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tv   BBC News at Six  BBC News  February 14, 2024 6:00pm-6:31pm GMT

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olympic gold — this was a0 years ago today. now torvill and dean have announced their skating partnership is coming to an end. and coming up on bbc news — marking the achievement of england's main man. captain ben stokes will play in his 100th test match when the series with india resumes tomorrow morning. good evening and welcome to the bbc news at six. inflation, the rate at which prices are rising, remained unchanged injanuary at 4% despite a rise in energy bills. the figures from the office for national statistics show that prices are still going up, but at exactly the same rate as december.
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but the price of food fell last month for the first time since september 2021. 0ur chief economics correspondent, dharshini david, reports. up to the middle, and tap this... from food... to shoe repairs... warrington market hosts a range of traders with one thing in common — surviving, ratherthan thriving, as costs rise. historically, shoe repairs should sort of increase on, you know, times like this, really. but we've just not seen it, i think largely down to it sort of lack of footfall, really. people just don't have the money. instead of buying a pound of cheese, they'll buy three quarters of a pound of cheese. you know, which is fine, you know, but i'd rather have the pound of cheese. for their customers are struggling, and notjust because of a hike in energy bills injanuary. mortgages, bills, food, everything. everything's getting more expensive. just struggling.
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some things are coming down but on a general basis, it's not really coming down enough. i essentially have to cut my maternity leave early, - just to be able to go back to work | so i can put him in nursery to be| able to afford things. for many things are still getting more expensive. well, inflation overall stayed at 4% in january and that was a relief for policymakers, who were concerned that those energy bills would have pushed it up. but those were offset by heavy discounting in clothes and furniture, as retailers slashed prices after some disappointing sales in the run—up to christmas. and food prices, too, slipped between december and january, the first such fall in two years as ingredients became cheaper. and inflation overall should fall below the bank of england's 2% target later in the spring, when the energy price cap falls back. but it's other parts of inflation that those interest rate setters watch more closely, those for services such as restaurant meals and hotel stays.
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that rose injanuary, while wage growth, which the bank also watches, is easing quite slowly. so they don't want to risk reigniting inflation by cutting rates too soon, leaving more cash in pocket for us to spend. but the bank's also aware the economy isn't blooming. back in warrington, florist elizabeth says customers have been finding creative solutions to afford valentine's day treats. red roses were the bestsellers, and lily bouquets, but the tulip bouquet is most popular so far this year, and they're half the price of what the roses are, and lilies. for some of those customers, the ultimate delivery would be lower interest rates. they may have to wait until the summer. we get a clearer picture of the state of the economy tomorrow. indeed, many of us are familiar with
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the pain of inflation and the higher interest rates designed to bring down inflation and tomorrow we get the growth figures for the end of 2023, which will show how that has affected the economy as a whole. it may have shrunk as a result of the hit on consumer spending, risking a mild recession and blighting the governments plan to grow the economy. we will find it out in the morning and leave the analysts to pore over the decimal point. our growth on average is a fraction of what it used to be prior to the financial crisis. theoretically people have lost thousands of pounds each. the big question for politicians is how do you turbo boost prosperity and how do you do it fast? more than a hundred families have told the bbc that the nhs is failing to provide enough vital support for severely ill and disabled adults and children living outside hospital. many say they are desperate, amid ongoing battles to get help and a huge variation in the availability of care, depending on where people live. nhs england says funding decisions
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are made on a case—by—case basis, following government guidelines. 0ur social affairs editor alison holt went to meet them. the family said the pressure of around—the—clock care for their son has taken a huge toll. a family exhausted and struggling without enough help in somerset. we don't know how long we can carry on like this, basically. 0ne story that echoes the experiences of so many others who have contacted us. show everyone how clever you are. all caring for severely disabled loved ones, young and old. all describing lengthy battles for nhs support. hiya! we're just left in the middle with a lot of empathy from professionals. empathy doesn't buy asleep. empathy doesn't buy us sleep. louise and brad fostered and adopted 15—year—old jack and his twin sister chloe when they were little. jack has learning disabilities,
