welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name is mike embley. our top stories: children take cover from military planes in myanmar. we have a special report. on 11 april four fighter jets fired on the village. we also heard that the army had raped women and tortured old people nearby, so we left. new explosions causing more people to flee their homes. nearly 200 are still missing. primary fever. american political parties choose more candidates for november's midterm elections. and the venue is confirmed for next week's summit between donald trump and north korea's kimjong—un — the luxury capella hotel on singapore's sentosa island. the military in myanmar is facing

fresh accusations of deadly attacks against civilians, this time not against the rohingya in the west of the country, but against the kachin people in the north. for decades, they have been calling for independence. the army claims it only targets armed enemies, but villagers say whole communities have been forced to flee. our correspondent nick beake has this special report. the depths of the burmese jungle, where mothers clamber for safety, and elephants carry the few possessions people had time to gather. it is the latest scramble for survival in myanmar. where children are forced to hide from their own country's militaryjets. and these are not rohingya families,

but the people of kachin state. the latest ethnic group to flee a burmese army on the attack. the same burmese army which killed this woman's eldest son. he was 22. caught in artillery fire on his village six weeks ago. the only words his mother can get out — her son's name. and his dad watched his son die. he bears the scars, physical and otherwise. translation: imagine how you'd feel if this happened to your own child.

i have lost him. i won't see him again. these children had nearly forgotten what a decent meal tastes like. they have just emerged from a month—long trek through the jungle to safety. they were living in land controlled by kachin rebels, who have been fighting for independence for decades. but the burmese army calls the rebels terrorists and are now trying to drive them out, at any cost, it seems. seng ja worked as a sunday school teacher in her christian village, and explained why she fled her home. translation: on 11 april, four fighter jets fired on the village. we also heard that the army had raped women and tortured old people nearby, so we left. the stories we are hearing from these villagers, one after another, are consistent. they are the first eyewitness accounts of the burmese military

targeting civilians in their latest offensive here in kachin state. beyond this forest, hundreds more kachin villagers are believed to be running for the safety of the city. we met two parents who were forced to choose which of their children to take with them. they carried their twin boys, but had to entrust two older daughters to nuns. they have not seen them since. a family torn apart, in a country where the military still calls the shots, and aung san suu kyi's government looks away. nick beake, bbc news, myanmar. there have been more violent eruptions of the fuego volcano, in guatemala, and authorities have had to order more people from their homes. the official number killed since sunday's eruption is 72, but nearly 200 people are still missing. the volcano is only about 25 miles from the capital, guatemala city. whole villages have been wiped

out by fast—moving gas, molten rock, mud and ash, and thousands have had to take shelter in schools and churches. from guatemala, the bbc‘s aleem maqbool. the volcano may be shrouded in smoke, but it now gives away little of the sudden, catastrophic violence it wrought here. with more eruptions feared following further sporadic explosions of the volcano, a frantic recovery effort goes on. well, we are going in with one rescue team as close as we can get to the volcano. they have been digging for days now into the ash, but there are still so many bodies to be found. as we went in, we saw a recovery team coming out. they had been trying to find survivors, but the only living things they could bring out this time were abandoned chickens. and this is why.

the entire village of el rodeo was smothered in a thick blanket of burning volcanic ash. in some homes, entire families were buried alive. the land was scarred and suffocated by lava and ash. the assault from the volcano came so fast, it is no wonder some simply had no chance of escape. survivors who did manage to flee for their lives have been left traumatised. thousands are now in makeshift shelters. 35 members of the extended lopez family fled as lava, ash flows and debris rained down on their town. but five of their relatives didn't make it, including francisco's brother and two grand—nieces, aged 12 and 111. the place is completely destroyed, he says. i don't believe any of them survived, because the homes are totally buried under the ashes.

there is no more space in the morgue for more bodies. as night falls, they remember the dead, and those presumed dead. even when bodies are found, so few victims have been as yet identified. one rescuer said when he did find bodies, after hours digging in ash, they often look like statues, so hard to recognise. and officials in hawaii say hundreds more homes have been destroyed by lava from kilauea volcano. it is some of the worst damage since one of the world's most active volcanoes began its latest eruption a month ago. many more people were warned to evacuate last week or risk being trapped by the lava, which is mixing with seawater to create a potentially deadly plume of hydrochloric acid and glass—like particles. voters in eight us states have been casting their ballots in a series of primaries. while mr trump is not himself running, it is a chance to test his popularity ahead of the november midterm elections.

