The british army has been stood down from supporting the metropolitan police after hundreds of officers stepped back from firearms duties. The Prime Minister has said armed officers need clarity about their legal powers. Rishi sunak was backing a home office review, after a metropolitan Police Officer was charged with murdering a 24 year old man, chris kaba, in south london last year. Earlier, the bbc was told up to 300 officers had turned in permits allowing them to carry weapons. Lord macdonald, the former director of Public Prosecutions in england and wales, told the bbc that the met police chief needs to provide more information, if he believes his officers are being unfairly dealt with. A lot of respect for mark, hes an excellent commissioner. But i think he needs to identify what there is a Glaring Unfairness is our. Evidence has been assembled by the police about police conduct. It has been referred to the cps, the evidence has been considered and the cps have made their decision. One can understand the concern of the officers and the Home Secretarys position. She has to tread a careful constitutional line and shouldnt do Orsay Constitutional Line and shouldnt do or say anything which has the effect of undermining the decision now it has been made. Of undermining the decision now it has been made. Hundreds of officers ste |n~ has been made. Hundreds of officers stepping back has been made. Hundreds of officers stepping back from has been made. Hundreds of officers stepping back from that has been made. Hundreds of officers stepping back from that Firearms Stepping Back from that firearms duty. I am really concerned these officers are believing this is the only way to air their concerns. What we dont want is military officers patrolling The Streets Of London in a similar way we saw in the 19805 and 19905 in Northern Ireland. And i think officers really need to remind themselves of the metropolitan police is in a bad state, public trust and confidence is not good, and this action is going to make it worse. Reinforce perceptions they feel they are persecuted heroes, being petulant and childish. That is the last thing they want to put across. The best thing i suggest is air your grievances through the home office, through the commissioner, but get back to work. We heard in that report from tom a former Firearms Officer talking about it not being worth the risk any more to be one of the firearms team, the risk of years of investigation if they do fire a shot, the impact on mental health, theirfamilies. Do you sympathise with that thought and recognise it . I recognise it but they know what they sign up to when they become Firearms Officers, and specialist officers. It is part of the selection process, part of the rigorous training. It is risk and rewards. The reward is it is a very specialised, looked up to by their colleagues, a lot of kudos, a lot of trappings, going into Critical Incidents is seen as a real sort of opportunity of developing. If thats the way you want to do policing. You will see what the Prime Minister said. Is there a need for any more legal clarity of exactly the position, the rules these Police Officers work under . I know theres an issue, the iopc, and even the personal standards, how they take things forward and how the cps looks at things. In terms of processes and practices, the legislation as well. These things i believe have been put in place in the past. Let me say, these officers are taking this the mark duggan issue when an officer may have faced the courts. They didnt use it because he didnt go to court. On this occasion they decided to pull out this tactic, which i think is unprofessional and shouldnt be done, and is Holding People to ransom. Hopefully it will stop soon. What do you make of the intervention of the Home Secretary, given that there is a criminal case, and the intervention of the commissioner . It is interesting the former director of prosecution spoke to the bbc and said the commissioner needs to provide evidence for claims of Glaring Unfairness. Absolutely. Spot on. The commissioner and the Home Secretary need to understand if interfering in this way can prejudice proper trial at the old bailey for the officer facing the murder case. You dont want to influence a jury. Unless you come up with what is so wrong, and lo and behold this has been highlighted when an officer is going to court. It wasnt done beforehand. That is why people think it has been petulant, childish and unprofessional. Get back to work, these issues have been raised and we cant allow our streets to be patrolled by military officers like in Northern Ireland. A final quick thought on where you finished, the potential for the army covering some of these roles. That is backed away a little over the last day, but what troubles you about that potential . Clearly you are troubled. That is the last thing we want. I dont think anyone needs it. The met has a bad enough reputation, so much misconduct of over 1000 officers on Gardening Leave or misconduct hearings. More than likely investigations as well. This is the last thing they want. We need to reassure the public. Trust and confidence