live from london. the latest uk inflation figures are due to be released shortly, we will have them very soon. president trump says he's more confident of a peace deal in ukraine, afterfirst direct talks american and russian

officials since the invasion. he dismissed concerns that ukraine was not involved. well, you've been there for three years, you should have ended it three years, you should have never started it, you could have made a deal. i could have made a deal for ukraine that would have given them almost all of the land, everything. hamas has offered to release all the hostages due to be freed in phase two of the ceasefire deal in one go. the bbc uncovered evidence that some children detained by the assad regime were transferred to orphanages by order of the security apparatus. trump's trade war intensifies, the us signifies fresh levys on cars, pharmaceuticals and computer chips. hello, welcome to bbc news.

we start with breaking news from the uk. the office for national statistics have just published the latest uk inflation figures, that's the rate at which prices rise. it unexpectedly slowed in the year to december to 2.5%, but now the ons say it is 3% for the year to january. let's with me now to break down what this figure means, i am joined by our business presenter, tadhg enright. tell us your reaction. 3%, marginally _ tell us your reaction. 396, marginally higher- tell us your reaction. 396, marginally higher than i tell us your reaction. ”ivi�*fiz, marginally higher than many tell us your reaction. ”iv,% marginally higher than many had forecast, 2.8% was the figure we had been expecting. it's not completely out of the ordinary, though, we have been looking at the impact of the energy price cap filtering through to consumer prices, energy of course a massive factor in inflation. there had been that price cap put into place during the worst times of the russian invasion of ukraine when we saw the cost of energy, cost of gas

and oil pushed up, the price cap is assumed to reduce pressure on consumers, now that has been relaxed we are seeing that filter through. now they have been warnings from particular retailers, next among them, the home and fashion retailer, saying that the employer tax increases coming down the line in april being having an impact already,

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in prisoner exchanges between ukraine and russia. let's speak to ukrainian mp oleksiy goncharenko about his reaction to trump's comments. thank you forjoining us. those for words, you should have never it, you started it, you should have a it, you have made a deal, what are your thoughts?— made a deal, what are your thou~hts? , , ., , ., thoughts? the russian started this war, everybody _ thoughts? the russian started this war, everybody knows - thoughts? the russian startedl this war, everybody knows this, and the world and i'm sure that a it, trum lasuge 2 fi— if president trump definitely

knows this. probably what he meant, i think it's more a dressing to his predecessor, president biden, that in the beginning, or even before starting the wall when it was clear to american intelligence that russia was to start this war, there was a possibility to prevent it. i decode his message like this, because, i mean, he couldn't say that the war was started by ukraine, you can't say during the night that it is the day. it's something like this here, everybody knows how the war started, russia invaded in the night and started to bomb ukrainian cities. so it's clearfor started to bomb ukrainian cities. so it's clear for me. but what is important is not what happened three years ago, what happened three years ago, what is important is what will happen now, after this first round of negotiations, which were in riyadh. nevertheless, whatever was _ were in riyadh. nevertheless, whatever was meant - were in riyadh. nevertheless, whatever was meant by - were in riyadh. nevertheless, whatever was meant by those | whatever was meant by those comments, you still have a

situation where russia is sitting at the table on an equal footing with the united states, talking about ukraine, without ukraine in the room. yeah, don't like it, i don't like it. believe me. and all ukrainians are concerned about but unfortunately, what this. but unfortunately, what about this today? we can we do about this today? we can't do nothing about this. so our task now is to explain to our task now is to explain to our partners, sort of all, american partners, so there are two tracks. this track is american partners. now we need oui’ our red ukraine, what are our red lines, and we can say, like trump said, makea deal trump said, i can make a deal for ukraine, and k. what we wanti knows m , ,. , ,, for ukraine, and k. what we want? knows our ,,, , ,. , ,, for ukraine, and k. what we want? knows our red , ,. , ,, for ukraine, and k. what we want 2 knows our red lines. , , for ukraine, and k. what we want 2 knows our red lines. but trump knows our red lines. but we accept occupied we will never accept occupied territory be territory to be russia, but we

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just something that he carried for security, and was never able to fire shots. but these two men ended up opposite each other in court with different versions of the same story. and a lot was at stake for rihanna's husband, a$ap rocky, because, had he been found guilty, he could have been facing more than 20 years injail. now, like any celebrity trial, it made headlines as much for the characters involved, as much as the criminal charges at stake. and rihanna — a musical megastar — well, she'd been coming to court on multiple

days to support her husband. on one of those days, she brought their two young children into court — a one— and two—year—old — who came into the courtroom and sat remarkably quietly while this trial was going on. so it was very high—profile, it had been making a lot of headlines for people watching this celebrity trial play out. and we got that not—guilty verdict today — in dramatic fashion, in fact — as soon as it was read out, rihanna's husband, a$ap rocky, the rapper, well, hejumped up from the desk he was at — he essentially fell into the public gallery, embracing people in celebration at his not—guilty verdict. between these two rappers, but it's ended up in freedom for a$ap rocky and rihanna and theirfamily — something that could have been life—changing for them. more now on our top story. president trump says he's more confident of a peace deal in ukraine, afterfirst direct talks american and russian officials since the invasion.

let's speak to our ukraine correspondent, james waterhouse. james, what has been the reaction there?— james, what has been the reaction there? ~ , reaction there? well, president zelensky is _ reaction there? well, president zelensky is making _ reaction there? well, president zelensky is making his - reaction there? well, president zelensky is making his way - reaction there? well, president| zelensky is making his way back from turkey, he was going to get to saudi arabia on a scheduled visit but he has cancelled that do not add legitimacy, he said, to the first round of talks we saw between america and russia which he was not invited to. he is going to meet americaspecial envoy to ukraine appointed by donald trump, a guy called keith kellogg, a retired media in general, he is making his way away from europe where allies there have been told they will be involved in the speech talks at all. so what will be discussed? the schedule is being drawn up but i think president zelensky will ask mr kergg president zelensky will ask mr kellogg about his boss's comments last night that kyiv is to blame for the full—scale

invasion by russia three years ago and still is today. it was striking hearing ukraine's wants to get a light say something you would expect to hear from something you would expect to hearfrom —— once biggest ally say something you would expect to hear from moscow, say something you would expect to hearfrom moscow, saying presidents esky had

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