face disruption in the first of a series of rail strikes — the biggest in 30 years. the prime minister calls on travellers to "stay the course" during the strikes — many have had to drive, cycle or walk to their destinations. striking workers are picketing stations, with no signs of a compromise in the dispute between rail management and unions. in other news — ukraine

is on verge of losing control of the key city of severodonetsk — its troops have been pushed back to just one factory there. allegations of corruption and sexual abuse at the united nations — whistleblowers call for an independent panel to investigate. and prince william, the duke of cambridge, turns a0 today sport now and a full round up from the bbc sport centre. you from the bbc sport centre. have been watching thl my you have been watching the tennis on my behalf? it is a hard thing to do but somebody has got to do it! we have news about katie boulter and the biggest victory of her career. she has just beaten the world number seven karolina pliskova.

lost first set 6—1, took second and third 6—4 6—4. she battled hard and that made sure that katie boulter is into the last 16 at eastbourne. she ended up playing ash barty at wimbledon last year. outstanding here against pliskova it was the runner—up at wimbledon last year. big victory for katie boulter. likewise, britain's ryan peniston's great run on grass continues — the wildcard is into the last 16 at eastbourne after a battling performance earlier. the 26—year—old, who reached the quarter finals at queens last week, came from a set down to beat french open quarter finalist holger rune 6—1 in the deciding set.

a player that people were not familiar with until his great run at queens and now another big victory for him. warming up for wimbledon — serena williams is playing herfirst competitive tennis in nearly a year today. the 23—time grand slam winner, who is now 40, hasn't played since her emotional exit from wimbledon last summer when she was forced to retire with an injury in the opening round. she plays in the women's doubles this evening at eastbourne alongside the world number three ons jabeur, who says it's been hard to keep their planned partnership a secret. i had known before the french open.

i told some close family members and one close friend but it was very tough to say it but i was super excited and i tried not to show it and then everybody found out and everybody was texting me, why did you not tell me? i was like, i couldn't, it was a secret! next to some breaking golf news this afternoon, bbc sport understands that the four time major champion brooks koepka isjoining greg norman's saudi funded breakaway series. there are widespread reports he'll play in the upcoming event in portland, oregon next week. he'd join the likes of dustinjohnson, bryson dechambeau and patrick reed by taking part in the rebel invitational series, and like them would face suspension from the pga tour. waiting to hear from waiting to hearfrom brooks koepka himself but we understand he will join the breakaway series. england begin their third and final

test against new zealand tomorrow, but their preparations have suffered a setback with captain ben stokes missing today's training because of illness. the rest of the squad have been at headingley. england hold an unassailable 2—0 lead in the series. stokes is yet to name an official vice captain butjoe root or stuart broad are two possibilities to deputise if he isn't well enough to play. the chairwoman of the football association has publicly backed england manager gareth southgate. his role's come under scrutiny after a poor run of recent form. but debbie hewitt says she's spoken to southgate to reassure him about his long term future, and has praised him for his resilience and accountability. rugby league has banned transgender players from women's international competition until further notice. the ruling follows a decision by swimming's world governing body — fina — to restrict trans athletes�* participation. international rugby league says it needs more time before finalising its policy and wants to "balance the individual�*s "right to take part against perceived risk "to other pa rticipa nts". advocacy groups say the policy violates human rights.

the ban will apply to the world cup in england in october. and the chief executive of the event john dutton has told the bbc... world rugby have announced that elite players will face an increased minimum of 12 days out of action following concussions, meaning most would miss their next match. it follows rugby—specific research by independent experts. currently, a player can play a week if they pass return—to—play protocols. today, the rfu have said all players in the premiership, women's premier 155 and england sides will be offered microchipped mouthguards that

can detect concussion. that's all the sport for now. wow, it is all happening at eastbourne. thank you very much indeed. let's retun to our top story — and half of britain's rail lines will be closed during strikes this week in a dispute about pay and conditions. on the lines that remain open, only a fifth of services will run. let's take a look now at how the disruption today has been affecting people's lives — this report by richard galpin. there are no trains- from this station today... earlier this morning, the impact of the strike laid bare. no rush of commuters in search of coffee and tea at this cafe farncombe in surrey. for the cafe owner, it's distressing. he's onlyjust now getting his business back up and running after covid.

for us, itjust feels disastrous. we got a big hit from thejubilee, people weren't travelling, it was a very long weekend. you know, 70% of our business is from commuters and if we haven't got that then literally, as you can see, you know, we are making coffee for ourselves and twiddling our thumbs a little bit. trains across the country are now stationary and this could continue for several days. for many, the disruption caused a big blow. i was going to penzance to paint somebody�*s house, and now it looks like i won't be going all week, so, yeah, that's really kind of screwed me up. it is ridiculous. i work for the nhs, i have to be there on time and... i know, i get it, things are tough right now but i don't think... i think we should all fulfil our duty and do our role, right? as tourists we can't - actually go anywhere other than where we can walk to. it's a bit tricky to get around. while all this is causing disruption for many people, there are plenty of others

who are not affected at all because they work from home and are very happy to do so. my working life changed forever. the pandemic forced my company to take steps to actually make it possible for me to work from home, which simply wasn't on the cards before. my company have said that they would prefer me to work from home during strike days. this is going to save me money, it's going to save me time, and i think i will be a more productive employee. for those planning social events it will be more difficult and expensive without the trains running. a couple of years ago we booked to see the dreamgirls in leeds. we are a group of wonderful theatre ladies, let's say. our passion is to go and watch the theatre as often as we can. the matinee will fall on this thursday, which happens to be my big, big birthday.

we always go by train, it's far easier to come into bradford, to the theatres there, or to go into leeds. plan b is taxis, and adding on extra expense, really. and there is no sign the disruption will end any time soon, with more strikes planned for thursday and saturday. richard galpin, bbc news. how is the economy being impacted? i'm joined now by chief of external affairs at the federation of small businesses, craig beaumont. we heard some examples there and we have spoken to a lot of cafe owners and traders who rely on footfall from commuters and day—trippers so these are tough times. we from commuters and day-trippers so these are tough times.— these are tough times. we have soken these are tough times. we have spoken to _ these are tough times. we have spoken to different _ these are tough times. we have spoken to different businesses i these are tough times. we have | spoken to different businesses in different areas across the country and small businesses have been bracing themselves for the three days of industrial action and we expect about half are affected but communications have been relatively good so there is a harsh dividing

line in the economy, if you are providing professional services and are still working from home, you are probably ok, but if you rely on commuter footfall like the businesses you spoke to in your report, you probably have had the worst day of trading since the lockdown began for lee. hospitality businesses, —— since the hospitality —— since the lockdown began with covid. with hospitality businesses, please let them know if you are a no show, so they can plan for that. other businesses, you had a tourist in your report, a visitor, mention the trouble is they are facing, and if you are an international tourism business, relying on international visitors, that has not fully recovered since covid and it has been dependent on domestic visitors but they struggled to get to the tourism centres so this whole week of disruption as well as undermining

