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00:00:09people. For the latest, follow us us on the President's. Path here
00:00:12here on BBC News. Here at BBC Verify,
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00:00:27analysis and the latest technology, technology, our journalists examine examine the evidence and get to the
00:00:31the facts. Watch our BBC Verify reports reports on the BBC News channel or
00:00:34or go online to find out more. MUSIC
00:00:45MUSIC These These are the latest headlines from from BBC News. Ukrainian President
00:00:49President Volodymyr Zelensky says says Washington has to make Russia
00:00:52Russia respect the energy ceasefire ceasefire announced by Donald Trump
00:00:56Trump after Russian strikes hit Ukrainian Ukrainian infrastructure overnight.
00:00:59overnight. Saudi officials say one one person has been killed and nearly
00:01:02nearly a dozen others injured in in the latest attack on Riyadh's
00:01:06Riyadh's international airport by by the Iran-backed Houthi group in
00:01:08in Yemen. The strike came a day after after 13 people were killed and several
00:01:12several hundred others were wounded wounded when the same airport was
00:01:15was targeted. Actor and comedian comedian Russell Brand has arrived
00:01:19arrived at London's Southwark Crown Crown Court ahead of the start of
00:01:22of his trial on seven charges of
00:01:24of rape and sexual assault relating
00:01:26relating to six women. A BBC investigation
00:01:29investigation has revealed that the the world's biggest accountancy firm
00:01:32firm helped falsify documents that that allowed the former Chelsea Football
00:01:35Football Club owner Roman Abramovich Abramovich to hide his wealth and
00:01:39and evade tax. Hello, I'm Geeta Guru-Murthy.
00:01:49Guru-Murthy. Let us get more on Russell Russell Brand, the actor and comedian
00:01:53comedian who has arrived now at London's London's Southwark Crown Court ahead
00:01:57ahead of the start of his trial on
00:01:59on seven charges of rape and sexual
00:02:02sexual assault relating to six women.
00:02:05women. 51-year-old brand, once one one of Britain's most high profile
00:02:08profile broadcasters, has pleaded pleaded not guilty to all seven charges
00:02:11charges three counts of rape and
00:02:13and four counts of indecent or sexual
00:02:16sexual assault allegedly committed
00:02:19committed between 1999 and 2009. 2009. Let's speak to our correspondent correspondent Helena Wilkinson, who's
00:02:23who's outside Southwark Crown Court Court in London for us. Helena, just
00:02:27just tell us what we're expecting
00:02:29expecting to see today. Well, Russell
00:02:32Russell Brand arrived here at Southwark
00:02:33Southwark Crown Court in London at at just after 8:30 this morning.
00:02:38morning. We can show you some pictures pictures of him arriving here. He
00:02:41He was wearing sunglasses, dressed
00:02:43dressed in a suit. He was accompanied
00:02:46accompanied by his wife Laura. It
00:02:48It is the first day of his trial trial here at Southwark Crown Court
00:02:52Court and as you would expect, there
00:02:54there was a huge media presence. presence. Photographers and journalists
00:02:57journalists waiting for him to arrive
00:03:00arrive here at court. As I say, the
00:03:02the first day of his trial, the 51-year-old
00:03:0651-year-old comedian and actor is
00:03:08is facing several charges of rape rape and sexual assault against six
00:03:12six women. There are six female complainants
00:03:15complainants now. The allegations.
00:03:17allegations. It's alleged that they
00:03:19they stem or occurred between 1999
00:03:241999 and 2009. As I say, six female
00:03:27female complainants. Russell Brand
00:03:28Brand has pleaded not guilty to all
00:03:31all of those charges during pre-trial pre-trial hearings. The trial is
00:03:35is expected to last for about ten
00:03:37ten weeks and we are expecting at
00:03:39at some stage today here at Southwark
00:03:41Southwark Crown Court for the jury
00:03:44jury to be selected in this trial. trial. Let me just bring you a bit
00:03:47bit more detail about those charges charges that Russell Brand is facing.
00:03:51facing. He faces three counts of
00:03:54of rape, three charges of sexual
00:03:56sexual assault and one allegation allegation of indecent assault. As
00:04:00As I say, he denies all the charges. charges. Helena Wilkinson. Many thanks.
