Back in december, the optimism of the Ukrainian Forces was fading. There were fears it would be a bad winter and the russians were targeting Generating Stations and heating plants. But ukrainian engineers worked like crazy to restore power. And anyway, the winter wasnt that bad. Now some Military Experts in the west are even daring to suggest that the russian army might simply collapse over the next few months. Who knows . President xi jinping of china has presented himself as a deal maker in the war, but his proposals have so far been pretty vague and, perhaps not surprisingly, much more favourable to his friend Vladimir Putin than to ukraine. Theres less noise about a chinese invasion of taiwan, but many taiwanese leaders think itll happen by 2029. In the us, since december, ex President Trump has been accused of various crimes and been sued successfully for one of them. Yet his popularity with the Republican Party has soared, while his main rival, ron desantis, has faded. Now trump
nomia, tell us some of the reaction you have been seeing to the vote having passed? fix, to the vote having passed? huge sigh of relief, really, by those members of the republican party and democratic party who were somewhere in the middle and glad this has now past this hurdle before it gets to the senate. the numbers are really interesting. 71 republicans opposed the bill. some are not surprising. 46 democrats also voted against. again, some of those members were not surprising. but what is interesting, ultimately more democrats supported, 165, than republicans, 149. now the next big battle is the senate. find big battle is the senate. and what can we big battle is the senate. and what can we expect - big battle is the senate. and what can we expect in the senate, nomia? what can we expect in the senate, nomia? well, the democratic senate, nomia? well, the democratic party, - senate, nomia? well, the democratic party, chuck i democratic party, chuck schumer, the demo
until the polls open. ukraine s most senior security official tells the bbc the country is ready to launch its long expected counteroffensive against russian forces. hello, i m nancy kacungira. the home office says a nationwide issue with uk border force e gates is creating longer waiting times at passport control at airports across the country. it s understood the problems started on friday evening. there have been reports of long queues at arrivals in several british airports. this picture, tweeted on saturday morning from london heathrow s terminal 5, gives an idea of some of the delays which have been building up. heathrow has issued a statement, saying we are aware of a nationwide issue impacting the e gates, which are operated by border force. our teams are working closely with border force to help resolve the problem as quickly as possible. the issue is being felt at all points of entry to the uk although airports with passport e gates seem to be worst affected. th
is one of its camera operators was killed by an israeli air strike in southern gaza. italy s prime minister giorgia meloni is hosting a four day right wing festival. british prime minister rishi sunak and elon musk are among those attending. now on bbc news it is time for newscast. chris, the prime minister was at a primary school today. he was. a disappointing lack of embarrassing moments, though. there was, but there was detailed scrutiny from the pupils, wasn t there? rapid fire questions. i was thinking i need to be quicker when i m interviewing the prime minister. you know, they kind of, you know, allow five seconds for an answer and they re in with the next question. let s have a listen. what do you want for christmas? what do i want for christmas? yes. oh, gosh, i haven t really thought about that, actually. i d like to have a day off. what s your favourite ice cream? what s my favourite ice cream? my favourite ice - cream is probably. it s quite boring. it s vanilla
speaker kevin mccarthy left the meeting sounding optimistic about how things were developing. biden told reporters that he was confident about reaching a deal, and that all parties were in agreement that default was not an option. mccarthy had even said that it, was, quote possible to get a deal for the end of the, week but signs of renewed discord svelte back out on friday. republican aides pause the discussion, and saying that it was, quote, not productive. democrats and republicans remain far apart on a number of issues, including spending cuts, and work requirements for federal benefits, which mccarthy has said is a red line for him. talks between congressional republicans in the white house have yet to, presuming yesterday, mccarthy s made his dissatisfaction public. tweeting, quote, president biden does think that there was a single dollar of savings to be found in the federal government s budget. he d rather be the first president in history to default in the death tha