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tv   BBC News  BBC News  September 3, 2022 11:00am-11:31am BST

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this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley and these are the latest headlines in the uk and around the world: mourners pay their respects to the last soviet leader, mikhail gorbachev, ahead of his funeral. i'm glad people are paying tribute to the man who changed russian history because russia has a very bad record of commemorating people who were so important. these are live pictures from the capital, moscow, as people line the streets to queue to say their final farewells. the head of the international atomic energy agency says the physical integrity of ukraine's zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been violated several times by military activity.
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china warns of "counter measures" after the us approves a $1 billion arms package to taiwan — saying it's to maintain its self defence capabilities. millions of people in england and scotland will be invited for their autumn covid booster vaccine from monday — with care home residents first in line for the jab. ready for lift—off again. nasa prepares to make a second attempt later to launch its most powerful rocket to the moon — five days after technical problems scuppered its first attempt. it's not unusual for a it's not unusualfor a new it's not unusual for a new rocket to experience setbacks and delays but the team is confident they can overcome this and all eyes will be on at the launch pad as the countdown clock ticks down.
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hello and welcome if you're watching in the uk or around the world. mourners in moscow are paying their last respects to mikhail gorbachev, the last soviet leader who brought the cold war to a peaceful end. he died on tuesday at the age of 91. later today, he will be buried in the city's largest cemetery next to his wife raisa. russian president vladimir putin is not attending the funeral. the kremlin says mr putin has no space in his schedule. these are live pictures from moscow. this is the hall of columns, there are a lot of columns as you can see, are a lot of columns as you can see, a casket flanked on the right—hand side by his family is the body of
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may. it's an open casket as is traditional for soviet leaders from a lennon edwards. —— from lenin onwards. victor orban is also there who is the only eu leader represented at the ceremony. many eu leaders have been abandoned because of retaliatory sanctions imposed by sanction after the western sanctions from the invasion of ukraine. the figures from across the world have paid tribute to the man who led the soviet union until it was dissolved in 1991. our correspondent helena wilkinson looks back at mr gorbachev�*s life. mikhail gorbachev, a leader who will be remembered for overseeing enormous changes. mr gorbachev took power in 1985. he introduced political and economic reforms to kickstart the country's economy and he helped to end
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the cold war. to the west, he was a hero. he charmed on the international stage. here, meeting the then—prime minister margaret thatcher, on his first visit to the uk in 1984, before he became leader. he also opened up the soviet union to the world, but he was not able to prevent its slow collapse. many russians blamed him for the years of turmoil which followed. in his last years, mr gorbachev had been in poor health. more recently, he was said to have been unhappy with president putin's decision to invade ukraine. he was shocked, bewildered by what was happening. for all kinds of reasons, of course. he believed in, notjust in the closeness of the russian and ukrainian people, he believed that those two nations
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are kind of intermingled. earlier this week, president putin expressed his deepest condolences but the russian leader will not attend mr gorbachev�*s funeral today. the kremlin says he has not got room in his schedule. his absence is widely seen as a snub. among the tributes this week to mr gorbachev have been that he opened the way for a free europe and that his legacy is one that will not be forgotten. helena wilkinson, bbc news. plans to reopen a key gas pipeline to europe have been scrapped by the russian energy giant, gazprom. the company claims it can't restart nord stream 1 because of an oil leak in a turbine — and that it will remain closed for an indefinite period. however, the eu has accused russia of using gas as an economic weapon.
