intense heat is feared to have killed hundreds at the annual hajj pilgrimage in saudi arabia. a police officer protecting rishi sunak is arrested over alleged bets on the general election date. and scotland lives to fight another day. a draw against switzerland keep their euros dream alive. welcome to bbc news — broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. we begin in vietnam, where russian president vladimir putin has landed — his latest destination on his whistle—stop tour of asia. vietnam is a long—time ally of russia — but has been courted by other major countries.

commentators suggest president putin's visit to vietnam is designed to show the world that russia is not isolated from asia. he flew directly to hanoi from pyongyang, where he and kim jong—un signed a pact to help each other in the case of aggression. the bbc�*s shaimaa khalil reports from south korea. vladimir putin's pyongyang trip was choreographed to a t, with some surreal, made—for—tv moments, like this one of him driving kimjong—un on the streets of pyongyang. earlier, kim il—sung square, at the heart of the north korean capital, was buzzing with crowds and colour, as the two globally isolated leaders revelled in each other�*s company and what mr kim described as a new level of alliance. translation: we highlyl appreciate your consistent and unwavering support for russian policy, including the ukrainian direction. i mean, ourfight against the hegemonic imperialist policy imposed for decades

by the united states and its satellites. since his war on ukraine, vladimir putin and kimjong—un have grown ever closer. now they've signed a defence agreement that calls for mutual assistance in the event of aggression against either side. a move that will no doubt deepen washington's anxieties. translation: i have no doubt that this powerful treaty - signed between our two countries will be very constructive and will be a driving force in the creation of a new multinational world, free from domination, hegemony and unilateral authority. high on vladimir putin's priority list is his need for more weapons as the war in ukraine continues. russia is desperate to replenish its depleting stockpile, and north korea can provide that. according to the us and south korea... it's already been doing so. moscow and pyongyang have

denied any arms transfers. kimjong—un has his own urgent requests. his country, which has been heavily sanctioned for years, is struggling and needs money, fuel, food and other forms of aid. kimjong—un and vladimir putin have been pressured by the west and shunned by the world. they know there are limitations to what their pariah states can realistically offer each other. but for them, this deepening relationship means they haven't yet run out of options. shaimaa khalil, bbc news, seoul. tens of millions of people across the world have been facing dangerously high temperatures, with hundreds of people dying from extreme heat. in saudi arabia, where hundreds of thousands have been visiting mecca for the annual hajj pilgrimage the afp news agency quotes two arab diplomats saying at least 600 egyptian pilgrims have died. the bbc has been able to confirm the deaths of 41 jordanians, ii iranians and at least 68 indian pilgrims.

temperatures during the hajj soared to more than 51 degrees celsius. let's listen in to ather hussein, who is an imam from the uk and currently in mecca. as you were walking. you couldn't walk 20 yards, except he would see someone struggling in the heat. people were doing whatever they could to save themselves. they were taking water from kind individuals who were giving it out. they were taken shade in hotel reception. it was harrowing at times. i have never seen so many people struggle collectively. i think the saudi authority perhaps need to start thinking about controlling the numbers of how many pilgrims and every year, and this has been discussed in the past. it is a very sensitive issue, but with climate change, perhaps, with the fact that the hajj is taking place in the summer months, they may need to look into this in more detail. as we said, many of the dead are egyptian nationals. sally nabil is monitoring

the story from cairo. there are fears the numbers are on the rise and a few hundreds we are talking about now is just an initial death toll. the remarkable thing this year is that we have not heard of any incidents that usually because the programmes today. there were no reports about a stampeding example, ora were no reports about a stampeding example, or a fire that ripped apart through the tense, nothing of that. most of the deaths, which are exceptionally high, our heat related. many of the people we have been talking to, families of those who lost their lives, it's minute because of a heat stroke, but what grabs our attention this year is unregistered pilgrims.

those people were not catered for properly, they did not have proper medical services, air—conditioned tents, hygiene kit, and all the staff that the official hydrogen convoy enjoys, and that perhaps explains why the tool is exceptionally high. extreme heat in the us as well and it has led to wildfires and record—breaking temperatures across the country. authorities in new mexico say more than 7,000 people had to be evacuated in one town, after homes and buildings were destroyed by fires. and in the north east, more than 70 million americans remain under heat alerts. will grant reports from california. awe—inspiring, but deadly. a towering wall of flames and heat bearing down on the town of ruidoso, in new mexico, has overwhelmed local fire crews and forced residents to flee. most just thankful to leave with their lives, but shaken. frank and connie lawer, both 83, are sheltering

in an evacuation centre, lucky to have made it out at all. we could see the smoke change and we were engulfed in smoke. that scared me to death. i don't know whether we're going to have a home. there are several people in that area just above us that lost their home. in california, these are now all too familiar scenes. hillsides ablaze, thousands of hectares lost as tinder dry brush catches alight and firefighters struggling to bring around a dozen separate blazes under control. it is devastating and especially when you get these wind—driven fires and you have all this unburnt fuel combined with low relative humidity, it can create massive damage. as californians endure another season of rampant wildfires, warnings over extreme weather are in place across the country, from heat waves in the northeast, to a tropical storm in texas.

