and with western weapons continuing to arrive in ukraine the country s defence minister tells the bbc his country has become a de facto member of nato. tributes are paid to lisa marie presley, the only child of elvis, who s died at the age of 5a. royal mail customers still can t send letters and parcels overseas after a cyber attack on the company. good afternoon. the manchester city footballer, benjamin mendy, has been found not guilty of six counts of rape, and one count of sexual assault. jurors were unable to reach a verdict on one count of rape and one of sexual assault. it follows a six month trial at chester crown court. our north of england correspondent, danny savage is there, explain more about what happened today is. explain more about what happened toda is. , , ., ., explain more about what happened toda is. , , . ., ., explain more about what happened toda is. , ., ., , ., today is. this is a trial that began today is. this is a trial that began to be heard t
attack on the company. and coming up we will hearfrom manchester united legend eric cantona, about his new art exhibition which chronicles the relationship between sport and modern society. good afternoon. the manchester city footballer, benjamin mendy, has been found not guilty of six counts of rape, and one count of sexual assault. jurors were unable to reach a verdict on one count of rape and one of sexual assault. it follows a six month trial at chester crown court. our north of england correspondent, danny savage, is there. tell us what happened today. we ve had this trial tell us what happened today. we ve had this trial ongoing tell us what happened today. we ve had this trial ongoing since - tell us what happened today. we ve had this trial ongoing since last - had this trial ongoing since last summer here in chester. thejury began listening to evidence back in august. they retired to consider their verdicts just before christmas and have been back for nearly two
this is bbc news. the headlines: the footballer benjamin mendy is found not guilty of six counts of rape and one of sexual assault. the man city star faces a retrial on two further counts where the jurors could not reach verdicts. the uk economy grew unexpectedly in november, boosted by the football world cup. it went up 0.1%. a man has appeared in court charged with murdering 26 year old ellie edwards, who was shot in merseyside on christmas eve. russia claims to have captured all of soledar, the salt mining town in eastern ukraine that s been the focus of intense fighting. ukraine says its forces are still fighting in the town. and with western weapons continuing to arrive in ukraine, the country s defence minister tells
of the bloodiest fighting. but on wednesday we had a claim from the mercenary group wagner which has been spearheading russia s assault on the town and they claimed on wednesday that it controlled soledar. today we have a claim from the kremlin that it in fact now is controls it through its regular army highlighting the division moscow. we have spoken to ukraine s military in the east and its told us it is not true and we are continuing to hold the line and fight is carrying on in what s left of this town. we are in a phase at the moment where russia is throwing everything for a very short term gain, again that can be used for propaganda purposes. we are seeing talked up back in russia as some kind of victory. president zelensky has talked about taking the right steps in the coming days, i wouldn t be surprised if we saw a tactical retreat as they try to inflict maximum casualties. aha,
a man has appeared in court charged with murdering 26 year old ellie edwards, who was shot in merseyside on christmas eve. russia claims to have captured all of soledar the salt mining town in eastern ukraine that s been the focus of intense fighting. ukraine says its forces are still fighting in the town tributes are paid to lisa marie presley, the only child of elvis, who s died at the age of 5a. royal mail customers still can t send letters and parcels overseas after a cyber attack on the company, sport now and a full round up, from the bbc sport centre. good afternoon. there s one match in the premier league tonight as aston villa take on leeds united. villa lost at home to league two stevenage in the fa cup in their last home game, but manager unai emery