and thanks the russian president for sending troops. england battle back on the third day of the fourth ashes test as jonny bairstow hits a century. hello and welcome to bbc news. 200 members of the armed forces are being drafted in to help hospitals in london struggling to deal with covid related staff shortages. the royal college of nursing said the government could no longer deny there was a staffing crisis in the nhs. pressure on london hospitals has increased over the past month, with 4,000 patients currently in hospital with covid compared with 1,100 in december. meanwhile, outside of london, hospitalisations have also been ticking upwards with almost 18,000 patients currently in hospital with covid. as of thursday afternoon, 17 hospital trusts in england were experiencing critical incidents concerned they might not be able to provide core priority services, such as emergency care. it means they can get extra help and draft staff in from other duties. health secreta
labour says the prime minister still has serious questions to answer over the refurbishment of his downing street flat. england battle back on the third day of the fourth ashes test asjonny bairstow hits an unbeaten century in sydney. a letter has made its way to a care worker in northern ireland without having his actual address on it itjust contained his life story instead. we ll hear more from the letter s recipient. hello and welcome to bbc news. new figures reveal a sharp leap in covid related absences in the nhs in england. according to the latest data, on average over 35,000 staff at acute nhs trusts in england were off due to covid during the week ending two january. this is an increase of al% on the previous week, but some regional authorities showed much higher absences than the national average. north west england reported an 85% week on week increase in absences in the last few minutes it has been announced the army will help the ambulance service in the north
injured in the attack. i began to sob and i began to cry, about notjust what had happened but i guess, the state of our country. the show won t go on, music s biggest night, the us grammy awards, is postponed indefinitely, over covid fears. and we meet the winner of the bbc sound of 22, 22 year old pinkpantheress, who only pinkpa ntheress, who only started pinkpantheress, who only started making music in her bedroom last year. hello and welcome to the programme. the world s top ranked tennis player, novak djokovic, is facing deportation from australia after having his visa revoked on arrival in melbourne. there was a public outcry after he was given a medical exemption from strict vaccine rules to defend his australian open title. we ve just heard the australian court is saying an injunction request against the visa cancellation on the part of novak djokovic has been listed for a hearing and that hearing is expected to happen now so when we get any news of that latest develop