00:04:04thanks. And you can follow the trial trial day by day on the BBC podcast
00:04:07podcast Fame Under Fire Russell Brand Brand on trial available on BBC Sounds
00:04:11Sounds YouTube iPlayer or wherever
00:04:12wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
00:04:15podcasts. Two. Artificial intelligence intelligence now as the President
00:04:19President of Microsoft says that that work on AI regulation needs
00:04:22needs to start immediately. Speaking Speaking to my colleague Will Bayne
00:04:25Bayne for the BBC's Big Boss interview, interview, he said that the current
00:04:28current system of self-regulation self-regulation wasn't working. When
00:04:31When you look at AI agents that have
00:04:35have escaped human control, when when you look at models that are
00:04:38are so powerful that they're putting putting the world's cybersecurity
00:04:41cybersecurity at risk. I would say, say, look, the moment has arrived.
00:04:45arrived. Let's speak calmly, maybe
00:04:48maybe even softly but firmly, and and start to bring people together.
00:04:52together. I hope that's the role role we can play as a company. I
00:04:54I hope that's the role the UK can can play as a country. So there was
00:04:58was this accord that came out of of the White House, wasn't you were
00:05:01were notably not one of the signatories signatories as a company of that,
00:05:05that, but that was all about and and I'm quoting the President again again here, tremendous self-regulation.
00:05:08self-regulation. It sounds like from from what you're saying to me, without without putting words in your mouth,
00:05:11mouth, you don't think self-regulation self-regulation actually goes far far enough. There should be one body
00:05:15body somewhere that people are compelled. compelled. Forced. What is it legally
00:05:18legally forced to put their models models through to test? I would say
00:05:21say two things. First, I applaud, applaud, I applaud, we applaud as
00:05:24as a company that statement and we're
00:05:27we're happy to sign it. It's a good good step. It's a necessary step.
00:05:31step. And fundamentally what it does does is it says companies should
00:05:34should have internal controls. It It should have internal auditors
00:05:37auditors looking at things like AI AI safety. We've been doing that
00:05:40that since almost a decade ago, and
00:05:42and there ought to be some external external evaluators as well, all
00:05:45all to the good. It's necessary.
00:05:48necessary. I don't think it's sufficient
00:05:50sufficient any longer because the
00:05:53the challenge for any self-regulatory self-regulatory regime is if it's
00:05:57it's left to the industry alone, alone, frankly, the good companies
00:06:00companies will do what you want. want. It's the companies that are
00:06:03are not as responsible that you need need to worry about. We should always
00:06:07always worry that regulation can
00:06:08can become too heavy-handed. It can
00:06:12can slow innovation. And I think think President Trump is right to
00:06:15to remind us to think about even even worry about those concerns.
00:06:19concerns. But right now I'd argue
00:06:22argue that AI is moving forward faster
00:06:24faster than the speed of safety.
00:06:27safety. That's not good for the protection protection of the public. It's not
00:06:30not even good for the industry itself.
00:06:32itself. And usually what happens happens and you take I'll just say,
00:06:35say, our Congress in the United States, States, if a product moves faster
00:06:39faster than the speed of safety accidents
00:06:43accidents happen and then Congress Congress moves faster than the speed speed of thought, and then you just
00:06:47just end up with a dynamic where where everything comes to a halt.
00:06:50halt. I don't think that should be
00:06:52be our goal either. AI is an extraordinary
00:06:55extraordinary resource to grow the the economy, to solve societal problems,
00:06:58problems, or at least help. Let's Let's strike the right balance. President
00:07:02President of Microsoft there speaking speaking to Will Bain. Let's speak
00:07:06speak to Harry Stebbings, venture venture capitalist and founder of
00:07:08of 20 VC. Thanks for being with US,
00:07:10US, Harry. More regulation. We're
00:07:13We're expecting a speech from the the AI minister, Kanishka Narayan
00:07:16Narayan here in the UK within the
00:07:17the next half an hour, talking about
00:07:20about how to look at cyber security.
00:07:23security. Is it not time now for
00:07:25for the UK government and for the the global community to regulate
00:07:28regulate this technology? No it's
00:07:33it's a wonderfully idealistic position position to take, but we're not in
00:07:36in a race against the US or against against other European countries.