and the battlegrounds are widespread and varied, from newjersey in the east, to alabama and mississippi in the south, iowa in the midwest, to south dakota and montana in the north, new mexico in the south—west, and of course, california. sean sullivan is a congressional reporter at the washington post. primaries are just about the parties choosing their candidates. but, as he said, these polls are important. democrats trying to choose their standardbearers in senate races, house races, races for governor, and then you have republicans trying to do the same. and then you have a unique situation in california, where all of the candidates from all of the different parties run on the same ballot. and the top two candidates, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the general election.

a lot going on tonight, a lot of clues that strategists in both parties are trying to find in terms of the mood of the electorate, when it comes to issues, when it comes to donald trump, coming up to the november mid—terms. what do you expect the clues to be? what do you expect to find out? it's interesting, california is a state with strategists in both parties watching closely tonight. there is a lot of enthusiasm in the democratic party, with many candidates signing up to run. because of the unique system, it's possible democrats could be shut out of the election in this race. and if they did, it'll be harder in novemberfor them to pick up the 23 seats they need to win back control of the house of representatives. there are many nervous democrats tonight watching the races. they're aware of the fact that their voters are excited, they're angry at donald trump. but there might be too much of a good thing, with too many candidates

in california for democrats. it is an embarrassment of riches for them and we will see how it plays out and affects their strategy going towards november. and how anti—trump would you say the democratic candidates have to be, how pro—trump do the republicans have to be? many are presenting themselves as candidates who will stand up to the president, from the democrats, not only his actions and policies, but his rhetoric. and you have seen republican candidates aligning themselves closely with trump, particularly on immigration. donald trump outlined a hard stance on immigration, and what we're seeing across the country is a lot of republican candidates are making that call, talking about the need for a border warjust like donald trump has called for, and depicting many

undocumented immigrants as criminals in television adds. the same rhetoric we saw from donald trump we are seeing in republican candidates for house and senate and local races, adopting the same imagery and rhetoric. just briefly, if you don't mind, there are democrats talking positively about winning back the house of representatives, and possibly even the senate. what are the chances of that? the chances are better in the house because in the senate they have to win many races in states that president trump won by a large margin in 2016. where he is still popular, conservative areas, rural areas, like montana, north dakota, and indiana. republicans feel they can hold control of the senate, if narrowly, but are more worried about the house, with everyone up for reelection. and there's a lot of anger with president trump, particularly

in suburban areas. and a lot of the republican advantage in the house is built around suburban areas. so there's a lot of worry in the party about losing control in the house. they feel a bit better about the senate, but they're taking nothing for granted. mexico has announced new tariffs on american products, including whiskey, cheese and pork, a response to president trump's steep duties on imports of steel and aluminium. mexico, canada and the european union have warned of a trade war, which could only complicate efforts to renegotiate the trillion—dollar north american free trade agreement. a white house aide who mocked senatorjohn mccain, who is terminally ill, has lost herjob. kelly sadler had said senator mccain's opposition to a new cia director didn't matter because he was dying anyway. according to a white house spokesman, kelly sadler no longer works in the executive office of the president. it is not clear whether she has been given another government post. the british government has approved plans for a third runway at heathrow airport

in london, europe's busiest. parliament will vote in the next few weeks. there has been debate about expanding airport capacity in the south—east of the uk for almost five decades. those in favour say it is vital for economic growth. others say it will cause too much damage to local people's lives, and climate change targets. ethiopia's government has said it will finally accept a peace deal to end its border war with eritrea. the most recent war between the two neighbours ended in 2000, with tens of thousands dead. andrew plant reports. it was africa's deadliest border war. 20 years ago, tens of thousands of soldiers died over two years of fighting. even after the guns stopped here on ethiopian‘s border with eritrea, the two sides remained at war.

in 2002, a border commission set up to broker peace ruled that disputed areas, including the town of badme, should go to eritrea, a decision that ethiopia rejected. it kept its troops on the border. eritrea accused ethiopia of occupying its territory, and tensions remain high. now, the ethiopian ruling coalition has called for a return to what it called the long—lost peace between two brother nations. ethiopia's new prime minister seemingly calming a country which has seen rising tensions in recent months, ending a state of emergency imposed in february designed to stem unrest, and now with a promise to make peace with the country's northern neighbour. ethiopia's intentions now seem clear. its next move could be to start removing the soldiers

