earlier. we are going to bring you another story. we will come back to events in nottingham shortly. you are watching bbc news. the other story we are following here in the uk today is the first day of a new phase of the covid inquiry. this inquiry is looking into how the government handled the covid pandemic. today marks the first day of public hearings, but they are expected to last for several years. today the inquiry has heard opening statements from counsel for the core participants, and that is what you are seeing on screen right now. let s hear from the bbc s ali are seeing on screen right now. let s hearfrom the bbc s ali price, and her report starts with some of the video testimonies from bereaved families that were played to the inquiry. families that were played to the in . ui . ~ families that were played to the inuui .~ families that were played to the in.ui . ., families that were played to the inuui . ~ ., ., inquiry. when we looked down at work, i inquiry. w
statens. and leon panetta on a scary warning for americans in ukraine. two words. get out. get ready. it s about to get very interesting. welcome, everybody. i m neil cavuto. this is your world. dr. fauci in a moment. first, to the fall-out from his announced resignation, peter doocy with the president in delaware. peter? and there is a split along party lines here with the reaction to dr. fauci. one of the precovid presidents he worked with, barack obama, is saying now i will always be grateful that we had a once in a century public health leader to guide us through a once in a century pandemic. i m glad he s not done yet. andy slavit part of the white house covid team says the president always wanted to understand the science and tony was a vector for what the scientific community understood and was saying. we faced tricky decisions and tony was a steady, trusted person. trusted is disputed by kevin mccarthy. he tweets dr. fauci lost the trust of american people when he
sweden also expected to announce its intention to join the alliance. the kremlin reacting this morning, by calling finland s joining nato a threat to russia. on the battlefield in ukraine, ukrainian armed forces have acknowledged russian advances in some areas of the east. their scale, however, difficult to measure. plus, ukraine is now offering exchange of russian prisoners of war for the safe evacuation of injured ukrainian soldiers from the surrounded azovstal steel plant in mariupol that has become their last holdout. for the first time, russian civilian has reportedly been killed on russian soil by cross border shelling from ukraine. of course, many ukrainian civilians, many thousands killed by russian shelling so far in this war. nic robertson is in helsinki, finland, and sara sidner in kyiv. nic, let s begin with the impending expansion of nato, particularly finland s joining and expected that sweden will follow. finland, a neighbor of russia, resisted this step for
were having to do things that in future ought to be done by other departments or at the centre because it should have been a whole government response earlier. that is my reflection. and what about after the end of february when the cross government machine ramps up on the scale of the crisis is understood and steps have to be taken? to what extent had the department for health and social are got on top of promoting or suggesting the sort of countermeasures and infection control that ultimately were at the heart of the government response? from the end of february when the prime minister took the chair of cobra which was symbolically very important, when the chancellor of the duchy of lancaster got stuck in and you heard from him how he came to a cobra, was alarmed, asked some very good questions, followed that “p very good questions, followed that up with me and from. you might thinki up with me and from. you might think i was unhappy to receive that e mail on those questi
those two cases were on the 30th and sist those two cases were on the 30th and 31st of january and there would almost certainly be more. the central point according to these minutes is that government had a plan to deal with illness. yes. you didn t in fact, plan to deal with illness. 133 you didn t in fact, within the department of health and social care, commission until the 10th of february the plan, the battle plan as you describe in your statement, or the action plan as it was published on the 3rd of march. and therefore, what plan was it that you were referring to cabinet colleagues too, to deal with the illness? firstly, we had the pandemic flu strategy set out in 2011, but by this point we had a whole series of different plans for expanding different plans for expanding different areas. so we had a plan for the expansion of testing within the hd. that plan didn t go fast enough and i had to take serious action to change that in the middle of march. we had a plan for