is rock bottom. This action is just making people believe they are not Police Officers, they arent public servants, they are a law unto themselves who do what they want and they can be petulant and childish. There have been scenes of panic and confusion as a growing number of Ethnic Armenian refugees try to leave nagorno kara bakh. It follows azerbaijans seizure of this disputed region. Roads leading towards the Armenian Border are jammed with traffic. People are afraid of persecution and ethnic cleansing. Armenia reckons about 5,000 people have crossed the border since the enclave was captured by Azerbaijani Forces last week. The territory is at the heart of one of the worlds longest running conflicts. Nagorno karabakh lies in the mountainous South Caucasus region of Eastern Europe and asia between the black sea and the caspian sea. Its recognised internationally as part of azerbaijan, but has been controlled by Ethnic Armenians for three decades. Weretalking about one of the longest running conflicts. It isnt often in the headlines but attention is don Nagorno Karabakh, with warnings that could potentially be concerns about ethnic cleansing, forcing out a group from an area. Look at this video from the past day. If we play at now you can see some of the more than 3000 people who have fled Nagorno Karabakh already. These are Ethnic Armenian families who have been living in the region. These pictures are from armenian tv. Lets step back and try get our bearings. We are talking about a part of the world which is where the east europe meets asia. Specifically between the black sea and caspian sea. We have armenia, predominantly christian, azerbaijan mostly muslim. Both parts were former parts of the soviet union. You can see what we are talking about, Nagorno Karabakh. Recognise about, nagorno kara bakh. Recognise as about, Nagorno Karabakh. Recognise as being part of azerbaijan. But large areas happy controlled by Ethnic Armenians for three decades and about 120,000 Ethnic Armenians call it home. What happened last week was the azerbaijan military launched as offensive, a quick operation in response to what it said was provocation and made gains. The operation was condemned by the eu. Internet was restricted in Nagorno Karabakh, but we have a video. It is not from closer but around the main city. You can see the smoke there in the distance. What then happened was a peace deal was announced in which the Ethnic Armenian forces would be disbanded and disarmed. Have a look at this photograph because this is within the city, the main city, and you can see this big plume of smoke. Here at bbc, we have said the photograph is authentic, weve seen the outlines of the mountains and buildings, using google maps. This is true. The idea of a piece being in place is contradicted by this. Azerbaijan has promised appeal of Nagorno Karabakh will be saved, but Ethnic Armenian leaders say they fear ethnic cleansing, that only one big delivery of food has been allowed in the last week. The claim is thousands of people are without food and shelter. This is footage taken in the past week by peacekeepers in the region. They are not from the united nations, they are from russia. It is clear, keeping the peace, protecting human rights and lives of thousands of armenians set to be uprooted as a pressing concern for lots of people in the international community. To be honest, it has been tough to get a clear picture of what is happening. With more people are merging with their own first hand accounts, that could change. A short while ago i spoke to Zara Amatuni She is the spokesperson for the International Committee of the red cross delegation in armenia. Our organisation has been present across the region since three decades and will be following of the needs of the people who are been suffering the consequences of the situation. Currently we are actually trying to step up our sources to give the scale, by adding personal, specialising in health, forensic and weapon contamination. Also we are trying to offer our humanitarian support and resources to cover the immediate needs of the people, ranging from the access to food, health care and other Essential Services such as water and heat while the people are evacuating. We are trying to monitor and ensure the protection of people left behind. Also during the past week we have delivered much needed humanitarian supplies, including around 70 metric tonnes of supplies such as wheat flour, Sunflower Oil and other stuff. In addition, weve helped nearly 50 people with Urgent Medical need to get evacuated either within the territory or outside, yesterday, we facilitated the passage of critically injured people, 23 people, to armenia to get treatment in the local medical centre. A twin thought. Weve seen the pictures of people leaving so quickly, they are very scared. What, broadly, are the numbers you are dealing with, and also you mention the people left behind, is there anything that can be done which enhances their protection . Actually, our organisation speaks to all actors in the situation. We can gain acceptance and carry out life saving work for the greatest number. We stand ready