my guest today is minette batters, she farms right here, she s also president of the national farmers union. as a society, are we asking our farmers for the impossible? minette batters, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. it s a great pleasure to be on yourfarm and the sun is shining, and in some ways you would think the sun would be shining on farmers. food prices are spiralling higher, you would think that would be good news forfarmers, is it? it s quite extraordinary. i don t think in my lifetime i have everfaced into anything like the cost inflation we are facing with our inputs now. we are seeing triple digit inflation on fertiliser, we ve seen diesel costs up by 57%, feed costs up by nearly 60%, these are huge price pressures. you have chosen to alight upon the price pressures, i ve chose to start about talking about the prices you are receiving because we know that consumers are struggling to meet the prices of the basic food stuffs that they buy at the super
correspondents in russia and in ukraine. also this lunchtime. a fresh earthquake in turkey and syria leaves more people dead, two weeks after the tremors that killed tens of thousands. a claim that the clock is ticking for british farmers as they struggle with high inflation, labour shortages and climate change. and it s empty desk friday the world s biggest trial of a four day working week where you do fewer hours for the same pay. and coming up on the bbc news channel england take on pakistan in theirfinal women s t20 world cup group game looking to win and remain unbeaten in the tournament. good afternoon. the russian leader vladimir putin has accused the west of starting the war in ukraine. almost a year after launching the invasion, mr putin has made a two hour state of the nation address delayed from december. he claimed the west is seeking to destroy russia in a global confrontation. the existence of our country is at stake, he said. he also announced he s suspendi
explosion for 75 years, as redcar steelworks is demolished. we ll have a report from the teesside site. and these beavers have been recognised as a protected species in england, making it illegal to deliberately capture, kill or disturb them. good afternoon. welcome to bbc news. more than 50,000 rail workers are walking out today, causing the biggest strike disruption on the railways this year. 0nly around 11% of the usual saturday timetable will be able to run. ba rely barely any trains are operating in some parts of the country. members of four unions are taking part in the strike in a long running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions. 0ur transport correspondent, katy austin reports. another train strike, and it s the biggest yet. karen from staffordshire is running the london marathon tomorrow to fundraise for the hospital where she had breast cancer treatment. news of the strike meant she had to make other plans to get there. so, for me, thisjust blew everything apart.