from the border territory they have been patrolling for more than 20 years. andrew plant, bbc news. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: a slice of the action. the world custard pie championship takes place, and it is an international affair. the queen and her husband began their royal progress to westminster. the moment of crowning in accordance with the order of service, by a signal given, the great guns of the tower shall be shot off. tributes have been paid around the world to muhammad ali, who has died at the age of 7a. 0utspoken but rarely outfought, ali transcended the sport of boxing, of which he was three times world champion. he was a good fighter and he fought all the way to the end, even through his illness. yes, he did. uefa imposes an indefinite ban on english clubs playing in europe. today is the 20th anniversary

of the release of the beatles' lp sgt pepper's lonely hearts club band, a record described as the album of the century. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: in myanmar, the country's military is facing fresh accusations that it's launched deadly attacks against civilians. this time not against the rohingyas in the west of the country but against the kachin people in the north. guatemala's fuego volcano continues to erupt, causing more people to flee their homes. nearly 200 are still missing. china has long been north korea's strongest ally, but in the past 12 months it has imposed the toughest sanctions on its unruly neighbour, and taken credit for propelling kim jong—un to the negotiating table.

but president trump has also blamed chinese influence for putting next week's summit in doubt. 0ur correspondentjohn sudworth now on the communist alliance: four times a week, passengers at this beijing station crowd onto an overnight service bound for pyongyang. the train is an embodiment of china's ties to north korea, geographically, politically and economically. "i'm going on holiday," this chinese woman tells me. do you worry that is has nuclear weapons? "i don't think it'll be a problem, the situation is good," she tells me. "anyway, isn't that a sensitive question?" she adds. it is a friendship sealed in blood. china's intervention on the north side in the korean war cost

the lives of the least 180,000 chinese soldiers. more than six decades on, there is still a shared world view. chinese people may on occasion feel unnerved by the nuclear brinkmanship on their border, but there is sympathy, too. there is sympathy too. north korea's logic is, after all, china's logic — atomic weapons as a security guarantee against a us rival. as this man prepares for his summit with the us leader, in a matter ofjust weeks, he has held two with the chinese president. both men, analysts suggest, sense an opportunity to get away from sanctions and back to business. regardless of how much nuclear progress is made during the summit, china has a more important long—term strategic goal,

which is to help north korea grow its economy and transform itself from an isolated pariah state into a more normal and a more open country in the long run. in another sign of the deep cultural ties, china has its own sizeable ethnic—korean population. they speak and sing in korean, and have little time for donald trump. "trump's methods are wrong," this man says. "if you want to help north korea, you should help it, not suppress it." china is watching its close neighbour's moment in the sun with interest, and perhaps some hope. but it knows well that, on the korean peninsula, glimmers of hope can quickly disappear. the american fashion designer, kate spade, has been found dead in her apartment in new york. she was 55. she's probably best known

for the handbag company she founded with her husband in 1993. police are treating it as a likely suicide. it appears at this point in time to be a tragic case of apparent suicide but it is early in the investigation. there was a suicide note left at the scene. president donald trump has traded the traditional ceremony honouring this year's super bowl champions for what he called a "celebration of the american flag". he cancelled the traditional white house invitation because most of the winning philadelphia eagles made it clear they did not want to come to his white house. instead he hosted a concert on the lawn to celebrate america, as he put it. he blamed his snub on nfl players protesting during the national anthem, but the eagles have not confirmed this is why they boycotted the event. in a short speech, mr trump said this: i want to take this opportunity to explain why young americans stand for our national anthem. maybe it's about time that we understood. we stand to honour our military,

and to honour our country, and to remember the fallen heroes who never made it back home. we stand to show our love for our fellow citizens, and our magnificent constitution. nfl players who've been kneeling or raising a fist during the national anthem have been protesting against police violence, of course, not against the anthem itself or the us flag. and superbowl winners do usually get a presidential invite. so what are eagles fans making of all this? rajaini vaidyanathan has been in philadelphia, finding out. a few months ago, the streets of philadelphia were packed with fans celebrating the local team, the eagles, winning the super bowl. but today, with news that the team won't be going to the white house, the mood is somewhat different. does it change how you feel about your team ? yes, i'm a little disappointed with them. don't think i'll be not watching too much next year.