the picture of ourselves internationally also prevents domestic visitors getting here as well. .. ~ w' domestic visitors getting here as well. .. ~ .~ ., ., domestic visitors getting here as well. .. ~ ., ., ., domestic visitors getting here as well. .. ., ., ., ., well. the real kick for a lot of business _ well. the real kick for a lot of business owners _ well. the real kick for a lot of business owners is _ well. the real kick for a lot of business owners is the - well. the real kick for a lot ofj business owners is the timing well. the real kick for a lot of - business owners is the timing and we know what the last couple of years have been like?— know what the last couple of years have been like? businesses are quite fraaile and have been like? businesses are quite fragile and l — have been like? businesses are quite fragile and i think— have been like? businesses are quite fragile and i think there's _ have been like? businesses are quite fragile and i think there's a _ have been like? businesses are quite fragile and i think there's a bigger- fragile and i think there's a bigger message about the strike which is it undermines the emphasis of the return to the office and it makes small firms feel like they are in a never—ending drama having seen tube strikes a few weeks ago, so this becomes a bimonthly and biweekly thing with no end in sight. so this adds to this huge pile of problems, labour shortages, adds to this huge pile of problems, labourshortages, rising adds to this huge pile of problems, labour shortages, rising taxes and costs, and inflation, which we expect inflation up to 10% and may be small business inflation could be as high as 20% so we consumer economy weakens and if you are a small business in all of this, this means income coming down and costs going up and that is really toxic and dangerous. pall

going up and that is really toxic and dangerous.— going up and that is really toxic and dangerous. going up and that is really toxic and dancerous. �* ., .. i. and dangerous. all of that said, you nodded to the _ and dangerous. all of that said, you nodded to the rate _ and dangerous. all of that said, you nodded to the rate of _ and dangerous. all of that said, you nodded to the rate of inflation - and dangerous. all of that said, you nodded to the rate of inflation and l nodded to the rate of inflation and thatis nodded to the rate of inflation and that is one of the reasons behind everything that is going on today and this week and there will be people who are struggling to keep their business afloat but might also have sympathy with the men and women who are out on strike. l have sympathy with the men and women who are out on strike.— who are out on strike. i don't think we would choose _ who are out on strike. i don't think we would choose sides _ who are out on strike. i don't think we would choose sides in - who are out on strike. i don't think we would choose sides in the - who are out on strike. i don't think. we would choose sides in the dispute and both sides have strong beef and there is a landing zone for them to come to but what we can't have is the rising wage inflation spiral so at some stage you have got to resolve that and one way of helping would be to reverse the next tax increases which have been provided on everyone by the government, as individuals and also small employers, so if that could be reduced, you could then re—purpose that cash and give it in better pay. rather than handing it over to the government and they can also look at cutting vat and fuel duty to help in the noninflationary way, so everyone has got things they can do and we want everyone to get together and

sort it out, both sides absolutely around the table, and in the meantime small businesses are the collateral damage until they do. very interesting to hear your perspective. craig beaumont from the federation of small businesses, there. he talked about inflation. we have seen the rate at which it is going. let's speak to our economics correspondent andy verity. let's talk about the demands today, this is about the rmt, what are they asking for and how does that demand compared to where wages are generally in the country right now? we don't know where the negations have got to right now but what has been reported is they are asking for 7% and when you look at that in comparison to the average across all industries of public and private, total pay was up by 6.8% at the last

count so just a bit above that, but then you look at the average total pay increase for the private sector and it was actually 8% at the last count so that is including bonuses and the reason for that is we have some of the tightest labour markets we have ever seen and more vacancies, record vacancies, more than there are people unemployed, so employers have got to compete for the staff to attract them and fill their vacancies if they want to be able to do all the work that is out there on offer so a lot of people are turning, a lot of firms are turning away people which they don't want to be doing, because that slows down the economy and the flip side of the inflation risk is not an upward spiral where wages go up and prices have to go up to pay for them, it is a downward spiral where living standards go down and economic growth goes down even further. we have not had any growth in the last three months so they are interesting questions about public

sector pay and pay for the train drivers and if they are paid a lot less than inflation, that takes demand out of the economy and potentially could make the downturn worse. . . potentially could make the downturn worse. . , ., ., y potentially could make the downturn worse. . , ., ., , ., , potentially could make the downturn worse. . , ., ., , ., worse. this is not the only group of workers, worse. this is not the only group of workers. they _ worse. this is not the only group of workers, they are _ worse. this is not the only group of workers, they are striking - worse. this is not the only group of workers, they are striking at - worse. this is not the only group of workers, they are striking at the i workers, they are striking at the moment but we wait to see what might happen with teachers and nhs workers and other categories that we could come up with and inevitably everybody is looking at this rising rate of inflation and thinking, even if i get what looks like a decent pay rise i'm still in real terms losing money and there is the problem. losing money and there is the roblem. .. . , , problem. that is right. barristers have also been _ problem. that is right. barristers have also been out _ problem. that is right. barristers have also been out because - problem. that is right. barristers have also been out because they| problem. that is right. barristers . have also been out because they are concerned about how much they don't get paid under the legal aid arrangements. it is very difficult and you have a phenomenal going on at the moment in the economy, rather like in the us, the great resignation where lots of people are simply leaving theirjobs because simply leaving their jobs because rather than simply leaving theirjobs because rather than trying to have a strike or industrial action, it is easier to bid up your pay bite leaving and

going to work somewhere else and if you go to a sector where they really need people like finance and business services, there is a boom in the banking industry at the moment and their pay rises averaged 10.6% including bonuses so that the solution for a lot of people it's not so much to increase their pay at their existing place of work but to leave and go somewhere else. panda; leave and go somewhere else. andy veri , for leave and go somewhere else. andy verity. for now. _ leave and go somewhere else. andy verity, for now, thanks _ leave and go somewhere else. andy verity, for now, thanks forjoining us. the russian journalist and nobel peace laureate, dmitry muratov, has auctioned his nobel medalforjust over $103 million — that's around £84 million. mr muratov said all the money will go to help refugees from the war in ukraine. he won the nobel peace prize alongside the journalist, maria ressa, last year. mark lobel reports.

thinking about it, at 68. new bidder, completely new guy. bidding for a better life for ukraine's war refugees. then, ladies and gentlemen, done! over $100 million. a staggering $103 million for the 23 carat gold nobel prize medal won last year by russian journalist dmitry muratov for defending freedom of expression in russia. he'd already donated the $500,000 prize money to charity. translation: my country invaded the territory - of another state, ukraine. there are now 15.5 million refugees, and how one must deal with this is completely incomprehensible. we thought for a long time about what we could do, what each individual could do, and we thought that everyone should give away that which is dear to them, important to them. in march, muratov halted his independent newspaper's operations in russia after a warning from moscow over its russia—ukraine war coverage.

the next month, he was attacked with red paint laced with solvent acetone aboard a train in russia. undeterred, he held this sale, partly to inspire others to sell their personal mementos too. though all is not lost. translation: i still have this one, have a look. - it's chocolate. so i have a souvenir. and the most important emotion? well, look, out of 15.5 million refugees, 40% are minors, of these 5.2 million to 5.3 million need help. how can you live with that every day? children displaced by the war in ukraine will benefit from this record amount for this medal now heading to unicef, paid for by a mystery bidder as heritage auctions, which conducted the sale, has not revealed who it is. wow, that's a lot of dough. mark lobel, bbc news.

the duke of cambridge is celebrating his 40th birthday today. it comes at a time of increasing responsibility for prince william — as our royal correspondent, daniela relph, reports. the duke of cambridge out selling the big issue a couple of weeks ago. these aren't the traditional royal portraits released to celebrate a birthday, but this is how prince william wanted his 40th officially marked. it's an insight into what comes next for him. homelessness will be a key campaigning issue. back in 2009, william slept out on the streets of london for a night, with the centrepoint chief executive seyi obakin, and he's still actively involved. he's invested in the problem, and he's invested in trying to find a solution for those who are affected by the problem. and long may it continue, is what i say. on a personal level,

marriage to kate and fatherhood have suited him. their children were some of the stars of the show over the platinum jubilee weekend. and his focus on his family will see a big move this summer when the cambridges leave london to set up home in windsor. the move here has been driven by personal reasons. behind the castle walls, there is greater freedom for the family than they currently have in london. the children will go to school nearby. but it also puts william closer to his grandmother, at a time when he is stepping up his official duties. one unresolved issue is the fallout with his brother, prince harry. i do know from sources very close to william that he is still very hurt about some of the things that his brother and his sister—in—law have said and done. there's not the closeness there once was, and i think there's probably quite a few bridges to be rebuilt before they get to that stage. the years ahead will be filled with significant change.

