16 countries take the stage in liverpool later for the second semifinal. sticking with the eurovision theme, we are in liverpool at the shopping centre right in the heart of liverpool, surrounded by these beautiful eggs, i will tell you about them later on. the bank of england is expected to raise interest rates again today to 4.5%, the highest level in 15 years. it will be the 12th consecutive hike since december 2021, meaning mortgage payments could rise further for millions of customers. our business correspondent hannah miller reports. this is the first home gheev has owned, bought with his girlfriend two months ago. but since they agreed their mortgage, the monthly payments have gone up twice in line with the base rate of interest set by the bank of england. when we were coming to find a mortgage, the fixed rates were astronomically high. we figured that if the bank of england base rate goes up by another two or three percentage points, we re actually better off staying
and a political culture tainted by allegations of corruption. well, my guest is seychelles president wavel ramkalawan. is this a story of paradise lost? president wavel ramkalawan, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much. well, it s a pleasure to have you in the studio. you in the seychelles are known at the un as one of the sids nations. that s the small island developing states. do you think the world listens properly to the sids? i would say no. in fact, as an african country, when the world talks about africa, they don t really pay attention to the sids. and yet, the sids of africa are the ones that are doing very well. when you look at the mo ibrahim index, for example, mauritius is first, seychelles is second, cape verde s third. so you have three sids that are doing extremely well, but the focus is on mainland africa. but isn t that, in a sense, part of the point? you are doing relatively well. i believe your per capita income is over $10,000, which in african terms i
and finally, liverpool calling. another round of hopefuls will be battling it out for a place in the eurovision finals this weekend. in the eurovision finals this weekend- in the eurovision finals this weekend. ., ., , ., weekend. light from our studio in singapore- this is bbc news. it is newsday. welcome to the programme. we start in pakistan, where the former prime minister, imran khan, has been remanded in custody for 8 days after his arrest on corruption charges. his detention has sparked protests across the country. at least eight people have died in clashes and police say about a thousand people have been arrested. if convicted, it would disqualify mr khan from standing for election, which is due this year. our pakistan correspondent, caroline davies, has more from islamabad. waiting, watched by pakistan. this compound is where imran khan is due to appear. a night of unrest. calm now, but for how long? roadblocks installed around the entrances, hoping to stop the pr
hello and a warm welcome to the programme. i m sally bundock. a day after he was found liable by a new york jury for sexual abuse and defamation, donald trump has faced questions in a live town hall in the us state of new hampshire. the frontrunner for the 2024 republican nomination for the presidency demeaned his accuser ejean carroll, he reiterated his position the 2020 election was rigged, and if he returned to the white house, mr trump said he would pardon many of his supporters who have mr trump said he would pardon many of his supporters who have on the us capitol. this is his response to a question about the ejean carroll court verdict. my my poll numbers just came out and they went up. my poll numbersjust came out and they went up. my poll numbersjust came out and they went up. i | and they went up. applause i think i m the and they went up. applause i think i m the only and they went up. applause i think i m the only person - and they went up. applause i think
many believe that lukashenko wants to recreate stalin style grip on the country, so nobody dares to contest the next election. many belarussians came here to lithuania in an attempt to flee the repressions. there are currently around 19,000 of them living here. in retaliation, the belarussian regime has decided to target their relatives who stayed behind. and many fear that this isjust the beginning. anatoly was detained more times than he can remember, but he says that families of activists were not being targeted before. translation: this is the first time. it was always a war, but there were some rules. there were some lines they wouldn t cross. now we have gotten to the point where, before shooting their enemies, they put our children in front of us. in a country that claims to have no political prisoners, there are currently almost 1,500 people in prison for political reasons. one of them is ex presidential hopeful viktar babaryka. his son eduard was his campaign manager