given to him by the intelligence community, given that they failed to perceive how quickly the taliban would advance and kabul would fall. the president knows how hard people work across the administration to try to give him the best information that they can, but it did not stop them from asking. throughout the entire withdrawal, he was constantly posting the national security team about this or that assessment, and that thinking, and constantly looking for ways to better understand what was going on on the ground. some assessments produced as i put in the opening statement proved to not be correct. but he again, this was an honest effort by everybody to get at the right outcome. their assessment was flawed and failed in that assessment. anybody held accountable for giving the president a wrong view for things turned out on the ground? i don t know how much intelligence you read or look at, it s a mosaic, it s really hard. and i ve yet to see an intelligence assessme
let s start with china, because it s currently holding its annual two day national people s congress and has set out its economic forecast for the year. premier li keqiang told a packed audience in beijing on sunday, that the government hoped to achieve economic growth of around 5% in 2023. the figure is in line with most analyst predictions. last year, successive strict lockdowns slowed china s growth. official figures show the world s second largest economy grew by 3% last year, which was way below the government target of five and a half % and its slowest for decades. lets discuss this with louise loo, senior economist at oxford economics. there s widely expected to be a big shakeup in the team handling the economy. around 5%, it probably implies that growth as low as 4.5% is probably acceptable to the government and we do think that means the policy matters that we see will be a little bit more than what we expect last year. more than what we expect last ear. , , , ye
all right. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world, i m christine romans. this is early start. we begin with ukrainian forces struggling to hold on in the eastern city of bakhmut, as russian troops close in from three sides. ukrainian officials say the situation in bakhmut has grown much tougher. they say their forces may need to retreat to avoid being trapped by encircling russians. cnn s scott mclean is tracking this story for us from london. and, scott, what are the chances the ukrainians will be able to turn this around? and if they can t, does that mean russia is back on the offensive. so, christine, good morning. it really depends on who you ask. because last week there were plenty of indications that the ukrainians may in fact be forced to withdraw from that area. a drone reconnaissance university has been ordered to retreat from the area. you also had a key bridge by the russians kiting off the ukrainians final supply routes in and out. a
who can stop the lionesses, they are back in action in the next hour, we ll head live to bristol and we ll also get the latest from germany, it s another champions league night with manchester city playing leipzig crisis meetings have been taking place all day between the professional rugby board, the welsh rugby union and the international squad and players from the four regions, cardiff, dragons, ospreys and scarlets. and resolution has been reached. the six nations match against england this weekend , that was in doubt, with the players close to taking strike action, will take place. in the last hour, the wales captain, ken owens, and the wru s acting chief executive, nigel walker, addressed the media together. iam i am pleased to announce that after extensive conversations and discussions over the last week, the wales versus england game will go ahead as scheduled. it s important that going forward we continue the dialogue which we have had over the last week or so, but n
the uk s prime minister, rishi sunak, is flying to san diego for talks on defence with the us and australian leaders. it s understood they ll discuss ways of dealing with any security threats posed by china in the asia pacific region at the meeting of the aukus group. coming up is sportsday. hello and welcome to sportsday here on bbc news. ireland are on for the grand slam in the six nations, overpowering scotland at murrayfield. another test passed with flying colours for arsenal, who restore the five point advantage at the top with victory at fulham. and england collapse in bangladesh the hosts taking the t20 series with a match to spare. also coming up on sportsday. cameron norrie s in third round action as the brits march on at indian wells. and the chase is on can tommy fleetwood catch the leaders at the players in florida, the pga s flagship event? set hello there. will come along to sportsday on bbc news. ireland proved just why they re the world s number one ranke