but for now, at 40, the once cautious, contained prince has become a more open, confident future king. daniela relph, bbc news. people with hiv can now have full careers in the british armed forces. until today, potential recruits living with the virus had been banned from joining, while serving members were not deployed overseas. the ministry of defence says the change in policy recognises advances in the management, treatment and prevention of hiv. i spoke to hiv positive naval officer oliver brown about what the changes mean. i was diagnosed out of the blue in 2019. cycling through central london, i went into a brick wall, and ended up in a&e where it happened to do opt—out testing as a trial for hiv and that is where the story started, did not know or expect it

and got the diagnosis as a result of that process. you had been in the navy for some years at this point? yes. so, apart from the impact of a diagnosis of something you knew nothing about, you can't have had any symptoms presumably? yes, there was no indication that i was living with hiv at that time. i was working in london and had been working full days, long hours, with no idea. you felt fine? absolutely. i had three thoughts which was, what is my life going to be like, when will i die and do i still have a job? my reference point was the musical rent so significantly out of date to what is now the case. interesting. because the medication, as you are a testament to, there have been such advances in science so even at the time

you were diagnosed in 2019, you did not realise that? yes, i had been living with 28 years of stigma but now i have got two years of understanding, because there is one simple thing, undetectable equals un—transmissible which means i can't pass it on, the virus is suppressed with the medication i'm on. and my life is not impacted in any other way apart one tiny tablet. you said one of the things that went through your head was, "will i still have a job?" talk us through the reaction of the navy and what your employer said to you? what went through your mind? i walked out of the hospital not knowing and i spoke to the team i worked with and it took three days to truly understand but i was going to end up as medically limited deployable, so having a label that said i could not quite do everything.

i then dug into the policies and went, why? "hang on a minute." as my understanding accelerated i grew in confidence and said, actually, this is not right. let's say, "why is this the case?" so in 2019 did your employer say there are things you have been doing perfectly well until now which you are not allowed to do? i was going to spend one year not going to be deployed while everything settles, and then i was going to have to almostjump through hoops before i'm deployed in my role and that had more of a mental impact than it did a physical and in practice but the mental impact of hiv is significant. you don't die from hiv any more but too many people die because of it and the consequences of the stigma and the effect on your mental health. so, this big policy change today, goodness, if this had been

there in 2019 when you went to your boss, it would have been different? absolutely. a year after my diagnosis i was at rock bottom with my mental health and i said, "do you know what, i'm alone and isolated because no one speaks about it?" i took that plunge to speak about it which shone the spotlight and i wanted to make the difference to one other person so that one person behind me did not feel the same. today is a big step forward? absolutely. a massive message from government that it is ok with hiv. hello again. we had some sunshine through the day, in england and wales, and this was sent in, this beautiful blue sky in bedford. it wasn't like this everywhere and scotland and northern ireland with a bit more cloud. thank you for

sending that picture. these conditions had prevailed so where we have the cloud in the north and west temperatures are suppressed but in the sunshine we are looking at top temperatures of 24—25. but we also have high or very high pollen levels across many parts of the country, away from the far north of scotland and around the fife area. as we head through the evening and overnight, a bit more low cloud and mist and work coming in over northern and western scotland and fringing into northern ireland. clear skies for the rest with patchy mist forming across the north west of england. it is not going to be a cold night so it won't be a cold start to the day, patchy mist will clear quite rapidly and then once again for england and wales, a lot of sunshine. we hang on to more cloud across the north and west of scotland and also the north and west of northern ireland back to the east we will see some of that break and we will see some sunshine so in belfast we are looking at highs of 20 but the top temperature

tomorrow it's likely to be 26 or 27, in central or southern england. into wednesday we still have high pressure in charge and a weather front not far from the north—west and a weather front is not far away either on the new continent. translated, again, more cloud coming in at times over the north west of scotland and northern ireland and this is the weather front producing showers and we also start to import showers and we also start to import showers coming over the channel islands initially, across southern england and south wales heading in the direction of the midlands, but in between once again a lot of dry weather and a lot of sunshine with top temperatures 13 up to about 27 degrees. as we head from friday into the weekend, low pressure takes over and it turns more unsettled, cooler, wetter, with showers and longer spells of rain and windy.

this is bbc news. the headlines... the majority of britain's trains are at a standstill — and many stations are all but empty, as millions of people face disruption in the first of a series of rail strikes — the biggest in 30 years. the prime minister calls on travellers to 'stay the course' during the strikes — many have had to drive, cycle or walk to their destinations. our company employs 50 drivers and today, it's a disaster, thanks to them. i think they deserve it but can we afford to give everybody a raise? striking workers are picketing stations, with no signs of a compromise in the dispute between rail management and unions. i don't think sunday will be the end of it, from what i can see.

if we can negotiate a deal this week, it can be, but otherwise we'll have to look at what campaigns we are going to put on going forward, and we think that other unions are going tojoin us in this dispute on the railway, and more broadly in society. it wasn't the employers that called the strike action. we wanted rmt. .. we wanted to do reform earlier. they have been discussing it with us, but they have not came forward with meaningful reform. in other news — ukraine is on verge of losing control of the key city of severodonetsk: its troops have been pushed back to just one factory there. allegations of corruption and sexual abuse at the united nations — whistleblowers call for an independent panel to investigate. one, two, three, four. —— and prince william, the duke of cambridge, turns 40 today.

good afternoon and welcome. deserted stations, empty tracks, and millions of frustrated passengers — the biggest rail strike in a generation is underway, crippling services across england, scotland and wales. only a fifth of trains are running today, and there's more chaos in the capital with separate industrial action on the london underground. today's rail strike will be followed by two more on thursday and saturday. network rail says passengers should only travel by train if absolutely necessary. the red lines on this map shows where limited services will operate but whole swathes of the country — where there are no lines — have no services at all. the dispute is between the rail, maritime and transport workers union and the companies which run britain's railways: it's centred on pay, job losses and changes to workers' terms and conditions. our business correspondent colletta smith has this report.