to assist with maintaining and restoring contact between separated family members. And to provide medical assistance. We are trying to get a clearer picture of the volume of need so we are ready to properly address the needs that can be implemented within our limits and capacity. Do head to the bbc website. Around the world and the uk, you are watching bbc news. Lets look at some other stories making the headlines. A Motorbike Rider has died in a collision in central london, while being followed by police. The motorcycle which failed to stop for officers after travelling through a red light crashed on Tottenham Court road. A Pillion Passenger suffered non life threatening injuries and was arrested after being found with a machete. Police say the death of Sheffield United player maddy cusack is not being treated as suspicious. The midfielder died last week, aged 27. Derbyshire police said they were called to an address on wednesday where cusack was pronounced dead at the scene. They added a file will now be prepared for the coroner. Health Service Managers estimate that more than one million nhs appointments in england have been cancelled because of strikes. Nhs providers have warned that resources are likely to be severely stretched, as winter approaches. Industrial action began in december. The official number of inpatient and outpatient appointments and operations cancelled is more than 885,000. More on that in half an hour. You live with bbc news. Ukraines Special Forces have claimed that the commander of russias Black Sea Fleet was killed in a Missile Strike on the navy� s headquarters in occupied crimea on friday. In a statement, a Military Spokesman claimed admiral viktor sokolov, the commander of russias Black Sea Fleet, died in the attack, but wouldnt name him directly when approached by the bbc for confirmation. The building in sevastopol suffered a direct hit by Western Supplied missiles. Our correspondent in kyiv James Waterhouse has the latest. We saw this really dramatic strike on friday, a direct hit with Western Missiles on russias naval headquarters in occupied crimea. At the very least, it was a symbolic moment for both ukraine in terms of undermining russias presence but also for russia itself because this is somewhere that it has tried to demonstrate a firm grip on and i think when you see the headquarters being blown up in this way, it wasnt immediately clear what Operational Impact this would have on russia and today we are seeing ukraine try to assert that it was indeed significant in that a sizeable chunk of the structure had been taken out. 3a senior offices, we are told, including an admiral. But no evidence has accompanied this statement. As you say, we tried to contact the spokesman. He has not named him, but they are standing by the broad sentiment of the statement and, of course, there are a lot of reports circulating around this to the delight of the pro ukrainian channels. As for the kremlin, they havent commented on these latest claims, and we dont expect them to. James, so many different strands to this war, but there were reports a few hours ago that the first of the us abrams tanks have arrived there in ukraine. Is there any sort of reporting about numbers that we have here . Yes, i think there is a consensus on this, matthew. Just to give you an idea, a year ago, the wesr were ruling out sending any kind of tanks to ukraine. Then you have the us signal that they were prepared to send these hugely advanced tanks. And that gave political cover for the german made Leopard Tanks to be provided by other western allies. Equally, it gives you the time it takes for these pieces of kit to arrive with all the support structure. Nevertheless, the first of 31 tanks, we are told, have started to arrive. There are images of them being loaded arriving and Train Carriages, and they are ultimately ahead of schedule. So we have ukraines Defence Minister saying they are going to be used as part of ukraines counteroffensive. And i think when you have got ukraine looking to try to make as many gains as possible before the onset of winter and softer ground where it will be harder to move main and armoured vehicles across mining infested terrain, this will be welcome news for kyiv. In the hope more will follow. Nevertheless, it will still be sometime before we see those tanks taken off the Train Carriages and used in a meaningful way. What we are being told is that the ukrainians want to use these tanks in what they described as a tailored operation. Why . Because they are valuable but also the ukrainians want to use these tanks and what they described as a tailored operation. Why . Because they are valuable but also we saw Ukrainian Forces use a lot of men in machinery early on in their counteroffensive, which forced them to change tactics. So it will be interesting to see what impact these tanks have longer term. Here, the nurse lucy letby is to face a retrial on an outstanding allegation that she attempted to murder a baby girl. Letby was sentenced to a whole life order last month, after she was convicted of the murders of seven babies and the Attempted Murders of six others. But