Effective bankruptcy in the next few years unless the Funding System is reformed. A report by the local Government Information Unit has Found Services like parks, Leisure Facilities and libraries are at risk of being cut, while council tax could rise in some areas. Our reporter Vincent Mcaviney has more. Yay well done. Alex is about to turn 18, and on top of the regular worries parents have about their children, mum, sylvia also has to think about alexs autism and the extra support he needs to gain independence. Support thats under fire for her and other families as Birmingham City council struggles with financial difficulties. What you get is families that are on their knees with a trauma presentation, traumatised kids, and they never get decent outcomes. Theyjust end up constantly trying to get the basics, which everybody else s child gets naturally. And its Notjust Birmingham thats struggling. Across the country, councils are warning that front line neighbourhood Services Like parks
now on bbc news, political thinking with nick robinson. hello and welcome to political thinking. a conversation with, rather than a news like interrogation of someone who shaped our political thinking about what has shaped the layers. my guest this week made the cover of time magazine when they profiled the first muslim leader of a western democracy. he is at the headline put it, the new face of scotland. the youngest leader this country has had in course of a century of having a devolved scottish government. but this, admits humza yousaf, here in glasgow, has been a difficult year for him. difficult for his party, too, don t buy a police investigation, criticised for failing to deliver, and divided about when independence might actually be possible. humza yousaf, first minister, thanks forjoining me. my pleasure. it has been quite a year! you re telling me! how much do you feel you have aged in that time? i think people can probably look at pictures of before i became first
now on bbc news, newscast. chris, we re going to have a foreign affairs focus in this episode. what was the most memorable foreign trip you ve done as a journalist? can i do two? 0k. and they re at opposite ends of the kind of spectrum. so the first one was being in kosovo when it declared its independence, and seeing the power for a people and a nation of that moment. but it was a contested moment because there were countries around the world that didn t recognise kosovo. serbia in particular was pretty angry about it. so that would be my serious one. and then because news is the full spectrum, the world santa claus congress in copenhagen, which involved hundreds of santas cycling around the danish capital for the hell of it. i remember being on newsround and going to delhi to cover that festival where everyone throws coloured dye each other. but for some reason, we didn t factor in enough time for us to get showered and clean our clothes before the next stage of our trip, w
president volodymyr zelensky has called for ukraine s candidacy tojoin the european union to be speeded up. he said membership should be quick and not take decades. earlier, his chief of staff accused russia of waging a war on ukrainian civilians, in response to military defeats. there were missile strikes overnight on a resort near the black sea port of odesa. the emergency services say 19 people died and more than 30 others were injured in the attacks. a block of flats and a recreation centre were hit. our corresppondent in kyiv, joe inwood, has the latest. today we had another attack, once again using these old soviet era missiles which hit a resort town just to the west of odesa. it was a nine storey apartment block that was hit as well as a holiday complex. a 12 year old boy is amongst the dead. now, what s interesting about the odesa attack today is it happened maybe 12 hours after the russians had been pushed off an island called snake island in the black sea. now, tha
hello and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. russia has shown its determined to assert control over ukraine s black sea coast, despite moscow s decision to withdraw from the much fought over snake island. missiles have hit the port of odessa where at least 19 people have died. before they were effectively blockaded, the black sea ports were used to export russian grain. now kiev has accused moscow of stealing that grain and it says this russian flagged cargo ship has left the russian occupied port of berdyansk with a cargo of seed. our correspondentjoe inwood has the latest. today we had another attack, once again using these old soviet era missiles which hit a resort town just to the west of odesa. it was a nine storey apartment block that was hit as well as a holiday complex. a 12 year old boy is amongst the dead. now, what s interesting about the odesa attack today is it happened maybe 12 hours after the russians had been pushed off an island called snake