live from washington. this is bbc news. more western countries have evacuated diplomats from sudan. uk mp diane abbott suspended after playing down the racism suffered byjewish, irish and traveller people. and — bed, bath and beyond files for bankruptcy after more than 50 years in business. we start in sudan, where more than two dozen countries have been evacuating their citizens from the capital khartoum as fighting between two rival armed groups continues. this was french nationals leaving earlier.

most of those being evacuated are diplomats and their families. spain, germany and italy are among other countries still evacuating people — the us and uk have already flown diplomats out, as well as canada. its prime minister, justin trudeau, tweeted that "canadian officials in nearby countries have also been mobilized to help" — he says they're stationed in nearby djibouti — which has a french and american military base. sudan's army has been fighting a rival paramilitary group — the rsf — for more than a week and this is what khartoum looks like right now. and while foreign nationals are airlifted out, sudanese civilians remain trapped in the fighting. the violence has worsened and it is already at a desperate humanitarian crisis, here is onejournalist we spoke to. lack of food, lack of electricity, lack of water, we don't have electricity for three days now and also we do not have access

to water since saturday but we are drinking from wells in khartoum. live now to kalkidan yibetal in the ethiopian capital, addis ababa. i know you are monitoring the situation very closely in sudan, what can you tell us? the situation remains evacuations hint of a negotiated solution, we are nearing a supposed ceasefire, that was declared separately by the parties on friday. now there are fears by the sudanese people this could lead to an intensified fighting, even

during the ceasefire there was intensified fighting on saturday in khartoum and fears more can follow. so there are reports of more evacuation from different countries, the us and the uk and also un personnel as well. forthe the uk and also un personnel as well. for the people left behind, the sudanese people the situation remains bleak. fin situation remains bleak. on that point — situation remains bleak. on that point about the situation for those people left behind and the deteriorating humanitarian situation is there any prospect of humanitarian assistance or age getting in, any time soon?— assistance or age getting in, any time soon? there are no fliuhts, any time soon? there are no flights, humanitarian - any time soon? there are no flights, humanitarian flights | flights, humanitarian flights entering sudan because the main international airport in khartoum is a battleground. many of the humanitarian agencies have either suspended operations or a functioning to a very limited capacity. that

is very concerning. there are efforts to mobilise specially by the usa from neighbouring countries, more and more people and civilians are crossing the border to neighbouring countries fleeing the violence, aid can be provided there. for the millions of people trapped in sudan there isn't any supply right now, more and more supplies are dwindling, water, electricity are in short and we are also hearing the internet is not working properly as it used to in the days, first days of the war. things are bleak on this front as well and one important information as well here as hospitals and health facilities are not working to their full capacity, facilities are not working to theirfull capacity, a large their full capacity, a large degree theirfull capacity, a large degree of hospitals are not

functioning properly which has left many people in need of medical support without any help stop. medical support without any help step-— you so much. for more on this, i spoke to cameron hudson of the centre for strategic and international studies. what do we know about how these evacuations are carried out and how high—stakes they are? they've been a bit chaotic and they've been a bit unique in terms of every country essentially trying to rescue its own people. there has not been one single organised evacuation of all international diplomatic staff so as you suggested earlier, the uk evacuated its embassy staff earlier today, the united states did so on saturday night washington time. and there have been various other attempts ongoing by many other european embassies. the uk and the us were able to evacuate via air but we know that the french

and others are trying to convoy over land, about 600 kilometres, to port sudan on the red sea coast. it is a very dangerous trip, any overland travel is going to be highly dangerous both because of the fighting that's going on which you have to traverse but also the number of checkpoints that you have to get through. we don't yet know how successful those convoys have been in getting through with international staff — there's a fear that international staff could be targeted eitherfor a hostage taking or because they're driving very expensive 4x4 vehicles which some of the forces on the ground might want to have for their own fighting so it's a very chaotic situation right now. with diplomatic missions shutting down, what does this mean for them and also in terms of the dynamics of this conflict and how it might evolve?

i don't think that having diplomats out of the country hurts the diplomacy. they're going to be able to do more diplomacy if they can re—establish their embassies essentially in exile, perhaps in nairobi or addis or an adjoining country where they don't have to worry about the safety of their civilians. i think the real challenge with the departure of the international staff, however, is it's a signal to the local sudanese that it's not safe for anyone to be in the city any more, and what that's triggering is a mass exodus of people out of the city who no longer feel even a modicum of protection by the fact that international staff was there and so we are seeing people who probably shouldn't even be travelling right now in vehicles that probably can't even make the trip to the red sea or to the egyptian border. these are very long journeys, much of which is across open desert and so you have people now travelling without food, without water, without medicine, trying to get to safety, all triggered,

