Hello and welcome. The European Union has backtracked this hour in a row with the United Kingdom over the export of Coronavirus Vaccines. Earlier, brussels introduced new controls giving Member States the power to block vaccines being sent abroad. Then to reinforce that, it announced the invoking of a clause in the brexit deal that would reinstate border checks between the eu and Northern Ireland, in Effect Stopping Vaccines entering the u k by the back door. It all underlines how sensitive the distribution of vaccines has become as nick beake reports. Throughout the week, this post brexit battle between the eu and a british based Vaccine Maker has been intensifying. European countries are demanding that astrazeneca delivers all the jabs they ordered, even if it means taking them from the uk supply. It all hangs on the contract the two sides signed thats now been released, although with parts blanked out. Astrazeneca says it agreed to do its reasonable best. The eu insists it was a leg
gone from bad to worse, to even worse than that, over russia s war in ukraine. a war vladimir putin seems determined to continue, but behind his public confidence, the pressure s growing. he s cornered. he doesn t have a visible exit for himself and because of that he has he doesn t have a visible exit for himself, and because of that, he has to continue this war untilthe end. what does it mean, end? does it mean end point or does it mean victory? nobody knows. after more than two decades in power, vladimir putin has grown used to winning. the possibility of defeat he will find hard to contemplate. steve rosenberg, bbc news, moscow. us secretary of state antony blinken will visit beijing on sundaym making this the highest profile visit on sunday, making this the highest profile visit to china by a us official
stronger solutions for them. thank you so much for explaining that to us. to france now, where ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky has made a suprise visit on sunday. it s his third visit to a major european power this weekend. president zelensky met with french president emmanuel macron at the elysee palace in paris where the two leaders called for fresh sanctions against russia. earlier on sunday, he was in germany, his first first trip to berlin since the war began. german chancellor 0laf scholz pledged nearly $3 billion in new military aid. and on saturday, zelensky was in rome meeting italian leaders, including prime minister girogia meloni. he also had a private audience with pope francis. the leader of belarus alexander lukashenko failed to turn up for his country s flag, emblem and anthem day celebration. the missed appearance has fuelled growing questions about the belarusian president s health.
we begin in turkey, where a pivotal presidential election is heading down to the wire. with more than 91% of ballots counted, neither current president recep tayyip erdogan nor his fiercest rival kemal kilicdaroglu have cleared the threshold to win outright on sunday. the head of turkey s high election board said not long ago that mr erdogan was leading with a9.49%, while kilicdaroglu had 4a.49% of votes. now, if neither can clear 50%, there will be a run off election. both candidates have said they d accept a potential run off vote, which would take place on may 28th. our international correspondent orla guerin is in ankara, and has more on what s at stake in this election. people talk excitedly a tense moment in a tight election. here in ankara, voters spotted two people in one polling booth.