this is bbc world news, the headlines. the former archbishop of washington facing allegations of sexual abuse becomes the first man to leave the college of cardinals in almost a century. pope francis has ordered theodore mccarrick to lead a life of penance until his trial ends. thousands of people are evacuating their homes northern california where a wildfire has been out of control since monday. two people are known to have died. the two front—runners in zimbabwe's presidential election have addressed large crowds of supporters in harare on the last day of campaigning. monday's poll is the first since robert mugabe was ousted from power last november. welshman geraint thomas is set to win the 2018 tour de france after retaining the yellowjersey at the end of today's time—trial 20th stage. at ten o'clock, clive myrie will be here with a full round—up of the days news. first, our world.

it was a murder that sent shock waves around the world. a prominent russian journalist has been shot dead. arkady babchenko was an outspoken critic of president vladimir putin... but one day later, he was from the dead. tonight, for the first time, the inside story of the fake murder. translation: they put pigs‘ blood in my mouth and then when i was shot, i fell to my knees and coughed to make the blood splatter. babchenko‘s wife tells her side of the story. translation: you just can't believe it. you don't want to believe it. and we track down the hit man. it's a tale worthy of a spy thriller, but in an age of fake news, was the truth the real casualty? i'm jonah fisher.

for the last few weeks i've been on the trail of an extraordinary murder mystery. it happened here in kiev, the capital of ukraine. and at the heart of it is one man. babchenko is a russianjournalist. he fled moscow last year after receiving death threats and got a job with the ukrainian tv station. he is an outspoken critic of vladimir putin. translation: he's a usurper,

a little dictator who lives completely in his own world. he wants to be like napoleon. collecting together all russian lands. but ukraine, which sees itself as being at war with russia, can be a dangerous place for putin's opponents. in the last two years several dissident russian journalists and politicians have been killed in kiev. exactly who was behind the murders remains unclear. our story begins earlier this year. was arkady babchenko about to become the next target? very nice to meet you.

welcome. how are you doing? i'm glad to see you. happy to see you too! crazy times. yes. tsymbaliuk tells me how in april this year he met an old contact, an arms manufacturer called borys herman. tsymbaliuk claims herman was looking to arrange the murder of arkady babchenko, on behalf of a wealthy client. and when he told you that he wanted you to kill babchenko, what did you say?

and did you plan to go through with it? tsymbaliuk agreed to carry out herman's request. but at the same time, tipped off the sbu, ukraine's intelligence service. they suspected russia could be behind it and decided to stage the killing of the journalist. the sbu's boss is vasyl hrytsak. why was the decision taken to fake arkady babchenko‘s murderer? translation: because we were told that there were several units

in ukraine and that this assassination is just a test run for others. only by staging this crime could we get the list of targets. we had to know more about who was involved in preparing and commissioning this terrible crime. what was the price for killing him? did you discuss how the murder would be carried out? it was time to let arkady babchenko know that there was a price on his head.

sbu agents told him of their audacious plot. they wanted to stage his murder to flush out those who had ordered the killing. translation: my first thought was not to trust them, that maybe it's a setup. ijust wanted to grab my family and flee somewhere like australia or antarctica where they can't find us. but then it became clear to me, why should we run? here are people who came to kill, and we have a chance to stop them. we need to do this. why should we do nothing? now arkady babchenko had to let his wife, olga, in on the plan. translation: my first reaction was not shock but fear. that awful fear when you realise, this is not a movie or tv. this is really all happening right now to your family in your house. and you just can't believe it.

you don't want to believe it. translation: according to the story we had agreed beforehand, i came back from the grocery store. i opened the door and at that moment i was supposedly shot in the back. when i was shot, i fell to my knees. sbu agents had arranged a make—up artist to help stage the murder scene. translation: when i was lying on the floor, the make—up artist put pigs‘ blood inside the bullet holes. my lips were smeared, they poured the blood into my mouth. they poured it underneath me. fake assassin oleksiy tsymbaliuk and i retrace his steps from that night. babchenko's wife olga had been

waiting in the wings. translation: after the killer left, i waited a little while. then i called an ambulance. i explained the situation that i'd come out of the bathroom and found my husband in a pool of blood. translation: the police arrived quickly, after about five minutes.

