0llie, thank you so much forjoining us, especially under these circumstances. Now, i understand youve been able to flee these fires. Just bring us up to date in terms of what took place, what happened and how youre coping where are you now . Yeah, so i am now in a small village called fort simpson, which is about 630 kilometres west of yellowknife. It probably sounds like a huge distance it really isnt in Northwest Territories terms. This place is twice the size of france, its got 16,000 people in it, so vast scales that were talking about. This is essentially three communities to the left of yellowknife. And you can just hear a float plane into the distance, by the way. This is the Mackenzie River behind me. Yellowknife under a full Evacuation Order, as you probably heard, yesterday. We came out here a day before because, to be frank, the writing has been on the wall for days that that wildfire was going to pose a grave threat. What were you seeing that led you to think, hey, i better
Five days a week, that hes not to get frustrated, that he doesnt deserve an extra quid if he wants one . Of course his work ethic is money. Its got to be. He doesnt get the satisfaction on the job that we get. Suppose i couldnt answer that and you had me cornered. Thats what i say. A likely story 0h, like what . Yeah, you laugh now, because i caught you it must have been a good question i asked you, because youve been talking for about 15 minutes. Ill talk for 20 more thats right, i know that so how difficult was it before and afterwards to live down the thing ofjust being his widow . Was that a very difficult thing to do . I mean, its still going on, isnt it . No, no, its not. Not as far as im concerned. No, i dont think so. Are you sure . Well, i didnt know then whether i had real talent or not. I knew i loved it. Yes but ijust know if it would work out. Im entitled to a life of my own. And im going to have it, damn it in spite of you, Michael Parkinson applause hello, michael 0h, he
Yellowknife is now blanketed in smoke, and fires are burning close to the one major road into and out of the city. Rebecca alty is the mayor of yellowknife. She told us what things were like there. Right now, its residents are evacuating by road. As many people as possible are doing that. Theres also, for folks who dont have vehicles, we are starting the air evacuations, so flights. We still have commercial flights, so some people have booked onto a commercial flight, but we have the Evacuation Flights also starting at 1pm. So getting folks registered for thatjust began an hour ago. So folks have been good, theres long line ups i think there was kilometres worth of a line up, so a bit of a snail s place out of town, itsjust one road in, one road out. That highway is where the fire is, so the highway can close. But right now, it is open. So if the conditions change, if the smoke gets too heavy, if the fire were to approach the highway, the highway would be closed in the evacuation would
government s trade priorities to do a deal with a group of countries in the gulf, of which saudi arabia is a member although we re told the department for business and trade didn t have any hand and wasn t involved in this invitation. now a former minister who i spoke to earlier, who does have concerns about saudi human rights records, said the reality was it was a major player in the region, the government had to engage, and that this gave an opportunity to the uk to raise some of those issues. labour too has said there needed to be dialogue, but said rishi sunak would have to raise human rights issues on any visit. this will be controversial, there are those who do not see it this way. the liberal democrats have said it amounts to rolling out the red carpet for mohammed bin salman and sending a message, they say, that he can continue to act with impunity. and before we go, britney spears is splitting from her husband ofjust14 months. a divorce petition filed late on wednesday cites