live from london, this is bbc news. a doctors strike that threatens to be the most disruptive in the history of the nhs begins in england. final preparations for a president — joe biden heads to northern ireland to mark 25 years of the good friday agreement. a day after china wraps up military drills, the us and philippines start their biggestjoint exercises. president zelensky says an area of ukraine, rougly the same size as syria, has been contaminated by landmines since the russian invasion.

ukraine says 174,000 square kilometres — that's roughly the same area as syria — has been contaminated by landmines since russia's full—scale invasion. most have been found in the north—eastern kharkiv region, and it's feared it will take decades to clear them completely. 0ur ukraine correspondent james waterhouse brought us this report. it reflects the size of the battlefield. now, typically, mines are used by armies to protect their positions or force their enemy into areas where they will suffer casualties. but the reality is, in areas where the russians initially advanced, where they've then occupied territory for a number of months and then were subsequently forced out in ukrainian counter offensives, these areas are where the issue of land mines is the most acute. and these are also areas where people are looking to continue their lives and live

in incredibly challenging conditions. we've been to the eastern town of balakliya. this is what you call a scratching of the surface, a sweep and a gentle prod for hidden killers. a job with very obvious occupational hazards. translation: my family calls me in the morning l and tells me to be careful, to watch where i tread. of course, they are worried, very much worried. before, we would work with shells from world war two and now there are modern munitions, so we have to learn constantly because we find new kinds that we haven't encountered before. it's hard to describe this as anything other than random. this is a patch of land in the middle of balakliya. it's not a place, unlike other areas, that was once contested, where there was heavy fighting.

but what these minesweepers are looking for are so—called butterfly mines. they're banned by international law. they don't look much, but the damage they can cause is severe. this part of ukraine has been both occupied and liberated. in the area around the city of izium, both sides have been accused of using butterfly mines, with kyiv denying it. for patients in the battered hospital, the results are the same. this man stepped on one in the garden of his destroyed home. translation: everything was lost. i have no house, no cars, no cows, no property. and i used to have it all. it all got burned down — ruined, made useless, impossible to rebuild. my grandchildren cannot visit because everything is mined.

at a mine lecture, there's an appetite to better understand this resident threat. translation: i'm very cautious. i don't walk around much, but when i do, i use the same path because i'm scared. i have a 16—year—old son and i'm really worried about him going out on his own. i tell him about the mines. i wish he was here to listen to this. back in balakliya, 0leksandr�*s task reaches its crescendo. explosion. a job likely to be replicated for decades. and that is the consensus — that it is going to be years before large swathes of territory in ukraine will be considered safe. to give you an idea, in the city of izium, which you saw there, rescue teams have been uncovering explosives every month for the last

70 years since the second world war. now, it is every day. we were out with them, they were finding hand grenades, grad missiles that have impacted into buildings, as well as land mines themselves. people call up asking for help and they go from street to street. it's a never ending task, which means that whenever this conflict reaches some kind of conclusion, people will continue to suffer serious injury or worse because of this hidden threat. james waterhouse in kyiv there. the us and the philippines are holding their largest—everjoint military drills a day after china concluded large—scale exercises around taiwan. beijing simulated attacks on taiwan in response to the island's leader meeting the us house speaker last week. plans for the joint exercises between the us and philippines pre—dated china's activities but won't do anything to calm already simmering tensions in the region.

