welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: australia becomes the latest country to join the biggest mass expulsion of russian diplomats since the cold war. 2a nations respond to the nerve agent attack in britain. we will not tolerate this type of reckless undermining of international law, this reckless assault on the sovereignty of nations. a security guard is among five people arrested over a deadly fire in a shopping centre in siberia. investigators say the alarm was switched off and fire exits blocked. a village massacre in the democratic republic of congo, the latest incident in what the un is calling "a horrifying escalation of violence." the organisation i work for is letting these people down. their government is letting these people down. and i think the world is also

letting these people down. and in deep water. a new report says we need to look after the earth's resources before it's too late. hello. australia has become the latest country to throw out russian diplomats, part of the biggest mass expulsion since the end of the cold war. in total 2a countries, including the united states and 16 european nations, have united in response to the nerve agent attack in salisbury. the russian government says the expulsions are a mistake and it will respond in the coming days. more on the latest response from australia in a moment but first our diplomatic correspondent, james robbins. sometimes, size really does matter, and this diplomatic action against russia by western democracies is unprecedented in its scale. on their own, the american expulsions are remarkable,

60 russians being ordered out by the white house — a new record in the post—cold war world. france, germany, and poland each kicking four russians out, top the list of european government action. more than half all eu states are expelling, backing britain with action, notjust words. nato ally canada is also clearing out some russians, as is one of president putin's largest victims, ukraine. and the list may get longer. the prime minister could hardly have hoped for more. she told the commons it was the largest collective expulsion of russian intelligence officers in history. i have found great solidarity from ourfriends and partners in the eu, north america, nato and beyond, over the past three weeks, as we have confronted the aftermath of the salisbury incident. together, we have sent a message that we will not tolerate russia's continued attempts to

flout international law and undermine our values. three weeks after the salisbury attack, as the investigation goes on, and warnings to those who were in the area at the time remain in place, the diplomatic heat on president putin is being turned up again. in brussels, the president of the european council, donald tusk, said today's eu action could even be extended quite quickly. additional measures, including further expulsions within the common eu framework, are not to be excluded

tonight, i asked the foreign secretary why so many countries had been willing to act together. the reason why you've seen this outpouring of revulsion at what russia has done is because so many other countries in the last ten years have now experienced provocations of one kind or another. they've had destruction of the elections, cyber warfare, all kinds of russian aggression and malign behaviour. are you braced for whatever retaliation russia chooses? they might go, mightn‘t they, to cyber warfare.

well, let's be very clear. it's notjust we who are obviously bracing — we have every possible protection and precaution that we've taken — but it's our friends and partners knowing that they probably will face now some kind of retaliation from russia, and that, for me, is all the more impressive, that they've chosen to do it nonetheless. moscow is sticking with denial. russian retaliation is inevitable. the crisis triggered by attempted murder in salisbury continues to grow at a startling pace. james robbins, bbc news. australia's prime minister has been explaining, in strong terms, why his country is the latest to take action. the brazen attack, the criminal attack in the united kingdom, in salisbury, on the fourth of march, was an attack on all of us. it was an attack on the sovereignty of every nation that respects the rule of law and that is why it we are taking this action today, with another 23 nations around the world. we are defying this recklessness,

this lawlessness of russia and expressing, in solidarity, with the united kingdom and other nations that share those values, that we will not tolerate this type of reckless undermining of international law, this reckless assault on the sovereignty of nations. our correspondent in sydney, hywell griffith, gave us his assessment of malcolm turnbull‘s speech. australia isn't the first to take action, but it wants to make very, very clear whose side it is on. it was to show solidarity with theresa may and all those other countries. their language malcolm turnbull was using bear, accusing russia of recklessness, lawlessness, and he listed alleged crimes by russia, meddling in brexit, trying to

undermine presidential elections in france, catalonia, in the us. a big list of crimes by malcolm turnbull accusing russia of being guilty of them. earlier on, when the expulsions were made, he said the attack in salisbury was part of a pattern by russia that were threats to global security. at least 60 people, including many children, have died in a fire at a busy shopping centre in russia. emergency services in siberia are struggling to recover bodies from inside the complex, in the industrial city of kemerovo. a security guard is among five people who've been arrested. investigators say fire exits were blocked and the alarm system had been turned off. sarah rainsford reports. it was a children's play area on a busy sunday afternoon. and then this. a security camera caught the moment fire tore through, and then smoke. there was no emergency alarm here. on the floors below,

