welcome to bbc news. british diplomats and their families have been airlifted to safety from the sudanese capital, khartoum, as fighting between rival factions of the army enters a second week. the ministry of defence has confirmed embassy staff were removed under the cover of darkness. the united states has carried out a similar operation. there s no word yet on how other british nationals are supposed to leave. with the latest, here s our africa correspondent andrew harding. in war torn khartoum this morning, dramatic moves to rescue at least some trapped foreigners. overnight, american military helicopters flew into sudan, heading for the capital in the centre of the country. in a short but successful operation, nearly 100 us embassy staff and their families were airlifted to safety. there are reports of a convoy also leaving by road from the french embassy, and within the last hour, confirmation that british embassy staff have been extracted from the city. the prime minis
by the uk government. in the uk, labour opposition mp diane abbott has been suspended pending an investigation into a letter she wrote about racism for the british newspaper the observer. the dutch siffan hassan and the kenyan kelvin kiptum have won the race for female and male categories in the london marathon. welcome to the programme. very good to have your company. we begin in north east africa. a growing number of foreign diplomats and their families have been airlifted to safety from the sudanese capital, khartoum, as fighting between rivalfactions of the army enters a second week. here in the uk, the ministry of defence has confirmed embassy staff were removed under the cover of darkness. the us and france have carried out a similar operation. there s no word yet on how other british nationals are supposed to leave. with the latest, here s our africa correspondent andrew harding. amid the bombs and the gunfire in khartoum today, a series of dramatic rescue missions. am
And here in london lord Peter Ricketts, former British Ambassador to france who also served as the chair of thejoint intelligence committee. First, the latest headlines. The disgraced hollywood film producer, Harvey Weinstein has had one of this Rape Convictions overturned by the new york appeals ccourt. A panel of seven judges have ordered a retrial. He will stay in prison after being convicted of rape in a separate trial in california. A Transitional Council has been sworn in to lead haiti after the Prime Minister, ariel henry, resigned. The body is tasked with Organising Elections and restoring order to haiti, which is suffering from a wave of deadly gang violence. Ukraine has begun using long range Ballistic Missiles that were secretly provided last month by the us. President biden personally approved the shipment after russia began using similar weapons it had secured from north korea. Americas top diplomat, antony blinken. Americas top diplomat, antony blinken, is on a trip to ch
we re not going to give humanitarian assistance, including the us, so there is a fear this could happen again for the people who remain behind. that other countries would say no, with everything that is going on we will not give more humanitarian aid or assistance. thank you very much. colonel richard kemp was the commander of british forces in afghanistan in 2003 and worked for thejoint intelligence committee. he s not at all surprised by the uk government s decision. very much as expected and following on fairly swiftly from us evacuation of their staff and other nations evacuating as well. i think the reality is that those embassy staff could do nothing in khartoum or anywhere else in sudan while this level of violence is going on, so it was right, i think, for the british government to pull them out as quickly as they could. how much cooperation is there? because there were some questions as to whether the french evacuation convoy had been fired on by either
couple of blocks away from the british embassy, the international airport is a contested and a battlefield and damaged, so that is difficult. so i can quite understand why the advice at the moment is keep your head down, stay at home, but it is no comfort to those who are having to do it. the trauma and the horror of hearing the gunfire and the rockets and the explosions. that was the former the rockets and the explosions. that was the former british ambassador to sudan. colonel richard kemp was the commander of british forces in afghanistan in 2003 and worked for thejoint intelligence committee. he explained how the evacuation might have played out. i think ithink in i think in this case we have not heard, at least i have not heard, exactly what route the british evacuation occurred, but we note the americans evacuated their embassy