it's been the quietest of starts at stations across britain with services starting late, if at all. from tiny commuter platforms to the biggest station concourses, puzzled passengers faced a skeleton timetable in some areas, while north of edinburgh, much of wales and many coastal towns have no service at all. i should have been on a train but i've had to get a national express now. so i'm on trains every day of the week for myjob, so i don't support it at all, no. while stations may be quiet inside, there's plenty happening outside. the rail union rmt are striking over pay and redundancies, and have plans for more to come. i don't think sunday will be the end of it from what i can see. if we can negotiate a deal this week, it can be, but otherwise we will have to look at what campaigns we're going to put on going forward, and we think that other

unions are going to join to this dispute on the railway. the government could have made a move to settle this dispute but instead they are escalating it. the lies that they are telling about railway workers and the railway industry are outrageous, but they can't resist it because this is a government that's a stranger to the truth. more than 40,000 union members from network rail and 13 train firms have walked out in the dispute. they say the government is the hidden hand blocking negotiations. the mood music from the cabinet this morning shows little hope of a deal soon. we need to get ready to stay the course, to stay the course, because these reforms, these improvements in the way we run our railways are in the interests of the travelling public. they will help to cut costs for fare payers up and down the country, but they are also in the interests of the railways, of railway workers and their families. train operators say big technical and practical changes are needed across the industry. things have changed from how people travelled in the 1970s, '80s, '90s, where sunday was never seen

as a busy travelling day for the public. it's now the opposite, it's one of the busiest days we have. we've got working practices that say that staff can just volunteer to come out on a sunday. that makes it very difficult to run a train service. of the few trains that are running today, most are broadly on time, though some have been impacted by delays, already, like this one. if your train has been cancelled or rearranged, you are entitled to some money back through the delay repay scheme, whether it is a season ticket or you havejust bought a one—off. on the london underground, there's a separate strike, with busy buses taking extra passengers as lots of tube lines run a limited service. in many parts of yorkshire,

a strike on arriva buses is also adding to commuters' woes. with further rail strikes planned on thursday and saturday, it seems most passengers are sticking to official advice and going nowhere unless they have to. coletta smith, bbc news. london is being hit by both a stoppage on the trains and on the tube. earlier i spoke to tim muffett at london's euston station who described the situation there. i'v e i've travelled from london euston station many, many times and today it has been practically deserted compared to a typical day and that said, there has been a steady stream of passengers but no more than around about 200 at any one time, looking hopefully up at the information board and getting on the 20% or so trains compared to what we normally see that have been leaving the station. i've been talking to many of those passengers and asking why they are travelling today is revolving told to avoid doing so if at all possible and they say those

journeys have been essential, degree ceremonies, wedding ceremonies, family get—togethers and think they just don't want to miss and many people were lucky the drains they had booked were not any of those cancelled, and most people were wearily resigned to what will happen this week because they've been forewarned about it but there is a real sense here that if the striker to go on beyond this week, patients would certainly wear a little thin with a picket line outside london euston station here and i've been talking to some of the striking railway workers there, with gran chaps the transport secretary this morning saying some of the union demands amounted to little more than a stunt and i was a pretty withering response to that has people saying grant shapps was praising railway workers as heroes during the pandemic and now he is criticising them and they believe he should be focusing on trying to resolve this issue and as we've been hearing this morning, really there is no sign of any compromise at the moment with both sides poles apart. and let's

head to glasgow central station because our correspondent lorna gordon as their and it looks almost deserted behind you, lorna. yes. deserted behind you, lorna. yes, ve , deserted behind you, lorna. yes, very. very — deserted behind you, lorna. yes, very. very quiet _ deserted behind you, lorna. yes, very, very quiet here _ deserted behind you, lorna. yes, very, very quiet here at _ deserted behind you, lorna. “a: very, very quiet here at central station, this is gotten's busiest train station with 130,000 people travelling through your everyday but just a handful of trains running with the last one down to england leaving at around 230 this afternoon and the final train out of the station being at around quarter to six this evening and a very restricted service operating in scotland today with five routes in the central belt operating and its reduced services by about 90% so usually there is around 2000 trains running on a normal timetable and we are seeing about one tenth of that operating today if you live in inverness, aberdeen, dundee or perth, there is no trains at all,

many hospitality businesses such as hotels reporting a downturn in bookings and they are very concerned about what they are seeing with interestingly people relying on trains less than you would think for commuting and the last census figures suggesting 3.7% of people rely on the trains for commuting, of course a lot of other people rely on trains for other things like socialising or going on holiday but today, i think people might have switched back to the pandemic pattern of working from home and we are not reporting or seeing an uptick on people, on the roads for instance. scotrail are not striking here in scotland but the reason for the reduced services because it is network rail staff, those operating the train signals who are doing the signals and that results in a drop—off in train services, with a political element to the story with scott and's transport minister writing to the uk government saying

there shouldn't not be modernisation at any cost and there should be a devolution of further rail responsibility and that is what they would like to see.— would like to see. thank you very much for now. — would like to see. thank you very much for now, let's _ would like to see. thank you very much for now, let's get _ would like to see. thank you very much for now, let's get the - would like to see. thank you very. much for now, let's get the picture in cardiff as well, wells corresponded mark hutchings gave us this update from cardiff central. the element pretty much not many trains or people on them is a fair assessment of the welsh rail network today, down to less than 10% and a complete wipe—out in west wales and there are some trains running out of there are some trains running out of the valleys and that is because they are on track and managed by transport for wales, not directly at least involved in this dispute. here it is pretty much about the links between cardiff and london, and a reduced rate train, one hour today, wrapping up

by teatime of the welsh government, like the scottish government, criticising ministers in the uk and saying the uk government had chosen to promote conflict, denied by uk ministers as for normal rates, 3% of the welsh commuting public travel by train on a normal day, clearly less than today —— less than that today with people making arrangements and it is one of those days if you can find a train, you can probably find a seat. what impact has the strike had on the roads? let's talk to our correspondentjo black, who is at watford gap service station, just off the m1 in northamptonshire. looks busy but i am not the best person to judge if that is normal for this time of day person to judge if that is normal for this time of day anyway. person to judge if that is normal for this time of day anyway. what person to judge if that is normal for this time of day anyway. what is your assessment? irate for this time of day anyway. what is your assessment?— for this time of day anyway. what is your assessment? we are at watford ga in your assessment? we are at watford gap in northamptonshire _ your assessment? we are at watford gap in northamptonshire in - your assessment? we are at watford gap in northamptonshire in the - gap in northamptonshire in the substation that most people travelling from —— on the m1, the service station. the first of a

station that they will see. as you can tell the m1 is running very well, behaving very well, behaving all day since we've been here and i've spoken to people at the services and they say it has been a pretty normal day here but if it gets busier, they have enough staff and they will be able to cope, they say. despite everything looking normal, that does not mean people's journeys have not been disrupted. here's what some commuters have been telling me. yellow and obviously concerned about the tube strikes in london and the effect that has had on me travelling for my work to get in and out of hospitals because the roads just become completely locked. we are going to a boat race in windsor— we are going to a boat race in windsor and we've travelled from yorkshire — windsor and we've travelled from yorkshire. basically trains are on strike, _ yorkshire. basically trains are on strike, we — yorkshire. basically trains are on strike, we wanted to do a quick journey— strike, we wanted to do a quick journey on _ strike, we wanted to do a quick journey on the trains but unfortunately we cannot do that, so

we are _ unfortunately we cannot do that, so we are stuck on a bus for four hours — we are stuck on a bus for four hours. .. , ., ., we are stuck on a bus for four hours. .. i. ., . , ., , hours. have you had the city diary for uuite hours. have you had the city diary for quite a — hours. have you had the city diary for quite a while, _ hours. have you had the city diary for quite a while, this _ hours. have you had the city diary for quite a while, this race? - hours. have you had the city diary for quite a while, this race? yes, | for quite a while, this race? yes, we were going — for quite a while, this race? yes, we were going to _ for quite a while, this race? yes, we were going to go _ for quite a while, this race? yes, we were going to go on - for quite a while, this race? yes, we were going to go on a - for quite a while, this race? yes, we were going to go on a train and -et we were going to go on a train and get the _ we were going to go on a train and get the tube through to slough but obviously— get the tube through to slough but obviously we cannot do that. it would — obviously we cannot do that. it would have been... we could have got a train _ would have been... we could have got a train about— would have been... we could have got a train about the underground, we couldn't_ a train about the underground, we couldn't get the underground of the time she _ couldn't get the underground of the time she wanted, then it would have been a _ time she wanted, then it would have been a bus— time she wanted, then it would have been a bus from king's cross through to slough _ been a bus from king's cross through to slough so — been a bus from king's cross through to slough so we just could not do it, to slough so we just could not do it. it _ to slough so we just could not do it. it was — to slough so we just could not do it, it was easier to get a coach. we travelled it, it was easier to get a coach. travelled from it, it was easier to get a coach. , travelled from london to leicester to carlisle and now we are heading from carlisle straight back to london. it has not been too bad, honestly, not too bad at all. if you disruption is what i expected a lot worse to be honest with you. expected a lot worse. two more hours to go and we are there. you expected a lot worse. two more hours to go and we are there.— to go and we are there. you had that cha ter to go and we are there. you had that chapter talking _ to go and we are there. you had that chapter talking about _ to go and we are there. you had that chapter talking about travelling - chapter talking about travelling further south to london, even though it is running well here, the london