confused crowds made for the exits. "there was panic," she says. "children screaming. it's a nightmare." rescuers battled the blaze for hours, but this fire was fierce and vast. and now, officials say, emergency exits inside were locked, trapping dozens. some fled to the roof, others jumped for their lives through the choking smoke. there were today queues to donate blood for the injured from locals who just wanted to help. this girl says her friends were at the mall and their children are still missing. people have been scouring lists at hospitals all day, looking for relatives. dimitri can't find his 5—year—old daughter or his son.

"igor should be ten in april," he says. translation: when my wife called, she said, "dima, help us, we're suffocating" and i could hear the children cry. most of the victims here were children. so as this city mourns, it also has many angry questions. sarah rainsford, bbc news, moscow. sergei goryashko from the bbc russian service is in kyay—merovo. he gave me more details on the arrests. —— kemerovo. as we have heard it yesterday, there were five people arrested in this case. one of them is the security guard of the shopping centre who, presumably, turned off the fire alarm when the fire started. he is detained by an investigative committee in russia, in kemerovo. the city is in mourning today. it is the first day of mourning. people, as we have heard earlier, will gather today in the place near the city administration to hold a rally against local authorities, who, they think, haven't done enough to save all the people

in this terrible tragedy. the bbc russian service correspondent sergei goryashko updating us from kemerovo. the secretary general of the united nations has criticised the head of the military in myanmar for stirring up anti—muslim feeling. he said he was shocked by remarks from the army commander that the muslim rohingya minority have nothing in common with the rest of the country. this as the military celebrates annual army day. bill hayton reports. this is where real power lies in janmaat, not in the civilian government, but in the army headquarters. and this is the most

powerful person in the country, the senior general. on monday he told a different military parade that the country's muslim minority, who call themselves rohingya, had nothing in common with myanmar‘s other ethnic groups. the general blame them was starting all the problems in rhakine state. most international observers blamed the military for forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee. those people now feel huge refugee camps over the border in bangladesh. within weeks, heavy rains will begin to pour on these camps, making life even more miserable. the myanmar government has agreed to allow some refugees to return, but the man in charge of that process told the bbc that there isa that process told the bbc that there is a condition. they would have to provide evidence that they have lived in myanmar. that is all we ask. evidence in terms of household lists, evidence in terms of visits to hospitals, evidence even like a

cash voucher from a store. having been denied citizenship for decades, very few refugees will have any such documents. so far, myanmar has agreed to receive fewer than 500 of the more than half a million refugees. in the comments by the general, who is in overall charge of security in rhakine state, suggest that those numbers won't be rising very quickly. bill hayton, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: rich, influential, and black. a new book sheds light on the lives of early african—american millionaires. let there be no more wars or bloodshed between arabs and israelis. i'm so proud of you both. with great regret, the committee

have decided that south africa should be excluded from the 1970 competition. chanting streaking across the sky, the white—hot wreckage from mir drew gasps from onlookers on fiji. woman: wow! this is bbc news. the latest headlines: australia has joined the united states, canada, and countries across europe in the largest concerted expulsion of russian diplomats since the end of the cold war. a security guard is among five

people arrested over a deadly fire in a shopping centre in siberia. investigators say the alarm was switched off and fire exits blocked. the european union has warned that the humanitarian crisis in the democratic republic of congo is getting worse by the day. the number of people needing aid this year has doubled to 13 million. the country has been by marred by civil war, and the president's refusal to step down at the end of his term has inflamed tensions. our africa editor, fergal keane, reports from the village of mazey, the scene of a recent ethnic massacre. victims arrived at the village is the people prepared their evening meal. the extreme cruelty of what followed lives in the memory of the village. they were attacked by members

of the lendu ethnic group. this man witnessed his sister's marie's murder as he fled. when un and local officials arrived the following morning, they found scenes of horror. women and children hacked where they had been cornered. four—year—old rose was strapped to her mother's back when both were set upon by a man with a machete. she was found beside her murdered mother.