a nation experiencing the real—time effects of climate change. and this is just the start. experts say this has been an unusually early and aggressive fire season, with several months of hot, dry weather ahead. the contrast with the scene in texas couldn't be starker. the first tropical storm of the hurricane season in the gulf of mexico has caused flooding in galveston, as well as in mexico itself, as north america braces itself for more extreme weather to come. will grant, bbc news, southern california. a police officer working as part of the uk prime minister's close protection team has been suspended — and was later arrested — over alleged bets about the timing of the general election. while a second conservative candidate is being looked into by the gambling commission — the industry regulator , over a bet relating to when the general election would be. it isn't known when the bet was

placed orfor how much money. 0ur political editor chris mason reports. this was the prime minister in suffolk this morning visiting a nuclear power plant. wherever he goes, he has close protection officers out of view nearby. i was tipped off tonight that one of them had put bets on the timing of the general election. the metropolitan police acknowledged i was right. they were informed by the gambling commission, the regulator on friday. the force said... and that is not all.

this is laura saunders. she is the conservative party candidate in bristol, north west, and has worked for the tories since 2015, including at their head office in westminster. i was also tipped off that the gambling commission was looking into a bet from her about the timing of the general election. we don't know when the bet was placed orfor how much. she has not commented tonight. a conservative party spokesman told the bbc... another one of those individuals was another conservative candidate who was a parliamentary aide to the prime minister. joe pike from our team caught up with him last week. did you have inside information when you placed your bet on the election date? it's an independent process with the gambling commissioner.

i won't be expounding on that statement. did you have any inside information when you made the bet? i clearly made a huge error ofjudgment. that's for sure. and i apologise. mr williams acknowledged publicly himself that he had placed a bet of £100 on a july election, three days before it was called, four weeks to the day on from rishi sunak surprising many with a summer election. it's timing is still generating headlines. chris mason, bbc news. you can find a full list of candidates standing in the general election on the bbc website. the leader of the iranian—backed lebanese group hezbollah has threatened war against cyprus if it allows israel to use its military infrastructure. in a televised address on wednesday, hassan nasrallah warned that opening cypriot airports and bases to israel would be considered an act of war. hezbollah has fired rockets and drones into northern israel since the hamas attacks of october the seventh. israel has responded with air

strikes that have killed hundreds of hezbollah fighters. since the war in gaza began, more than 330,000 tonnes of rubbish has built up across the territory — and humanitarian agencies say it poses a catastrophic risk to people's health and the environment. as summer temperatures rise, some of the more than one—million displaced people who fled israel's military offensive in the southern city of rafah are now living close to rubbish tips. 0ur middle east correspondent, yolande knell reports. this is wartorn gaza's new landscape. mountains of rubbish. they've built up as basic services have collapsed. and, for some, among the hundreds of thousands of people newly displaced by fighting in the south, like asmahan al—musri, this wasteland is now home. translation: we've never lived next to rubbish. - i cryjust like any other

grandmother would over her grandchildren being sick and having scabies. her family of 16 shares its tent in khan younis with clouds of flies, sometimes snakes. everyone tells us of the constant stench. translation: the smell is very disturbing. - i keep my tent door open so that i can get some air. but there's no air — just the smell of rubbish. with the latest influx of people from rafah, the cities that they fled to have been overwhelmed. local councils lack equipment and fuel for rubbish trucks. since the deadly 7th of october attacks, israel won't let them go to the border area where gaza's main landfill sites are. translation: this place wasn't originally meant for waste. - it's a public space and farming area. the council was forced to dump waste here because our crews can't reach the official

dumping grounds. now, as summer temperatures soar, there are new warnings from aid agencies about the health hazards posed by so much rubbish. but desperation drives children to take extra risks, searching for something to eat, use or sell. and across gaza, these stinking piles of waste are a symbol ofjust how unbearable conditions here have become. yolande knell, bbc news, jerusalem. the un's high commissioner for refugees has called on all nations to do everything possible to end the civil war in sudan, saying the stability of the region is at stake. fileepo grandi visited refugee camps and displacement centres in kosti, in sudan's white nile state. more than a million people have sought shelter there since fighting between the country's armed forces and a paramilitary unit began more than 12 months ago. the biggest appeal that