sections of the m1 have been busy. many others also busier national highway says the main road network been marginally quieter today but there have been congestion in city centres and car parks. overall, we do wonder whether people have got better at putting a plan b in place with some people now used to working from home in the post—pandemic error. rmt general secretary mick lynch has accused grant shapps of "spouting nonsense" with plans to allow agency staff to replace striking workers. i'm joined by kate shoesmith, deputy chief executive of the rec; the recruitment and employment confederation, the professional body for uk recruitment businesses.

good afternoon to you. it's not even allowed at the moment so the conversation a somewhat hypothetical but we do know about the disruptions and what is happening this week. what would you make of the idea that potentially, potentially agency workers could cover some of the roles that are clearly simply not happening today. $5 roles that are clearly simply not happening today-— roles that are clearly simply not happening today. as you say, it is all potential. _ happening today. as you say, it is all potential, this _ happening today. as you say, it is all potential, this is _ happening today. as you say, it is all potential, this is a _ happening today. as you say, it is all potential, this is a proposal. all potential, this is a proposal from government right now and that relies on a vote and a change in legislation so it is sometime time away although there is some talk about maybe getting this enforced by the summer, later this summer, so from our perspective, we don't understand how this is practical in the first point so if you think about it, we've been talking about a labour market where there is significant demand across the board from employers of all sectors, we don't have enough people to fill the jobs, that is what recruiters have been telling us for the last 18

months at least, and in these roles, we are talking about some areas where they require skilled roles, to be fully trained up and why would an agency worker cross a picket line when they are in a situation or have the choice of assignment right now so from a practical perspective, we do not think this will work particularly well for there is also a point around what the reputational risks might be to businesses in terms of crossing the picket lines and we think they could inflame disputes if you put in place a third party between the employer or the unions who have to negotiate very carefully on. it unions who have to negotiate very carefully on— carefully on. it is interesting that ou sa in carefully on. it is interesting that you say in your — carefully on. it is interesting that you say in your experience - carefully on. it is interesting that you say in your experience an - carefully on. it is interesting that - you say in your experience an agency worker would not want to cross a picket line. if it is work they were desperate for, we all know about the need for work, the cost of living, everything we've been debating again today. if it is the difference between having employment and not having employment, would some people feel they had to no matter their

personal views on at all? you'll like your point there is that as an invidious position to put someone in. that is not very fair on them so, yes, we are talking about a cost of living crisis right now where people are really struggling, they are having to make ends meet but as i say we are actually in a jobs market that is quite strong so people with the skills for the jobs available can see that and many of the people we are replacing people with are in skilled roles who would need a significant amount of trainings so it is not fair to put someone in these positions regardless of their current situation. and the idea of talking about potentially changing the law to make this possible in the first place, it was first mooted back in 2015 so it's quite interesting we are sitting here in 2022 and it still has not come to fruition. what is your take on why that is? this all has been _ is your take on why that is? this all has been in _ is your take on why that is? this all has been in place _ is your take on why that is? “in 3 all has been in place since the 19705 and there is a reason it has beenin 19705 and there is a reason it has been in place all that time. there a

our international counterparts all have the same legislation and it is not seen as something worth doing. it's deeply difficult. you only have to look back historically and look at what happened in different strikes where there are strikebreakers and people crossing the picket lines about how they felt under threat as workers, the reputational damage that led to businesses and how it inflame the disputes. it's not something that feels very practical at this point in time. .. ~ feels very practical at this point in time. ., ,. i. earlier i spoke to our political correspondent iain watson who gave us all the latest reaction to the strikes from westminster. there is a big gap between what the unions want and what so far the employers are offering, so network rail is one of the employers involved in this and they are offering a 3% pay increase and 1% of thatis offering a 3% pay increase and 1% of that is an increase on modernising,

as they call it, the railway system, getting rid of some practices, closing booking offices and so on and there are 13 train operating companies also involved directly in negotiations and the unions say they want a guarantee, no compulsory redundancies, and they want an increase closer to inflation in pay, perhaps around 7%, so there is a gap they are yet to be bridged but what labour and the unions are calling for is for the government is to negotiations saying it is up to the employers to sort all this out and that they have signed in the past year with these train operating companies that make train operating companies, to make it clear that if there is industrial action in any direction will come from the secretary of state for said transport and companies will have to consult him and if they make any changes to employment conditions, they need a written approval of the secretary of state so while the government may not be at the table,

they are not far away, just lurking in the next room if you like. they say union should be more involved than the government say, look, we cannot be involved in the detail of all this. they are simply urging the unions to accept what they would call modernisation of the railways given that we have had falling revenues since the pandemic. what was interesting was that the cabinet meeting this morning, borisjohnson said it was important that we stayed the course and that tends to suggest that there would be very little movement and we will be down for a week of disruption although talks will resume again tomorrow. from labour's point of view, a bonus complication

here but keir starmer doesn't want to look too close and he has told his most prominent mps not to go on picket lines and some of those have said we are going on picket lines, including a cup ofjunior frontbenchers, a labour whip and in addition to that, more embarrassingly, someone seen as close to that, the leader of the party in scotland, anas sarwar, tweeting a picture of himself on a picket line saying solidarity with the rail workers. in addition to that, another union, the unite union, criticising the labour party for not backing it. more to come during the weekend will keep you up—to—date with all of that. right now, with the time, 21 minutes past four. we are just going to return to other news stories and let's start in texas.

you will remember that school shooting, of course, elementary school shooting. we have had the first images showing armed police waiting in a corridor during that shooting last month in uvalde. these pictures are roast in local media in texas. this is... these are some of the pictures that have emerged and they have been produced by american statesman, a newspaper or website, and a local tv station and they are the people who have released this photo and they say it shows that police arrived earlier in the attack and with more powerful weapons than had previously been reported. these images, i'm assuming, just from some of the corridors within the school, thatis of the corridors within the school, that is certainly what it looks like. the outlets say officers arrived at the school with rifles and a ballistic shield, 19 minutes after the gun men. you will remember that 21 people were killed that day

including 19 children. the texas department of public safety says that there is evidence that shows the law enforcement response on that day was an abject failure. but the release of this image from inside that school in uvalde in texas as part of the debate within the community about the appropriateness or otherwise of the police response to that mass shooting, a teenager, you'll remember, who shot dead 21 people while 19 of them just young children. the governor of ukraine's eastern luhansk region says russian forces have almost captured the key city of severodonetsk. ukrainian troops are now said to be holding onto just one factory, where hundreds of civilians have been sheltering in recent weeks. heavy casualties have been reported on both sides. the city has been the main focus of russia's recent offensive