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the head of the international atomic energy agency has said that military activity has violated the physical integrity of the zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in ukraine several times. zaporizhzhia, in southern ukraine, is europe's largest nuclear plant. it was occupied by russia soon after it invaded ukraine in february — there's been heavy fighting close by and the plant has been rocked by shelling. six members of the iaea team remain at the plant and have carried out a second day of inspections. our security correspondent frank gardner is in zaporizhzhia and told us more about the comment by the iaea that the plant's physical intergity has been violated several times. what it means is that it has been taking incoming shell and more to artillery fire, nobody knows exactly for certain by whom, the russians say it was on them, it was the ukrainians, the ukrainians say vice versa. that incoming fire has affected potentially the electricity power line, so if there is an
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interruption previously, back—up generators kicked in, but the power supply is the key here because it's notjust supply is the key here because it's not just at the physical danger from shelves coming in, remember this is a power plant right in the middle of a power plant right in the middle of a war zone, it's the threats to the power supply that keep the reactor cool power supply that keep the reactor cool. interrupt that for a long period of time and there is the risk of overheating and the accidental release of radiation. so i am speaking from just outside a medical facility on the edge of zaporizhzhia and they will be handing out potassium i had iron tablets here as a precaution against that radiation poisoning. nobody is suggesting it is about to happen, it's a precaution, you take it for 2h hours and went the thyroid gland from radiation. the fact the monitors are in there now, they act as the eyes and ears of the world and the international community on what is going on inside that nuclear facility, because up until now,
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nobody has known for certain. ukrainian technicians have been keeping it going, the russian military are in control, but nobody has been getting a really clear idea of it. that has changed in the last 48 hours, that is a plus, but it is not a guarantee against future attacks. as i say, it's in the middle of a war zone and the director—general of the international atomic energy agency is quite sanguine about this, he says are great we got them in there, but there is nojust like says are great we got them in there, but there is no just like there is still the possibility of future violations of physical violations, tax, shelves coming in. really a nuclear plant is not the place to be firing mortars and artillery, this plant is relatively well protected, it's much more modern than the chernobyl one that blew up in 1986, it's got protective shields around the reactors, but the biggest threat is really the interruption of the electricity supply and ukraine has been accusing russia of doing what
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it calls nuclear blackmail, of worrying the world and the west in particular that there is a risk that they could be a huge accident, nobody is talking about a mushroom cloud or explosion, the accidental release of radiation. britain's new prime minister will be announced on monday and easing the cost of living crisis will be top of the agenda at downing street. with rocketing energy bills, many fear how they will make it through the autumn and winter. the crisis also threatens business and is projected to affect 60% of manufacturers. there are fears that many may have to cut down on production or close down altogether. to discuss this further i'm now joined by verity davidge. she is the director of policy at make uk — which helps manufacturing businesses meet their objectives and goals. thank you forjoining us. the german economy minister said this week that he knew of companies that had stopped production, have we yet got to that stage in the uk and if we
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haven't, when is going to be the pinch point do you think? i haven't, when is going to be the pinch point do you think?- haven't, when is going to be the pinch point do you think? i think we are very much _ pinch point do you think? i think we are very much moving _ pinch point do you think? i think we are very much moving towards - pinch point do you think? i think we are very much moving towards that | are very much moving towards that point and that is what our latest research shows. 40% of manufacturers have told us they have seen their energy bills increase by over 100% in the past 12 months. 50% expect them to increase again by 100% over them to increase again by 100% over the next 12 months. some of the companies i have been talking to have said actually we are getting predictions of 300% increases. 60 per cent of companies are now telling us that energy costs are threatening businesses. to put this into scale, when we ask that question four months ago, it was just 8%. we have gone from 8% of companies telling us this is threatening to 60%. what we're seeing now is companies starting to
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take action. while they are looking at their business practices, interlacing the buildings, they are beginning to look at changing production, avoiding production at peak times, looking at shorter production. for me, the real worrying trend now is the 12% of companies told us they have made job cuts as a direct result of the increasing cost in energy. what we need now is real intervention from the government, otherwise we will be moving towards more shutdowns and morejob moving towards more shutdowns and more job cuts, moving towards more shutdowns and morejob cuts, so moving towards more shutdowns and more job cuts, so we moving towards more shutdowns and morejob cuts, so we need moving towards more shutdowns and more job cuts, so we need to see a quick intervention from government to appease many factories. find quick intervention from government to appease many factories.- to appease many factories. and it needs to be _ to appease many factories. and it needs to be quick, _ to appease many factories. and it needs to be quick, given - to appease many factories. and it needs to be quick, given that - to appease many factories. and it needs to be quick, given that the| needs to be quick, given that the speed of which this is happening. they will presumably like consumers, already start to see increased demand for money out of their cash flow. in terms of the longer term
