Automatically qualify, while the third and fourth placed nations will go into the play . Offs. The 12 best ranked teams in league b will face eachother for a place in the final play off round. Scotland are in a group with serbia, slovakia and israel; Northern Ireland were drawn with portugal, Bosnia And Herzegovina and malta; while wales will play croatia, ukrane and kosovo. Qualifying begins in april. Former world number one simona halep has had herfour year ban for doping reduced to nine months by the court of arbitration for sport. The two time grand slam winner tested positive for an anti anaemia drug after the us open in 2022. Cas have since ruled halep did not take it intentionally. Having feared her career was over,s the 32 old can now return to tennis immediately. And thats all the sport for now. Heres the eastern time and gmt time, east coast west coast. Weve got a Night Of Special Coverage Tonight on the bbc, Super Tuesday will be coming from washington, dc, looked across to
Bitcoin hitting record highs, the continuation of a rally that has been building for a couple of months. There are a couple of factors the mainstreaming of bitcoin. You may recall earlier this year regulators in the us open and investing opportunities attached to crypto currencies to more investors, and since then funds have been pouring into that. There was a report that huge figures have been raised. That has definitely increased things on the demand side. On the supply side, there is a 0n the supply side, there is a process called halving, part of the bitcoin protocol, only a certain number are issued, and once every four years, a reward for bitcoin miners, that number decreases. That may also have an impact on what investors think the supply will be. All of this i think you can safely say is leading to that craze for laser eyes, the meme that bitcoin fund is used when they are feeling optimistic about it. ~. , they are feeling optimistic about it. We will come back to it. Michelle.
A month in repayments. Somehow, were supposed to spend less and find £750 extra a month to pay for that. So, you know, for many families, it is a terrifying situation. You know, if you have young families like ourselves who have been swayed into the Housing Market by government, whos advertised help to buy as an affordable scheme, right . When things become unaffordable, you cant simply turn around and say, thats your problem. A rise of 0. 25 Percentage Points would take the Bank Of Englands base rate to 5. 25 the highest since april 2008. For someone with an average Tracker Mortgage of £200,000, that would mean a rise of more than £23 a month. And for around 800,000 homeowners due to renegotiate their fixed deal in the second half of this year, it could mean an even bigger increase in their monthly repayments. Whites, good afternoon. But at this estate agent in salisbury, they say there are still more people wanting houses than there are properties available. A supply and demand is
Ijust used that phrase, some would call it a cliche, about the culture wars. Does it feel to you that today there is a somewhat toxic culture war . I think youve framed it beautifully. It is toxic, but most importantly, its disingenuous. In my humble opinion. Its used to kind of create political fear. And ourjob as artists is, i think, fundamentally to take away that fear, to take away the binaries that i think this farce of the culture wars are. You know, i often hear politicians and im not one to diss politicians, but i also often hear politicians use race or class or immigration or use history as a Battering Ram to get themselves into the hearts of the populist. But those issues youve just outlined race, immigration they are central to your work, because theyre central to your own life story. Yeah, totally and utterly. But. And have you been frightened off entering this territory at times . Again, i think its framed brilliantly. Fortunately for me, or unfortunately, when im afraid o
Now on bbc news, unspun world withjohn simpson. Hello and welcome to unspun world. Its exactly two years since our programme launched, and the anniversary comes at a critical moment in the ukrainian war, which is also exactly two years old. Russias gaining ground, and President Putins only serious political opponent, alexei navalny, is dead. Sudden death syndrome, the Prison Authorities informed his family. Well, theres been a lot of that about where mr putins enemies are concerned. So, is putin untouchable now . We dont see that much of active support for the regime, that much of active support for the war. So this gives us an understanding that putin maybe is not that confident. Do ukrainians feel theyre on the road to defeat . I dont think that we can speak now about the defeat. Im sitting in kyiv, which is a free capital of ukraine. And is World Warjust around the cornerfor all of us . The military commanders are saying that there is an unprecedented threat from russia because of t