0ur correspondent shaimaa khalil has more details. security personnel will remain in their posts, they will continue to defend the nation, that's what the taiwanese president tsai ing—wen has said. and even though china announced that these military exercises which started on saturday right after she came back from the united states have ended on monday, we have at least eight warships still in taiwanese water, eight chinese warships. so the drills may have concluded but the presence, the chinese presence is still there, the tension is still there. we have had three days of military exercises, chinese military exercises around taiwan, 0perationjoint sword where china simulated or practiced precision attacks on taiwanese targets, simulated surrounding taiwan, but also we've had jets flying into taiwanese airspace to taiwan's east and this dramatic

animation video that showed china attacking taiwan by sea, air and hitting some targets in taiwan with explosions. so quite dramatic exercises there. a day after that, another set of drills, this time between the us and the philippines, the balikatan exercises. they announced that they are going to be the biggest ever. they are going to involve 17,000 troops and a live fire exercise on a sunken ship in the south china sea. now, we knew these were going to happen, they were agreed on after the us secured a defence deal with the philippines earlier this year, so we knew they were happening. we knew they were going to be be, but this large—scale, if you will, display of american air power in the region could not have come at a more sensitive time in the indo—pacific. we know they are going to happen

around philippine waters but also the south china sea. two things you need to know about this area, well, three. it's tense, it is a very, very busy trading route and it's highly contested by china. and already beijing has expressed that it is not happy, even though manila has reassured them that this is to bolster the country's military capabilities. so you've got two sets of drills happening, one after another, at an increasingly tense time here in the region, increasingly high contention between the us and china, as those two powers are trying to bolster their military power here in the indo—pacific. shaimaa khalil there. the travel industry was one of the hardest hit during the pandemic with the cruise industry a major casualty. bosses from the sector gathered recently for their big annual meeting at the seatrade global conference in florida. lucy hockings was there for us and caught up with the new boss of one of the world's largest leisure travel companies, carnival. she began by asking about the industries recovery

from covid... it was certainly traumatic for the company, for the industry and for a lot of economies around the world that rely on the cruise industry forjobs and for wealth creation. coming out of it, i think if i was going to talk about what are the lasting impressions... first of all, i think we proved resilience at a level that nobody ever even wanted to dream about. how's business now? 0h, we can talk about that. yeah, business now, it's good. you know, what i like to say is, we completed the world's largest start up in history, with 90 ships restarted. that means over 150,000 team members, getting them back up and running in full. getting 90 ships, that's going to be about 325,000 guests at any one time being carried. so that's a huge achievement that we made as a company, and now we get to focus on getting back to strong profitability. and i think we've made a good start. and your results? our results are good.

you know, we just came out with our first quarter results — we beat on all measures. there has been an influx of luxury hotel brands four seasons, ritz—carlton getting into the game. do you see that as being a threat or do you welcome that kind of new competition? 0h, me personally, on behalf of carnival corporation, i welcome it. i welcome it for two reasons. number one is one of the biggest things, the hurdles we have to get over is attracting newcomers — attracting people who have never cruised before. we're a very small piece of the holiday market. if you think about all of the hotel rooms in the world, if you put them into a pot and you put in all the cruise cabins in the world, we'd be less than 3%. we're tiny. and so getting our voice heard with populations that have never cruised is difficult, something we work on all the time. if you get named brands that people recognise, like a four seasons or a ritz and they give that stamp of approval to cruising, all of a sudden, that opens up more doors for us.

there is so much potential there, that there's room for all of you, is what you're saying? yes. 0k, interesting. it was reported that you shed 2a ships during the pandemic. you've got some new ships on order, obviously, but you've got a low order book, the lowest that you've had in decades. is demand falling, i mean, why is — can you explain to us why that's happened ? or is this about some of the debt that you took on during the pandemic? how did you make that decision? yeah, so really what we did is a fleet transformation. we actually sold out 26 ships in total over the last three years. and even though our capacity growth for 2023 versus 2019 is only 4.5%, actually, new ships delivered in that time period make up 25% of our fleet. so we've really gone through an evolution with our fleet. as far as our order book, looking forward, we're going to be measured. i mean, at the end of the day, our debt balance has gone from 12, 13 billion before