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picture, there is a gas cap on the prices, doesn't feel to be very tight fitting cap at the moment, there is one for consumers, business doesn't have that, does it? and there are no alternatives. you can't shop around and get a better deal, there are no better deals out there, period. there are no better deals out there, eriod. ., , ., there are no better deals out there, eriod. . , ., , i, , ., period. that is what surveys showed us, period. that is what surveys showed us. companies _ period. that is what surveys showed us, companies are _ period. that is what surveys showed us, companies are looking - period. that is what surveys showed us, companies are looking to - us, companies are looking to renegotiated energy contracts but as we all know that is pretty difficult right now. the businesses there is no energy price cap. the things we are calling forfrom no energy price cap. the things we are calling for from government todayis are calling for from government today is to immediately cut back from 20% to 5% for businesses, to remove the carbon crisis support, this is essentially a levy on businesses that only uk consumers pay towards it. if you cut that, immediately cut the overall costs to businesses on their energy bills and also exploring industry price caps, agreed at a fixed race because at the moment companies are just seeing
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those deals rocket and they have no way and no control of stopping them and what we need to do now is prevent that potential shutdown, to mitigate job cuts and make sure manufacturing and industry that is critical to our economy can continue to maintain those jobs and key production moving.— to maintain those jobs and key production moving. thank you very much. aid agencies are warning of food shortages in pakistan, after the devastating floods washed away nearly half of the country's crops. around 1,200 people are known to have been killed, but unicef says many more children could die from the rapid spread of diseases such as cholera and malaria. 0rkee village in the southern area of lesbela in balochistan was cut off from the rest of the country for more than 10 days. it's one of the least developed parts of the country. people there say they have largely been left to fend for themselves. 0ur correspondent saher baloch reports from there. i'm in lasbela district of baluchistan, and the town that i am in right now is one of the worst affected towns of baluchistan
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that we have come across so far. as soon as i got here, i was told that one of the villages over here was disconnected from the rest of the country for almost ten days with no network connection, no road links or nothing. as you may know, baluchistan was completely cut off from the rest of the country as most of the link roads and bridges and little pulls were completely destroyed by the floods. we are told that from the eastern side of baluchistan, a lot of flood waters came over here and completely disconnected the area. a lot of people then had to climb on top of trees in order to protect themselves and their children. one man over here had to spend around 16 hours on top of a tree and he was basically rescued after 16 hours by one of his neighbours. most of the people here are disconnected. but even then, if you see on my left over here, which is your right, a lot of these tents are given to them by religious organisations who have been doing a lot of work over here in every town and every district that we have gone to so far people have said that the religious
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organisations have given them a lot of food and a lot of rescue. the evacuation process has to go through now because most of the people are still stuck inside one of the villages over here. i've also been told that a lot of adults and some children are getting chest infections as well as skin infections over here. most of the people are coughing and there are no medical camps over here. when we reached here, all we could see were like these 10 to 12 camps that are situated over here with nobody else from the government representing them. some of the town people also told us that whatever relief and aid they got was taken away by their landlords. this is one of the claims that we have heard so far, and they are also worried that most of the relief that will come eventually will also go to their landlord. so their biggest demand right now is that whatever relief or aid comes to them, if it ever comes to them, should be given to them directly and not to their landlords right now. from monday, millions of people in england and scotland will be
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invited for their autumn covid booster vaccine — with care home residents first in line for the jab. although infections have been falling since earlyjuly, health bosses are predicting a resurgence of covid and flu this winter — and are encouraging those eligible to get vaccinated. joining me to discuss this is paul hunter, professor in medicine at the university of east anglia. he has regularly talked about covid to us over the last couple of years and, hello to you, pull, let me ask you first, we all knew this was coming, what will be different this time? ., ., ., ., , ., time? not a lot actually. compared to the spring _ time? not a lot actually. compared to the spring booster— time? not a lot actually. compared to the spring booster we _ time? not a lot actually. compared to the spring booster we had, - to the spring booster we had, everybody who was eligible for that will be getting vaccine again and those of us who were not eligible for the spring back vaccine but were over 50 will be in line for it. the big difference, however, is that
