Investigation is launched. Iran releases an alleged confession of spying by a British Iranian man whos facing the Death Sentence he says the confession was forced. The social media personality andrew tate investigated in relation to organised crime, we investigate his popularity with young people. And the Brit Award Nominations are out with a notable absence of women in the category of artist of the year. And stay with us here on Bbc News Channel for continuing coverage in analysis with our team of correspondents in the uk and around the world. Good evening. Ambulance response times in england and waits in accident and Emergency Departments have reached the highest levels on record. The latest figures have exposed the Alarming State of Emergency Care in the National Health service. For some emergencies, including suspected strokes and heart attacks, the average wait was over 90 minutes. The target is 18 minutes. More than a third of patients waited more than four hours to be assessed a
with russian forces is continuing in the eastern town of soledar, with a senior defence official saying the situation there was difficult . and, the brit award nominations are out, with a notable absence of women, in the category of artist of the year. hello and welcome to the programme. we begin in america where there are now two special counsels investigating whether two us presidents broke the law in their handling of classified records. after a second set of classified documents were found atjoe biden s home, the us attorney general has appointed robert hur to investigate whether any crimes have been committed. former president donald trump is also facing a criminal investigation for taking classified papers to his mar a lago estate. here s our north america editor, sarah smith. after admitting he was keeping classified documents at his delaware home, stored in the garage alongside his vintage sports car, president biden has a lot of explaining to do. classified material
out today. lots of flood warnings in force, 57 for england, 2a wales and a couple in scotland. poor conditions out and about this afternoon. this brought heavy rain but if i zoom out into the atlantic we are looking at the next weather system developing just to the east of the united states. that s bringing heavy rain back into our shores for friday night so we are not done with the flooding story just yet even though through the afternoon actually for england and wales brighter weather will be moving on. we are looking at a zone of very strong winds through this afternoon affecting northern ireland, through the west of england and wales and with gusts of 50 60 miles an hourfor the most part that s strong enough to bring down tree branches and perhaps one or two trees, the winds could cause disruption this afternoon. it s miles. temperature is 13 degrees in london, that s 6 degrees above average forjanuary. overnight average for january. overnight united average forjanuary. o
and tributes for the legendary rock guitaristjeff beck who s died at the age of 78. there s more evidence today of the crisis in the nhs in england, ambulance response times in december were the worse on record. were the worst on record. for category two emergency calls, including strokes, they were more than an hour and a half on average. the target is 18 minutes. the highest priority calls with an immediate threat to life took almost 11 minutes on average, the target is seven. and patients are waiting even longer in accident and emergency, 35% waited more than four hours that s another record. our health correspondent jim reed reports. long queues for ambulances, the most 999 calls ever, record waits in a&e, new figures today show in blunt terms the pressure the nhs is under. martin started feeling chest pains in his home in east sussex in november. his family rang three times for an ambulance. we kept thinking, the ambulance will pull up any minute, it is going to ar