hello welcome to the programme. russia says its forces have completed the capture of soledar , a salt mining town in eastern ukraine that s been the focus of intense fighting. these are the latest aerial shots of the town. as you can see, it has been completely flattened from the relentless pounding by russian forces. after six months of russian military setbacks it would be the first ukrainan town to be captured sincejuly. but ukraine s military denies that soledar has fallen and says that the fighting is still going on. the defence ministry in moscow said the capture of soledar would allow russian troops to cut off ukrainian forces in bakhmut, which they have been attacking for months. russia could also launch an assault on the key city of kramatorsk. here s our correspondent in kyiv james waterhouse on the significance of capturing soledar to russia. after three days of contradictions, frankly, it seems russia has finally settled on the claim of having taken the regi
at ten o clock, clive myrie will be here with a full roundup of the days news. first, the media show. hello. this week i m talking with michelle donelan, the secretary of state for digital culture, media and sport. she is the 11th conservative in the role since the party took power, and she has a huge remit everything from the tech companies to museums and art galleries to broadcasters like channel 4, whose privatisation she halted last week and even eurovision. but before we get onto that, i wanted to get a sense of her news habits. how does she keep up to date through the working day? and there s a mention here right at the start to checking playbook first thing in the mornings. that s a daily newsletter produced by the political magazine politico, in case you decide you want to mimic the minister s media habits. yes, so i wake up and i look through playbook, or as soon as it s come out, i look through playbook. i will watch a bit of sky news or bbc while i m getting read
out today. lots of flood warnings in force, 57 for england, 2a wales and a couple in scotland. poor conditions out and about this afternoon. this brought heavy rain but if i zoom out into the atlantic we are looking at the next weather system developing just to the east of the united states. that s bringing heavy rain back into our shores for friday night so we are not done with the flooding story just yet even though through the afternoon actually for england and wales brighter weather will be moving on. we are looking at a zone of very strong winds through this afternoon affecting northern ireland, through the west of england and wales and with gusts of 50 60 miles an hourfor the most part that s strong enough to bring down tree branches and perhaps one or two trees, the winds could cause disruption this afternoon. it s miles. temperature is 13 degrees in london, that s 6 degrees above average forjanuary. overnight average for january. overnight united average forjanuary. o
and tributes for the legendary rock guitaristjeff beck who s died at the age of 78. there s more evidence today of the crisis in the nhs in england, ambulance response times in december were the worse on record. were the worst on record. for category two emergency calls, including strokes, they were more than an hour and a half on average. the target is 18 minutes. the highest priority calls with an immediate threat to life took almost 11 minutes on average, the target is seven. and patients are waiting even longer in accident and emergency, 35% waited more than four hours that s another record. our health correspondent jim reed reports. long queues for ambulances, the most 999 calls ever, record waits in a&e, new figures today show in blunt terms the pressure the nhs is under. martin started feeling chest pains in his home in east sussex in november. his family rang three times for an ambulance. we kept thinking, the ambulance will pull up any minute, it is going to ar
radio: talk about comms. .. copy. so it was just weird, almost like he. radio: diver s comms, titan i was surprised when they made a turn as they departed the platform, i let them know he snagged a buoy. yeah, roger that, comms. this is diver one. just a heads up, it looked like he was heavy and possibly dropped a thruster because he started spinning really weird when he came off. he bounced a bunch of times when he was trying to leave the platform. radio: copy. which direction did he spin? starboard. so it would have been his starboard thruster? yeah. checked it and said it was good. we will find out, we ll see! good? hungry! laughs need some breakfast. i m all ready for when they come. must be a busyjob for you? very busy, it is indeed. it is steady. one mealjust rolls into the other, into the other. and especially on dive days, it gets very busy. but i wouldn t have it any other way. really? you like it better doing this than on land? 0h, absolutely, 100%. every day is the