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17/02/2015

Morning news and current affairs. Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.

3 hours

Last on

Tue 17 Feb 2015 06:00

Today's running order

0645

Tensions in Nigeria are running high following the postponement of the presidential election. It is a tight race between the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan and the former military ruler Muhammad Buhari. The elections were due to take place on Saturday but were rescheduled for the end of March because the government said there were security concerns. Our Nigeria correspondent Will Ross spoke to the Nobel prize-winning author Wole Soyinka, who has been at the forefront of Nigeria's long struggle for democracy.

0650

A ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ investigation has uncovered evidence that looted artefacts are being smuggled from territory controlled by Islamic State in Syria and that the group is taking a cut of the profits to help fund its activities. Last week the United Nations Security Council banned the trade which it said was being used to help fund the militant group's recruitment and terrorist attacks. Simon Cox has been investigating for File on 4.

0655

Church of England bishops will today send out a letter to the church's parishes described as "a guide on how Christian men and women should vote". Newspaper reports over the weekend said the letter also argued for greater European Union integration. One Conservative MP, Conor Burns, said: "It is deeply disturbing that the church appears to be entering the political arena based on a series of clear misrepresentations of facts." It comes after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, were criticised for their support of a book which criticised the government's austerity programme. Tim Montgomerie is a British Conservative Party activist and former aide to Iain Duncan Smith, who is launching a manifesto called The Good Right, offering a new vision for compassionate conservatism.

0710

MPs say sex and relationship education should be compulsory in all primary and secondary schools across England and Wales - including academies and private schools which aren't currently covered. Sex and relationship education is taught as part of the broader subject of 'Personal, Social and Health Education' - which at the moment is only compulsory in maintained secondary schools as part of the science curriculum.Β  The Education Committee wants this to be extended to all schools.Β  A report by Ofsted in 2013 found that 40% of schools in England and Wales needed to improve their teaching on sex and relationships. Graham Stuart MP is chair of the Education Select Committee.

0715

Both sides in the conflict in eastern Ukraine have failed to meet a deadline to start withdrawing heavy weapons from the front line, in the latest sign that the two-day-old ceasefire is close to collapse. The Ukrainian government said it would not pull its artillery back until fighting stopped in the town of Debaltseve, where its troops are encircled by pro-Russian separatists. The rebels say the truce does not apply there. Our correspondent Ian Pannell.

0725

It's ten years since the ban on hunting with dogs came into force in England and Wales. Ten years on does it look like the ban was the right thing to do, have those is rural communities who campaigned against the ban now accepted it, or is the likelihood that one day the ban will eventually be overturned? Our reporter Nicola Stanbridge went out with the Bicester Hunt.

0730

Downing Street has rejected calls for an inquiry into the handling of 3,000 suspected tax evaders with accounts at HSBC’s Swiss private bank, which has so far led to a single prosecution. The prime minister’s spokesman said officials had done what they could to make sure people paid up and argued it was β€œright that HMRC prioritised collecting revenues” before bringing cases where they could work with prosecuting authorities. But is this a case of one rule for the rich and another rule for small business owners who come under the scrutiny of HMRC? Our reporter Sima Kotecha has spoken to Geoff Jones - a businessman who spent 5 years battling with HMRC over tax payments he was ordered to make and Richard Murphy is a chartered accountant, tax researcher and runs the pressure group Tax Research UK.

0740

Thousands of workers in the energy sector are set to lose their jobs in the coming weeks as a result of the collapse in the oil price. The world's biggest oil field services company, Halliburton has announced that it is laying off 8% of its workforce. And Shell has said that the price is going to remain at rock bottom levels for the foreseeable future. One of the worst hit areas is Texas which has been at the forefront of the fracking revolution. But while it's grim for workers directly employed in the industry, Americans are enjoying the lower prices for petrol. Our North America Editor, Jon Sopel, reports from Texas, where much of the US fracking industry in place .

0750

Church of England bishops will today send out a letter to the church's parishes described as "a guide on how Christian men and women should vote" (see 0650). The Rt Revd Dr Alan Wilson is Bishop of Buckingham and Nadine Dorries, Conservative MP for Mid Bedfordshire.

0810

The new Greek government has reached deadlock with the other Eurozone countries after talks to find a compromise over Greece's massive bail-out programme broke down in acrimony last night. The Greek government refused to request an extension of its current financial package, and accused its Eurozone partners of making 'unacceptable' demands. The Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, sought to play down the setback as a temporary hitch. However the the Eurogroup head, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, warned there were now just days left for talks; he said it was now "up to Greece" to decide if it wanted more funding or not. Our Europe Editor Gavin Hewitt and Sir Christopher Pissaridies a Nobel prize winning economist and Regius Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics

0820

The former footballer for Chelsea and France, Frank Leboeuf, has managed a unique double. He's become the first person to win the World Cup and have a role in a film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. In the Stephen Hawking biopic "The Theory of Everything" he plays a Swiss Doctor in a pivotal scene where the physicist is told that he will not be able to speak again. Many people have stayed in the cinema to read the end credits to make sure it really is him. Our Entertainment Correspondent Colin Paterson went to Paris to meet him.

0825

It's ten years since the ban on hunting with dogs came into force in England and Wales (see 0725). Sir Barney White-Spunner is Executive Chairman of the Countryside Alliance and Alun Michael is a former Labour minister, now Police and Crime Commissioner for South Wales. He took the Hunting Bill through Parliament when he was a minister at Defra.

0830

The Egyptian ambassador to the UK has criticised the western countries, including Britain, the US and France, which intervened militarily in Libya in 2011 for the not doing enough to rebuild the country after the fall of Colonel Gaddafi. Egypt has urged European countries to join its fight against Islamic State militants in Libya, following the murders by Islamic State of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians, saying terrorists could soon strike across the Mediterranean. Lyse Doucet is the ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ’s Chief International Correspondent, Bernard Kouchner is former French minister of foreign affairs and Amr Moussa is a former head of the Arab League.

0840

Thousands of workers in the energy sector are set to lose their jobs in the coming weeks as a result of the collapse in the oil price (see 0740). Nick Butler is the former head of strategy at BP, now Visiting Professor and Chair of the King’s Policy Institute at King’s College London.

0850

Sarah Montague has spoken to rapper Tef Poe for Hardtalk. Tef Poe was arrested during protests in Ferguson in October and released a song that targeted the Missouri governor, Jay Nixon, and other figures of authority who he felt failed the community in Ferguson.

0850

There's been a lot of talk this week about Yanis Varoufakis' background as an economist and his study of Game Theory, the study of strategic interaction where conflict and cooperation are modelled by mathematics. Commentators have been saying he's likely to use his expertise to gain an advantage in the talks. But in a New York Times op-ed printed on Monday he said it was "No Time for Games in Europe" saying he doesn't want to strategize, but instead wants to do what's "right". Professor Shaun Hargreaves Heap was co-author with Yanis Varoufakis of "Game Theory: A Critical Text" and Professor of Political Economy at King’s College London and Dr Stella Ladi is senior lecturer in Public Management at Queen Mary, University of London, and an expert on Greece and Europe

All subject to change.

Broadcast

  • Tue 17 Feb 2015 06:00