welcome to bbc news, i'm ben boulos. our top stories. china warns the us as president biden orders afresh inquiry into the origins of covid, and suggestions of a chinese laboratory leak persist. the growing row over the arrest of a belarusian journalist whose flight was diverted, as a un agency investigates, his mother asks for international help. i beg you, i ask you for help. i call upon you to save roman, save my son. has the recent fighting between israel and hamas revealed faultlines in america's relationship with its main regional ally? and shedding light on dark matter — scientists map out the most enigmatic substance

in the universe. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. china has reacted angrily after president biden ordered an intelligence investigation into whether the coronavirus first emerged as a leak from a chinese laboratory. beijing said us intelligence had a dark history of spreading misinformation. president biden says he's likely to release the report and its findings publicly. here's our china correspondent, john sudworth. for more than a year, the theory that the virus leaked from this wuhan laboratory has largely been dismissed as a conspiracy. the invisible enemy, the china virus... the theory�*s association with donald trump made it for manyjust one more

piece of disinformation. but in the mouth of president biden, well, that feels different, and suddenly the world's media are taking it seriously. well, i think it's very important because it will feed into... a welcome change for those long trying to argue that all possible origins need to be investigated. well, it matters because it has had a huge impact on everybody's lives around the world. we need to find out how this started, so we can prevent it happening again. if it turns out it was a lab leak, we need to make sure our bio—safety and bio—security policies are solid and that they're in place and implemented. china now finds itself repeating its earlier denials. translation: the united states does not care about _ facts and truth at all. nor is it interested - in serious scientific tracing. but instead wants to use i

the epidemic to politically manipulate and to stigmatise. many scientists still favour a natural origin. coronaviruses are known to have jumped from animals to humans in markets like this in the past. lab leaks, though, have also happened before, and the wuhan lab has collected, studied and experimented on coronaviruses on a huge scale. when we tried to report on this science, we were followed, obstructed and prevented from filming. have you found the origins of the coronavirus? but the world health organization team that visited wuhan all but ruled out a lab leak. today, one of them told the bbc if the us has evidence that lab workers got sick, it should share it. they've been saying that for almost a year now, so if there is real evidence,

then i think the responsibility of the us is to share it because then it can be followed up. the debate will continue, but evidence is what matters, and there's little prospect of china allowing another investigation on its soil. john sudworth, bbc news, taipei. the arrest of a belarusian journalist whose flight was diverted to capture him is sparking fresh diplomatic tensions. now russia, an ally of belarus, has denied entry to belarus, has denied entry to flights by two european airlines because they planned to avoid belarussian airspace. the eu says it's almost ready to launch new sanctions on belarus. more strong words from the international community and more moves towards concrete actions against the authorities here in belarus, too, with talk of a package

of sanctions almost ready against the authorities here, and possible economic measures to come soon after that. there is one sanction that's already kicked in here, though, with the national airline belavia here now banned from flying to europe, so there's a real sort of increasing sense of isolation in this country from that move. i spoke to people today trying to return their tickets, talking about the fact they felt trapped in the country now, but interestingly they also told me that they welcomed the move, they welcomed the sanctions. they hope that that could increase the pressure on the authorities that they tried to do with their street protests last year. of course, they were forced off the streets by the massive security forces' lashback crackdown that followed. one other consequence of the sanctions could be pushing belarus closer to russia. vladimir putin a critical backer of alexander lukashenko, keeping him in power until now. and vladimir putin and alexander lukashenko are set to meet tomorrow in sochi in russia. roman protasevich was placed on a terrorism list last year by the belarusian authorities

and there are fears that he'll now face the death penalty. mr protasevich's mother has been talking to journalists in warsaw. translation: i ask you to bring this information - to the countries of the european union, to america, to presidents and leaders. i beg you, i ask you for help. i call upon you to save roman, save my son. i'm joined by mark simakovsky senior fellow at the atlantic council and former europe and nato chief of staff at the pentagon. we heard that desperate plea from mr protasevich's mother. what can the international community do to help secure his

release? i community do to help secure his release? ~ ., ., ., release? i think we are one of a significant — release? i think we are one of a significant escalation - release? i think we are one of a significant escalation in - a significant escalation in attention from the international community. it supplies many how quickly the eu responded to roman�*s abduction and the hijacking of this a line—up by the belarus authorities. there was a meeting in lisbon today, i believe we are on the precipice for some significant additional european sanctions and us sanctions targeting the belarus regime. calls for a release not only of roman protasevich but hundreds of other political prisoners. of course this will likely remain a diplomatic row between the eu and belarus, but of course there was also a summit coming up where the us will meet russian president putin, who has been backing lukashenko over the last year, since protests tried to

overthrow him in minsk. lie overthrow him in minsk. us administration also needs to raise face—to—face with president putin the need not only for de—escalation but to push belarus to release mr protasevich and other opposition figures in belarus. as the diplomatic response escalates and sanctions are introduced, the avoidance of belarus airspace which has an economic impact on the country, does the eu not risk pushing belarus even more into the arms of russia? of course that is a significant risk, one that has been taking place over the last several months, where the eu and the us have raised sanctions and pressure, even before this incident, on belarus. belarus highly reliant on moscow for diplomatic and security assistance. this is a challenge to the eu's credibility, it was an eu airliner flying