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epilepsy and challenging behaviour. they have been looking for a permanent foster placement since they were three months old. i think chloe had had six or seven placements and jack had had six. the council provides them with some support but jack's health needs have increased. two years ago he had his right hipjoint removed. 0nly muscle holds the leg in place and at times he is in a lot of pain. if we don't hold that, that willjust go everywhere. it takes two people to reposition him every three hours. at night one of them stays by his bed to help when he is in pain, the other gets up when he needs turning. you are a bit gorgeous, though, aren't you? their request for two nights of care a week was rejected by the nhs. i just feel tired all the time, exasperated, you feel like you're banging your head against the wall. we are both in our 605, we've got additional health
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complications as a result because we don't get enough sleep. more than a hundred families have been in touch with us and several things stand out for what they say. there is huge variation in the support that people get depending on where they live. what appears to be the arbitrary nature of many decisions, and the sheer desperation of families. without help louise and brad fearjack might have to go back into care. we are just saying, "can you just put a member of staff in two nights a week, one of us needs to get a full night's sleep once a week." i don't think we are asking for a moon on a stick. soon after this they borrowed money to pay for two nights�* care a week. the council is now funding that and the local nhs says it is sorry if the process has caused additional distress. nhs england says decisions are based on individual cases with government guidelines ensuring consistency and the government says eligibility
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for help will vary according to the needs of local areas. alison holt, bbc news. ukraine says it has sunk another russian war ship in the black sea after a drone attack. there has been no response so far from the kremlin. nick eardley is here to tell us more. what we know for sure now about what has happened? we what we know for sure now about what has happened?— has happened? we are seeing different videos _ has happened? we are seeing different videos from - has happened? we are seeing different videos from this - has happened? we are seeing different videos from this partj has happened? we are seeing i different videos from this part of the world. this could be a big moment. if confirmed, this would be the fourth major ship that ukraine has managed to damage or destroy since the conflict began. since crimea was occupied by russia a decade ago, it has become, the sea has become a key strategic location for the russian navy. ukraine has said that this attack this morning happened on crimea's southern coast. there is a pretty dramatic video that was released by ukraine military. you can see it on your
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screen now. it shows vassals, we think they are naval drones, approaching and then hitting the ship. we found other materialfrom the same location, which suggests, or backs up, the idea that there was a major incident in the black sea, although at the moment we can't be completely certain of the location. this ship, we can show you an image of it, has been identified by ukraine as the cesar cornick of. vessels are like that are big, they can hold 190 people and ten tanks. we don't know how many people were on board because russia has not commented yet. but this would be a big moment, the second successive strike in the black sea this month. it could be a sign that ukraine's drone attacks are starting to work. the war in crimea has been stuck for months, we have heard a lot about that in recent weeks. attacks like this are likely to change that materially, and they would be a confidence boost to ukrainian
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forces. the palestinian president, mahmoud abbas, has called on hamas to urgently reach an agreement with israel on a ceasefire in gaza. pressure is growing on israel ahead of an expected ground offensive in the city of rafah where as many as one and a half million palestinians are sheltering. israel has also ordered hundreds of displaced palestinians to leave the grounds of a hospital in southern gaza where they've been sheltering. labour has said it will block anyone who is not fit to be an mp, as it responds to the row about comments made by two of it its candidates about the israel gaza war. in the past week, the party has suspended two of its parliamentary candidates over comments they allegedly made at a meeting, which the bbc has been told was attended by labour politicians and leaders from the local muslim community. 0ur political correspondent ben wright has more. he's wearing a red rosette but he's no longer a candidate labour supports. azhar ali's campaign leaflets are dropping through letter boxes in rochdale today ahead