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some people, not everybody, will get the new what is call the magenta vaccine, which has both of the original strain but also has the ba one omicron virus in it as well. it will given some better protection. why isn't that vaccine being made available to everybody? is a just a question of limited supply? i available to everybody? is a 'ust a question of limited supply? i think so, es. question of limited supply? i think so. yes- i'm _ question of limited supply? i think so. yes- i'm not— question of limited supply? i think so, yes. i'm not sure _ question of limited supply? i think so, yes. i'm not sure how- question of limited supply? i think so, yes. i'm not sure how much i so, yes. i'm not sure how much vaccine we have actually got but what i would say is that the original vaccine is still very highly effective, particularly preventing severe disease, people needing to go into hospital. but the new vaccine is just that bit better against protecting against infection from omicron. we don't know how it
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will work out in the real world but the early studies show it does give some worthwhile additional protection. the original vaccine is a still effective, however. the inter - la a still effective, however. the interplay with _ a still effective, however. the interplay with flu. _ a still effective, however. the interplay with flu. i _ a still effective, however. the interplay with flu. i remember last autumn people were worried about flu. i don't think it was a particularly bad season, but we are relating to the previous year, for obvious reasons, and that raises concerns over, whether flu infections are involved, we might be caught out a bit. what is the feeling this year? i caught out a bit. what is the feeling this year?— caught out a bit. what is the feeling this year? i think we are more confident... _ feeling this year? i think we are more confident... welcome - feeling this year? i think we are more confident... welcome are | feeling this year? i think we are - more confident... welcome are not confident. but we're more expecting flu come back this year, because thatis flu come back this year, because that is what happened in australia. our winter flu tends to follow the 0ur winter flu tends to follow the australian, that is usually a good indication of what will happen and they have had more flu than they
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have had for some time. so i think it's likely to come back. also, if you are not experiencing flu for a long period of time, for a few years, often we can get more civilly ill with flu. i think we are worried that we will see more infections with flu and more severe infections with flu and more severe infections with flu and more severe infections with flu than we normally would expect. it's important people get vaccinated against influenza as well as against a covid if they are caught. at as against a covid if they are cau~ht. �* , . , as against a covid if they are cau~ht. �* , .,, .,, as against a covid if they are cau~ht. m ., as against a covid if they are cauuht. �* , ., caught. a pleasure as always, for now, caught. a pleasure as always, for now. thank _ caught. a pleasure as always, for now. thank you — caught. a pleasure as always, for now, thank you very _ caught. a pleasure as always, for now, thank you very much. - in the coming hours, nasa will once again attempt to launch its most powerful rocket ever, after technical problems hampered plans to get the artemis 1 mission off earth on monday. engineers have spent the week reviewing their data and now believe they can achieve a clean countdown. these are live pictures from the kennedy space center in florida ahead of this second attempt to launch the rocket. it's the first mission in the artemis programme,
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which aims to put people back on the moon by 2025. 0ur science correspondent jonathan amos it at the kennedy space center. hello, jonathan, very late at night or very early in the morning where you are. how intense has the work been during the course of this week to try to get this back on schedule? they have been poring over the data, sean, after monday's scrubber. i think they got to the bottom of the issues that prevented them from launching and so they will have another go, we see how they will get on. they started to fill this rocket with 2.7 million litres of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen atjust under an hour hydrogen and liquid oxygen atjust underan hourago, it's hydrogen and liquid oxygen atjust under an hour ago, it's going in fairly slowly. a key point will come up fairly slowly. a key point will come up at around 8am local time, about an hourand a up at around 8am local time, about an hour and a half away, when they start to prepare the engines at the base of the rocket, they need to be at a super cold temperature in order
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to work properly so they bleed some of that liquid hydrogen into the mechanisms of mine has 250 celsius. 0n mechanisms of mine has 250 celsius. on monday they couldn't be sure the engines were at the right temperature, that is what stopped the launch, but they have gone over the launch, but they have gone over the data, they can't come to the conclusion that maybe they were getting dodgy sensor data and if that comes up today, they think they can ignore the sensor and just proceed with the launch. but other factors will come into play as well, not least the weather here in florida, we have had a few flashes of lightning but at the moment they seem happy and they think, come lunchtime, maybe 60 or 70% chance of go. it's not allowed to launch in the rain, you can't have lightning within a ten nautical miles, within the past 30 minutes, you can't have huge great cumulus clouds over the spaceport.