the first officers were aware of the special operation, but they also brought with them lots of other policemen who didn't know. my wife told them, i'm a russian journalist, and they all said oh, here we go again. paramedics were also soon on the scene. they had been briefed on the fake murder plot. and were ready to play along. translation: they started to treat me. because there were other people there who could see us through the window. we drove for a while and then, as planned, i began to die. now the fake murder plot moved into its next phase. starting with a message to arkady babchenko's old friend and boss,

tv journalist aider muzhdabaev. translation: i took the car and immediately began to look for him in hospitals. his wife told me he was wounded and had to be taken away. on the way, i got the tragic news from police that he had died in an ambulance. so i went straight to his apartment. it's a huge loss forjournalism because he was one of the few individuals who wrote the real truth about russia and that's why he was killed. translation: aider arrived first. it hurts to remember how he wept like a child whose mother had just been killed in front of him. i've never seen a man

cry so much before. he just howled. and how did that make you feel? because of course, you knew that it was all fake? translation: to watch those close to you suffering is unbearable. translation: we arrived at the morgue. throughout all this, i had to act like i was a murdered man. because there were journalists waiting outside. the strangest two to three hours of my life was when i was sitting in the morgue, wrapped

in a sheet like gandhi. smoking and watching tv news about what a wonderful guy i was, and next door a pathologist was sawing a skull, performing an autopsy. what were you thinking about while arkady was at the morgue? translation: i envied him because he didn't have to talk to anyone. i thought he was probably in a peaceful place at this point. and i was stuck in this agony. that night the sbu leaked this picture of the fake murder scene on to social media. news of babchenko's death was about to go global. the fake assassination took place just weeks after russia was blamed

by the british government for poisoning the skripals, in salisbury. now russia was being accused once again. this time of involvement in the plot to kill babchenko. we're sorry to hear accusations of our country being involved in this crime as it was presented by ukrainian officials. within a couple of hours we were trying to plan how we can present the truth. because we're accused of doing all evil on earth. meanwhile, in kiev, sbu agents had the middleman, borys herman, under surveillance, hoping it would provide conclusive proof that russia had ordered the killing. translation: yes, we had a plan to wait for longer

to allow things to develop. the next day borys herman was supposed to pay off tsymbaliuk for the completed job. but there was lots of noise around the case. all the media was talking about it. at that point we found herman had bought a ticket to leave ukraine so we had to take some steps. sbu agents swooped on an unsuspecting borys herman. 20 hours after the murder, the sbu called what seemed a routine press conference. no one expected this. babchenko was back. screaming.

watching on, his colleagues at the news channel atr, who had been reporting on his death all day. translation: when i saw him i felt a huge sense of relief that he was alive. iran outside and just lay on the grass for over an hour looking at the sky. it felt very good. translation: first, i would like to apologise for what all of you had to experience, for what you had to go through. i've buried friends and colleagues many times and i know the sickening feeling. newsrooms across the world backtracked fast. archive: tonight at 10:00, the russian journalist reported to have been murdered in ukraine is alive and well afterall. but the questions soon mounted.

why had a self—styled truth teller agreed to play the starring role in a fake news story? translation: when they tell you someone has paid to have you killed, do you say, no, i refuse help because it will violate the ethical standards of journalism ? if you do that people will be murdered because this network will not be exposed. go on, then, but i won't be part of it. so will we ever know the full truth about who wanted to kill babchenko? the sbu say that when they arrested borys herman they found a hit list which he'd been sent from russia. but they have yet to produce clear evidence of a link to russia's security services.

translation: the role of the russian security services in preparing the assassination of a russian citizen and journalist, babchenko, will be proved by us in court, i am sure of that. russia crossed a red line a while ago. russia is using illegal methods. russia is trying to kill its opponents on foreign soil, to intimidate those opponents who are still in russia. this is ridiculous, this is absolutely absurd. russia as a state has nothing to do with arkady babchenko. he is a free man in a free world, he can do whatever he wants. and actually before that case nobody even... i mean the international community on a high level, nobody has no idea who is arkady babchenko, honestly. if there is a russian link, as ukraine claims, it leads

through the only man who has so far been arrested. the middleman. this is a court hearing for borys herman, the man allegedly at the centre of this plot. it's a chance for him to put his case and try and explain his role in this bizarre episode. borys herman admits plotting both with the fake assassin and a contact in russia. but his defence is that he, too, was playing a role and was also working with ukraine's sbu. mr herman, why should we believe that you didn't want to kill arkady babchenko? mr herman, what this ultimately boils down to is are you working as an agent for russia?

