one giant leap for mankind. ♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors adviceo help you live your life. life well anned. george: actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. it's exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know,

know bdo. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. announcer: and now, "bbc news". ♪ lewis: hello. i am lewis vaughan jones. you are watching "the context" on bbc news. we are bringing an exclusive report from north korea. food is scarce and people are starving to death. i just want to bring breaking news from westminster in the

u.k. and british politics. nadine doris, who announced her intention to resign as nmp, says that is her intention but has been tweeting updates. she says she has not yet officially resigned but in this series of tweets, she said, "i am awaiting responses to my subject and accessing requests submitted to my cabinetry and cabinet office related to the process of my nomination for the house of lords and will take the time to properly consider the information i am provided." that was technical and does not mean a great deal. she's basically saying it is my intention to resign but given what i know to be true in the number of conflicting statements issued by number 10 since the

weekend, this process is now sadly necessary. she said she requested copies of whatsapp, text messages, emails, dennis of meetings, formal and informal -- minutes of meetings, formal and informal. this is what she asked for, all relating to her process about whether or not she has been elevated to the house of lords. she is repeating it is her intention to resign but given what she now believes to be true, she says this process has become necessary to put an end to the speculation. you will get reaction and physical correspondence to de-jargon a bit of the jargon. the headline is nadine doris giving an explanation about why she has not yet resigned as an mp but intend to do so.

more on that later. now, the bbc sport center. catherine: do bellingham will be reality threads latest sports team -- real madrid's latest sports team. it will be the second most expensive purchase. the team had just over a hundred million euros last week. he joined on a six-year contract and will be presented as a real player on thursday. the first of the nation league's semifinals is taking place tia.een the netherlands and night,painakes oaly. the netherlands have taken the lead. marlon with the goal. it is just halftime. nathan atkins is back. luke ahmad french hason his hundred 65th -- 165th cap for

croatia. the women's world cup will be broadcast after france, germany and u.k. all agreed on a deal for the rights. the announcement comes five weeks before the tournament begins. -- threatened a european tv blackout but the deal now allows them to watch matches when the tournament begins in australia and new zealand. england is kicking off their campaign on the 22nd of july against haiti. all 16 matches will be on the itd with the final on both. >> england lane 13 for the first test against australia on friday and theris a first call friend gary brooks, 24 years old, who has had a childhood dream to be a part of this. he has had 818 runs and seven test since his debut last year.

>> it is a dream come true to be involved in my first play here. some -- to plague us with the best australian and english players to play. >> i have always wanted to play against the best players in the road and see how good i really am. >> speaking of the best in the world, australia's steve smith has never won on you pay soil -- on u.k. soil. he says the series win away from home would mean a lot. >> the big series that you want to do well and help your team have success. the last time we came over here, we got close to winning the ashes. the next best result was drawing and you did that. it is an event i have wanted to

tick off my bucket list. i am excited for the next couple months. golfs world number one says he still does not have a canoe about what is going on with the soccer merger. he revealed he was at the gym when he heard the news that saudi arabia and the pta world tour join forces after more than a year long dispute. >> it gets to a point where you want to have faith in management . i want to have faith that this is the best thing for all of us but it is clear that is not the consensus. i think the general feeling is a lot of people feel betrayal from management. >> i have not paid too much attention. i have been trying to prep for this week. i am just trying to make sure him into a major championship four weeks a year that i care

about. i was not going to waste time on news that happened last week. >> i do not know what is going on. i don't think anyone knows what is going on. arm siding with the pif or not? i have no i give. -- i have no idea. it is confusing. no one knows what is going on apart from four people in the world. >> confusion still reigns in golf. that is all for sports for now. lewis: great to see you. thanks for that. an exclusive report to bring you on north korea. no one has been able to enter or leave the country for over three years. now, three people living in north korea of risk their lives to tell bbc what is happening. they say food is scarce and neighbors are starving to death.