00:07:39countries. We're in a race against against some very powerful actors
00:07:41actors in China and in other countries countries who are creating open source
00:07:45source models that are incredibly incredibly sophisticated, which might
00:07:49might be distilled by our from our
00:07:51our models but are incredibly sophisticated sophisticated and they are out in
00:07:54in the open and they will continue continue to get stronger and stronger.
00:07:57stronger. And so yes, if we operate
00:07:59operate in this wonderfully utopian utopian Western world, then sure,
00:08:03sure, that'd be great. We could control control the party, so to speak. But
00:08:07But when we can't, if we place more more and more regulation by nature
00:08:10nature you will slow the ecosystem
00:08:12ecosystem down and they are reducing reducing regulation and speeding
00:08:15speeding up. And so they will get get further and further ahead and
00:08:18and we will get further and further further behind. And so it's a nice
00:08:22nice idea, but in reality, it's not
00:08:25not hugely effective or functional. functional. But is there not a possibility
00:08:28possibility of the US and China agreeing agreeing to mutual regulation? The
00:08:32The Chinese have done a lot of work
00:08:33work on that front, haven't they?
00:08:37they? I think I couldn't comment comment on XI Jinping's policy towards
00:08:40towards AI, but I think that would would be very unlikely. I think he's
00:08:42he's very aware that they have incredible incredible capabilities both at the
00:08:45the model and the hardware layer layer and now developing them at
00:08:48at the chip layer. I don't think
00:08:50think that he would willingly co-sign
00:08:53co-sign and be aligned in terms of of regulating the speed that they
00:08:56they have. But what we're seeing
00:08:58seeing calls from within the AI industry, industry, allegedly for more regulation.
00:09:02regulation. And some people are totally totally puzzled, aren't they? Because Because it is these big tech companies
00:09:05companies that are pushing out the the models in the first place. You
00:09:09You know, even the UK Security Institute,
00:09:13Institute, which does get sight of of some of these models, doesn't doesn't see all of them. And it's
00:09:16it's not mandatory that they can can block anything being released.
00:09:19released. Doesn't that need to change change given, for example, the Hugging
00:09:23Hugging Face saga that we saw this this summer? Yeah, absolutely. So
00:09:25So I think we need to separate the the supply of intelligence from the
00:09:29the authority over it. The idea that that these labs can self-regulate
00:09:33self-regulate and we have alignment alignment teams within each of them, them, alignment teams within some
00:09:36some of them is actually building building their own self-consciousness.
00:09:40self-consciousness. That's not actually actually the way to have true discipline
00:09:43discipline and authority over it.
00:09:44it. So I think there will be necessary
00:09:48necessary harnesses built which secure secure them, which are external and
00:09:52and third party, and that's safety. safety. I don't think that's necessarily
00:09:56necessarily regulation, so to speak. speak. But you can't. Surely believe
00:09:59believe that companies should just just or the industry should regulate
00:10:02regulate itself at this point. We We saw this the hack in Australia,
00:10:05Australia, part of, you know, critical critical national infrastructure. infrastructure. That is the concern
00:10:09concern as well here, isn't it? So
00:10:11So you're saying I'm by then nature nature saying that we have to have
00:10:15have it regulated by governments. governments. Well does there not
00:10:18not need to be industry and government government partnership globally?
00:10:21globally? Well my point is I don't don't think it matters in a world world where there's open models which
00:10:24which are produced and released every every single day by Chinese model
00:10:27model companies, which can be downloaded downloaded and used locally. It's
00:10:31It's not possible. Can that not be
00:10:33be blocked by governments? I mean,
00:10:36mean, that's a hard task. I if they
00:10:41they can then good luck. But that's that's a hard task. That's like trying
00:10:44trying to block Bitcoin. It's an
00:10:46an open technology OK. But the risk
00:10:49risk as you know, is that individuals
00:10:51individuals rogue groups, rogue states
00:10:54states can use this technology, which which is everyone agrees in the last
00:10:56last six months even has become much
00:10:58much more powerful. And the risk risk is of creating terrible weapons,
00:11:02weapons, bio chem weapons, attacking attacking critical infrastructure.
00:11:06infrastructure. And as we heard from from the boss of Microsoft, we don't
00:11:10don't normally release any technology technology free into the global market market for individuals and governments
00:11:13governments and groups to use without
00:11:15without control. And so AI and exception.
