of the route could be axed. help is here — the red cross delivers seventy tonnes of aid to nagorno karabakh — for the first time since azerbaijan captured the disputed territory five days ago. as another incident believed to involve an american xl bully dog is reported in london, protesters march against the government's plans to ban the breed. hello, i'm samantha simmonds. a very warm welcome. ukraine says russian commanders were among those injured in friday's missile strikes on the headquarters of russia's black sea fleet in occupied crimea. the building in sevastopol appears to have been hit by at least two missiles, causing extensive damage. there are reports that the missiles used were storm shadow missiles — supplied by britain and france. it comes as reports in us media suggest america is planning to give ukraine more advanced, longer—range missiles to help with its ongoing counteroffensive against russia

meanwhile, russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov has used his address to the unted nations general assembely in new york to criticise the unites states, nato and the european union for trying to force the world to play according to their own self—centered rules." the collective west has a calling card and it has long been to reject the principle of equality and their total inability to reach agreement. being used to looking down at the rest of the world, americans and europeans make all sorts of promises and they take on commitments, inter alia, written ones and legally binding ones, and then theyjust don't fulfill them. as president putin pointed out, the west is one that is truly an empire of lies. russia, like many countries, knows about this first hand. earlier i spoke to phillips o'brien, professor of strategic studies at st andrews university, he told me there was a lot missing

from mr lavrov�*s address. it was a speech that you would say really comes from a point of view of weakness on ukraine, that he couldn't even mention the ukraine war, that there was no discussion of russia's right to invade ukraine, of russia's annexation of ukraine, the parts of ukraine. so in that sense, it was really running away from the story of the moment, which is the fact that the russian army is in ukraine and fighting a huge war. so i think we have to say it's expected, but it's not a speech of strength. yeah. he also said that ukraine's peace formula was completely not feasible. what did he mean by that? is that about president zelensky saying that russia would have to leave every inch of ukraine for a peace to be declared? well, that's exactly right. the ukrainian position now is that ukraine has its internationally recognized borders and peace can be achieved when russia leaves ukraine. and so the ukraine is restored to its original borders.

the russian position actually legally now is it's against international law. but the the russian parliament has annexed parts of ukraine. so they're saying those are now parts of russia. and basically the visions of a peace treaty now are too far away. neither side has any sort of reason to negotiate with the other and present. and so i think lavrov was just simply saying, don't think there's going to be a peace deal because there won't. so let's talk about the war itself. and these reports of the us is to give kyiv long range ataacms missiles. just tell us what those are and what difference they could make in the warfor ukraine. well, so unlike the storm shadows, which we've been hearing about a lot for the last few weeks, atacmss they�* re usuallyjust referred to as attack

arms are ground based. they're fired from the high ma system. they're very long range. they're actually a little bit longer range than the storm shadows. and storm shadows go about 200 to 250 kilometers. atacmss could be 300. so they're a little bit longer range and they're very explosive. you know, they carry a big punch. so itjust will add greater range to the ukrainian campaign on crimea. i mean, what we're seeing now is a real concerted ukrainian campaign on crimea and that is something the attack comes could make a really big difference on because they can hit basically anything in crimea and they can do a great deal of damage. former prime minister, borisjohnson has warned the uk government against scaling back the high speed rail project hs2 after the government refused to guarantee the link between the cities of birmingham and manchester. dozens of company bosses and business groups in england have signed a letter urging prime minister rishi sunak, to re—commit to the high—speed railway. costs around hs2 have increased significantly and are now well

above its original budget of £33bn, which was set a decade ago when work on the line began. it's a massive, decades—long project, meant to create more capacity and speed up journey times. but hs2 has also been plagued by delays, cuts and spiralling costs. it was only earlier this year the government announced it was pausing work on the new central london terminus here at euston. now question marks are hanging over the line that links the west midlands and crewe, before moving on to manchester. recently, the prime minister rishi sunak and chancellorjeremy hunt have not been willing to say that they are committed to hs2 being built to manchester, casting fresh doubt over the project's future. the labour shadow chancellor rachel reeves has also refused to commit. in a letter to government, business leaders and companies including manchester airports group, british land, virgin money and the northern powerhouse, have called for clarification and renewed commitment to hs2. the letter expresses deep concern over the constant uncertainty over the project, adding that repeated mixed signals were damaging the uk's reputation as a place to do business.