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of a by—election that's whipped up a storm of problems for labour. mr ali was suspended from the party on monday after apparently making anti—semitic remarks at a meeting attended by local labour politicians and others in lancashire last autumn. but it was too late to boot him off the ballot paper. and last night labour suspended a second parliamentary candidate, the former mp graham jones, after he apparently made critical remarks about israel at the same meeting. labour is investigating that, too. it's all a huge headache for the party. you can't see everything everywhere. what's important is that if new information comes to light, as in this case, we will act to investigate, we will act to block those who are not fit to serve as mps. this has all shone a spotlight on candidate selection within labour, its vetting methods and procedures. there is another issue this row raises. the difference between criticism of israel on one hand, and anti—semitism, which labour has vowed to purge from the party. people have to separate
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the legitimate criticisms of israel with general comments made about the jewish people. just like we have to separate hamas from the palestinian people, we have to separate benjamin netanyahu and his far right government from the israeli people. it has been a tough few days for the labour leadership and a reminder of the party's recent past. it's hardly been the party's finest hour but it's ludicrous _ to claim that we're back - to where we were under corbyn when it comes to anti—semitism. starmer has shown real leadership | with it and we've worked with him| to make sure that the party is up to scratch and can build trust - with the jewish community. can they do more? yes, and we'll make sure that they will do more. . we must always be vigilant. when mps are back here next week, the snp will hold a vote calling for an immediate ceasefire in gaza, a conflict that continues to inflame deep divisions in the labour party. ben wright, bbc news, westminster. the rochdale by—election will take place on the 29th february. here is the full list of candidates standing.
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our top story this evening. inflation remains at 4% but the price of food falls for the first time in two and a half years. and still to come, the recovered roman and greek gems back on display coming up on bbc news — yesterday ferrari, today mercedes and mclaren. formula 1 teams are revealing their cars for the new season — and on sportsday, we speak to a driver tipped to be a future world champion. it will be two years next week since russia invaded ukraine, uprooting ten million people from their homes. at the start of the conflict our special correspondent fergal keane reported from the western city of lviv as huge numbers of refugees, the largest in europe since world war two, tried to cram onto trains and escape. well, fergal has returned to lviv
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to find out what happened to some of the people he met. shouting. they were fleeing europe's biggest refugee crisis since world war ii. people are just crushing all around me, trying to get on to these trains. a woman, a young mother with a baby, they're screaming because everyone's getting crushed. but two years on, what happened to the people fleeing and those helping them? among the volunteers was dr natasha ambarova, helping some of the 10 million uprooted from their homes. now, after helping so many escape, she's still in lviv, and seeing the traumatic impact of war on herfamily.
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natasha is teaching medicine, knowing any of her students could end up on the front line. and now she's ready to fight. you're a doctor, you save lives, but part of you wants to kill. mm—hm. it's my war, yeah. from the beginning, at the station,
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natasha was hearing direct testimony of russian cruelty. some of the worst stories were coming from the besieged city of mariupol. you're from mariupol? we met this family — among them, 86—year—old grandmother maria and her daughter, ludmilla. maria fell several times in a basement shelter. a year later, we found the family living in ukraine's peaceful carpathian mountains, but haunted by memories of what they'd left behind.
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six months after we filmed this interview, maria died in exile. buried far from her husband and mariupol, the city she loved. the war�*s sadness is everywhere now. in lviv recently, the funeral of one of 380,000 ukrainian soldiers killed or wounded.
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as we filmed, a veteran erupted in rage. man shouts. "death to the enemy," he shouts. an end to the dying, the exile, seems very far away. fergal keane, bbc news, lviv. and you can see the full our world film return to platform 5 on the bbc iplayer. ten roman gems that were stolen from the british museum will go on display to the public tomorrow. the items are among around 350 recovered after the museum discovered that some of its precious pieces had been stolen and sold on ebay. the thefts came to light last year.