00:11:18exception. And so you need deterministic deterministic controls on non-deterministic
00:11:21non-deterministic models where when when bad outputs are produced, you
00:11:24you have those deterministic controls controls block them. For example,
00:11:27example, if someone was asking to to construct weaponry then it would
00:11:31would block that output. And so non-deterministic
00:11:34non-deterministic models are controlled controlled by deterministic controls.
00:11:37controls. That would be helpful.
00:11:39helpful. Every new technology faces faces bad actors. Social media is
00:11:43is the same and it can also be used used for good. And I think this is
00:11:47is very much the same where in the the early wave of a new technology,
00:11:50technology, you are lagging behind behind in terms of safety and there
00:11:53there are bad actors who will use use it in those early years and will
00:11:56will often be successful in using using it. We're seeing that with with a lot of the cyber hacks and
00:12:00and that's obviously very concerning. concerning. It's I think, by nature
00:12:03nature of where we are in the development development cycle. Just quickly some
00:12:07some people will say, you know, you're you're you're a big investor. I know
00:12:11know a big supporter of UK businesses businesses in this area. You want
00:12:14want the UK economy to grow. I know
00:12:17know that that isn't money and the the need for profit driving, you
00:12:20you know, a pushback against regulation.
00:12:22regulation. I mean honestly in the the UK, I love the UK. We can say
00:12:26say what we want. This is not about about the UK. We can put in place
00:12:29place whatever we want. This is about about the US versus China in the
00:12:33the war for the most superior models.
00:12:35models. Again I love the UK but we
00:12:38we have to acknowledge I think our our position here we can build great
00:12:41great companies, but I think it's it's important to kind of recognise
00:12:44recognise our position. And again, again, I'm not saying that we don't don't need these controls. We do.
00:12:48do. I just think we need to be careful careful around how we implement regulation
00:12:51regulation because I don't want the
00:12:53the UK to be slow or behind. OK.
00:12:55OK. Got it. Harry Stebbings, venture venture capitalist thanks very much much indeed. Very good to speak to
00:12:59to you. Thank you. Thanks so much.
00:13:01much. Let's go back now to one of of our top stories today and the
00:13:05the renewed attacks by Yemen's Houthi Houthi rebels against targets in
00:13:08in Saudi Arabia. There were two deadly
00:13:11deadly strikes on Riyadh's main international international airport over the weekend.
00:13:15weekend. This was the moment on Saturday Saturday when a missile hit King King Khalid International airport
00:13:18airport as hundreds of people waited waited to board their flights. 13
00:13:2213 people were killed and more than than 300 injured. On Sunday, another
00:13:26another attack killed one person person in the 11 were wounded. Let's
00:13:29Let's speak to our security correspondent, correspondent, Frank Gardner. Frank, Frank, thanks very much for being
00:13:33being with us. Very concerning for
00:13:36for people to see this. Is it a surprise
00:13:39surprise that the Saudis seem so so vulnerable here? Yeah, I think
00:13:43think it is a surprise at how poor poor or ineffective their air defences
00:13:46defences are. Saudi Arabia has spent spent billions and billions of dollars
00:13:50dollars over the last few decades
00:13:52decades in buying state of the art
00:13:55art defences equipment from mostly mostly from the US but also from
00:13:58from the UK and other countries. countries. And yet they seem unable
00:14:02unable to stop these very damaging damaging strikes that are hitting
00:14:06hitting not just King Khalid International International airport in Riyadh,
00:14:09Riyadh, but smaller airports like
00:14:10like Abha, Jizan but also their oil
00:14:14oil and petrochemical facilities facilities at Yanbu and Hugh Ferris
00:14:17Ferris and Dammam. So the Houthis,
00:14:21Houthis, who I think have perhaps perhaps been dismissed by some in
00:14:23in the region as being just a bunch
00:14:26bunch of sort of mountain brigands brigands with very antiquated weapons.
00:14:30weapons. They turn out to be far far more dangerous, I think, than
00:14:33than people expected. The Houthis Houthis survived seven years of warfare
00:14:37warfare with the Saudis from 2015
00:14:402015 to 2022. There was then a UN UN brokered truce and four years
00:14:44years of relative calm. Some there there were some unconfirmed reports
00:14:47reports of payouts by the Saudis.
00:14:50Saudis. Affectionate, effectively effectively kind of almost danegeld
00:14:53danegeld kind of protection money.