i think people have this misconception that sport players that all they should do is play sports and that it. i think we're losing track of what the meaning of the party, to celebrate players being champions. so it shouldn't be made a political issue. they can have an opinion, and if they choose not to want to go somewhere or do something, because they don't agree with someone's values, then they should be able to do so. as a native philadelphian, i think they did the right thing. obviously none of the players kneeled during the season. it's disappointing that the president has chosen to mix politics and sports, and the joy of our city, and i'm sorry for the team and the players. to many people that we spoke to, this came down to one thing — what does it mean to pledge allegiance to the american flag? does that mean you should stand for the national anthem, or does that give you the right to freedom of beach which means you can protest if you want to? it started as a swimsuit beauty pageant but now miss america organisers are

announcing they're scrapping that part of the competition. in what's being seen as a bid to modernise itself at a time where sexualisation is in the spotlight, the president of miss america says they will no longerjudge contestants based on their physical appearance. we are doing this young women who are growing up in an environment where they say, yes, i want to speak my mind, i want to bejudged on my intellect and my ability and my dreams and my goals so it is partly in relation to the me too movement that it's part of the cultural atmosphere that is at play now. it's little more than a week now until football's world cup kicks off in russia — an opportunity for sports fans around the globe to celebrate the beautiful game. there's already been another major sporting event this summer — but this one can get a bit messy — as the bbc‘s tim allman reports. believe it or not,

the world custard pie championship has been taking place for more than 50 years. the rules are pretty straightforward — lift pie, throw pie, try not to get hit. we're trying to defend our title from 2014, it's great. what is the best thing? just getting covered, having fun. the children really love it, as well. 32 teams took part this year. more than 2,000 custard pies were thrown, and this is notjust some parochial british affair — oh, no. this is a global event. why did you come all the way from japan? because it's a very famous festival in japan. just enjoying, and adding memories, yeah. another japanese team, do you like sushi, took on the appropriately named pie face in the final, and it was a home win

for the british team. for their efforts, they each received a trophy, and presumably the chance to have a shower. the military in myanmar is facing accusations of deadly attacks against the kachin people in the north. for decades, they have been calling for independence. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter — i'm @bbcmikeembley. hello once again.

it's variations on a theme, rather than a great change of weather type, that many of you are experiencing just at the moment. blue skies on tuesday in the sheffield area. it didn't start that way but you got there eventually, like so many other places did. and even when there was some cloud in the sky, well, a number of our weather watchers in the worcestershire area, and in some of the surrounding counties, in fact, were rather taken by that pattern in the skies. now, what's driving our weather at the moment? well, high pressure very much the dominant feature, awayjust to the north of scotland. we'll speak more about that area of low pressure, because we can't discount it, even though it's just there, way down towards the southern parts of france. so wednesday, a lot of dry weather, quite a lot of sunshine for many from the word go. that's probably not the case for the eastern side of the pennines, where yet again overnight, if you ever lost it, we'll see a fair amount of cloud coming in off the north sea, tending to thin as we get on through the day, and again, with a wee bit of sunshine

in the skies, temperatures in a number of locations exceeding 20 degrees celsius. it's not all plain sailing, i have to say. many of you will know already that the pollen levels are very high, especially across the greater part of england and wales, so bear that one in mind if that's relevant to you. here we are through wednesday evening. a good evening for a barbecue, not too much in the way of breeze, pleasantly warm in a number of locations. the cloud just becoming a wee bit more extensive again to the eastern side of the pennines, and some of the low cloud just lurking there or thereabouts across these northern and eastern shores, on what is not going to be a particularly cold night. now, that pattern for thursday doesn't look an awful lot different to the one i showed you for wednesday, with the notable exception that we've just pushed that area of low pressure, and its attendant fronts and troughs, a little bit further north in france. and that will have the effect ofjust thickening up the cloud across the some of the southern counties of england,

maybe the south of wales too. and, from that, we could well see some showers. maybe the odd one or two could be really quite sharp. that mightjust be a problem for the channel islands. it mayjust come a little bit further north. elsewhere, just one or two showers close by to the donegal border there in northern ireland, maybe the odd one over the highlands, but essentially it's a fine and settled look to our weather. and even as the weekend begins to loom, well, do you know what? that high pressure is still there or thereabouts. yes, we still have these little mini weather fronts, if you like, just bringing a bit of instability into the mix, so you couldn't rule out one or two showers. at this particular moment, we think somewhere across southern or western parts more likely to see them, but again, many of you are in for a dry weekend. this is bbc news. the headlines: in myanmar, the country's military is facing fresh accusations that it has launched deadly attacks against civilians, this time not against the rohingyas in the west of the country, but against the kachin people in the north. for decades, they have been calling

for independence from myanmar. fresh eruptions of the fuego volcano in guatemala have prompted a new wave of evacuations of residents on the slopes below. the official number of people killed in sunday's eruption has risen to 73, with many more missing. no evacuation alert was issued before the volcano erupted on sunday. voting has ended in eight us states in primary elections. they are being watched closely ahead of the mid—term polls in november. california is particularly important to their hopes of taking back control of the house of representatives. now on bbc news, it is hardtalk with stephen sackur.