now, her father says rose is silent and far away. the dead were placed in these mass graves. bougainvillea flowers laid freshly each day. the men here were angry with us, with the un, the foreigners who listened to their stories, but did not save them. the un chief for the province visited mazzei the morning after the massacre and feels a personal sense of failure. i think that the organisation that

i work for is letting these people down. their government is letting these people down and i think the world is also letting these people down. that is why we try as much as we can to make sure that these kind of horrific things are not happening on our watches. but how? with just 15,000 un troops in congo, a country the size of western europe? where four million people have been uprooted by different conflicts. villages razed by fire, schools and hospitals closed. medical staff have been murdered in previous massacres. yet we met a nurse who decided to stay, despite the risk of being killed. he is the only one of 52 colleagues who remains at this hospital. here, he is helping a child seriously ill with malaria. for the parents, hope rests

in the hands of one brave nurse. many times i have walked through abandoned villages like this, notjust here in congo, but in other african countries as well and it is almost always described as the consequence of ethnic violence, but it is neverjust that. what happened in mazzay can't be separated from the greater political crisis in congo. from corruption, from misrule, from a president clinging to power. this is a place without trust, where the state and its agents are feared. even before the violence here, the opposition accused the government of spreading chaos in other areas to prevent elections. in another village, i met a lendu elder who told me he worried

that both sides were being manipulated. but the state's highest ranking official here, the governor, jefferson abdallah, rejects any suggestion that any ethnic conflict is being manipulated to keep the president in power. in the countryside around mazzei, night brings a huddling together for protection. people have crowded in here for safety and that is largely because there is a un base up the road, but the killers are still out there and a new attack could come at any time. in a country where millions have

already died in conflict, the massacre at mazzei is a warning to the world of what can happen as congo slides ever deeper into crisis. fergal keane, bbc news, ituri province. linda brown, who was at the centre of a landmark legal case that ended racial segregation in american schools, has died at the age of 76. the case brown versus the board of education was brought by her father when linda was refused a place at an all—white school in kansas. she was nine years old at the time. a new study, backed by the un, is warning that up to 700 million people could be forced from their homes by 2050, as food demands outstrip supply. the report into land degradation says farming, mining, pollution and urban expansion is already affecting 40%

of the global population, and that food and water security will be seriously threatened in the coming decades. andrew plant reports. and mining and water pollution. for thousands of years humans have been changing the land around them. now scientists say the destruction of nature is rapidly eroding the planet's capacity to provide food and water and a study backed by the un says many millions could be affected. the main cause we find of land degradation worldwide is the imbalance between what we are demanding of the land and what it can supply. we've converted large amounts of our forest. amounts of our grasslands.

we've lost 87% of our wetlands, 50% since 1900, so we have really changed our land surface in the last several hundred years. in the same month that the last male northern white rhino died, the study shows that biodiversity is suffering a sharp decline. exploitable fisheries in the asia—pacific, for example, falling to zero by the middle of this century. 130 million hectares of brazilian rainforests lost since 1990. more than 500 experts say the time to act has already passed and that a global plan is needed to stop what they call the unsustainable and irresponsible use of land. if not, they say, up to 700 million people could be displaced by 2050 as the land around them fails to provide the food and water they need. andrew plant, bbc news. now, when you think of black millionaires, oprah winfrey or beyonce may come to mind but those superstars are hardly the first to reach the top 1%. in fact between 1830 and the 1920s, a small group of tenacious entrepreneurs reached the highest levels of financial success. their experiences are now chronicled in a new book looking at a little known chapter of american history. they lived in incredible mansions,

they travelled the world, uh, they had servants, they ate on fine china and silver. there were also very much closeted. my name is shomari willis. the book is "black fortunes," it's about the first black millionaires in the united states. we think about the struggle for equal rights and we do not think about the funding for that struggle. the story begins with a woman called mary ellen pleasant. she went to san francisco during the gold rush and she became a millionaire. she decided to use her money to try to bring about an end to slavery somehow, and the best way she could think of to do this