2020 to 35 billion. the industry has a commitment to net zero by 2050. does that feel realistic? it does feel realistic. you know, if anybody tells you they know how they're going to get there, that'd be unrealistic. but what i can say is we're going to continue to make progress every single year. we're going to continue to be on the cutting edge of the potential solutions out there. and we're going to try, fail, learn and keep going. the profile of your traditional cruiser has really changed, though. i think that would come as a surprise to a lot of people who haven't cruised before. how big is this potential market of millennials and also new to cruise? there is more interest in cruising today from millennials than there was back in 2019. the opportunity is enormous, and there's plenty of ways that we can reach those audiences, convince them to come on to try this and they're going to get hooked because that's what happens when you cruise. the boss of carnival talking to lucy

hockings. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. reading — it's not something that comes easy for everyone, and for 35—year—old aaron, it's been a struggle. i was really scared, i felt embarrassed, quite silly, if i'm honest. but now that i'm as far as what i am, i'm, you know, proud of myself for doing it. twice a week, aaron has a session with coach anne who helps him break down big and complicated words, and he is doing this for one very special person. i've got a little girl, and she likes me to read books and stuff like that. anne, a retired speech therapist, wanted to use her skills to help people like aaron. i'm in awe of the people that come along, because they are so brave to start it in the first place, and hold their hand up and say, "i need some help." the bbc�*s learning to read at 51 with jay blades also had quite the impact on people,

and reading groups in this region went from six in 2021 to 15 by the end of 2022. and there's one more thing aaron wants you to know. if i can do it, anybody can do it. you're live with bbc news. the global economy is expected to grow a paltry 3% over the next five years — that's according to the head of the international monetary fund, kristalina geogieva. her comments were made ahead of the imf and world bank's spring meetings which kick off today in washington. 0ur north america business correspondent samira hussain is there. high inflation continues to plague countries around the world. central bankers are raising interest rates to try and slow down those price increases. as a result, however, is we have some of the weakest growth projections by the international monetary fund since the 1990s. now, with the world's finance ministers and central bankers all meeting in washington this week, the increasingly fragile global economy will certainly be the focus, along with ways for countries to try

and mitigate some of the negative impacts of those interest rate rises. now the high inflation, however, is already having an impact on poorer countries, pushing them further into financial distress. given the uncertain global economic outlook, the imf believes that many more countries will be looking to the imf for help. let's take a look at some headlines in brief. detectives in the us state of kentucky say a gunman — who killed five people at a bank on monday — streamed the attack live on social media. connor sturgeon, who was 25, worked at the bank and opened fire at his colleagues before being shot and killed by police at the scene in louisville. the us government has applied for an emergency stay on a ruling by a conservative texas judge suspending approval of the abortion pill, mifepristone. the us authorities say it's been used for more than 20 years and is safe.

"a dearfriend, a fun guy and a superb guitarist" — abba has paid tribute to their guitarist lasse, who has died at the age of 70. the chinese cyberspace regulator has unveiled draft measures to manage generative artificial intelligence services similar to chatgpt — after tech giant alibaba and others released their models. now — who's right — the critics or the public. if you listened to most critics — you'd avoid the new super mario bros film, like your life depended on it. talk to movie—goers, though, and they loved it. and now it's breaking box office records. 0ur reporter nicky schiller has more. $377 million. that is how much the new super mario brothers film has made at the global box office in its first five days. that means it is the biggest opening for an animated film of all time, beating the previous record holder,

which was frozen 2. now it is, of course, based on the world famous nintendo character super mario, voiced this time by this man, chris pratt, whilst the villain in the movie is played byjack black. if you haven't seen it, here's a little taster. mouser is coming. i'm not afraid. i'll do anything for my brother. we're going to save him. yes! you asked for it! here we go! it has to be said, the movie hasn't gone down well with all of the critics. take a look at some of the reviews. the first from the new york post. "just another soulless ploy to sell us merchandise." meanwhile, the telegraph described it as like being frog marched round toys r us. finally, this one from the guardian. "tedious and flat in all senses."

