| | | | | Breaking News | | Israel's military says its special forces have gone into the besieged Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. It says Hamas fighters are hiding inside the building and that it may contain the bodies of Israeli hostages. Video published on social media before the announcement appears to show chaotic scenes of medical staff rushing patients on stretchers through a corridor filled with smoke. Our live page has all the updates. | | |
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| | | Hello. We're taking a look at the UK's economy today, after official figures showed the country slipped into recession last year. I'm also sharing the latest updates on the shooting in Kansas City, where three suspects are in custody. We're continuing our reporting on the mood on Ukraine's front line as we approach two years of conflict - with no end in sight. Lower down in your newsletter, you'll find coverage of 21st-century and 15th-century maps. |
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| | | | Top of the agenda | | UK fell into recession in 2023 | | | | The British economy in 2023 was 'basically flat', a UK government statistician said. Credit: EPA |
| | Britons have woken up to the news that the UK fell into recession in the second half of 2023. Official figures show economic activity shrank by 0.3% in the last three months of last year, after another fall of 0.1% in the previous quarter. And the UK is not alone. Japan has also announced it unexpectedly slipped into a recession, while Germany saw its economy shrink in 2023. “The cost of living crisis has taken a heavy toll around the world, and the side effects of the higher interest rates deployed to tackle that have also hit spending, incomes and profits,” says our chief economics correspondent Darshini David. The 'R-word', as our economics editor Faisal Islam puts it, can describe different economic realities, and the UK's current situation can't be equated to the grinding-halt downturn of Covid economies or the 2008 crisis. But the headline is a political blow for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in an already thorny election year. | | • | The exception: While most countries have struggled to recover from their pandemic slump, the US outpaced all other advanced economies last year. Here's why. | | • | Slow in Japan: Recession has hit the G7 economy, which lost its third place globally to Germany, Mariko Oi reports. | | • | BBC guide: What is a recession and how does it affect regular people? No question is too simple for our explainer. |
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| | | | | | | | AT THE SCENE | Avdiivka, Ukraine | | Frostbite on the front line | | As Russia's invasion is about to get into its third year, the mood among Ukraine's defenders is darkened by exhaustion and frustration at a shortage of weapons. The town of Avdiivka, on the front line north of Russian-controlled Donetsk, is a grim battlefield which some soldiers say could fall at any moment. | | | | "My best friend was killed this morning," a bearded soldier shouted, along with a hail of swear words and a blast of cold air, as he barged through the back door into the 47th Brigade's well-hidden field hospital. Moments later, two more wounded men were helped in through another entrance. Vadym, 48, had been hit by shrapnel in his upper arm that morning as his unit was storming a Russian position in Avdiivka. "It's very hard out there," he said, as the surgeon, a senior lieutenant named Vitalii, came over to look at the wound and two army medics cut away Vadym's filthy uniform. "We do not have enough of the weapons we need." |
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| | | | Beyond the headlines | | The island behind a French citizenship row | | | | French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin says abolishing jus soli would make Mayotte less appealing to migrants. Credit: Getty Images |
| | A small French island in the Indian ocean could be at the heart of a sea change in how the country sees itself. Emmanuel Macron's government wants to get rid of jus soli – the principle that a person born on the territory of a nation automatically becomes a citizen – for Mayotte, which has been facing mass immigration. The proposal has sparked a debate over French values, explains Hugh Schofield. | | | | |
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| | | | Something different | | Mappa Mundi | | A 15th-Century monk somehow designed an astonishingly accurate planisphere. | | |
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| | | | And finally... | | In August, the British museum announced up to 2,000 objects from its storerooms were missing, stolen or damaged. Now, ten glass gemstones that were recovered from the loot are the subject of the museum's latest exhibition. Here's a preview for those who can't make the trip to London. |
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| | | | | | US Election Unspun newsletter | | Cut through the noise in the race for the White House, every Wednesday to your inbox. | | |
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| | | | More BBC newsletters | | • | Football Extra: Latest news, insights and gossip from the Premier League, weekdays. Subscribe. | | • | Royal Watch: The full story from royal correspondent Sean Coughlan, every Thursday. Subscribe. | | • | Tech Decoded: Timely, trusted tech news from global correspondents, twice-weekly. Subscribe. |
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– Jules |
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