mr herman's story has changed several times and, despite repeated requests from the bbc, he has been unable to back up his claim that he was working with the sbu. so what are we to make of this extraordinary tale, where nothing is quite as it seems? translation: we definitely believe the operation is a success. even if you just save the life of arkady babchenko, it is a success. thanks to this operation we've also got a list of 47 potential targets — journalists, activists past and present, citizens of the russian federation. why should i believe what you're telling me now?

i went out there and i reported what your organisation told us that night. it turned out to be lies. now you're speaking to me again. is this the truth this time? this murder was being prepared for real. real money was being paid. other units were working for real and the list of 47 potential victims is real. so the ends ultimately have justified the means? definitely. but in the context of the propaganda war with russia, could this end up being a massive own goal? did they realise what they did? because nobody will trust the ukrainians and the ukrainian government any more in any sort of future cases. the show over, its leading players are now trying to move on.

what's next for you after this, oleksy? what does your future hold? translation: of course i am worried. we do not feel safe. at the moment, yes, we are in a safe place. but eventually it will be necessary to go out into the wider world and what will happen then? we don't know. translation: i do not control my destiny any more. everything has gone down the drain, life is once again broken. and still you dare ask me why i criticise putin so much?

that is why i don't like them. why the hell do they have to come here and kill people? the world is in the grip of an information war, a battle of facts against fakes, truth versus fiction, with trust a priceless commodity. babchenko survived, but the work of those fighting for the truth has become that much harder. we've seen a dramatic change to the weather pattern across the atlantic and close to our shores we have much fresher weather with showers and sunshine and also some very heavy rain which has been sweeping across parts of northern ireland giving some flooding. here's the weather system that has been moving across the uk. this weather system will be sweeping in during the course of sunday and it will bring further heavy rain, this time to south—western parts of the uk and

strong winds. here's the jetstream, bringing low pressures, a shot of cooler air but watch what happens in the next few days, we start to see the next few days, we start to see the jetstream turn and swing in more from the south, which means we could be bringing in some of that warm air at in our direction. it does look as though temperatures are going to be rising again fairly soon. early hours of sunday the rain comes into south—western parts of wales and the north—west of england with the strengthening winds as well. a separate weather system also bringing rainfall to western parts of scotla nd bringing rainfall to western parts of scotland and some gale force winds here as well. you can see these two lows, all linked to this rather large area of low pressure dominating this side of the atlantic. this is what it looks like on sunday. this is the wider view across our neighbourhood. the forecast for early sunday, then, the rain into the south—west, there could be a lot of rain in the brecon

beacons, for example. could be up to 30 millimetres, that's a lot of rainfall. very strong gusts of wind in the south—west as well. gale force in the western isles. the gusts further south—west, we have got some holidaymakers here and we could have winds of up to 50mph around the coast and 40mph inland, whipping around the trees, even taking some small branches off. it will feel cooler than 20 degrees because of that wind, i think. and we will see those showers and fast moving clouds as well on sunday. that's the weekend out of the way. ochola monday now. the low pressure hasn't really moved. it has kind of stored across this part of the atlantic. still sending air currents of the ocean in our direction, so relatively cool air across western and northern areas of the uk with some showers. but we are starting to see a hint that high pressure is building from the south and the wind is starting to come from the south,

that means from france which means temperatures will be climbing from monday onwards. on tuesday we could have fewer isobars and this high pressure down here is trying to squeeze in to southern areas whilst we still have a look shop the weather front close to northern ireland and western scotland. but i think from eastern scotland southwards that is where we will see the fine weather on tuesday. again those temperatures will be hovering around the mid—20s in east anglia and the south—east, possibly into the lower mid—20s even up into yorkshire. but staying cool in northern ireland. watch the temperatures rise as we go through the week across the south and even in cardiff and belfast, back into the twenties. supper temperatures are on the rise and it is not out of the question that in the south we could be approaching 30 degrees again, heatwave levels, towards the end of the week.