in a high security penal colony. western governments and human rights groups universally condemned it but there is little they can do to help him. having already allegedly poisoned him with nerve agent, it seems the kremlin intend to silence him forever behind the highest walls in the country. his treatment during imprisonment has been grim: he s been subject to sleep deprivation, there have been long stretches of solitary confinement, he has even been forced to listen to vladimir putin s speeches repeatedly. and he has been hunger strike. the alexei navalny on our screens today is a pale shadow of the man that was arrested two years ago. in the last hour or so following his extended sentence,we heard extended sentence, we heard from navalny in a post on x, the app formerly known as twitter. he told his almost three million followers: 19 years in a maximum security penal colony. the number of years does not matter. i perfectly understand that, like many political prisoners,
let s stop the length of that sentence, the prosecutors had been pushing for 20 years, we think it is 19 but there has been a little bit of doubt about that. let s start with the length of that sentence. yes, the trial was held at a makeshift courtroom at a prison about 850 mild east of moscow in a village cold melekhovo where alexei navalny is serving a previous nine year sentence. the trial on extremism charges was held behind closed doors and journalists who arrived at that detention facility were able to follow proceedings when the judge were able to follow proceedings when thejudge read out the were able to follow proceedings when the judge read out the verdict from a different room via a video link, but the sound quality was so poor that they had difficulty understanding what the actual sentence was. but now the consensus among those journalists seems to be at is 19 years. this is the latest sentence and it may not be alexei navalny s last. his defence team says that
in an unassuming garage in the netherlands, there s an electric car with a secret. no, it s not its ultra light, ultra strong carbon fibre frame, although that is important to the story, and it s not the aerodynamic design that makes it look like a future car from the 19505, although that is important too. no. look closer at that shiny finish, and you ll see that it s not paint. the entire thing is covered in solar panels solar panels on the bonnet, solar panels on the roof, solar panels instead of a back window. yes, this is a solar powered car, and they call it lightyear one. the first production model will be going on sale this summer. its five square metres of solar panels come in narrow sections that better curve around the body and also mean that if it s parked partly in the shade, the sections that are in the sun still work at full capacity. but even though the battery can take you 440 miles on a single charge, a day s worth of sunlight will only provide about 45 mil
but cast your minds back to christmas day, 1986. anyone remember this? this, my sweet, is a letter from my solicitor telling you that your husband has filed a petition for divorce. happy christmas, ange. that was dirty den handing angie watts divorce papers after she d lied to him about having six months left to live. 30 million people tuned in to watch that episode of eastenders, more than half the population. today, the show averages between 4 and 6 million per episode, much of it through iplayer. so do soaps matter any more? what s their place in the cultural landscape? are we going through a messy den and angie divorce with them? or is it still enduring love, like scott and charlene? i m joined by sir phil redmond, creator of three of the biggest british soaps of all time grange hill, brookside and hollyoa ks. daniel kilkenny is soaps editor for entertainment news website digital spy. tv critic and soap fan emma bullimore is here, and charles collingwood, who s been far