was to give the money to a man named john brown who was an anti—slavery activist. by sponsoring a revolution, mary ellen put herself in tremendous danger. john brown himself was hanged. robert reed church was born a slave in the mississippi delta to a white steamship owner and his black concubine. he escaped slavery during the civil war when his father's steamship was commandeered by the confederacy. he swam downstream and washed up on the shore of memphis. when he was in memphis, he set out to become a businessman. by the turn of the century, he owned as much property in memphis as anybody, white or black. one of the groups he gave money to was a group trying to get out of tennessee to go to tulsa, to go to a place called "black wall street," which was built around the turn of the century by a man named o w gurley. and it became famous as, you know, one of the most prosperous black neighbourhoods. black wall street was destroyed by rioters who came in and razed it to the ground. that was just the type of risk that african americans who had wealth faced during that period.

madam cj walker started her own company called the madam cj walker hair company. she became the most famous black rich person in the country. she loved to shop on fifth avenue in new york. not concealing her wealth was just a really powerful aspiration for african americans at the time. it is just a missing part of history where you can go back and really see that there was always a black wealth class. it was also the donor class for black activists, and, you know, provided the means for people to fight for equality. an amazing story. thank you for

watching. hello there. the weather is looking fairly mixed as we head through the remainder of this week. during monday, there was some blue sky and some sunshine around for many of us. in fact, this picture comes from one of our weather wwatchers in saltburn—by—the—sea in north yorkshire. it was a beautiful end to the day on monday, but skies have been clouding over overnight. and through the day on tuesday, we start with quite a lot of cloud, some rain around which should clear toward the east and then things will turn brighter from the west later on in the day. so that's all down to the fact that we have this frontal system moving its way from west to east across the country through the day on tuesday. low pressure in charge. but we will see some clearer conditions following behind this cold front as we work through the afternoon. also, a dip in the temperatures behind that front too. so tuesday morning, we've got a lot of cloud. you can see the outbreaks of rain in the east. some snow on the mountains of scotland as well. most of that rain clears off and then we see brighter skies with some sunny spells too. we'll keep the rain and a little bit of hill snow at times

across parts of scotland. and temperatures range between around about 5—14 degrees. now, later on, on tuesday then, we'll keep the outbreaks of rain and hill snow for a time across scotland. further south across the country, clearer skies, but then we see more cloud building in from the south, with some outbreaks of rain later on into the early hours of wednesday morning. so temperatures for most of us, frost—free to start the day on wednesday. but during the day, we'll start to see some slightly colder conditions. so on wednesday, the winds turn to more of a north—westerly direction, importing that slightly cooler air mass through the middle of the week. so here is how wednesday's shaping up. we've got that rain in the south. could be a little bit off sleetiness over the higher ground as well. still a few wintry flurries for the mountains of scotland. whilst that rain clears towards the south—east, still a few showers, but most places looking dry. but temperatures certainly colder by the time we get to wednesday. by the afternoon, around about 6 or 7 degrees so probably the coolest day of the week. looking ahead towards thursday then, low pressure still sitting towards the north—west of the uk and another frontal system starts to move in from the south—west

so after a largely dry start to the day on thursday, there'll be some showers pushing into wales, south—west england too, making their way further north and east, mainly for england and wales. for scotland and northern ireland, it's looking a drier day, particularly through the morning. could be an isolated shower during the afternoon and temperatures on the cool side, still around about 9 or 10 degrees for most places during thursday. now what about the outlook towards easter? it starts off on that fairly cool theme, i think, but things will gradually turn milder. there'll be a little bit of rain at times, but also some sunshine to be enjoyed too. bye for now. this is bbc news. the headlines — australia is the latest country to join the biggest mass expulsion of russian diplomats since the cold war — the united states, canada and countries across europe are responding to the nerve agent attack in britain. russia's foreign ministry has called it "unfriendly and provocative". at least 60 people, including many children, have died in a fire at a shopping centre in siberia.

a security guard is among five people who've been arrested. investigators say fire exits were locked and the alarm system had been turned off. a new study, backed by the un, is warning that up to 700 million people could be forced from their homes by 2050 as food demands outstrip supply. the report into land degradation says farming, mining, pollution and urban expansion are already affecting 40% of the global population. now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk.