carmen roberts and katy austin at manchester airport, i katy austin at manchester airport, thank youthe easter weekend. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. it was one of last summer's big blockbuster movies — and it swept the board during the awards season. but up until now, people injapan haven't been able to see the film oppenheimer — but that's changed as it opened in cinemas today. the film tells the story of the scientist j robert oppenheimer. he created the first nuclear bomb, which was later used againstjapan during world war ii, killing more than 200,000 people. it was seen as too controversial and sensitive a topic for the people of japan. our tokyo correspondent shaimaa khalil reports from hiroshima. no location, no place is eerily really more relevant to the oppenheimer story than here in hiroshima. the first atomic bomb fell nearly directly above the building behind me, known as the hiroshima peace memorial or the a—bomb dome, and for years it has been meticulously preserved to be in the state it was in during that bombing, and over here is the motoyasu

katy austin, bbc news, in surrey.r�*s behaviour is to appeal against red bull's decision to dismiss her complaint. the woman, who was suspended from her position last week by red bull, accused mr horner of inappropriate and controlling behaviour. she will ask red bull to reconsider its decision, which was made after an investigation conducted by a lawyer. mr horner has always denied the accusations made against him. an nhs trust is allegedly using an unproven medical procedure that is said to have harmed patients. a former consultant at the portsmouth hospitals nhs trust has told the bbc that the technique — which has been used on patients needing a particular type of kidney dialysis — has led to increases in the rates of infections and blood clots. the consultant who spoke to the bbc was dismissed by the trust for misconduct after repeatedly trying to stop the procedure. the trust said it disputes her findings and that the safety of its patients is its priority. michael buchanan reports. amanda kelsey died in 2020. s

katy austin, bbc news.who was stabbed at a bus stop in south london. 15—year—old elianne andam was attacked in croydon in september on her way to school. appearing at the old bailey, the teenager, who can't be named because of his age, pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder. the plea was not accepted by prosecutors, and he will stand trial in november. there are big differences across england in how long patients are having to wait for hospital treatment. analysis by bbc news suggests that patients in the worst performing hospitals are waiting four times longer than those at the best performing. it comes as figures for the end of january show the overall waiting list has fallen slightly — to 7.6 million. 0ur health editor hugh pym has the story. high—tech in the nhs — a robot in an operating theatre. colchester hospital one of the first to offer this sort of surgery to all patients. here, it's a hysterectomy. it's less invasive with speedier recovery times. using a surgical robot like this can mea

here's katy austin.meltdown that triggered flight chaos on the busy august bank holiday monday, causing misery for nearly 750,000 passengers. we've booked to take the kids to dublin for the day, and just got here and told it's been cancelled. had to fork out nearly £1000 for a hotel for the next four nights. here's how it unfolded. just after 8:30am that morning, nats' automatic system became confused by a flight plan and responded by shutting down. staff now had the process flight plans manually, which takes much longer. four hours of data is kept in the system as a buffer, but the clock was ticking to try and fix it. around 9am, nats engineers contacted a more specialist colleague who was on call remotely because it was a bank holiday. an hour later, it was decided they should go in. they didn't arrive until around 11:16am. another more senior engineer was also contacted. by lunchtime, delays were mounting up and cancellations had started. queues had built up at airports. here's edinburgh. nats eventua

all right, thank you very much, katie austin reporting.the result is a foregone conclusion. russians have begun voting to choose their president, and no one doubts vladimir putin will win another six—year term in office, allowing him to stay in power until at least 2030, longer than any russian leader since catherine the great. his most important opponents are either in exile, in prison, or in the case of alexei navalny — dead. our russia editor steve rosenberg reports from moscow. across the country, there are polling stations that don't look or sound like polling stations. and there is voting in parts of ukraine which are under russian occupation — what russia calls its new territories. the ukrainian government called the election here illegal. polls close on sunday night. expect a putin landslide. unpredictability is very much a feature of life now in russia, but that does not apply to elections. the political system here is built around one man, vladimir putin, and the kremlin tightly controls that system, including elections. so mr pu

katy austin, bbc news. hello there, good evening. it's been a day of sunshine and showers. rest of the bank holiday weekend, still sunny spells and showers, but fewer showers than we saw today. and it will feel warmer, more sunshine and lighter winds. but watch out for some more rain towards the south as we head through bank holiday monday. i'll have more on that injust a moment. now, overnight tonight, still breezy for a while across england and wales, but the winds will ease down. we'll see a scattering of the showers out towards the west, perhaps a bit more cloud for eastern coastal areas, but with clearing skies, there'll be some patches of frost around and maybe a bit of mist and fog into tomorrow morning. so a cold start to the day on saturday. now, our area of low pressure is gradually pulling away towards the west, so the wind is lightening, but it does allow for this weather front to graze parts of east anglia and kent, as well, as we head into saturday morning. so maybe a little bit of patchy rain here and probably more cloud, but it will brighten up as we head th

let's go to manchester airport and our transport correspondent katy austin.n talking about the ferries, but what does it look like in terms of the airlines? obviously, the past couple of years has been really difficult for airlines and airports, the whole industry, we had covid and then there were staff shortages and then there were air traffic control problems as well so they are all really hoping for a good year this year. in terms of passenger numbers, the numbers look really strong. the demand is clearly there. here at manchester airport they think it could be their busiest ever easter weekend. helped, they think, by the fact that easter falls pretty early this year. and that means that you have a lot of schools breaking up at the same time and it makes it a really big getaway. numbers here they think will be about 320,000 passengers coming through manchester over the long weekend, that's about 8% up on last year as well. it's interesting what carmen was saying. there is demand for travel despite the cost of living pressures and one travel agent group sai