in the east of ukraine, as our correspondent joe inwood reports. explosions. this is the battle for severodonetsk, but from the russian side. in the distance is the azot chemical plant, said to be the last holdout of ukrainian forces. a team from chinese state television joined chechen fighters as they tried to capture the destroyed city. "we are very close to the industrial zone of the plant," the commander says, "and we are confident that we will take control of it." but the ukrainians say they are still fighting and have not given up on severodonetsk yet. that's despite massive artillery barrages that have turned a once bustling city into a wasteland. translation: the last day and night before were very hard. _

this night was relatively calm. but it is the calm before the storm. in fact, yesterday the russian army carried out defensive operations in several directions with lots of equipment and personnel. one of those directions was toshkivka, just to the south of severodonetsk but the other side of the river siverskyi donets. these are russian forces rolling through what is left of the town. the battle in the east is looking increasingly difficult for the ukrainians, who say they urgently need more western military aid. but they need diplomatic support as well, and that came from a rather unlikely source here in the capital. hello, nice to meet you. really nice to meet you. hollywood actor ben stiller, also a un goodwill ambassador, in town to meet president zelensky, was trying to keep this conflict in the public eye. our news cycle goes so quickly that it's really hard to keep attention on these issues that maybe don't affect us directly, but they do have an effect on us overall.

all the while, the destruction continues. this war is far from over, but there will be difficult days ahead. joe inwood, bbc news, kyiv. meanwhile, russia has threatened lithuania with serious consequences over a ban on the transport of goods to the russian territory of kaliningrad. the growing row follows lithuania's decision to ban the transit of some goods to kaliningrad, which is bordered only by eu countries and has no land connection to the russian mainland. the enclave is strategically important to russia and was retained by russia after the break—up of the soviet union. kaliningrad is also the main base for russia's baltic fleet. moscow says the ban breaks international law and has summoned the eu ambassador. here is what a government official in kaliningrad said.

translation: we still hope the mind of our neighbours _ translation: we still hope the mind of our neighbours will— translation: we still hope the mind of our neighbours will overcome - translation: we still hope the mind of our neighbours will overcome the l of our neighbours will overcome the madness that they are doing now because, like the rest of the sanctions, this member that might measure painfully hits on ukraine's economy and let's not forget that rack lithuania's economy and let's not forget they make good money on kaliningrad. well earlier i spoke to lithuania's ambassador to the eu about what russia might mean by "serious consequences" for lithuania. you probably need to ask russia itself and i don't want to anyway speculate about that, but what is important to say is that russia is engaging not only in aggressive... button misinformation because indeed there is no kaliningrad blockade, there is no kaliningrad blockade, the transit of passengers, the transit of non—sanction goods continues where full implemented agreements from 2004 but the only

thing we are doing is putting sanctions on what has been sanctioned in last weekend the false sanctions package which includes that came into effect and our customs officials implemented the sanctions. . customs officials implemented the sanctions. , ., ., , sanctions. there is no doubt in your mind that sanctions _ sanctions. there is no doubt in your mind that sanctions are _ sanctions. there is no doubt in your mind that sanctions are right - sanctions. there is no doubt in your mind that sanctions are right and i mind that sanctions are right and appropriate given russian's behaviour inside ukraine. absolutely and they have been one of the acts of strong response and we have all six packages together with member states and this is a decision of all of them together united and therefore all of us, all 27 member states, have an obligation to do

that. just to give you confirmation regarding the rail strikes, just confirmation that there are going to be more talks tomorrow given the disruption of and down the country. rail bosses and the rmt union holding talks tomorrow. a senior industry source telling us that even if agreement could be reached tomorrow, that would not come in time to stop the disruption on thursday. thursday is... in fact, thatis thursday. thursday is... in fact, that is the phrase they are saying, thursday is baked in as the phrase we have been given so thursday strikes, no hope of averting but talks will happen tomorrow, they will take place tomorrow and should there be any kind of deal, it could be possible to avert saturday's strike with 48 hours notice. that has the potential so still strikes as planned on thursday but there will be as planned on thursday but there will he talks so let us wait and see whether there are any development

and whether there will be further strikes on saturday and movement on that so confirmation of those talks tomorrow. but let's pause and catch up tomorrow. but let's pause and catch up on the weather. hello, for many parts of england and wales, it has been a very warm day to day in the sunshine and we have seen more cloud with scotland and northern ireland having to continue to break up a bit with patchy cloud continuing into the night and many parts of england and wales with clear skies and tim rogers typically 11—12 c and we start quite cloudy and northern ireland, some sunshine coming through here and more sunshine than today, particularly in the east and the sunny skies across england and wales. very high pollen levels in the grass and a couple of degrees added onto the temperatures with widely 26—27 c, warmer than today in northern ireland and warmer in the sunshine for eastern parts of scotland. heading into thursday, some changes, potentially thundery showers moving up from the english channel to southern parts of england

and wales, crowther england, wales and wales, crowther england, wales and northern ireland but some sunshine, continuing to be a very warm day but with those showers moving northwards, we have the highest temperatures in the midlands and also across northern england. hello, this is bbc news with jane hill. the headlines: the majority of britain's trains are at a standstill — and many stations are all but empty,

as millions of people face disruption in the first of a series of rail strikes — the biggest in 30 years. the prime minister calls on travellers to "stay the course" during the strikes — many have had to drive, cycle or walk to their destinations. striking workers are picketing stations, with no signs of a compromise in the dispute between rail management and unions. in other news — ukraine is on verge of losing control of the key city of severodonetsk: its troops have been pushed back to just one factory there. allegations of corruption and sexual abuse at the united nations — whistleblowers call for an independent panel to investigate. more to come on more of those stories but now we have the sport.

good afternoon. we start at eastbourne and what an afternoon it's been for the british pair of katie boulter and ryan penistone — both beating seeded players to reach the last 16. british number four boulter beat last year's wimbledon runner—up karolina pliskova, coming back from a set down. she won the second set 6—4. and then the third set by the same score to get her first win over a top 10 player. she'll play donna vekic or petra kvitova next. i'm super proud of myself today. i went out there and i did not feel great on court but i worked so hard to get out there and battle and fight, and against a player like that you mean so much to come through. i tried to stay with her on

serve, she was serving well and i had a lot of opportunities in the first set. i had a few 40—155 which i let go of, but i was able to stay with her as much as i could. great news therefore katie boulter. —— they're for. likewise, britain's ryan peniston's great run on grass continues — the wildcard is into the last 16 at eastbourne after a battling performance earlier. the 26 year old, who reached the quarter finals at queen's last week, came from a set down to beat french open quarter finalist holger rune 6—1 in the deciding set. warming up for wimbledon — serena williams is playing herfirst competitive tennis in nearly a year this evening. the 23—time grand slam winner, who is now 40, hasn't played since her emotional exit from wimbledon last summer when she was forced to retire with an injury in the opening round. she plays in the women's doubles this evening at eastbourne alongside the world number three ons jabeur.