you may find the report distressing. reporter: people started dying. >> this chilling testimony come from inside north korea. >> once, i did not eat for two days. i only drink water. >> recently, people have been knocking on the door, asking for food because they are so hungry. reporter: hearing from people inside the isolated country is extremely rare. with fears the country is on the break of a famine, you have been secretly indicating with people who lived there. we are using actors and animations to illustrate their words and have change their name to protect them. >> in our village, five people have starved to death. reporter: this was a

construction worker living on the chinese border. >> one family, the wife was too thtok. children were surviving by begging. in the end, all three ed. at first, i was afraid of dying from covid but then i began to worry about starving to death. reporter: at the stars of the pandemic, north korea completely -- start of the pandemic, north korea completely sealed its borders. these pictures released by the regime are all people have been able to see. authorities even stopped food and medicine from tossing the border. in south korea, we began to get rerts of chronic food shortages so we teamed up with an organization here. they have sources inside the country who were able to get our questions to people. this is jiyun who lives in the

wealthiest part of the country. she says that even here, supplies are running dangerously low. >> once i did not eat for two days. i thought i was going to die in my sleep at night. my husband and i survived by inking 10 more days and then another 10 days. thinking that if something happens, you might starve but at least we will feed our kids. there are lots of beggars now. if they are lying down, we checked them and usually find they are dead. there are others who kill themselves at home or disappear into the mountains. lewis: you put these findings to the north korean government and the dprk. representative from the and deceit -- embassy in london says

the information you have collected is not entirely factual as it is derived from fabricated testimonies of anti-dprk people. the dprk has always favored the interest of the people. you can watch the documentary "north korea, the insiders" on bbc news this week. it will be on bbc news this weekend. let's speak to the bureau chief or associated press. thank you for coming other program. >> thank you for having me. lewis: what does your reaction to some of the stories we heard just then? >> absolutely heartbreaking. we are getting a peek into what life is like in a country that has been slow -- so closed off. i am not entirely surprised because life in north korea,

from personal experience, is tough i even in the best of times. the border has been sealed and people cannot get the food and goods they have needed to survive. the state cannot support the people as well. this is the tip of the iceberg. this chronic food shortage. i don't know if it has tipped over into famine but it has been something north korean's have been dealing with for generations now. lewis: how does the world begin to help? can it is borders are closed? >> this is a difficult question. the border closures officially were put into place because of the covid pandemic in january 2020, and for very good reason. north korea does not have the medical capacit or infrastructure to deal with the pandemic. i think it was a political decision as well. it came at a time when kim

jong-un was retreating. nuclear negotiations with the u.s. had collapsed and he was retrenching. this was a way to get on top of the flow of information and give himself space to build up its nuclear arsenal. i think you have to certainly wait for that day and hope the border does open up. that he feels he is ready to emerge again for the sake of the people because they are the one suffering. we get these images and will get a lots of them in the coming months of massive missiles they have been pouring their money into. we should remember there is a told people pay the borders are closed -- a toll people pay when the borders are closed. lewis: i wanted to pick up on that because there is somebody being spent on nuclear programs and satellites interest base. >> this is a costly program

every launch and there ere a dozen last year and several this year. i have a podcast called the lazarus heist with bbc and that looks at how north korea is making money despite sanctions and border closures. that is through cyber and crypto theft, billion's of dollars within the last few years. a lot of that is going to be nuclear program. very little is probably going to family suffering. you know they are finding illicit ways to get around restrictions, border closures, and sanctions. we should worry where that money is going. running member being scrutinized. lewis: this is bbc news. we are going to take a look at . thousands of to your doctors across england have walked out in the latest d of strikes in a dispute over pay. the british medical organization

rejected a pay raise calling for 35% reflect how pay has fallen in more than a decade. the government says this will put patient safety at risk. a deal to integrate the biggest phone operator has been struck down. it was a plan to merge with u.k. based operations, making it the biggest that were in the u.k. it is yet to be approved by regulators who will look at whether this w upuilaspsh pcu no alternative to the hike interest rate. that is what chancellor jerry hunt said. this was the number one challenge we face about rising interest rates and mortgage costs that weighed on u.k. economics. you are watching bbc news. next, we are going to take a look at the inquiry into the