00:14:55money. But then that the war reignited
00:14:57reignited this summer when Saudi
00:14:59Saudi Arabia bombed Sanaa airport airport and the Houthis responded
00:15:03responded with a barrage of missiles.
00:15:05missiles. The Houthis then advanced
00:15:07advanced rapidly down the Red Sea
00:15:10Sea coast of Yemen, threatening the the Bab al-Mandab choke point at
00:15:13at the southern end of the Red Sea Sea so that they could control what
00:15:16what shipping goes from. From the the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean.
00:15:20Ocean. So that's a huge geostrategic
00:15:22geostrategic win for them. If they
00:15:25they can do that and they're now now locked in a battle, the Saudis
00:15:29Saudis that it's difficult to see see how they can win this, they're they're not necessarily going to
00:15:32to lose it. But the Houthis are puncturing
00:15:36puncturing Saudi Arabia's image of
00:15:38of this great safe place to invest. invest. Absolutely. And Frank, I
00:15:42I guess the question is going to to be for many how might the Saudis
00:15:45Saudis and indeed the Americans respond?
00:15:48respond? Well, they've got two choices. choices. It's pretty stark. They
00:15:51They either escalate or de-escalate de-escalate an escalation, which
00:15:55which I think is probably on balance balance more likely at the moment. moment. I think this is going to
00:15:59to get worse before it gets better
00:16:02better means more air strikes by by the Saudis. I think that's unlikely
00:16:05unlikely to work. They spent seven seven years trying to bomb the Houthis
00:16:09Houthis into submission, including including bombing the capital Sanaa,
00:16:11Sanaa, the commercial port Hodeidah.
00:16:14Hodeidah. But meanwhile, on land,
00:16:16land, the Houthis are slowly encircling
00:16:20encircling the city of Taiz, which
00:16:22which is a very important. It's been
00:16:25been fought over for years. It's It's an important town or city on
00:16:29on the road to Aden, the big Indian
00:16:32Indian Ocean port that was once part
00:16:35part of Britain's protectorate in
00:16:37in south southern Yemen. So on land,
00:16:40land, I don't think the battle is is going very well for Saudi Arabia
00:16:43Arabia and its Yemeni allies, who who are in some degree of disarray,
00:16:46disarray, whereas the Houthis are
00:16:50are ideologically very determined. determined. They think they've got
00:16:53got right might right and God on
00:16:55on their side, they are being encouraged
00:16:58encouraged and trained and given
00:17:00given a lot of tactical advice by
00:17:02by Iranian IRGC commanders. Hundreds Hundreds apparently helped them in
00:17:06in that push along the Red Sea coast. coast. So it's a formidable enemy
00:17:10enemy that the Saudis are up against against here. I mean, who is not not going to invade Saudi Arabia?
00:17:14Arabia? They don't need to do that. that. They can hurt Saudi Arabia
00:17:17Arabia where it matters in its economic
00:17:20economic soft underbelly. Frank Gardner
00:17:22Gardner thank you very much. Around
00:17:25Around the world and across the
00:18:28every twist of the Premier League
00:18:29League season here on BBC News. Now
00:18:36Now a BBC investigation has revealed revealed that the world's biggest.
00:18:39biggest. Accountancy firm helped helped falsify documents that allowed allowed the former Chelsea Football
00:18:43Football Club owner Roman Abramovich Abramovich to hide his wealth and
00:18:46and evade tax. BBC Panorama has uncovered
00:18:49uncovered hundreds of documents that that were backdated by the Russian
00:18:52Russian billionaires advisers. Many Many were drawn up with the help
00:18:55help of Deloitte. Roman Abramovich Abramovich denies any wrongdoing.
00:18:59wrongdoing. Deloitte says it complies complies with applicable laws. Richard
00:19:02Richard Bilton reports. Things have
00:19:07have changed for Roman. Abramovich. Abramovich. He has. Been sanctioned.
00:19:10sanctioned. Because of his links links to Vladimir Putin. He's been
00:19:12been forced to sell his beloved Chelsea
00:19:16Chelsea and now revelations from from inside his financial empire.
00:19:19empire. If you want to understand
00:19:22understand Roman Abramovich, follow
00:19:24follow the money. This is Cyprus, Cyprus, home to a web of companies
00:19:28companies that were holding his wealth
00:19:31wealth working with the Bureau of
00:19:33of Investigative Journalism, Panorama Panorama has been investigating a
00:19:37a data leak which shows the lengths
00:19:39lengths some of his Cypriot advisers
00:19:41advisers went to hide his billions.