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huge great cumulus clouds over the sace ort. , huge great cumulus clouds over the s--aceort. ,. , spaceport. fingers crossed. yes, fia . is spaceport. fingers crossed. yes, figgis cross. _ spaceport. fingers crossed. yes, figgis cross. i — spaceport. fingers crossed. yes, figgis cross, i am _ spaceport. fingers crossed. yes, figgis cross, i am sure _ spaceport. fingers crossed. yes, figgis cross, i am sure you - spaceport. fingers crossed. yes, figgis cross, i am sure you will l spaceport. fingers crossed. yes, | figgis cross, i am sure you will be very grateful if it does launch, otherwise you will be up against tomorrow morning. in terms of what this event is designed to achieve, though, it is qualitatively different, isn't it, from what the objective was back in the late 1960s when man first stepped foot on the moon? in when man first stepped foot on the moon? , . , . , ., moon? in december we will celebrate aollo 17, moon? in december we will celebrate apollo 17. the — moon? in december we will celebrate apollo 17. the very — moon? in december we will celebrate apollo 17, the very last _ moon? in december we will celebrate apollo 17, the very last landing - moon? in december we will celebrate apollo 17, the very last landing on - apollo 17, the very last landing on the moon and they stayed for the longest period of time, a total of 74 hours on the lunar surface and then they came back. the whole idea of this is that you go and you stay for extended periods, notjust on the surface but they are going to have a space station in orbit around the moon as well, which won't be occupied all of the time, but frequently will be occupied. so it's
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a more permanentjob at this time. that is a whole idea. thank you very much. the boss of the train operator avanti west coast, has announced he is stepping down — after facing criticism for introducing a reduced timetable that has caused chaos for passengers in recent weeks. it comes as the mayor of greater manchester, andy burnham, threatens to call for the company to be stripped of the franchise — as our business correspondent, marc ashdown, reports. 0vercrowded and chaotic. that's one verdict on train services between london, euston and manchester, piccadilly right now. a few weeks ago, the operator of avnti west coast introduced a reduced timetable, three trains an hour down to just one, and passengers have faced daily issues. i've come from london euston and two trains were cancelled, so there are three lots of passengers coming on the one train so that were standing seven. you don't know whether you're going to get to places on time. very often have got to stand and...
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uncomfortable journey. prices and the reduction in services is pretty appalling, isn't it? i well, when you compare it with the rest of europe. i the labour mayor of greater manchester, andy burnham, said he's heard of dangerous stampedes as passengers clamour for trains and claims. there are issues with the availability and pricing of tickets after giving the company a deadline of yesterday to sort things out. he's now calling on the government to step in. i have flushed out this management failure and now they need to respond to that with me and come up with a plan to put it right. and if they can't, then, of course, you've got to remove the contract and we've got to go to a different situation to get those trains back. this is so critical to our economy. this is the national infrastructure of our country. it's not working at the moment. and we urgently need to get around the table and come up with a solution. avanti says it can only run a full timetable and carry out essential training if drivers do overtime. it claims members of aslef have been refusing something the union strongly denies.