the jury was unable to reach verdicts on six counts, relating to five children. Her barrister told the court, she maintains her innocence on all charges. Our North East Of England correspondent, danny savage, is outside Manchester Crown court with more details. The hearing here at Manchester Crown court this morning. The prosecution told the judge they were proceeding with a retrial of lucy letby in relation to one of those six charges that the jury failed to reach verdicts on the end of the trial last month. One of Attempted Murder of a girl known as baby k, who died in February 2016 at the countess of chester hospital. Now, 33 year old lucy letby was present via video link from her prison today. She was sitting in a Conference Room behind a desk. She spoke to confirm her name and that she could see and hear proceedings over that link. Her defence barrister inquiry told thejudge that she maintains her innocence on all charges. Now, the proposed retrial date for this one charge of Attempted Murder is injune next year here at Manchester Crown court. Now, thejury failed to reach verdicts on six charges of Attempted Murder at the end of her trial, so why only one today . There are obviously five other charges. The Crown Prosecution Service say those decisions were extremely complex and difficult, and that they listen to the families and met and explained their Decision Making process to them. One of the solicitors representing some of those families say they are disappointed with todays decision. We believe families of further alleged victims still have questions that are unanswered. To some arise, lucy letby will be tried again in one charge of Attempted Murder in relation to a girl known as baby k. And that will take place in manchester here next summer and is expected to last 2 3 weeks. The notorious Italian Mafia boss Matteo Messina denaro has died in custody, at the age of 61. He was being treated for cancer. Denaro was arrested injanuary, at a clinic in palermo in sicily, after 30 years on the run. He was given a Life Sentence after being convicted in absentia of numerous murders. He once boasted that he could fill a cemetery with his victims. Among them, were leading anti mafia prosecutors killed in bomb attacks. He was often described as the last godfather of the sicilian mafia. He presided over the feared and ruthless cosa nostra. One of the biggest bosses in sicily, sicilian mafia, matthew. And he was convicted, actually, of multiple Life Sentences because of the dozens of murders that were attributed to him, including involvement in the murders of the two anti mafia judges, Giovanni Falcone and paolo borsellino, who were two, who remain still two very iconic figures. They were assassinated in 1992 by the mafia, trying to stand up and crush the sicilian mafia. And after that, really the mafia. The Italian Police clamped down very hard on cosa nostra, but denaro remained on the run for 30 years, and he was finally tracked down because of the Chemotherapy Treatment he was receiving in a clinic in sicily. And it is that same cancer that led the police to him, to his arrest in january that has now led to the end of his life. And when he was arrested, he boasted that he would not divulge any information, would not have any regrets at all. So so many will fear, actually, that he will take some of those big, Biggest Mafia Secrets to his grave. And, mark, i know its only the first few hours since this news emerged, but what reaction has there been . Well, look, when he was arrested, it was a huge deal, matthew, because he was extremely symbolic, even though cosa nostra is not the force that it once was, because it has been rather eclipsed by italys other mafias, particularly the ndrangheta, the toe of italy that is now the countrys most powerful mafia and in fact controls around 80 of the International Cocaine trade. Cosa nostra has sort of been crushed. Other mafias have risen in its place. But he was a huge figure. And so finally tracking him down, you know, many italians breathed a great sigh of relief. But the fact that he has died now before he went on trial, i think many will regret that, particularly, of course, the families and friends of his victims. One of his Life Sentences was actually for the kidnapping and murder of the 12 year old son of a witness in the falcone murder. So that shows you the kind of ruthlessness that he carried out. And as you say, he boasted that he would be able to fill a cemetery with a number of people he killed. Now he is ending up himself in a cemetery buried alongside his mafioso father. Reports on that story does several people injured at a blast in a petrol station. Clearly something to watch and bring you more details. Also we are expecting a statement in the us. Robert menendez is expected to speak shortly. Those are the live pictures. He is expected to start now. Hes the veteran senator who stepped down as head of the Foreign Relations committee over bribery charges. Its the first time hes spoken in public since the allegations surfaced. You may remember Thejustice Department prosecutors alleged he end is wipe accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for