00:19:44billions. They falsified and backdated backdated hundreds of documents.
00:19:47documents. It is trying to cover
00:19:50cover up something and what we appear
00:19:52appear to have here is a fiddle factory
00:19:55factory in a fiddle factory you fiddle
00:19:57fiddle the transactions, you backdate backdate them and that is what appears
00:20:01appears to have been happening here
00:20:03here regularly. In 2003, one of Roman
00:20:06Roman Abramovich's Cypriot companies
00:20:09companies called Kravin Investments, Investments, had almost $2 billion
00:20:12billion of his money in the bank.
00:20:15bank. Deloitte confirms certain changes changes will have to be made to the
00:20:19the accounts. That's Deloitte apparently
00:20:22apparently advising on falsifying falsifying financial records by backdating
00:20:25backdating them. The evidence suggests
00:20:28suggests it allowed Mr Abramovich
00:20:30Abramovich to evade millions in tax.
00:20:34tax. It's a straightforward and blatant
00:20:40blatant move to protect from legitimate
00:20:45legitimate taxation assets which which should otherwise have been
00:20:48been subject to tax. So it's tax tax evasion. Yeah. Straightforward.
00:20:51Straightforward. And how serious serious is that? Well, again, if
00:20:54if it happened in England and it it was in the millions His Majesty's
00:20:57Majesty's Revenue and Customs would
00:20:59would be thinking about a prosecution.
00:21:02prosecution. Roman Abramovich's lawyers lawyers say he denies he evaded tax
00:21:06tax or concealed his fortune. They
00:21:09They say he was not involved in the
00:21:11the day to day operation of the companies
00:21:13companies and Panorama has provided provided no evidence that he knew
00:21:17knew of authorised or directed the
00:21:20the falsification or backdating of of any documents. Deloitte Cyprus
00:21:24Cyprus says it's unable to comment comment because the documents are
00:21:28are more than 20 years old and no
00:21:30no longer accessible. Richard Bilton Bilton there, who joins us now live.
00:21:34live. Richard, just tell us more more about the background to all
00:21:37all this. Well, Roman Abramovich,
00:21:40Abramovich, famous probably for being being the former owner of Chelsea
00:21:43Chelsea Football Club, but most of of his finances or a lot of them
00:21:46them were managed further afield
00:21:49afield in Cyprus. And as I mentioned mentioned in that report, Panorama,
00:21:52Panorama, along with the Bureau of of Investigative Journalism, we've
00:21:54we've been looking at this data leak
00:21:57leak which shows just how far some
00:21:59some of his Cypriot advisers were
00:22:02were prepared to go to hide his fortune.
00:22:04fortune. So they backdated and falsified falsified hundreds of documents,
00:22:08documents, all to hide his his vast
00:22:11vast wealth and the world's biggest biggest accountancy firm appears
00:22:15appears to have been involved. Deloitte
00:22:17Deloitte apparently helping falsify
00:22:19falsify paperwork and then signing signing off company accounts. Just Just tell us more then about how
00:22:23how it all worked and any examples.
00:22:26examples. Yeah. So I mean, it's complicated,
00:22:31complicated, but as well as Mr Abramovich's Abramovich's Cypriot advisers falsifying
00:22:35falsifying and backdating hundreds hundreds of documents just to hide
00:22:38hide his conceal his wealth, he also also did it to evade tax. So I'll
00:22:41I'll explain a bit more that deal deal that I mentioned in my report
00:22:45report there these things are complicated.
00:22:48complicated. But in 2003, a Cypriot
00:22:51Cypriot company held about $2 billion, billion, just short of that of Mr
00:22:55Mr Abramovich's money in a bank account. account. And it should have been
00:22:59been paying a tax on the interest interest on that money. But about
00:23:03about two years later, Mr Abramovich's Abramovich's Cypriot advisers came
00:23:06came up with a plan where they backdated backdated documents to make it look
00:23:10look like the company didn't own own the money. And if it didn't own
00:23:12own the money, it didn't have to to pay tax. Now we think the evidence
00:23:16evidence suggests that that deal deal would have allowed Mr Abramovich
00:23:19Abramovich to evade millions in tax
00:23:23tax in Cyprus. And Richard, just
00:23:24just tell us what's been the reaction.