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our culture editor, katie razzall, has the story. tiny engraved gems made of glass, stolen along with hundreds of others from the storerooms of the british museum. now ten recovered gems, mostly dating back to classical times, are on display as part of a wider exhibition. these are some of the ones that have been recovered recently. sir markjones is the museum's interim director. this one for example isjupiter, this is ganymede. he was brought in to run this place after the british museum announced last year that items from its collection were missing, stolen or damaged. a member of staff was dismissed. how is the recovery process going? it is complicated and it's lengthy. it's going to take us at least a couple of years, i think we've recovered 356 so far out of the 1500 or 1600 we believe have been stolen and i'm sure that we are going to do a great deal better than that. the british museum is trying to build a positive story after the thefts. the exhibition is its attempt
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to signal openness and transparency, but this institution is still grappling with the fallout of what happened. the police investigation is ongoing and many hundreds of items stolen from here remain unaccounted for. do you feel a sense of shame and embarrassment on the part of the british museum for having to have this exhibition at all? every museum feels a strong sense of responsibility for the objects in its care and clearly that care was missing. but change, says the british museum, is now under way. katie razzall, bbc news. there've been more warnings about the impact that artificial intelligence and so—called deepfake images and videos could have on crucial elections in both britain and the united states. a top us law enforcement official has told the bbc that the technology could incite violence, even chaos, and that tougher sentences will now be introduced for criminal use of ai. here's our security correspondent, gordon corera.
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making a copy of yourself can take just a few moments, as i learnt in this interactive exhibition. but that means making a copy of someone else. what's often called a deepfake is also getting easier, thanks to artificial intelligence. that's worrying those in charge of security, especially when it comes to a year in which two billion people are expecting to vote in elections around the world. a few weeks ago, voters in america's new hampshire primary election heard this. it's important that you save your vote for the november election. what sounds like president biden telling them not to cast a ballot, but it wasn't real. it was a deepfake. voting this tuesday only enables the republicans in their quest to elect donald trump again. on a visit to london, one of america's top law enforcement officials told me of the potential dangers of ai. it can have people...cause people to distrust the sources of information that they're getting, to dissuade them or confuse them
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in terms of exercising their right to vote. to incite violence, certainly, that's something that we're worried about. and to just generally sow distrust and potentially chaos. 0ne fear is al fakes could be used to spark protests like those after the last us presidential election. but us law enforcement is also using al to help in its own work, for instance, in sifting through images of that attack to identify suspects. and now authorities say they plan to tackle the use of ai in crimes with tougher sentences. 0ur laws recognise that when you use a firearm during the commission of a crime, it makes it more serious. so we're going to be applying that same principle and seeking stiffer sentences. artificial intelligence looks set to test democracy in this coming year, asking difficult questions.
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in a world of ai generated deepfakes, it's becoming harder to know what's real and what's not, what's truth and what's an illusion. gordon corera, bbc news. forty years ago today, torvill and dean, the british ice skating champions, won gold at the winter olympics in sarajevo. they're back there today on the anniversary of their famous win. and they have revealed that they have decided to go their separate ways, as patrick gearey reports. they are four minutes away from olympic gold. valentine's day 1984. jayne torvill and christopher dean were about to embark on the dance of so many lifetimes. music: bolero by maurice ravel. in sarajevo, torvill and dean took ice dancing —— they said they felt they were skating in the bubble, seeming to
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float a higher plane. ice dancing had never seen this before. music and movement so gracefully. —— intertwine so gracefully. their sport and their lives would never be the same again. a0 years later, they returned to the city of the famous four minutes 28, minds drifting back. it was so quiet in the arena. as we ended, there was suddenly this huge applause and it was almost like we woke up from a dream. cheering. across the board! it sort of sends chills up my spine, just being there again, and just taking in the sights and sounds of the city. it conjures up so many memories of 40 years ago. ever since blair and sarajevo —— bolero, the world has wanted what torvill and dean skate. now we are approaching the final twist after all these years. we felt it was time, and so we want to have sort of
