and help at last for the seal pups who were caught up in the storm and separated from their mothers. from the year before. and separated from their mothers. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the government has ordered an extra 114 million covid vaccine doses for booster programmes over the next two years. ministers say the deals for both pfizer and moderna jabs will future proof the uk s vaccination programme. the deals include access to modified vaccines if they are needed to combat omicron and other variants that may arise. our health correspondent, katherine da costa, reports and a warning that there is flash photography at the start of her report. a year ago today the uk became the first in the world to approve the pfizer covid vaccine. days later margaret keenan was the first person outside clinical trials to get it. since then, 150 millionjabs have been administered in the biggest vaccination effort in uk history. now more than 100 million extra doses of p
when he fired a gun on set, killing a colleague. more than 1,000 people have already come forward to contact the inquiry into racism in cricket, following azeem rafiq s emotional testimony about his own experiences at yorkshire. good morning. todayis today is going to be fairly cloudy for most of us, also rather breezy. rain in the north and west, some brightness across central and eastern areas, but it s going to be very mild for the time of the year. details coming up. good morning. it s thursday, the 18th of november. our main story. the government is planning to publish a £96 billion plan for the rail network in the midlands and north of england. but there s anger that the section of high speed 2, stretching to leeds, is now expected to be scrapped. and instead of building a brand new line between manchester and leeds, there are reports the existing track will just be upgraded. ministers insist their changes will mean improvements happen up to a decade earlier. dan johns
alec baldwin faces a new lawsuit over a fatal shooting on his film set. lawyers are calling mr baldwin reckless. hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. it is a question many are asking. where is one of china s biggest sporting stars peng shuai? the former wimbledon and french open doubles champion hasn t been heard from since accusing a top chinese official of sexually assaulting her. she s supposed to have written an email saying she s fine; it was released by chinese state media and attributed to her, but the head of the women s tennis association in the uk says he finds it hard to believe that peng shuai actually wrote the email. part of the email reads. our correspondent robin brant is in shanghai and told us more about the email. it popped up overnight. it is the first communication apparently from peng shuai. it starts with the words, hello, everyone. even though it was purportedly sent to steve simon, the man in charge of the woman s tenn