in the world to do so. china s military launches fresh drills off taiwan in response to a visit to the island by a new group of american politicians. the uk becomes the first country to approve a covid vaccine that fights both the original strain and the omicron variant. and check mate, with a difference how this underwater version of chess is helping competitors stay cool in the hot weather. hello and welcome to the programme. us officials have warned of an increase in violent threats to law enforcement following the search of donald trump s florida estate, mar a lago. the fbi and department of homeland security issued a memo to law enforcement around the country. in a separate development, prosecutors in the us state of georgia have told rudy giuliani he s a target of their criminal investigation into attempts to overturn the result of the last presidential election. as donald trump s lawyer, mr giuliani helped lead legal challenges to the outcome of the vote. he s repe
before its release. hello and welcome. china is preparing to begin a series of large scale military exercises in the air and sea around taiwan. it s a response to a visit to the island by the speaker of the us house of representatives, nancy pelosi. the exercises will include live fire drills. mrs pelosi vowed the us would never abandon taiwan. taiwan is self governing, and lies about 160 kilometres across the taiwan strait. it sees itself as independent, but china views it as its own. this is solely nancy pelosi is due to hold a joint press conference the next few minute with the south korean national assembly speaker. as soon as she does take to the stage we will bring that to you, for now let s talk about the latest developments. with me is our news reporter azadeh moshiri. we are waiting to see her appear in south korea but the most controversial visit was this time yesterday when she was in taiwan. was in taiwan. she is on this next leg was in taiwan. she is on this n
has voted to stop transgender athletes from competing in women s elite races if they have gone through any part of the process of male puberty. as the conflict in ukraine continues the new head of the british army tells his troops they should be prepared to fight in europe once again . it s two hours until voting closes in the final round of parliamentary elections in france, with president emmanuel macron facing an alliance of left wing parties. good afternoon. the transport secretary says it s not for the government to intervene to try to prevent three days of strikes on the railways this week. grant shapps dismissed calls from the rmt union to get involved in the dispute as a stunt, saying it s for the employers and unions to reach an agreement. mr shapps says the strikes would be an act of self harm . the labour leader, sir keir starmer, says the government wants the strikes to go ahead to sow division in society. here s our political correspondent, damian grammatic
tens of millions of households need that support, so i think that s the right approach. the uk s opposition labour party welcomes the move, but has criticised the government s response to the crisis, saying it called for a windfall tax on oil companies months ago. the chancellor, the prime minister were resisting it, and saying that it would deter investment, that it was un conservative, but it wouldn t raise enough money, but it would be silly to provide additional help. ukraine warns that russia s offensive in donbas could result in the region becoming uninhabited. a british health trust at the centre of concerns about avoidable deaths and injuries to babies has been told to make immediate improvements to its maternity services. it s been more than a0 years since abba s last tour, but they finally performed onstage again last night in digital form as abba tars. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. police in texas are facing criticism over th