our transport correspondent katy austin reports.of dover earlier this morning with drivers reporting two—hour waits. some airports expect to get back to pre—pandemic numbers. manchester airport expects to handle 320,000 passengers over the next few days, and they expect it to be their biggest ever easter getaway. cape verde for my grandma's birthday. grandma sheila? yes. is it a big birthday? it's a very big birthday, i was 80 on tuesday, and we're all going off with the family to cape verde. congratulations. 2018 was the last one. so, you haven't been on holiday since 2018? no. not outside the uk. so... wow, so, looking forward to it? very much so. definitely. bit of sun, bit of warmth, leave the rain behind for a few days! after a very tricky few years, airports and airlines want to make the most of high demand. they and the main air traffic control provider nats say they've worked hard to make sure things go smoothly. we're working very closely with all of the airlines and with national air—traffic control services just to make s

katy austin, bbc news. making millions of pounds, the singer mel b later found herself penniless and living back with her mother in a bungalow in leeds. she says she's now out of an abusive relationship, and is hoping to use her experience to help others. charlotte gallagher has been to meet her. # so here's the story from a to z...#. mel b made millions from the spice girls, but a few years ago, after leaving an abusive marriage, she was left with almost nothing and had to move in with her mum in leeds. her ex denies the allegations. it's embarrassing. it's shameful. i'm all about girl power. yet look at what i'm just leaving, which is a complete girl powerless situation. i was doing a spice girls tour in 2019 here. and i lived with my mum because i wasn'tjust emotionally and physically abused, it was all the financial abuse too. i didn't realise that i didn't actually have enough, as much money as i thought i had. so i had to literally eat humble pie, live with my mum. and my mum was the kind of person th

earlier i was joined by our transport correspondent katy austin and host of the bbc travel show — carmen issues faceing travellers in dover. it is not a good start for many holiday makers. about 20,000 cars are expected to get through dover this easter weekend. if you look on social media, holiday—makers are saying they have arrived at the port at 2am or 3am and it has taken them up at 2am or 3am and it has taken them up to three hours to get checked in, only to find that their ferry is delayed, so these ferries crossing the channel overnight have been buffeted by winds of up to 80 mph from storm nelson, so it is not a good start. i from storm nelson, so it is not a good start-— from storm nelson, so it is not a noodstart. , ,, , good start. i suppose because it is the holiday — good start. i suppose because it is the holiday season, _ good start. i suppose because it is the holiday season, those - good start. i suppose because it is the holiday season, those ferries i the holiday season, those ferries are packed with people so any little delay and suddenly you have all that traffic queu

take the train if you can, is the advice. 0ur transport correspondent katy austin is there.g it? well, it is part of a big programme of upgrade works. this is actually the first of five closures between now and september. national highways says it this weekend a bridge is going to be demolished and a gantry put up. it will have to close the motorway in both directions in order to do that. it does mean shutting a whole stretch of britain's busiest motorway, one of the busiest stretches of it, and of course this motorway gets used by people coming to and from places all over the country, really. so it is likely to cause long delays and congestion along surrounding roots. there is an 11 mile diversion route in place, some people who live along it told me today they are not going to go anywhere we can because they are expecting gridlock. for anybody who has to travel in this area this weekend, because the advice is to avoid it if you possibly can, the advice is to plan ahead, may be consider taking the train if it is an option, follow the official diversion route, and be plenty

katie austin, bbc news.ed more than £3.5 billion into the sector since the pandemic. we want to hear from you this morning, are you happy with your local bus route or do you think there needs to be a drastic improvement or does it still even exist? let us know. you may well be watching this on the bus, on your phone, or smart device, or even if you are less lucky, at the bus stop as you wait for it! thank you very much indeed. i don't know which of those statuses paul is in, he literallyjust e—mailed us, saying, lucky viewers who have a bus service to moan about. rural bus services here in suffolk don't even exist in any useful way.— exist in any useful way. that's the roblem. exist in any useful way. that's the problem- we _ exist in any useful way. that's the problem. we would _ exist in any useful way. that's the problem. we would love - exist in any useful way. that's the problem. we would love to - exist in any useful way. that's the problem. we would love to hear. exist in any useful way. that's the .

katy austin is at manchester airport. they think they will handle 320,000 passengers over the long weekend and thatis passengers over the long weekend and that is more than last year. in fact they think it is up 8% on the same time in 2023. it's the busiest time of the year so far for travel. about two million brits are expected to head overseas over the long weekend. one travel agent group says easter holiday bookings are 9% up on last year, despite prices rising and cost—of—living pressures. we've not seen any dent in demand. in fact, the season is exceptionally strong and people's appetite to travel is exceptionally high. what we are seeing are slightly different trends. so, for a lot of people, what they like to do is they want to be able to budget before they go on holiday. all inclusive trends is growing exceptionally well. and more people now book late. some airports expect to be as busy as before the pandemic, or busier. these passengers at stansted were happy to be getting away. it's been pretty miserable. so yea

now, katy, we did speak with governor abbott just a couple of weeks ago down in austin and he said thisf the record number of migrants that have been going into the state of texas and he believes, in his view, the federal government had not acted, that the state of texas, it was necessary to enforce this law. i've also put in a call to the texas department of public safety just within the past few minutes. we have not heard back from them. there are a lot of questions about how this will be enforced and whether this really changes immigration law in the u.s. because it is very significant, katy. as you know, the people that have challenged this law argue that the federal government was responsible for enforcing immigration law and this appears to upend that. again, we're just still going through this ruling but again, the breaking news that the supreme court is now allowing, at least for now, this law down in texas to go into effect. >> i know you've been down there, covered the border, spoken to the governor. when you were down talking to local law enforcement, was this something that