i think in many respects, by the departure of internationals and the uptake in fighting that we have seen happening in khartoum since those departures early this morning. and you are describing people travelling, spreading out across the country and we also know that the fighting is spreading out across the country as well. do you think there is a potential here for essentially other paramilitary groups to get involved 7 absolutely, i think that is one of the biggest fears right now. sudan borders a number of countries which in recent years have had their own internal rebellions, they have their own militia groups who are ready for a new salary and a new pay cheque in sudan if the call comes. so forces in libya, in chad, in the central african republic but we know have been contacted by the rapid support forces already, they could well be mobilising right now, trying to make their way, adding to the conflict in sudan. cameron, i dojust want to ask you, do you think

the international community will be able to dissuade the warring parties to stop and crucially, how? well, not right now, i don't think that's possible. we have seen an enormous amount of diplomatic pressure put on the parties in the last several days calling for a ceasefire during the eid celebrations that took place over the weekend. again, what we're seeing is the parties agree on the phone to a ceasefire when they're called by the secretary general of the un or the secretary of state, but then in reality on the ground they're not implementing that ceasefire. i think that we should have lost all faith and confidence that their words will be implemented and i think we have to act on the fact that there is not going to be a ceasefire any time soon. cameron hudson from the centre for strategic and international studies, a senior associate there. cameron, thanks so much. to kenya where police have found 47 bodies need to be

members of a cult told they would go to heaven they starved themselves to death. they were found in the forest near a coastal town, found in the forest near a coastaltown, police found in the forest near a coastal town, police still searching the graves and the leader of the cult called the good news international church which he is in custody although he denies wrongdoing. now to uk news. the labour party says diane abbott has been suspended as an mp — until an investigation into a letter she wrote about racism to the observer newspaper is over. diane abbott is being investigated for suggesting thatjewish people suffer prejudice, but not racism. she later said she was withdrawing her remarks and apologised "for any anguish caused". her comments have been universally criticised from within labour and outside. she made them in response about an article about racism towards different communities, she said travellers irish and jewish people never made to sit at the back of buses in america, nor manacled to slave ships. the

labour spokesperson described the remarks is deeply offensive and wrong and they moved quickly to suspend her while an investigation is carried out. she has now apologised saying she withdraws her remarks and disassociates herself from them, she says it is undeniable travellers, irish and jewish people have suffered racism this was only an initial draft of her letter. diane abbott has a long history of speaking out about racial equality, she was the first black woman mp elected more than 30 years ago, also a close political ally of jeremy corbyn the former labour leader who no longer sits as a labour in because of his association with claims of anti—semitism that doctors leadership. for diane abbott to suggestjewish people somehow faced different or less of racism than others certainly does herself no favours, keir starmer has tried one of the central missions has been to try to disassociate labour from anti semitism, he has tried to be decisive here, so that she

doesn't wear it said again, interesting to see if she is allowed to return to the parliamentary labour party down the line now she has apologised, unlikejeremy apologised, unlike jeremy corbyn. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. it's the newest and one of the biggest greenhouses in the country. the lights and the temperature controlled environment mean crops can be grown here most of the year. between this site and another the greenhouses produced 20% of all british tomatoes and with recent shortages of salad crops in supermarkets the growers here say it is more important than ever to think local. some supply chain issues and now obviously a war, the energy crisis and seeing climatic change. if the temperature is controlled, cucumbers can grow almost all year round. 25 million of them are produced here every year.

the department for the environment, food and rural affairs says it is supporting farmers to produce food profitably and sustainably including £600 million in grants. but producers here say far more needs to be done to help them grow more of our food locally. you're live with bbc news. some developing news the russian appointed government in the crimean port city of sebastopol says the black sea fleet has come under sustained drone attack from ukraine. 0n telegram the governor reported a russian fleet was repelling from super strains and services in the city on alert, no comment from ukraine and the peninsular was legally annexed by russia in 2014. we will continue to follow the story and update you as we know. still to the unsolved question is who was behind explosions on

the nord stream one gas lines in september last year. it supplied up to a maximum of 170 million cubic metres of gas to europe. in 170 million cubic metres of gas to eur0pe-_ to europe. in 2021 another --ieline to europe. in 2021 another pipeline was _ to europe. in 2021 another pipeline was created - to europe. in 2021 another pipeline was created and l to europe. in 2021 another- pipeline was created and these are pictures of it being built but it never entered service. then last year in september, four separate leaks were found in both pipelines. western and russian leaders blame each other for the attack but, in short, there is no clear answer yet. earlier i spoke to a journalist who investigated the pipeline explosions. these blasts occurred seven months ago. are we any closer to knowing who was behind them? the short answer is not really, no. we've seen investigations in multiple countries. i myself have spent months talking to dozens of folks and in half a dozen different countries, and publicly