aid to each� s government. The couple have denied the charges, the senator has denied calls for fellow people to resign. He stood aside from the committee, but we are expecting his first public comments. You can see all the cameras in place, the journalists. We will have it live when he enters the room. Hello there. Apart from some rain across the north and the west of the uk, today potentially could be one of the better days of this week as things are set to turn very windy with gales and heavy rain, particularly around the middle part of the week. But this afternoon looks largely fine and dry. For most of us, that is a way from the north west of the uk, where here rain will continue to affect the north and west of scotland. A few showery bursts as well, further south and west across Western England and western wales. But a good deal of sunshine around, particularly towards southern and eastern parts of the country which will stay dry all day and will feel quite warm as well. In the brisk south westerly wind, up to 23 degrees in the southeast, generally the high teens further north and west. As we head through tonight, itll be dry for most areas. The winds pick up a little bit across the north and the west. We start to see some rain eventually pushing into Northern Ireland as a Weather Front approaches. I dont think anywhere is going to be particularly cold tonight. Lowest values around 7 to 9 degrees across northeast england and eastern scotland. A couple of Weather Fronts, though, invade as we move through tuesday. So although we start dry and bright through central and eastern areas, well start to see some rain pushing across england. Well, some of this could be thundery in nature and longer spells of rain also affecting Northern Ireland, Western Scotland with that other Weather Front. So a bit of a mixed day on tuesday. But again, not too bad in the sunshine across the southeast, again, could be up to 23 celsius, high teens further north. By wednesday, though, we could see a stormy spell of weather. Storm agnes, named by the met office, could bring some disruption maybe towards northern and western parts of the uk. Here it is on the pressure charts, gathering speed, deepening rapidly as it approaches ireland. But as the storm approaches our shores, it will start to weaken, but still pack quite a punch with some Gale Force Winds 60 to 70 miles an hour around the irish sea coast may be in excess, up to 80 miles an hour. And also very windy conditions across northern and eastern scotland. And with the strong winds throughout wednesday, heavy rain will pile up the western side of the country across Northern Ireland, up in towards scotland, could see some localised flooding in fact across the east and south east of england. I think you will escape the worst of it. Were seeing some sunshine, one or two showers, but it will be quite blustery wherever you are. And then signs as we end the week and push into the weekend High Pressure could build in, bring us increasing amounts of drier this is bbc news. The News Conference who were anticipating a few moments ago has just started. Lets listen to it. For anyone who has known me throughout my 50 is a Public Service of man that i have always fought for what is right. My advocacy has always been grounded in what i learned from growing up as a son of cuban refugees, especially my mum, my hero. Everything i have accomplished, i have worked for, despite the naysayers and everyone who has underestimated i recognise that this will be the biggest fight yet but, as stated throughout this whole process, ifirmly believe yet but, as stated throughout this whole process, i firmly believe that when all the facts are presented, not only will i be exonerated, but i still will be the newjersey� s senior senator. We now want to address four things. Senior senator. We now want to address fourthings. First, senior senator. We now want to address four things. First, a cornerstone of the foundation of american democracy and ourjustice system is the principal that all people are presumed innocent until proven guilty. All the people. I ask for nothing more and deserve nothing less. The court of Public Opinion is no substitute for our revered justice system. We cannot set aside the Presumption Of Innocence or political expediency when the harm is irrevocable. Is irrevocable. Youre watching bbc news. Is irrevocable. Youre watching bbc news youre is irrevocable. Youre watching bbc news. Youre watching is irrevocable. Youre watching bbc news. Youre watching senator is irrevocable. Youre watching bbc i news. Youre watching senator Robert Menendez protesting his innocence as he battles bribery charges. Prosecutors get it wrong sometimes. Sadly, i know that. Instead of waiting for all the facts to be presented, others have rushed to judgment because see a political opportunity for themselves or those around them. All i humbly ask for in this moment, in my colleagues in congress, the elected leaders and advocates newjersey that i have worked with for years, as well as each person calls newjersey home, is to pause and allow for all the facts to be presented. Secondly, my long