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last night, managing director phil whittingham announced he was stepping down. a spokesman said we apologise for the enormous frustration and inconvenience our customers deserve a dependable train service. so we're currently working hard to rebuild our timetable in a resilient and sustainable way. we would like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding. it's completely understandable that people are frustrated about this, this lack of certainty about what's going on. passengers want the reduced timetable to be reliable. they want much better information. they need a firm plan as to when the services are going to be put back together. it may take a bit of time to do that, but let's have a plan. at least. the department for transport said it is in regular contact with avanti regarding its performance and that people should have confidence their train will run on time. mark ashdown, bbc news. a uk ticket—holder has won friday's euromillions jackpot of £110 million. if the winner is a single ticket—holder, it would make them richer than harry styles and gary
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barlow. only 15 uk players have won a jackpot of more than £100 million, making this win one of the country's biggest. you are watching bbc news. now it's time for a look at the weather with darren bett. hello there. chaotic skies this weekend. it really is a very mixed picture. there will be some sunshine, some warm sunshine, mainly across the eastern side of the uk because further west, this is where it's going to be wettest. some heavy rain and the wind picking up as the weekend goes on as well. the reason for this very mixed picture is a big area of low pressure that's just sitting there to the west of the uk and around it we're pushing in these bands of showers or longer spells of rain and some freshening breezes as well. so we do have some sunshine across eastern areas through the rest of today, but maybe picking up some heavy thundery showers as we head through the afternoon. wetter weather out towards the west into western parts of england, wales, affecting south—west scotland
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and northern ireland. these areas particularly wet and cold too, 15 or 16 degrees in northern ireland, probably making the low 20s in northern scotland and the mid 20s in east anglia and the sout—heast where there should be very few showers. we've got more rain though, continuing into tonight, again pushing northwards across more of scotland and returning into northern ireland over the irish sea into western parts of england and wales. southerly breeze tends to pick up overnight so it's going to be quite a warm night and temperatures in the south no lower than 16 or 17 degrees. but tomorrow we're going to find some rain this time across northern parts of scotland and we start wet in northern ireland. that rain gets pushed further north into scotland. and as the breeze picks up, we're going to find some showery bursts of rain affecting some western parts of england, wales again, looks pretty dry for eastern areas of england. so temperatures here again reaching the mid 20s. but after the early rain in northern ireland, we should see some sunshine. so it's going to be a warmer day than today. but that low pressure is not really going anywhere at all. it continues to spiral around
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to the west of the uk early next week, continuing to dominate our weather. the details are going to change a bit, but we look like we're going to have some heavy rain, perhaps thundery pushing northwards into scotland. the winds picking up here in the south—west. gales are quite possible and this rain will turn heavy and thundery. there'll be some sunshine around elsewhere, maybe a few sharp showers breaking out as well. but because it's a southerly breeze, it's quite warm air for this time of the year. temperatures the low to mid 20s, but with low pressure dominating through the rest of next week, it's still unsettled. some showers, longer spells of rain, some sunshine. and slowly it will be turning a bit cooler. hello. this is bbc news. i'm shaun ley and these are the headlines:
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mourners pay their respects to the last soviet leader, mikhail gorbachev, ahead of his funeral. the head of the international atomic energy agency says the physical integrity of ukraine's zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been violated several times by military activity. china warns of �*counter measures' after the us approves a $1—billion arms package to taiwan — saying it's to maintain its self defence capabilities. millions of people in england and scotland will be invited for their autumn covid booster vaccine from monday — with care home residents first in line for the jab. and, ready for lift—off...again. nasa prepares to make a second attempt later to launch its most powerful rocket to the moon — five days after technical problems scuppered its first attempt. now on bbc news, dateline london.
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hello and welcome to the programme that brings together distinguished british commentators and foreign correspondents who write, blog, podcast and broadcast from the dateline: london. it's been a week for recalling the world's unfinished business — sectarian violence on city streets in iraq as one of its most influential figures bows out in a country which has endured nearly 20 years of instability. mikhail gorbachev, the last leader of the soviet union is being buried this weekend, in a country still struggling with his legacy. the british are still waiting for a new prime minister. in the studio to discuss all that
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are — bronwen maddox, director and chief executive of chatham house, an independent

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