i hope the prime minister takes the weekend to reflect on being a northern mp and what he should be putting first. the future of the country, or the short—term interests of the conservative party. because former tory leaders and britain's leading business people are all telling him he needs to think again before he makes what might be his worst decision as prime minister. today, the chair of the national infrastructure commission warned against truncating the line. the importance of this railway line is that it connects the three principal cities in britain, london, birmingham, manchester. it's a significant part of the government's levelling up agenda, it has already started to create big opportunities in birmingham and it will do the same in manchester and across the north west. it will link into the government's new railway which it is planning to build between manchester and leeds. this is a fundamental part of levelling up. and to stop it now would be a tragedy. former prime minister borisjohnson has also weighed in, urging the government against building a "mutilated" version of hs2. on thursday, the chancellor insisted no decisions had been made, but once again the route ahead for hs2 seems uncertain.

noor nanji, bbc news. for more on this i'm joined by paul chapman, senior fellow at the sayeed business school and vice president at the association for project managers i bet you're glad you're not project managing hs2 for starters because is has almost doubled its original budget, it's now up at 71 billion excluding the eastern leg of the project, shouldn't the government be reconsidering just based on cost alone? reconsidering “ust based on cost alone? ,., ., , ., alone? government does need to continue to _ alone? government does need to continue to reconsider _ alone? government does need to continue to reconsider but - alone? government does need to continue to reconsider but the . alone? government does need to i continue to reconsider but the other side of that story is the government also needs to get behind this project when they firmly decided that it's affordable, get behind it. how do you decide of something like this is a full roaming costs are going up and you're in a cost of living crisis? people around the country will be asking what else we

could spend £71 billion on for more value for money in particular on the nhs is in a crisis. yes value for money in particular on the nhs is in a crisis.— nhs is in a crisis. yes and the sad art of nhs is in a crisis. yes and the sad part of that _ nhs is in a crisis. yes and the sad part of that is _ nhs is in a crisis. yes and the sad part of that is if _ nhs is in a crisis. yes and the sad part of that is if i _ nhs is in a crisis. yes and the sad part of that is if i were _ nhs is in a crisis. yes and the sad part of that is if i were a - nhs is in a crisis. yes and the sad part of that is if i were a betting l part of that is if i were a betting person, those costs are also likely to go up further and that is why i think the government really needs to be clear on what the benefits and purpose of the project is. a big project like this needs the government to own the why we are doing it and they have not made that clear. ~ . , .. , ., doing it and they have not made that clear. ~ . , , ., is clear. was the case ever made? is one of the — clear. was the case ever made? is one of the issues _ clear. was the case ever made? is one of the issues that _ clear. was the case ever made? is one of the issues that has - clear. was the case ever made? is one of the issues that has dogged | one of the issues that has dogged this project. it was called hi speed to and then there was a change of the narrative about being about the nation and more recently about capacity and i think it would be super helpful if we got back to why. if i was to make one simple recommendation, it is also a railway, people need to get across

the country and around the country and we've not had a whisper of what and we've not had a whisper of what a timetable is. when can i go on this train? 8am? what time will i arrive at my destination and how many trains will there be? we saw a bit of that with crossrail, which is now the elisabeth line and it had a period of time it was really struggling. what we've got now is people love the elizabeth wine and what they love about it is how often the trains run. quite simply, three orfour trains the trains run. quite simply, three orfourtrains an hourand the trains run. quite simply, three orfour trains an hour and now it is a train about every three minutes and you know what time you will get your destination so to bring some of that confidence which can percolate around government, lets start the story with passengers and why people would want to go and use a railway. as you say, no definitive decision as yet from the government but i'm sure we will have plenty more on the

story in the coming weeks and months. the comedian and actor russell brand says it has been �*an extraordinary and distressing week�* after rape and sexual assault allegations were made against him. in a video published on social media he thanked his fans for their support and criticised news outlets, the government, and tech companies. ellie price reports. hello there, you awakening wonders. a direct appeal to supporters, with no direct mention of the allegations against him. obviously it's been an extraordinary and distressing week and i thank you very much for your support and for questioning the information that you've been presented with. in this three—minute video, russell brand talks instead about media corruption and collusion. i need your support now more than ever and more than i ever imagined i would. july the ist 2012 was when my rape happened... this week russell brand faced allegations of rape and sexual assault following claims made by four women in the channel 4 dispatches programme and the times and sunday times.