at least, there have been no clear accusations made by governments with evidence at least. we've had a lot of finger—pointing and name—calling initially after the blasts but in terms of the actual identities of the perpetrators — no, nothing at all. the eu has said that it believes that this was sabotage and certainly the explosions themselves were so large, even if we don't know who was behind this, do we know more about the execution of these blasts? have you been able to find out more? yeah, this has been a big part of the work i've done in the last few months — to try to talk to people who understand the mechanics essentially of these kinds of acts of sabotage. and what i've learned is that the explosions themselves involved hundreds of kilograms of explosive material that was likely placed just underneath the pipelines, very close to them. often at a depth of around 70m where these pipelines this were along the baltic sea

and what was incredibly important to note was that both the location and the timing of the explosions was, according to multiple officials i've spoken to, particularly in denmark, was intentional. these were outside of the territorial waters of both denmark and sweden but inside what's known as the exclusive economic zones. this was, officials told me, designed to send a very clear message to countries like denmark, a member of nato, and sweden, about to be a member of nato, that they could strike, whoever this was, close to the borders, close to the shoreline of these countries, and the timing has occurred just hours before the leaders of norway, denmark and poland, were meeting to celebrate the launch of another new gas pipeline that would bring norwegian gas into europe. talking about those countries — denmark, sweden, multiple affected countries, we know they've all launched separate investigations into these attacks. but why aren't they investigating together?

it has been one of the most interesting parts about this entire episode, is the idea that these countries, many of them nato members, many of them close allies, have not similarly shared a huge amount of information with one another. the lead prosecutor in sweden for instance saying there were so many sensitivities around the work his team were doing in their investigations, they didn't want to share it with other countries, and over last year or two there have been many, many incidences where potential espionage has threatened the security environment around information inside major nato members including, for instance, germany. and so a lot of countries are very wary when it comes to releasing information about what they're able to do underwater even with some of their closest allies. as you know, of course, these pieces of infrastructure, they are multibillion—dollar pieces of energy infrastructure, essentially. i just wonder what have affected countries, northern european countries, been doing since these attacks to kind of mitigate

these kinds of risks? yeah, of course. this is something that theoretically has been a concern for governments for many, many years and particularly with the extraordinary growth of the internet and a number of cables beneath the sea floor all over the world. governments have been concerned about this, they have spent some time and money thinking about how to mitigate but of course this was really the first really unprecedented attack on a piece of subsea infrastructure with a clear act of malice as forethought, as it were. and so governments in places like denmark, like sweden, like norway, like poland, like germany, even the uk, they're now thinking about they need to do to better guard against this kind of thing and that typically involves greater defence spending, it's looking at new technologies. france, for instance, working with its defence contractors very closely, having unveiled its own strategy not so long ago, the uk going out to the market, buying a couple of ships that are very much dedicated

on this kind of work and in countries like denmark where they plan ahead over a decade with their defence spending, this is right in the centre of those political negotiations about how they're going to spend their money in a relatively small country, to make sure that not only are they able to operate as part of nato, not only are they are able to defend against russia in their own backyard, but they're also able to safeguard a lot of its infrastructure that is really growing. and of course the backdrop to all of this is that this came at a time when we saw european countries already turning away from russia, but i wonder to what extent do you think that these blasts have essentially solidified that, made that more permanent? it's really interesting, of course, nord stream 1 and 2 built many years apart, but very similar routes, both of them involved in these acts of sabotage, of course. we've seen a massive fall in russian imports into the eu over the previous few months prior to this attack following the invasion, and now with around two fifths of all russian imports to eu going through nord stream 1,

it's a lot harder for a future possibility, let's say, of future russian imports going anything back to the level of where they were previously. briefly, if you don't mind, do you think we'll ever know who was behind these attacks? i've talked to a lot of intelligent officials in a lot of different countries and many of them say that eventually these things do come out but if there are countries out there in possession of information about who the culprits are, individuals i've talked to have said if it's not the russians, if it's another country, another actor, there's not currently a massive incentive to publicise that.

one of america's most recognizable home goods chain — bed bath & beyond — has filed for bankruptcy protection. for more than 50 years, it sold items like shower curtains, bedding, and almost every other household item. it was frequently on the fortune 500 list of biggest american companies. in 2010, it had 1,100 stores across the us, puerto rico and canada. then when the pandemic led to a rise of online shopping, it failed to keep up with competitors. by late 2022, the company reported a loss of nearly $400 million. to avoid bankruptcy, it came up with a plan to raise a billion dollars, but fell short. but ultimately, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in newjersey on sunday. the filing said, it would start the process this week of closing its 360 bed bath & beyond stores. earlier i spoke with the business reporter from the earlier i spoke with the business reporterfrom the new york times who has been covering this story. it was popular for so long. covering this story. it was popularfor so long. where did things go wrong? exactly. it was a store that college students gravitated to, new homeowners gravitated to, but around 2014 the force of e—commerce really