but take a look at rotten tomatoes, the film review site. 56% from the critics, but the audience score — 96% and other critics agree with that. i actually really, really enjoyed it. there's a lot of fun. it's brightly coloured. i think it has a wide ranging appeal for both adults and kids alike. having it being released during the easter weekend, when all the kids are going to be off school, is playing to its advantage. but people, you know, critics and audiences need to remember this is mario, nintendo's biggest player. there will be appeal regardless. now, some experts think this super mario film could be one of the biggest movies of the year. and hollywood studio owners, and indeed movie theatres, will be hoping that its success is a sign that families are prepared to go back to the cinema after the covid pandemic. i bet my kids will want to watch it! what would the springtime be without a few daffodils?

a team of volunteers in cumbria has spent the winter making 15,000 daffodils from ceramic — and they're being put to good use, as mark mcalindon reports. 15,000 ceramic daffodils are almost complete. the idea came from a conversation with friends of the ullswater way, and they were deciding that 2023 should be the year of art and landscape in ullswater and asked me if i would do something. and so i immediately thought of daffodils because of the connection of wordsworth with the valley. helen can't wait to see her tribute to probably the most famous lakeland poet of all unveiled at lowther castle. i'm quite excited to see it. we did do some planting testing because we needed to know how long it was going to take to plant them. and just seeing 100 together was quite spectacular. so i think once the 15,000 are out there, it's going to be quite something to see.

but it's been hard work this winter. volunteers have spent many cramped hours putting these foot tall flowers together — each part assembled by hand. the hardest bit is actually putting the first little star washer onto it, and once we got that, we were away. they look beautiful. i got involved in making the actuall heads, then doing the assembling. i think it's going to look absolutely amazing. just a swathe of yellow ceramic daffodils. the daffodils can be bought online or at the display at the castle. it's hoped they'll raise more than £300,000 for local organisations. we work with farmers and we work with landowners to show that we can have the nature recovery, the naturalflood management. we're hoping that the money raised from this will help go towards creating new hedgerows and then obviously lots of tree planting. mark mcalindon, bbc news.

this is bbc news. now — freshwater pearl mussels were once common in our rivers, and the rare pearls found inside them were used in the crown jewels of kings and queens. but over the past few hundred years, they've become critically endangered and almost vanished from our river beds. so now scientists are working on a project to breed them and boost numbers again. chris dearden reports. so small you need a magnifying glass to see them and a microscope to look at them properly. thousands of tiny baby pearl mussels growing slowly in a hatchery. i've been working on these mussels for 17 years and i would say probably for the first ten years, we had little in the way of results. we were able to get them

to breed in captivity, we were able to collect the juveniles, but getting them to survive past six months has been really tricky. and that's partly because under water, the baby mussels have a strange, secret life. the babies look like a tiny version of the 19805 computer game character pacman. remember him — a circle with a big mouth? they use that to hitch a ride mouth on the gills of passing fish. if they can survive all that, they can live to be 140 years old. the thing about freshwater mussels is that they're probably one of the best bio indicators i know. so if you've got baby mussels in your river, you know, juvenile mussels in the river, it probably means that there's not much wrong with that river at all. also, they are a functioning part of the ecosystem, they create a habitat on the river bed, they will be good habitat for fish species and invertebrates. so that's why conservationists are also creating places for the mussels to live. one reason the numbers declined is because rivers were dredged, changing their habitat, so gravel and boulders are being put

back into the riverbed here. we're not allowed to tell you exactly where it is and that's because the other reason these mussels became endangered is because of poachers looking for pearls. you don't actually find pearls in pearl mussels very regularly, it is extremely rare. and it's one reason that they're sadly poached, so people go out and try to find pearl mussels but they don't have pearls in pearl mussels. and pearls from these mussels are so rare that one found in the river conwy was used in the crown jewels of king charles ii, over 300 years ago. nowadays, scientists are more interested in getting them to produce babies. the first release of the young mussels into our rivers happens this summer. let's turn our attention now to "the outlaws" — which has proved to be one of the most popular comedies of recent years. written by stephen merchant and starring the hollywood actor, christopher walken, it's proved such