handling of the covid pandemic in the u.k. the lawyer representing the department of health says the pendant restrictions did cause " profound loneliness, pain, and anguish." but people need to remember the context decisions were made in. >> the department will not seek to say it did everything right or that it would necessarily have made the same decisions today in 2023 with the benefit of hindsight. we will, however, propose it is necessary to recognize that at the context of the time, in respect to pandemic preparedness, was different with respect to what we know now. lewis: let's speak to dr. clark. thank you for coming on the program. >> good evening. lewis: this inquiry played a

hugely important role in establishing just what decisions were made, how will prepare the u.k. government was, and lessons learned going forward. we are at the early stages. what has stuck out to you so far? >> i think the determination and the desire to understand why decisions were made. what are the things the government did? why they went down those roads -- routes? or instance, why did it care homes have access restricted in the way it was? everyone who had an elderly parent or grandparent that they re none -- were not able to see for weeks on and they would like to know why that was necessary. but other things as well. why did the distancing rules come into effect?

why were things like one meter and two meter distances put in place? what was the rationale and reasoning behind that? also, importantly, it has been conceded that the initial testing at the beginning of the pandemic, early in 2020, was not sufficient. it was not as good as it should have been. this means authorities did not have a very good picture of where the virus was and how much -- lewis: let's focus on this in terms of the preparedness. what kind of things ought to have been different? >> they ought to have had a better idea and more extensive testing. understanding is it was tightly controlled. it took a long time to get an expansion in the numbers of tests available.

also, for people to take those tests. put a swab of someone's nose. really, we needed to have a better idea of the tent to which the virus came into the country and started to spread. we only got a picture of this when people began to be emitted to hospitals but we did not know who it was in and where it was. the idea was that it really only affected elderly people -- but in the first locked out and wave, covid put more men in their 40's into intensive care than men and women. elderly people in that way feel it was not accurate. lewis: you will take -- touch base again.

thank you. you are going to turn to ukraine where their house -- we are going to turn to ukraine where there has been more missile strikes. three civilians were killed in the eastern donetsk region. three people were killed, seven injured. ukrainian military officials say retail warehouse was hit as well as a business center. ukraine's air force says it destroyed three russian missiles and nine drones. ukrainians in major cities are heading back to bunkers and searching for safety underground again. ukraine has continued making ground as part of its counteroffensive. president putin is claiming it has already failed while the professor is an expert in the russian military of the norwegian institute for defense studies.

what do you make about this counteroffensive if it has already failed? >> i do not see people on the ground confirming that. in general, the lies and fake news and spreading confusion has been changed by russian authority. you have to take this with a pinch of salt whether it is coming from the kremlin. lewis: is there anyway of getting a realistic assessment of exactly what is going on? >> it is very difficult but we have some media on the ground. we tried to confirm this with both russia and ukraine. we have seen videos and media coverage. photos, which can identify to

confirm the facts of what has happened on the prompt. lewis: related to that, i think i will know the answer but i have to ask. the number of casualties. it is absolutely crucial to try to establish on both sides but those kind of numbers are very difficult to get. >> indeed. it is really hard. some intelligence agencies try to identify and use different tools to confirm the number of casualties but it is really hard to claim any concrete numbers, unfortunely. lewis: let's try to look at things you can potentially know, whether the ukrainian counteroffensive would be a success. what are you going to use to judge that? what level to defeat russian forces? whatmount of land taken by

ukraine? what are some? >> we know russia has built several layers of fences around their large front. we know that ukraine, from media coverage videos, is confirming they have taken some territory. the bargainer private military company has claimed ukraine has gotten 100 cubic square meters. it seems you rain has managed to bridge the first line of the defenses, taking some villages. what we do not see is this is just a partial inflammation. you see some of met. lewis: i am sorry to have to cut you off. you are right against the end of this part of the program.

thank you very much for coming on. >> thank you. lewis: that is it from me. i will be back in couple moments. this is bbc news. ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. man: bdo. accountants and advisors. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. and by contributions to this pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪ narrator: you're watching pbs.

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♪ ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... woman: architect. bee keeper. mentor. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. george: actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. it's exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know,

know bdo.