started to show. so bed bath & beyond was always known as a place you would browse and go to in person but in 2014 they started to see the full effect of amazon and other companies that had built up their e—commerce base and starting to pull away sales from bed bath & beyond. 0ne statistic that stands out to me is that in 2014 the share price was around $80 and by 2018 that are dropped 85%, about $15 million and so you do not have as much liquidity and you are dependent on trends and then you get into a constant cycle of trying to keep up. i wanted to talk about the pandemic hit in a moment first i just want to say, the bankruptcy filing does not necessarily mean the company will go out of business but walk us through what happens next. today, bed bath & beyond said they are beginning the process of closing their stores, so that does mean that for shoppers if you want to use coupons, do that

by wednesday and this process will happen swiftly. the company said most of its stores will be closed by the end ofjune. and what about the 14,000 employees? what will happen to them? in the bankruptcy filing today, bed bath & beyond said they have 14,000 employees and compensation of about $26 —— $76 million, they are asking the court to help them pay that. those are the outstanding numbers. i went to some of the stores today and chatted to some employees and right now i think it is just a lot of uncertainty for theirjob and this has been a difficult process because the company has been closing stores for months and this feels like a final chapter. certainly difficult circumstances for them. the bigger picture,

of course, as you mentioned, was the store's inability to adapt to the needs of online shoppers. but what do you think this particular case tells us about the future for other brick and mortar stores? there is a space for brick and mortar to exist. when you have such customer loyalty like bed bath & beyond had, you have to hold onto the things that makes that special so they began rolling away or taking away things that people loved, lessening the impact of the coupon or getting rid of some of those national namebrand chains or the discoverability, and decluttering their stores. so if you are still a store operating you have to know what your customer wants and what they care about most and i think that is a huge takeaway, that bed bath & beyond strayed away from what their core customers loved about them. are there any other traditional brick and mortar stores that adapted better, essentially,

to e—commerce and the arrival of that? in a conversation about bed bath & beyond, the other side of the coin is target who adapt by having e—commerce buy online and pick up in store to make people easy to shop there. but they still have a feeling of browsing around, you may intend to just go and buy something worth $10 and you leave having spent $100. so they have done a good balance of navigating both of those worlds and showing up the way shoppers want to shop. thank you very much. and stay with us here on bbc. you can always head to our website for the latest or download our bbc

app the latest or download our bbc app as well to stay up to date on the go. thank you for your company and i will see you soon. hello there. the weather for the first few days of this week set to be really quite chilly for the time of year, cold enough even to see some areas of frost, as we'll see in a moment. now, what's going on? the area of low pressure that brought some of us rain on sunday is moving eastwards. as that happens, we get these cold northerly winds plunging southwards across the uk, those winds originating from somewhere north of greenland. well, that's not going to be warm, is it? so, right now, we're seeing the colder air arrive across northern scotland. showers here have started to turn to sleet. did have a few thunderstorms around london and south east england, but they've cleared out of the way. rain is starting to develop into wales. now, temperatures for the most part around 4—7 degrees as we head

into monday morning, but colder than that in scotland, where we'll continue to see those wintry showers driven in on gale force gusts of wind in the north. further south, we've got this area of rain in wales moving across the south midlands and southern england, so turning quite miserable, and around the northern edge of that, there'll be probably some areas that see temperatures limited to around 7—8 degrees celsius. so, feeling cold, but particularly cold across northern scotland on account of those strong winds. now, those winds fall light as we go through monday night and we're looking at a widespread frost in the countryside. temperatures get down as low as —5 celsius. i think that could be quite damaging for some of the tender plants that gardeners may have out, so gardeners might want to pay attention to that. a frosty but sunny start to the day on tuesday, the exception northern scotland, where we'll see those sleet showers continue to be driven in on the brisk winds. cloud will tend to bubble up to a degree as we head through the course of the day and it will stay chilly. seven degrees in aberdeen, that's four celsius below average for this stage of the year. heading into wednesday, we still have pressure high to the north of the uk,

so a reasonably dry and bright start to the day across northern and eastern areas, but still cold, a bit of hazy sunshine. in the south and west, well, we start to see cloud thicken and it may well be that we start to see some patches of light rain arrive as those temperatures slowly start to creep up. becoming a little bit less cold is probably the way to think of that. it's not really until thursday that we get some properly milder air moving in from the south—west. but as that happens and the south—westerly winds strengthen, well, we start to see outbreaks of rain spread in and that rain looks to be quite heavy across england and wales, it's already been a wet month for some and more wet weather to come here, staying cold in northern scotland. that's the latest.

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