thank you, robin brant, based in l you, robin brant, based in shanghai.tjoe biden and his russian counterpart b putin are due to unmute later when they hold 80 videoconference. that you will ask for themselves —— decide how long themselves —— decide how long the call will last according to the call will last according to the kremlin. joe biden says he wants a long discussion. the pair last spoke injuly and since then the topic of ukraine has intensified. russia's neighbours fear moscow is planning an invasion claiming tens of thousands of troops have gathered at the border. joe biden has said he will make any such move very difficult, warning russia of harsh economic consequences. russia interns as ukraine and the us are destabilising the situation. mr putin set to seek guarantees that nato will not allow ukraine to join the alliance. cyber attacks are another thorny issue. president biden told his russian counterpart in the summer at the us will take any necessary action to stop hack this from russia. —— hacks. they had repeatedly contacted russia about

robin brant, bbc news. the time is 13:16pm.the government's evacuation operation in afghanistan in august as "dysfunctional and chaotic". i know what it's like to be a woman who is essentially invisible to most people. the comedy actress and film producer rebel wilson tells us about her "year of health" during the pandemic. coming up in the sport in the next 15 minutes on the bbc news channel: the ashes countdown is into its last few hours. james anderson is going to sit out the first test in brisbane, though. facebook has recently changed its name to meta, because it says it's transforming itself from a social media firm into a company of the metaverse. facebook is actuallyjust the latest tech giant to jump onto this particular bandwagon, but what exactly is the metaverse? our technology correspondent mark cieslak has been exploring it. so, what actually is the metaverse? well, if we think of the internet as something that we look at, the metaverse is a version of the internet that we are inside. i'd say there are examples of

the bbc�*s robin brant is in beijing.mber. she said in this interview the other day, "i have never said nor written that anyone had sexually assaulted me." now back in that posting, originally in chinese but translated into english in the first few days of november — she said that a man named zhang gaoli, a senior chinese communist party official here, had forced her to have sex with him before they had a consensual relationship. so this isn'tjust her claiming that things were untrue or inaccurate, this was a recanting of the story. just to recap — peng shuai is a former world number one in the women's tennis doubles. in november she put this post on social media on weibo, alleging that a former senior official in the chinese government had sexually assaulted her. and not just any senior official. zhang gaoli is a former vice premier — he had been one of seven people on the politburo standing committee who run china. after that, ms peng vanished from public life for three weeks and there was worldwide concern about her sa

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our china correspondent robin brant reports. china has been preparing for years.rit of the olympic charter, a blatant political provocation, and a serious affront to the 1.4 billion chinese people. if the us is bent on having its own way, china will take resolute countermeasures. it's not clear what those measures will be. it was only a few weeks ago that presidents biden and xi jinping were talking face—to—face, almost, but in announcing the decision to keep its officials and dignitaries away, the white house said it came down to one thing — genocide. the athletes on team usa have our full support. we will be behind them 100% as we cheer them on from home. we will not be contributing to the fanfare of the games. us diplomatic or official representation would treat these games as business as usual in the face of the prc's egregious human rights abuses and atrocities in xinjiang, and we simply can't do that. the biden administration says china is committing genocide against some of its own people — muslim ethnic uighurs in xinjiang in the west. attention will now t

i've spoken to the bbc�*s china correspondent robin brant.in this interview the other day, "i have never said nor written that anyone had sexually assaulted me." backin anyone had sexually assaulted me." back in that posting, originally in chinese but translated to english in the first few days of november, she said that a senior chinese party communist party official here had forced her to have sex with him before they had a consensual relationship. so this isn'tjust her claiming that things were untrue or inaccurate, this is a recounting of the story. inaccurate, this is a recounting of the sto . ., , inaccurate, this is a recounting of thesto . , the story. over the last couple weeks, the story. over the last couple weeks. the — the story. over the last couple weeks, the ioc _ the story. over the last couple weeks, the ioc president - the story. over the last couple weeks, the ioc president has l the story. over the last couple i weeks, the ioc president has got involved, a couple video calls from the ioc to peng shuai — the organisation s

here's robin brant in beijing.econd video conference call took place. what was said, no transcript, no stills, no footage. so we'lljust have to take their word for it. they are clearly trying to emphasise their role as an intermediary here between the tennis player and between the chinese state. but that, of course, comes just weeks before the committee is due to co—host the winter olympic games in beijing. and it is important to say that it is the ioc and only the ioc at the moment that seems to manage to have got permission to contact peng in this way. the wta may be wining more praise but by remaining involved with china — it's the ioc that has the access. cindy yu is from the spectator magazine. they are the only people have managed to speak to her twice in the last month. so in some ways they have actually been more effective in ensuring that she say because they have actually managed to talk to her through not taking to heart light in ——line a position it is difficult to know when it comes to china whether th

robin brant, bbc news.med president erdogan, saying his economic policies are reckless. from istanbul, our international correspondent orla guerin reports. runaway inflation and a plunging currency. it�*s been falling so fast it�*s hard to keep track. for turks, the exchange rate makes painful reading. the lira doesn�*t go far these days. many are counting their pennies. this is kasimpasa, the istanbul neighbourhood where president erdogan grew up, traditionally one of his strongholds. yilmaz sees the prices and walks on by. he has to borrow to survive and he is furious with the president. these days, when the president utters a word about the economy, the lira nosedives. he insists that cutting interest rates will curb inflation. most experts believe the opposite. if he gets success by using this new model, i think he will get a nobel prize. this professor of finance says the president�*s policy is a costly mistake. i�*m sure that it will not work, this new model. we will lose days and days, years and year

our correspondent robin brant is in shanghai, and joins me now.an you tell us? , . , ., ., ., us? just a statement at the moment. we had a picture — us? just a statement at the moment. we had a picture last _ us? just a statement at the moment. we had a picture last time _ us? just a statement at the moment. we had a picture last time when - us? just a statement at the moment. we had a picture last time when the i we had a picture last time when the man in charge of the ioc had a half an hour zoom with peng shuai. this time isjust a an hour zoom with peng shuai. this time is just a statement issued by the ioc. it starts by saying we have the ioc. it starts by saying we have the same concern as many other people and organisations about the well—being and safety of peng shuai. that strikes me as being slightly, slightly more critical. it then goes say they had all rather a team from the ioc had another zoom cool weather yesterday and they explain at the bottom of this statement, about about three paragraphs long, our human and person centred approac

our china correspondent, robin brant, explains what will be the fallout from the us boycott — and whatconsider here is this was heavily telegraphed. this is not a big surprise, and it is consistent in terms of some confrontation, some competition, and some cooperation in terms of how the biden administration views china. but, it is a snub. it is a slight, and it was designed to do that. this was designed to highlight, as you just heard the biden administration's ongoing concerns about what it views as genocide being committed by china against its own people in the west. it is important to see it in all of that context. china says it will react in a like for like away. it is tough to see how it will do that. the us isn't due to host a similar event soon, although los angeles in 2028 has the summer games. i'll be looking for how perhaps the officials accompanying some of the american athletes that come here in the coming weeks, how they are treated, how the american athletes will be treated, as well, and will there be the classic but nonetheless quite effective maybe some pressure, some