i wanted to make is to military people that are fighting each other and reducing this country to ruin and to rubble. they have to stop. this war has to stop. peace is the only solution so that we can help, properly, these people, and all those to whom we have no access because of the war. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

let's turn our attention to northern india now, where a high—level delegation of us lawmakers have been meeting the exiled tibetan spiritual leader — the dalai lama. the trip comes days after the us congress passed a bill urging china to begin discussions with tibetan leaders to resolve the longstanding conflict. the former house speaker nancy pelosi and the chair of the house foreign affairs

committe were among those who met the dalai lama. they said they would not allow china to influence the choice of the tibetan leader's successor. i have been speaking to robbie barnett, a tibet scholar at the school of oriental and african studies in london. i asked him why washington is choosing to look at tibet now? well, i think overall we're looking at a change, quite a dramatic change in the geopolitical landscape worldwide, particularly the three big relationships russia—china, india—china, us—china. these relationships are changing, of course, more friendly with china, more tensions in the other two relationships. and what we're seeing is as india and the united states recalibrate their relations with this newly assertive china, we see them firing warning shots off towards each other, and the chinese back at these other two countries, to indicate what are their limitations, their objectives and so on. so there's a whole shift. there's a whole opportunity here for these countries

to try to find a new way to relate to each other. and i think this is important moment. you know, the americans, they don't want things to go downhill. they want things to be quite firm, but also stable in their relationship with china. and they're starting to make something like a kind of partnership with india, which is also coming under chinese pressure on its borders. so this is an important moment. and as you heard, china is shifting very aggressively inside china to a kind of cultural policy of changing its minorities, notjust a security policy, but a policy, as you heard, of a cultural assimilation. and that's happening in tibet to some extent, as well as in xinjiang. so this means that there is some concern among american politicians and others about china's position. right. and that big contentious point, really, how is the question of succession being looked at and addressed? well, there's this very

remarkable development, which is the dalai lama will die soon, presumably in a few years' time, he says maybe ten or 15 years. but china has already said that it is going to invest all its diplomatic and political resources in claiming to be the only source of authority for deciding the succession — the appointment of the next dalai lama. and what seems to be happening with china's very strong determination to control that, is that the exiled tibetans, their new leader is much more sophisticated in many ways, is really calling china's bluff on that because china can't really pull that off. they can't really control the selection of the dalai lama unless they have some kind of inpremature from the current dalai lama. that means that china actually needs to get to negotiate with the dalai lama before he dies. and china has now put itself in a position where its left negotiations with the dalai lama

to the very last moment when the dalai lama is weak. that means china's window of opportunity for getting a deal on the succession is rapidly closing. so now the tibetans are calling china's bluff. they're getting the congressman to say if you don't negotiate with the dalai lama soon on reasonable terms, then we will start pushing our government, the american government, to change its policy on china. that could be very significant for china. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines. the south african president cyril ramaphosa has hailed a new era — after being sworn in for a second term as president. speaking at his inauguration, he said it was profoundly significant that voters had directed politicians of different parties to work together in what he called a national unity government. there have been protests against anti—semitism in paris following the rape

of a 12—year—old jewish girl on saturday. three boys were arrested on tuesday, after the girl told police she had been gang raped while the boys used anti—semitic slurs. there have been widespread incidents of anti—semitism in france since the start of the war in gaza last october. and authorities in colombia say they have intercepted 2.3 tonnes of cocaine in an operation in caribbean waters. the colombian navy spotted the boat — which was bound for central america. during the chase — more than 1.5 tonnes of cocaine packages were dumped into the sea. four men were arrested. its referred to as the world's most foul—smelling flower and it has burst into bloom in london. the "titan arum" — aptly known as the corpse flower — is said to stink like rotting flesh. despite that, the endangered species drew quite the crowd at kew gardens in london

paul rees, the manager of the tropical nursery at kew gardens explains just how special this flower is. the more for fellas when it does come into to flower is a really, really smelly plant. it's kind of like a like like an animal's crawled into the glass house and died in the corner of the zone somewhere. it's a very strong smell. so its native to sumatra, where it's considered endangered in habitat. so there's quite a few botanical gardens that hold conservation collections of it around the world. but in habitat, it's fairly rare. so it's not actually a single flower. it's, an fluorescence, which means it's a combination of smaller flowers. so if you look down the centre of the plant, you find that there's, there's lots of male flowers and female flowers. and it comes into flower on day one, and it's sort of female receptive on the first day, and then goes over that stage, and then it then

