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 grammaticas. set to bring the rail network to a grinding halt from tuesday, they are the biggest strikes in decades. instead of 20,000 trains on a normal day, just one in five services may run. government says children heading to take exams or patients to medical appointments will face disruption. but, under pressure to take part in talks with the unions, it says it won t. train operating companies have to settle this. i don t think there is any need for t
temperatures are expected to reach well into the 30s across southern england today a level three heat health alert has been issued for the region on what could be the hottest day of the year england has appointed its first women s health ambassador with the aim of closing the gender health gap president zelensky says ukraine is closer than ever to the eu with senior officials in brussels expected to recommend it as a formal candidate for membership later today. welcome to bbc news. this morning we re looking at the impact of the rising cost of living with the bank of england warning that the increase in the cost of everything we buy and use could hit 11% later this year. the huge rise is being driven in part by events taking place thousands of miles away in ukraine but the pinch is already being felt right here in the uk. it comes as a bbc commissioned survey suggests we re cutting back on food and travel as those price rises hit our household budgets. four thousand
in a moment, huw edwards will be here to bring you more on all those headlines when we re joined by viewers on bbc one. but before that, we ll start with ukraine. and president zelensky has visited troops on the front line in eastern ukraine. he went to the kharkiv region an area once again under attack from president putin s forces. this evening, the european union failed to reach agreement on an embargo of russian oil, on the eve of a summit of eu leaders in brussels. the ban on oil imports is part of the eu s sixth sanctions package on russia over its invasion of ukraine, which the commission has been struggling to finalise. the package is being held up by hungary, which says an oil embargo would be a body blow to its economy, because it can t easily import oil from elsewhere. earlier, i spoke to kira rudyk, ukrainian mp and current leader of the political party voice. she told me the effort of building international support for ukraine is ongoing and that she has not
wet weather in store for tomorrow? a weather front is approaching south western parts of the british isles. through the morning into the afternoon the rain will become more extensive, you can see that expanding area of rain spreading northwards. to the east we are talking about bright weather at the very least, perhaps even sunny skies and turning quite hot for a time, just that one day in london at the 26 celsius so a very warm summary day. on tuesday evening, that raini talked about in the west will move further northwards into scotland, giving a wet end to tuesday. after that, the weather will continue to be very changeable, very volatile through the week. lots of sunny spells, you can see showers as well, very changeable picture for many towns and cities but staying i think on the warm side. thank you very much. that s all from the bbc s news at six, it s goodbye from me and on bbc we hello and welcome to sportsday. the watershed moment for british footballers? the champi