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one last live tour to go around the country, and have a celebration. whatever event we were working on next, wejust whatever event we were working on next, we just put our heart and soul into it, and obviously over the years we have become the best of friends. so next year, that famous music will finish, but if there's one thing torvill and dean are good at, it's a spectacular ending. amazing, a0 years ago today. now, it's that time of year when some roads are closed and traffic is completely stopped because toads, frogs and newts need to cross to start breeding. in bath a road has been closed for six weeks now to help the toads return to their ancestral breeding lakes. hundreds of volunteers are on hand to get them there safely — as our west of england correspondent danjohnson reports. when there are toads on the road, you need to call toad patrol, an after dark volunteer protection force. so they like it best when it's not too cold. so it's over seven degrees and it's like this, raining. really got to get your eye
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in and sort the leaves from the frogs and the toads. so the daily exercise is running down the road in front of cars, and this one, fortunately, wasn't going too fast. so i rescued the toad. it's notjust toads hitting the road to reach their pond... he's a slippery one! ..and getting a helping hand to hop across. we're looking for frogs, toads, newts. they're kind of migrating to where they were born, to mate. a dead frog! but sisters iris and isidora have sadly discovered not everyone makes it. we found a dead frog in the road and... it was a toad, iris. i think it was a frog. no, it was definitely a toad. it was a frog. last year, 115,000 toads and frogs and newts were saved. so that's actually quite a lot, if you think about it. but they've individually being picked up and taken across the road by volunteers all around the country. so in here we've got four toads. it's not possible to close roads
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like this everywhere. i was going to put them outjust up the lane a little bit. butjust here, they'll save thousands of amphibian lives over the next few weeks. do you want to go in the bucket or do you want to go out? another happy hopper makes the leap to safety without croaking. donjohnson, bbc news, bath. time for a look at the weather — here's elizabeth rizzini. with some amazing northern lights pictures. it really is, isn't it? this is across aberdeenshire last night, beautiful, really rather romantic, i dare say, a clear, cold, don't bother though tonight, it will turn cloudy, and in fact this was the weather story for many of us today. this is, believe it or not, the heart—shaped bottle, it's been the warmest valentine's day for over 25 years. fewer hearts around tomorrow butjust years. fewer hearts around tomorrow but just as years. fewer hearts around tomorrow butjust as many puddles, a lot more heavy rain to come in the forecast,
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and it could be even wilder still, we got to 16.5 today in herefordshire, it could get higher than that, potentially tomorrow. but a lot more heavy rain to come overnight tonight, that will sweep its way northwards and eastwards, a very wet, soggy start the day tomorrow, across scotland temperatures could only usually rise here throughout the night, that 12 or 13 across the south, a very mild stroke to the day, pretty much across the board. more weather fronts coming at us again, through the day tomorrow, including this cold front which will leave us with some brighter skies, perhaps, cold front which will leave us with some brighterskies, perhaps, in northern ireland by the end of the day. some brightness to out towards the east, but a lot of heavy rain, particularly in the north and west, and this line of showery rain moving across wales and the central and southern england and the midlands, where the ground is already saturated. but the chance of a bit of brightness for east anglia, the south—east of england, then culture, perhaps. these the average temperatures at the time of year, you can see how mild we are expecting it to be tomorrow, giving
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any brightness across parts of essex, for example, we could see 16 or even 17. that rain clears away by the time we get a thursday night. friday is much drier looking day of weather, some isolated showers around, some brighter skies, weather, some isolated showers around, some brighterskies, i think, towards the east, but generally dry, the rain will return over the weekend. thanks, elizabeth. and that's bbc news at six. now it's time to join our colleagues for the news where you are, goodbye. hello and welcome to sportsday — i'm hugh ferris. the headlines this evening: the first 99 brought some of english cricket's greatest moments. we look ahead to ben stokes reaching a century of tests. harry kane's serach for silverware takes him to rome, for bayern munich's champoins league last—16 tie against lazio. a new season with new hopes... the netball super league enters
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a crucial campaign... also coming up on sportsday... we speak to oscar piastri, the mclaren driver his boss thinks will be a future formula one world champion. and torvill and dean return to the scene where they achieved skating perfection four decades on. it sort of sent chills up my spine just being there again and just taking in the sights and sounds of the city. it conjures up so many memories of a0 years ago. there are few people as central to their sport right now
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as ben stokes is to cricket. the england test captain will walk out tomorrow for his 100th match

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