she says it's been hard to keep their planned partnership a secret. many players were jealous because i'm playing with her and honestly, serena is a legend and always will be, and the fact that she returned and i get to be part of herjourney, it is unbelievable. she did a lot for our sport and i really respect her and her story and everything that she has been through. i hope i can even learn about 2% from it. in golf — bbc sport understands that the four time major champion brooks koepka is set tojoin greg norman's saudi funded breakaway series. there are widespread reports he'll play in the upcoming event in portland, oregon next week. he'd join the likes of dustinjohnson, bryson dechambeau and patrick reed by taking part

in the rebel invitational series, and like them would face suspension from the pga tour. england begin their third and final test against new zealand tomorrow, but their preparations have suffered a setback with captain ben stokes missing today's training because of illness. the rest of the squad have been at headingly. england hold an unassailable 2—0 lead in the series. stokes is yet to name an official vice captain butjoe root or stuart broad are two possibilities to deputise if he isn't well enough to play. the chairwoman of the football association has publicly backed england manager gareth southgate. his role's come under scrutiny after a poor run of recent form. but debbie hewitt says she's spoken to southgate to reassure him about his long term future, and has praised him for his resilience and accountability. rugby league has banned transgender players from women's international competition until further notice. the ruling follows a decision

by swimming's world governing body — fina — to restrict trans athletes�* participation. international rugby league says it needs more time before finalising its policy and wants to "balance the individual�*s right to take part against perceived risk to other pa rticipa nts". advocacy groups say the policy violates human rights. the ban will apply to the world cup in england in october. that's all the sport for now. you can follow the tennis on the bbc sport website. the seedings have been announced for wimbledon. details of that on the website. more details in the next hour. we can now look at some of the other stories from today. nearly 70 people are now known to have died in severe floods in bangladesh and india. millions have been displaced from their homes as more places are submerged

following incessant rain. sylhet in bangladesh and assam in india are the worst affected regions. these pictures are from bangladesh. the military has been involved in the rescue efforts but it's struggling to reach remote areas to supply food, medicines and water. it's the second time in two months that floods have hit these areas. i'm joined now by oxfam india's director of programmes and advocacy, pankaj anand, who has been coordinating the relief efforts in assam, northeastern india. thanks forjoining u5 thanks forjoining us at such a difficult time. how many people are in need of your assistance in the area you are trying to look after? we are active in one part of assam

and the problem is so widespread that nearly 32 of the 36 districts are affected which practically means the entire straight leg state is affected and the number of people is affected and the number of people is a whopping 5 billion people —— practically means the entire state is affected. the worst affected is women, children and differently abled people and senior citizens. i would say that it actually needs a coordinated response which the state government is doing but all the charity organisations need to put their weight behind the government. 5 million people is staggering. that is a heartbreaking figure. some of those people have lost their homes and have nowhere to live? it is the basics that are needed, is there a risk of water running out? what about the humanitarian situation?

there are a lot of things that need to be done. portable drinking water is one need and shelter is another. putting people into self places is another need. but food, medicine, the need is large. the state is very big and with practically the entire state affected, and the problem is certain areas, values which are completely cut off from each other. this means that the essential supplies are not making different parts of the state adequately and the problem is really gigantic. this is not something we have seen in the last ten years. this fact has been corroborated by the state chief minister, that this is not like something we have seen in our

lifetime. 50 something we have seen in our lifetime. ., ., ., ., lifetime. so in an area that regrettably _ lifetime. so in an area that regrettably is _ lifetime. so in an area that regrettably is often - lifetime. so in an area that regrettably is often used . lifetime. so in an area that| regrettably is often used to flooding, you are saying that this is beyond that magnitude, this is worse than what has been seen before? and does that mean there hasn't been the planning that there might be as well because you magnitude is so great? the magnitude is treat and magnitude is so great? the magnitude is great and we — magnitude is so great? the magnitude is great and we have _ magnitude is so great? the magnitude is great and we have not _ magnitude is so great? the magnitude is great and we have not seen - is great and we have not seen anything like this in the past but the coordinated response from the state government is something to talk about. the leadership at the top is coordinating the rescue operations and the indian army and the air force has been pressed into service, not to much of the national disaster response force, so the entire state machinery with the help of union government is putting their weight behind the rescue and relief situations which is to be applauded.

thank you so much for your time at this very difficult time. talking there about the 5 million people, 32 out of 36 areas in that state affected of assam, he tells us. back to our main story... with warnings that inflation — the rate at which prices are going up — is set to reach 11% this year, rail workers aren't the only group asking for a substantial pay increase to help meet the rising cost of living. earlier i spoke to our economics correspondent andy verity and asked him how the rail workers�*s union wage demands compare to other workers. we don't know where the negations have got to right now but what has been reported is they are asking for 7% and when you look at that in comparison to the average

across all industries of public and private, total pay was up by 6.8% at the last count so just a bit above that, but then you look at the average total pay increase for the private sector and it was actually 8% at the last count so that is including bonuses and the reason for that is we have some of the tightest labour markets we have ever seen and more vacancies, record vacancies, more than there are people unemployed, so employers have got to compete for the staff to attract them and fill their vacancies if they want to be able to do all the work that is out there on offer. so a lot of firms are turning away people which they don't want to be doing, because that slows down the economy. the flip side of the inflation risk is not an upward spiral where wages go up and prices have to go up to pay for them, it is a downward spiral where living standards go down and economic growth goes down even further.

we've not had any growth in the last three months so there are interesting questions about public sector pay and pay for the train drivers. if they are paid a lot less than inflation, that takes demand out of the economy and potentially could make the downturn worse. this is not the only group of workers. they are striking at the moment but we wait to see what might happen with teachers and nhs workers and other categories that we could come up with and inevitably everybody is looking at this rising rate of inflation and thinking, "even if i get what looks like a decent pay rise i'm still in real terms losing money" and there is the problem. that's right. barristers have also been out, too, because they are concerned about how much they don't get paid under the legal aid arrangements. it's very difficult and you have a phenomenal going on at the moment in the economy, rather like in the us, the great resignation where lots of people

are simply leaving theirjobs because rather than bidding up their pay by trying to have a strike or industrial action, it is easier to bid up your pay by leaving and going to work somewhere else. if you go to a sector where they really need people like finance and business services, there is a boom in the banking industry at the moment and their pay rises averaged 10.6% including bonuses so that the solution for a lot of people it's not so much to increase their pay at their existing place of work but to leave and go somewhere else. andy verity, there. more than 2500 cases of monkeypox have been reported from more than 35 countries. an inquiry has found

that the belfast health trust failed to intervene quickly enough in the practice of a doctor which led to northern ireland's largest patient recall. more than 5,000 former patients of neurologist michael watt were invited to have their cases examined for possible misdiagnoses. emma vardy explains more. a huge patient recall, starting back in 2018 when thousands of patients began to receive these letters basically telling them they needed to come back into be reassessed. these patients had been looked after by dr michael watt as he was then known. this created a lot of concern, a lot of unanswered questions, and it has taken a long time really to get a few answers. what was discovered was that in about one fifth of patients

recalled, there had been no appropriate management plan and there had not been an appropriate prescription that they had been given. these were patients dealing with neurological conditions such as those who suffered from strokes and things like parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and this inquiry was set up to see why complaints that were raised over a number of years were not taken seriously early enough. the headline conclusion is that the belfast trust did not intervene soon enough and when you dig a little deeper, what the inquiry found, there was a culture where doctors were inhibited from raising concerns about medical colleagues as well which led to perhaps around ten years, this inquiry has found, of red flags coming up across a long period which led to this huge patient recall because of the work of one doctor. a former senior member of the united nations is calling for an external panel to investigate

allegations of sexual abuse, fraud, and high—level corruption at the organisation. it comes after several former members of staff have told the bbc about stories of cover—ups, harassment, and bullying — when they've complained about alleged wrongdoing. some have lost theirjobs after speaking out. sima kotecha from bbc newsnight has the story. the un says it aims to promote peace, dignity and equality on a healthy planet. but now several allegations have been made about the organisation, including that a former senior member of staff sexually harassed two women. martina worked as a senior adviser to unaids. in 2015, she was in thailand attending a work event. dr luis lores, a former un assistant secretary general, was also there. as part of leaving the work meeting, and we're going down the same elevator, he attacks me in the elevator.