he denies the claims and insists his relationships have always been consensual. the bbc has also heard from one woman who said the comedian exposed himself to her in a bathroom in this building in los angeles where he was recording his radio 2 programme. he then joked about the alleged incident minutes later on air. by now you're probably aware that the british government has asked big tech platforms to censor our online content and that some online platforms have complied. youtube has now suspended russell brand from making money from adverts after it said he had violated its creator responsibility policy. 0nline retailer asos has asked for its adverts to be pulled on rumble, the digital platform on which mr brand plans to post his next video on monday. the bbc has made several requests to talk to mr brand over the past week but he has avoided questions and scrutiny, choosing instead to speak directly to his followers on social media. but the questions keep coming. and the investigations

into his alleged behaviour continue. please, if you can, stay free. ellie price, bbc news. the international red cross says it's managed to deliver seventy tonnes of relief aid to the disputed enclave nagorno karabakh — for the first time since azerbaijan captured the territory in a lightning operation five days ago. tens of thousands of armenians have sought refuge in the main city stepanakert, where food and medicine are running low, and power cuts are frequent. i was joined earlier by rayhan demytrie, who is our correspondent in the south caucasus and central asia. she has the latest. the political situation is that karabakh armenians, they surrendered to azerbaijan. they signed the cease fire agreement on wednesday. and now what's happening is the process of disarmament, because that was part of the cease fire agreement that karabakh armenians agreed to lay down their arms. and this process is ongoing.

today, the minister of defence of azerbaijan published a list of military equipment that has been seized so far. but of course, all eyes are on the humanitarian situation in nagorno—karabakh itself, in the regional capital, stepanakert, where there are thousands of people who were displaced by the conflict. and as we speak, they are in the basements with no electricity, no heating, very little food and lots of uncertainty. rayhan, if the ceasefire holds, is a big effect, could mark the end of a conflict that has raged on for decades. what's the sense in the region of whether or not this could be a long term end to this? well, for sure. what happened on tuesday was almost kind of finale of the war that began three years ago in 2020, when azerbaijan launched a military offensive to retake its territories that it lost in the 1990s to armenia, and it succeeded militarily. three years ago, it retook

lots of territories surrounding the enclave of nagorno—karabakh. and now, on tuesday, it finally moved to kind of establish full control over this territory. but once again, there is still quite a lot of uncertainty because azerbaijani authorities are not in the regional capital, stepa na kert. there were talks between azerbaijan and karabakh armenians and azerbaijan says that there will be many more needed to come to the terms and to start the process of reintegration, as they say. i was earierjoined by icrc spokesperson, jason straziuso. he brought us up to speed on the humanitarian work they are doing in the area. the last couple of days, we sent in several convoys, 70 tonnes of humanitarian goods. that was mostly wheat flour, but also yeast and some sunflower oil. obviously, the supplies can be used to make bread and other bakery items. that's an indication of how dire the situation is. not enough food, not

enough medical supplies. that convoy that we sent in today did drop off some medical supplies but also dropped off body bags. not so pleasant to think about, but an important aspect of this is is dignified management of the dead. so it's a well rounded humanitarian effort from our teams the last couple of days. and take us through the geography. what areas are your aid managing to get through to? well, we're going into the region through two different roads. the roads that are available to us and that has that that the main road, the last corridor has been blockaded for a while. we have moved through there. we have done medical evacuations there over the course of the last several weeks. we did medical evacuations day of 17 people. we did nine yesterday.

so over the last 72 hours, let's say, there has been an increase in humanitarian access. and what assurances have you received from the warring factions that you are going to be able to do your work to get into the areas that you need to? i think the sides understand that we are a neutral organisation, that we don't take sides. this is helps facilitate the activity, the work that we carry out. we have close contact with both sides and we wouldn't be able to move through without permission and we don't seek to move through without permission. so those open channels of communication are in place all the time and allow us to to carry out these these trips. you obviously have your own kind of stocks, but what's your expectation from the international community in this kind of situation? one of our approaches is to work with other nations that might be allied or partners with the governments involved here and remind the governments involved that they do have a humanitarian duty, that medical supplies must be allowed through, the food must be allowed