a hit with viewers it's been commissioned for another series. but while that's good news for the programme — the future of the community centre where much of the drama is based — is uncertain. pam caulfield reports. seamills was the backdrop of the first two series of the 0utlaws, which followed seven lawbrea kers completing community payback sentences, a hollywood a—lister. it was fantastic for the area and delighted to see it used in that fashion but a little heartbreaking to see it is a tv show about a community centre and it being revitalised through its use. unfortunately, it is a case where it was fiction rather than fact. that is because in reality, the centre was shut down four years ago. the local community groups accused the council of allowing the building to deteriorate. when it closed, it was closed with around £80,000 to do repairs.

now that sum, because it has been sitting there almost four years nearly, is looking closer to1 million. it has been a waste of time and resources. they could have solved a lot of problems. bristol city council received £18,000 from the production team for the filming here. they said no one was available for interview today but that half of that had gone to the bristol film office and the other half reinvested into looking at how the site could be redeveloped into affordable housing and new community facilities. with a third series now on the cards, there are concerns it could delay things further. i would like to see the council thinking about if they are going to film here, what it could mean in terms of bubbling up tensions. and also how they will invest in the community and assure us the promise they will. they are also appealing to the bristol born co—creator of the 0utlaws stephen

merchant to back their campaign to preserve the site. now here's the weather with carole kirkwood. hello again. after a fairly dry and sunny start to the day, things are changing for many of us as we head on through the afternoon. it's going to be wet and windy. some of us already have this combination. some of us have it coming our way. so a lot of dry weather across parts of scotland and eastern england, but the rain already in the west and the south west is going to continue to push northwards and eastwards and some of this rain will be heavy. the winds also increasing in areas adjacent to the irish sea. temperatures nine in the north to about 1k in the south. now, as we head through the latter part of the afternoon, this is when the winds really start to strengthen, especially the west of the coasts and hills, could have gusts 50 to 60 miles an hour. but even inland, we're going to have gusty winds as the rain continues to push east and north, depositing snow above 300 metres in the highlands —

we could have 5 to 10 centimetres of snow above 300 metres and it's going to be windy across the northeast of the north sea, including the northern isles. another chilly night. so a chilly start to the day tomorrow as low pressure anchors itself across the uk. but look at the iso bars, particularly in the southwest and through the english channel. here is where we'll have the strongest winds through the course of tomorrow. so we start off with the wintriness above 300 meters in the highlands. we could see some wintriness in the tops of the pennines, the cumbrian falls, the welsh mountains and the moors for a time. but that will revert back to rain and showers. and these black circles represent the strength of the gusts of wind. so wherever you are, it's going to be a windy day, but especially so south wales, south west and the english channel coastline. it will feel chilly, too, in the showers, the rain and the wind, 7 to 12 degrees being our maximum temperatures. during wednesday into thursday, the low pressure drifts off in the direction of the north sea. the iso bars really widen.

so it's not going to be as windy a day. it'll still be breezy and it's going to be a day of sunshine and scattered showers. the showers in england and wales pushing eastwards, some of those heavy and thundery and temperatures eight to about 1k degrees. but you can see something just waiting in the wings behind me there. that rain has the potential to cross some southern areas. the northern edge of it still open to question. but in the north of the country, it's more likely to be showers. but into the weekend, it turns milder.

live from london, this is bbc news. a doctors' strike that threatens to be the most disruptive in the history of the nhs begins in england. final preparations for a president —joe biden heads to northern ireland to mark 25 years of the good friday agreement. the head of the uk's largest business lobby, tony danker, has been sacked over misconduct claims. hello and welcome to bbc news. i'm samantha simmonds. we begin here in england, where thousands ofjunior doctors