00:23:27reaction. Well, as you heard in my
00:23:30my report, you know very strong response response from Mr Abramovich's lawyers.
00:23:33lawyers. They say he denies he evaded evaded tax or concealed his wealth.
00:23:36wealth. They say he wasn't involved involved in day to day operations,
00:23:40operations, and the companies obtained obtained professional legal and tax
00:23:44tax advice. They also specifically specifically say Panorama has provided
00:23:47provided no evidence that he knew
00:23:49knew of authorised or directed the
00:23:51the falsification or backdating of of any documents. And then Deloitte
00:23:55Deloitte Cyprus, they say, look it's it's they can't comment because the
00:23:58the documents are more than 20 years years old and they're no longer accessible.
00:24:02accessible. Richard Bilton, thanks thanks very much for being with us. us. It's good to speak to you. And
00:24:06And if you are here in the UK, you
00:24:08you can watch Panorama Roman Abramovich,
00:24:10Abramovich, how he hid his fortune fortune on the iPlayer now or on
00:24:13on BBC One tonight at 8 pm. One of
00:24:16of the story to bring you and the the European Climate Monitor says
00:24:19says temperatures in a key area of
00:24:20of the Pacific Ocean reached an all-time
00:24:23all-time high in September, but the the Copernicus Climate Change Service
00:24:27Service said it could not yet say say that the current El Nino climate
00:24:30climate cycle has become the most
00:24:33most intense ever recorded. It has has been widely predicted, of course,
00:24:36course, and because it's adopted adopted a new index, well, the phenomenon phenomenon is continuing to deepen
00:24:40deepen and is expected to reach its its peak towards the end of this
00:24:43this year. We'll be bringing you,
00:24:45you, of course, all of that. Just
00:24:52Just to bring you some breaking news
00:24:55news from France and the school head
00:24:57head of a middle school in Aubagne, Aubagne, near Marseille in the south
00:25:01south of France, has been shot and and wounded by a shotgun Monday morning,
00:25:05morning, this morning, and a 14-year-old 14-year-old has been arrested, according
00:25:08according to French media. A 37-year-old
00:25:1037-year-old teacher was also hit, hit, according to the French media.
00:25:13media. Their injuries are not life life threatening. The interior and
00:25:16and education ministers are going
00:25:17going to be in Oban later today in
00:25:20in connection with the incident at at Lakanal Secondary School in Aubagne.
00:25:24Aubagne. That's according to the the French Interior Ministry and
00:25:27and the circumstances of this shooting
00:25:30shooting have not been specified.
00:25:33specified. But Reuters reporting
00:25:34reporting two teaching staff injured
00:25:37injured by gunfire at the Lakanal
00:25:39Lakanal School in Urban near Marseille
00:25:42Marseille and a. They're saying that
00:25:44that a pupil was suspected of being
00:25:47being behind the attack. We'll bring
00:25:50bring you more on that as we get
00:25:53get it. Well, do stay with us here
00:25:56here on BBC News. I'm Geeta Guru-Murthy Guru-Murthy we'll be back with all
00:25:59all our news in particular on Ukraine Ukraine and events in the Middle
00:26:03Middle East in the coming hour. And
00:26:04And of course, AI do stay with us.
00:29:44MUSIC
00:30:09Hello, live from London. This
00:30:12is BBC News. President Zelensky says says Washington has to make Russia
00:30:15Russia respect. An energy ceasefire ceasefire announced by Donald Trump
00:30:19Trump after Russian strikes hit Ukrainian
00:30:21Ukrainian infrastructure overnight.
00:30:23overnight. It was clear that Putin
00:30:27Putin does not read through social
00:30:31social and his cheeky drones follow
00:30:32follow a different set of instructions.
00:30:35instructions. Saudi officials say say one person has been killed and
00:30:38and nearly a dozen others injured injured in the latest attack on Riyadh's
00:30:42Riyadh's international airport by by the Iran-backed Houthi group in
00:30:45in Yemen. As America's mid-term elections elections loom, a special report
00:30:48report into why data centres powering powering the AI boom are becoming
00:30:52becoming a political flashpoint.
00:30:56flashpoint. Big night planned. And And Robert Pattinson tells the BBC
00:30:59BBC why he took on