through, and that anyone who's wounded or sick must be allowed to receive medical care. so those kind of conversations do take place with other nations that might be involved in this region. the bbc has learned that the government has disbanded a taskforce that was set up to improve energy efficiency in homes. ministers wrote to the group yesterday saying its work would be "streamlined" into ongoing government activity. on thursday rishi sunak announced he was scrapping energy efficiency regulations for landlords, as part of an overhaul of green policies. i'm nowjoined byjonathan atkinson, who's director of the manchester—based carbon co—op that helps people reduce home carbon emissions. thanks for being with us. tells more about this task force as you understand it and what difference it

will make that it's being disbanded. it's a very confusing situation because six months agojeremy hunt got up in parliament and said we needed this task force because it was a great priority for the government and we needed to reduce our dependency on foreign gas and price spikes have seen since the war in ukraine and that he needed to reduce bills and as a result they want to put on your long—term strategy in place to establish energy efficiency task force and it's fantastic and we welcome and so six months later where are we? is it mission accomplished? we are not seeing any long—term plans and certainly what happened on wednesday suggests a rowing back. i would like to highlight the fact it was a year ago that liz truss's government put in place financial support for very high bills and we have spent £40 billion in the last year supporting householders so what happens when the next price spike comes along? to

we simply spend your money again or do we invest in long—term strategy? we do know it is a long—term strategy and the government says this task force work are going to doing was going to be streamlined into other government activity so hopefully not an end to it and that is there expect nation at least but how important is it, you think it is clearly very important, but the work they were doing? do you know there was any tangible outcome from it? anything specific that has come out from the task force in the past six months that was going to change the way people operated in their homes and improved energy efficiency? aha, and improved energy efficiency? lot of ambition around it, one of the things we are lacking is coherent strategy where we are joining things up and thinking it's joined up so a lot of hope that good things would come out of it but it simply has not been put in place long enough for it to come out with anything constructive and as i say, it's very confusing that they should be disbanding now because surely now is the time they will be coming

forward with some concrete proposals and hopefully seeing things change on the ground. we and hopefully seeing things change on the ground-— on the ground. we will see. thank ou for on the ground. we will see. thank you for being _ on the ground. we will see. thank you for being with _ on the ground. we will see. thank you for being with us _ on the ground. we will see. thank you for being with us and - on the ground. we will see. thank you for being with us and for- on the ground. we will see. thank you for being with us and for your| you for being with us and for your thoughts. the liberal democrats are in bournemouth for their autumn conference — theirfirst in—person conference in four years. party leader sir ed davey said he was "firing the starting gun" on the next general election. the lib dems have promised to double statutory shared parental pay to £350 per week, and increase shared parental leave to 46 weeks. they've also promising free nursing home care in england — partly funded by nhs savings. there's been another dog attack in england, believed to involve an xl american bully. a man was taken to hospital after being bitten on the arm yesterday evening at a park in south london. meanwhile, dog owners marched from trafalgar square to parliament today to protest government plans to ban the breed. barry caffrey reports. this is paisley park in walworth. it was here where a man was attacked by a dog

just after 6:00 yesterday evening. he's currently in hospital with serious injuries. a local resident told me the dog jumped over this fence of this dog exercise area and bit the arm of a man in his forties. police say the owner of the dog, believed to be an xl bully, fled the park before they arrived. efforts are now being made to try and track down the owner. these people had mixed views about american bullies being in the park. i have fear when i see one of these dogs, i tend to walk on the other side of the street and it does worry me for children and other vulnerable people. if you got an xl bully, you should have the dog muzzled all the time. if it's out in public and kept on a lead, and if you're going to lay

it off, it's got to be in a secure place. i don't really think it's the dogs. i think it's the owners because some owners train their dogs to be protective over them. and when they say attack, they attack. but with this dog here, it's all right. this dog's not trained to be attacked, to be friendly and be good to everyone. a number of other recent attacks, including one near walsall in which a man died, prompted the prime minister, rishi sunak, to say he had ordered urgent work to define and ban the animals. today protesters gathered and marched to parliament to voice their concerns about the government's plans to ban the breed. they say despite their fearsome appearance and build, the dogs make lovable household pets. personally, my dog is a soppy as anything, you know. he's around my grandchildren. i've got an autistic grandson and he's really, really calming for him. he literally sleeps beside him, really does him good. i agree that they are dangerous.