releases loads of pollen. and in that time, it's attracted loads of flies, and the flies will then be covered in pollen and then they'll go off and find another plant flowering that's then smelling and then hopefully transfer the pollen from one plant to the other. so it's normally quite short. so between sort of 36 to 48 hours and it'll be past the space. so it's opened yesterday. today, it'll be in good bloom. but then probably by the end of today, it'll start closing up. but you can still see it for a few days after that. so fortunately, we've got about a0 plants that are held in our nursery. and as soon as they start coming to flower, we move them across into our display house. so we normally get one or sometimes more than one flowering every year these days. there is another plant that's coming into growth.

and there's a green bud forming from the pot chair and the nursery. and that has the potential to be anotherflower or a leaf, but it's a little bit too early to say, but hopefully we'll have a third one this year. stonehenge has become the latest target for climate protesters. two people threw an orange substance over the ancient monument near salisbury in southern england, just a day before the summer solstice, when crowds traditionally watch the sunrise. �*just stop 0il�*, which protests against the use of fossil fuels, said it was cornflour that would "wash away with rain". police said they arrested two people. a quick look at the scores from wednesday's euro 2024 group matches. germany had another victory — beating hungary 2—0. croatia drew with their neighbours albania. and scotland went ahead

against switzerland but had to settle for a draw. and some good news for the world's best footballer. kylian mbappe trained with his french team—mates on wednesday despite breaking his nose two days earlier. it wasn't a a full session for mbappe, and he was restricted to light exercises. it's still not clear whether he will play against the netherlands on friday. that's all for the moment, thank you, but stay with bbc news. hello there. wednesday was a decent day right across all four nations. in fact, we saw temperatures in excess of 20 degrees, and we haven't seen that for over a week. but you may have heard a rumour that things are going to get warmer still. and in fact, into next week, we are likely to see temperatures widely into the mid 20s, maybe peaking as high as 28 celsius,

somewhere in southeast england. perhaps for many, that's something to look forward to. but before we get too carried away, let's concentrate on the rest of this week. turning warmer, yes, with some sunny spells, but there will also be some rain pushing into the west. now we can see the first signs of that through today with this weak weatherfront here, but more significant rain waiting in the wings. but for the majority of us, it will be a dry, settled and sunny start, a beautiful start. a line of nuisance cloud, really from northern england down to wales and southwest england that could produce the odd spot or two of rain, and some showery dribs and drabs across northern ireland and into southern scotland with that weakening weather front. to the far northwest, temperatures perhaps struggling, 15 degrees generally to the north, we're looking at 18—20 celsius with highest values of 22 celsius somewhere in the southeast. but it's certainly worth bearing in mind if you're a hay fever sufferer, well, we are looking at very high pollen levels quite widely across the country. now into friday, our weather front will continue

to push in from the west. it will start to weaken off as it drifts its way steadily east. but there's likely to be some heavier bursts, particularly across parts of northern ireland as we go through the day on friday. some showery outbreaks of rain into western scotland, clouding over generally, but central and eastern areas should continue to see some sunshine, and, again, some warmth. we might see high teens perhaps in sheltered eastern areas of scotland, highest values, perhaps of 23 celsius somewhere in the southeast. now that weather front, as it continues to track its way steadily east, will fragment and weaken. so there is a risk of some cloud, maybe a little bit of drizzle around on saturday. but on the whole, high pressure will build and the winds are likely to swing around to more of a south—westerly for the second half of the weekend. and it's that south—westerly wind that will drive in this warmer air. so you can see looking ahead, a lot of dry, settled, sunny weather and turning increasingly warm. alleluia.

russia and north korea ink a new defence pact, as vladimir putin looks at ways to bypass global sanctions. as inflation remains elevated in the us, we take a look at how americans are struggling to make ends meet.

after a series of safety issues at global plane maker boeing, hello and welcome to business today. i'm arunoday mukharji. we've had a rare glimpse into the world's most reclusive state with russia's president vladimir putin visiting north korea for roughly 2a hours. during that time the two countries inked a mutual security pact, which mr putin described as a �*breakthrough�* deal. details of that pact though have not been made public. putin's visit comes at a time where russia is facing fresh sanctions aimed at cutting off its ability to fund the war in ukraine. the bbc�*s suranjana tewari takes a look at the impact that has had on the russian economy. russia has been facing economic challenges for several years now. ever since moscow annexed crimea from ukraine back in 2014. the country has been subject to sanctions when moscow launched a full—scale invasion of ukraine in february 2022, the west further tighten

the screws. since