he comes at me all of a sudden. i pleaded with him to stop. "let me go." and so he was he was being very insistent. and he was pulling my arm. and i was... i had to block myself with the elevator door, too, to be able to stay in the elevator because i was afraid. in 2018, mr lores retired from the un. he says he has never harassed or assaulted anyone. the un says allegations of harassment against mr lores were investigated. but, at this time, the un is not in a position to comment on the veracity of these claims. the un has protected legal status. senior members of staff have diplomatic immunity from national laws everywhere. alleged corruption, fraud and management turning a blind eye when confronted with problems are what some of the whistleblowers

have told the bbc about. now, the woman who used to be in charge of tackling sexual harassment at the un says there needs to be an investigation. a group of people external to the united nations who don't have an investment in a job in it and so on, can sit and pull together a lot of the things that have been said, a lot of things that have been criticised about how the un works and so on. pull that together as a sort of an investigation of what's wrong and put together a really time limited, focused set of actions that will make change. in response to this allegation, the un said the secretary general has consistently emphasised a zero tolerance approach to sexual harassment and that he and the united nations administration is committed to protecting bona fide whistleblowers against retaliation. it said it remains open to any external review of its efforts to combat misconduct of any kind. this all of this has raised questions about whether the un

should be allowed to handle complaints internally, something which it currently does. people with hiv can now have full careers in the british armed forces. until today, potential recruits living with the virus had been banned from joining, while serving members were not deployed overseas. the ministry of defence says the change in policy recognises advances in the management, treatment and prevention of hiv. i spoke to hiv positive naval officer oliver brown about what the changes mean. i was diagnosed out of the blue in 2019. cycling through central london, i went into a brick wall, and ended up in a&e where it happened to do opt—out testing as a trial

for hiv and that is where the story started, did not know or expect it and got the diagnosis as a result of that process. you had been in the navy for some years at this point? yes. so, apart from the impact of a diagnosis of something you knew nothing about, you can't have had any symptoms presumably? yes, there was no indication that i was living with hiv at that time. i was working in london and had been working full days, long hours, with no idea. you felt fine? absolutely. i had three thoughts which was, what is my life going to be like, when will i die and do i still have a job? my reference point was the musical rent so significantly out of date to what is now the case. interesting. because the medication, as you are a testament to, there have been such advances in science so even at the time

you were diagnosed in 2019, you did not realise that? yes, i had been living with 28 years of stigma but now i have got two years of understanding, because there is one simple thing, undetectable equals un—transmissible which means i can't pass it on, the virus is suppressed with the medication i'm on. and my life is not impacted in any other way apart one tiny tablet. you said one of the things that went through your head was, "will i still have a job?" talk us through the reaction of the navy and what your employer said to you? what went through your mind? i walked out of the hospital not knowing and i spoke to the team i worked with and it took three days to truly understand but i was going to end up as medically limited deployable, so having a label that said i could not quite do everything.

i then dug into the policies and went, why? "hang on a minute." as my understanding accelerated i grew in confidence and said, actually, this is not right. let's say, "why is this the case?" so in 2019 did your employer say there are things you have been doing perfectly well until now which you are not allowed to do? i was going to spend one year not going to be deployed while everything settles, and then i was going to have to almostjump through hoops before i'm deployed in my role and that had more of a mental impact than it did a physical and in practice but the mental impact of hiv is significant. you don't die from hiv any more but too many people die because of it and the consequences of the stigma and the effect on your mental health. so, this big policy change today, goodness, if this had been

there in 2019 when you went to your boss, it would have been different? absolutely. a year after my diagnosis i was at rock bottom with my mental health and i said, "do you know what, i'm alone and isolated because no one speaks about it?" i took that plunge to speak about it which shone the spotlight and i wanted to make the difference to one other person so that one person behind me did not feel the same. today is a big step forward? absolutely. a massive message from government that it is ok with hiv. the duke of cambridge is celebrating his 40th birthday today. it comes at a time of increasing responsibility for prince william — as our royal correspondent, daniela relph, reports. the duke of cambridge out selling the big issue a couple of weeks ago. these aren't the traditional royal portraits released to celebrate a birthday, but this is how prince william wanted his 40th officially marked.

it's an insight into what comes next for him. homelessness will be a key campaigning issue. back in 2009, william slept out on the streets of london for a night, with the centrepoint chief executive seyi obakin, and he's still actively involved. he's invested in the problem, and he's invested in trying to find a solution for those who are affected by the problem. and long may it continue, is what i say. on a personal level, marriage to kate and fatherhood have suited him. their children were some of the stars of the show over the platinum jubilee weekend. and his focus on his family will see a big move this summer when the cambridges leave london to set up home in windsor. the move here has been driven by personal reasons. behind the castle walls, there is greater freedom for the family than they currently have in london. the children will go to school nearby. but it also puts william closer to his grandmother, at a time when he is stepping

up his official duties. one unresolved issue is the fallout with his brother, prince harry. i do know from sources very close to william that he is still very hurt about some of the things that his brother and his sister—in—law have said and done. there's not the closeness there once was, and i think there's probably quite a few bridges to be rebuilt before they get to that stage. the years ahead will be filled with significant change. but for now, at 40, the once cautious, contained prince has become a more open, confident future king. daniela relph, bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather. the heat is continuing to build for a few days before it becomes cooler this weekend and today it was the turn of england and wales to see temperatures into the mid 205 in the strong sunshine. much more cloud across scotland and northern ireland

so temperatures today not quite as high as they were yesterday, and that cloud is continuing to thin so this evening and overnight patchy cloud for scotland and northern ireland and generally across england and wales any cloud at the moment will melt away and we will have clear skies. temperatures overnight typically 11—12 but it could be milder in northern ireland if it remains cloudy but i suspect we will break through the cloud and give sunshine through the day on wednesday and more sunshine to come across scotland especially in the east. the sunnier skies are in england and wales and no wind at all and those temperatures rising rapidly once again. adding a couple of degrees on today's values so for many 26, 27, and a warmer day also in northern ireland and eastern scotland in the sunshine. when you have the sunshine we have a high or even very high grass pollen levels once again. the heat is building under the clearer skies and light winds under the area of high

pressure and it is getting eroded a bit on thursday especially in the weather front in the south and that will bring some showers, and it looks like those are moving a bit further north more quickly through the english channel into southern england and into south wales and the south midlands and may be east anglia for the end of the day. some sunshine ahead of that but still some cloud for northern ireland and scotland so temperatures not so high here but otherwise a very warm day but because the showers are moving quite quickly be hired to images will be pushed further north in the midlands and northern england. things break down a bit by the end of the week, pressure falling and some spells of rain around an cool air coming in behind that for the weekend. we have some heavy and potentially thundery showers overnight moving north over northern and western parts of the uk and ahead of that band of rain in the south later. more cloud around to end the week and temperatures will be a bit lower but with more sunshine and dry weather for eastern england and it will still be very

warm. hello, good afternoon. this is bbc news. i'm ben brown. our headlines at 5pm: the majority of britain's trains are at a standstill and many stations are all but empty, as millions of people face disruption in the first of a series of rail strikes — the biggest in 30 years. the prime minister calls on travellers to "stay the course" during the strikes. many have had to drive, cycle or walk to their destinations. our company employs 50 drivers, and today, it's a disaster, thanks to them. i think they deserve it, but can we afford to give everybody a raise? a5 striking workers picket stations, a senior industry source tells the bbc that rail bosses and unions will hold fresh talks tomorrow.

i don't think sunday will be the end of it,