yeah, the headline figure, 3.5%, just remarkable. austan goolsbee, thank you. great to see you. secretary of state antony blinken is responding after russia signaled overnight it is willing to negotiate a potential prisoner swap with the u.s. for wnba star brittney griner. just yesterday she was sentenced to nine years in prison following a guilty plea for smuggling a small amount of cannabis oil into russia. back at home, her team, the phoenix mercury, held a moment of solidarity with the opposing team before last night s game. many of them becoming emotional. wiping away tears. and griner s coach spoke about her sentencing. to hear her words and her apologies and just trying to send love and prayers to her and strength, i couldn t imagine being that situation and she was so courageous and continuing to be a good role model in so many ways of this impossible
week. we have to be clear some of these people, more than half, have gonein these people, more than half, have gone in with other health conditions and then tested positive. the number where covid was the primary reason for being there is rather less and that headline figure. it seems these sub variants of 0micron are spreading more rapidly than previous sub variants, that is fuelling this surge. but there is no evidence yet it causes more severe illness. there is more pressure on hospitals at a time when they could do without that. it is the case there will be more people off work, more staff absences which can affect the nhs and social care. but right now, it is a cautionary note from officials rather than ringing alarm bells at this stage. hugh pym, our health editor.
in the next half hour. and at ten to eight opera singer russell watson will be here, to tell us about performing his greatest hits, to raise money for the teenage cancer trust. something we will be talking about a lot this morning is petrol prices. you will have heard they are rising and where are they out now? another record. but significantly there is a marker when it comes to the average typicalfamily car. marker when it comes to the average typical family car- typical family car. yes, every day we are talking typical family car. yes, every day we are talking about typical family car. yes, every day we are talking about new - typical family car. yes, every day we are talking about new records being set and the expectation as you say, the headline figure could cost £100 from today to fill up the average family car and let me go through the details and explain why that is. good morning to you.
about what is going on in the ground. yes, having taken the city of mariupol, they are now moving and continuing their advance and they are trying to take another city which is the last ukrainian holdout in the furthest east point. this assessment the british military intelligence is an extraordinary headline figure. the idea that in three months of what russia says is not even a wall, is a special military operation, they have lost 15,000 men killed and 35,000 wounded, say 50,000 men unable to fight any more as a consequence of the actions. that is the same as nine years in afghanistan, a long time ago but an astonishingly bloody and brutal campaign which contributed to the collapse of the soviet union. british military intelligence to say there are a number of reasons for this failure, strategic and fact tactical, poor
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