none of us that are here today discriminate that, we are not saying that they are not dangerous. in the wrong hands, they are. you know, my female is 53kg. of course, she's dangerous in the wrong hands, but she's trained, she's well mannered, she's well loved, and she's fed correctly. the dog control coalition, a group including the rspca, battersea dogs home and the royal kennel club, said banning specific breeds was not the solution, pointing to irresponsible breeding, rearing and ownership. barry caffrey, bbc london. president xijinping has opened the asian games in the eastern chinese city of hangzhou. security was tight inside the stadium as the extravagant ceremony took place. leaders from asia and the middle east were there — including the syrian leader bashar al assad. the games themselves are the largest sporting event china has hosted in more than a decade. more than twelve—thousand competitors from forty—five nations will take part. they include a contingent

of athletes from north korea. and a man's been arrested, after being spotted climbing a london skyscraper known as the cheesegrater. these pictures show a free—climber making their way up the 225metre leadenhall building in the centre of the city, without any climbing equipment. police say a suspect was met by officers on the roof and taken into custody. i shouldn't need to say it — but please, don't try this at home. 0rany or any toll 0rany toll building or any toll building near you. just before we go i want to share your story on a website that we are covering. florida police stopping a ten—year—old driver on the highway. they stopped this kid and his 11—year—old sister hundreds of miles from where they were reported missing by their mother earlier in the week and apparently they had run away after she had confiscated the electronic gadgets. do check that

out. that is it from you. you can reach me on social media but i will be back later with more. hello. in many parts of the uk, cloud amounts have been increasing during today, signalling a change for the rest of the weekend. some warmer but wetter and windier weather on the way. it's all thanks to a weather system that contains the remnants of what was hurricane nigel. certainly not a hurricane any more but providing an injection of tropical moisture into this area of low pressure. some very heavy rain across some western areas as we head through tonight. further pulses of rain returning to the south west of england and wales later on, quite windy for a time, particularly around western coasts and much, much milder than it was last night. by the end of the night, we will be between 10 and 16 degrees. sunday morning starting on a mild note but with low pressure firmly in charge, a couple of different frontal

systems which will provide some outbreaks of very heavy rain. this rain tending to affect western and northern parts of the country, so western england, wales, northern ireland, western scotland seeing some outbreaks of rain. further south and east, more in the way of dry weather, some spells of sunshine and actually with the southerly winds it is going to feel pretty warm in the south—east corner. large swathes actually of england and wales up to 20 or 21 degrees, even further north could see 18, 19, 20 across some northern parts of scotland. as we head through sunday evening, this band of very heavy, squally rain pushing across south—west england and wales. northern ireland very wet for a time and that rain really setting in across scotland, perhaps enough rain for some flooding and disruption. gusts of wind of 50 or 60 mph. through sunday night into monday, that frontal system sweeps away eastwards but low pressure will still be firmly in charge of our weather, so for monday, yes, there will be spells of sunshine, i think parts of england and wales will stay dry but northern ireland

and scotland seeing some pretty hefty showers, it stays quite windy. temperatures of 15 to 22 degrees, so broadly speaking above the norm for the time of year. then as we head towards the middle part of the week we will have to keep a close eye on this one. a developing area of low pressure. huge uncertainty aboutjust how deep this low might become, exactly where it will move across the uk, but the chance for some very heavy rain and possibly some very strong winds around the middle part of the week. broadly speaking, a very unsettled week ahead.

this is bbc news, the headlines. the head of ukraine's military intelligence claims that russian commanders were among those injured in friday's missile strike on the headquarters of russia's black sea fleet in occupied crimea. russia's foreign minister has been speaking at the un in the last hour. in the uk — borisjohnson urges the government not to scale back plans to build the hs2 high speed rail link — amid speculation part of the route could be axed. the bbc finds out that the government has disbanded a taskforce that was set up to improve energy efficiency in homes. russell brand posts a video online saying it's been an "extraordinary and distressing" week — his first public comments since sexual assault allegations were made against him. the liberal democrats gather for their party conference — pledging free social care for anyone

in england who needs it — at an estimated cost of £5 billion a year. now on bbc news, sportsday. hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm hugh ferris. the headlines this evening. arundell puts on the afterburners against chile. the winger�*s five tries help england to three wins out of three at the rugby world cup. they're the number one team in the world, so maybe they won't need the luck. ireland and south africa meet in the pick of the pool stage games in paris. i think ireland, we are number one in the world and we will win the world cup. the fightback is complete at finca cortesin. europe are level with the usa going into the solheim cup's final day.