credibility, it was an eu airlinerflying between credibility, it was an eu airliner flying between two credibility, it was an eu airlinerflying between two eu capitals, and the example it sets for other authoritarian regimes around the world for potentially hijacking airliners with figures on board was too much for the eu to swallow, their credibility is at stake and they reacted very strongly, almost as strong as when the m h 17 was shot down. this is a turning point for the way in which the eu looks at belarus and potentially moscow, if moscow continues to stick by belarus and defends its egregious actions. notjust a test of credibility for the european union but also for nato and the unity of the transatlantic alliance between the us... this

is not obviously an incident nato will respond to other than through rhetoric, lewis does not aspire to be a member of the alliance. although the countries that the plane was moving between, greece and lithuania, were nato members. this is transatlantic solidarity. it depends how far they want to go in pressuring belarus on this issue, nato made a strong statement. there were some allies seeking to soften the statement. as always, a test case of unity and so far the eu has responded relatively well. —— belarus does not aspire to be a member of the alliance.

devastation in gaza. hamas began this confrontation by firing rockets at israel, ultimately killing 13 people, two of them children. the israeli military response killed 215 in gaza, including 66 children. the caution is to push belarus too far into moscow's arms. in the us, president biden was lobbied by lawmaker rashida tlaib, who's of palestinian descent. public pressure to stop the bombing of gaza from the progressive left of the democratic party. watching closely in east jerusalem was kefah, a palestinian—american teacher and a member of democrats abroad. she feels the palestinian voice is finally being heard in america. it was very uplifting because i grew up in the states, and basically, the dialogue did not include us, and if it did, it always had us in a negative picture, us being the palestinians. and to see the left finally rallying and calling for change and calling for the same things that we're calling for. clashes between israeli police and palestinians injerusalem

in the run—up to the latest conflict also drew condemnation from the progressive left in the us. laura wharton is an israeli—american political scientist and jerusalem city councillor for a left—wing party. she's been watching as events here are compared to the reckoning over racial justice in the us. i would say that a lot of americans, especially american jews and the american jewish left, saw the police, you know, beating up palestinians and saw the riots and so forth and saw george floyd, which is justified in many ways, because it's similar. the thing is that there are also fundamental differences. it's more complicated because we're at war. here injerusalem, tensions between israelis and palestinians over access to holy sites and to land helped fuel the latest deadly conflict. in the aftermath, the biden administration is underlining that it doesn't want to see palestinians evicted from their homes or morejewish settlements in eastjerusalem

and the west bank. marc zell, the chairman of republicans overseas, loved president trump's unapologetic pro—israel stance and doesn't like the new tone from washington. you know, we're like the native americans coming home. - that's really what...we're the indigenous people. i the arabs are latecomers! but the biden administration says you're taking the land of palestinians. yeah, that's exactlyj what they're saying. they've got it - completely backward. though support for israel's right to exist and defend itself is a cornerstone of us foreign policy, the pro—israel bipartisan consensus of the past is shifting rapidly, reflected by the range of views among americans living here. laura trevelyan, bbc news, jerusalem. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: mapping out the invisible substance which is thought to make up about 80% of all material in the universe.

in the biggest international sporting spectacle ever seen, up to 30 million people have taken part in sponsored athletics events to aid famine relief in africa. the first of what the makers of star wars hope will be thousands of queues started forming at 7am. taunting which led to scuffles, scuffles to fighting, fighting to full—scale riot, as the liverpool fans broke out of their area and into the juventus enclosure. the belgian police had lost control. the whole world will mourn the j tragic death of mr nehru today. he was the father of. the indian people from the day of independence. the oprah winfrey show comes to an end after 25 years and more than a500 episodes. the chat show has made her one of the richest people on the planet. geri halliwell, otherwise known as ginger spice, has announced she's left the spice girls. argh, i don't believe it! she's the one with the bounce, the go, girl power. not geri, why?

this is bbc news, the latest headlines. china is warning the us, as president biden orders a fresh inquiry into the origins of covid, belarus's diversion of a passenger plane will be investigated by the un civil aviation agency, as the mother of the arrested opposition journalist asks for international help. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, has condemned the overhaul of electoral rules in hong kong. the sweeping changes, approved on thursday, limit the number of directly elected legislators. they also mean candidates will be vetted — keeping out those critical of beijing. the bbc�*s martin yip in hong kong, explains. this electoral reform bill

pretty much prescribed by beijing was passed by a landslide 40—2 in the legislature. the only remaining pro—democracy politician said no to it. so did another who claimed himself to be neutral. beijing has hailed this passing of the bill as the beginning of good governance after what it calls "chaos" in past elections. the question now is if hong kong's legislature would ever hear pro—democracy opposition voices again, as in the past year, we saw dozens of politicians and activists both young and old being detained or imprisoned under various charges. some of them are charged with subversion or collusion with foreign forces under the new national security law, which, if found guilty, could mean life imprisonment. even if they could be able to walk free from jail at some point, they could still be disenfranchised for life. lo kin—hei, head of hong

kong's democratic party, has said they will find a gap to survive. for the democratic party, we're still debating or still discussing within our party on our role forward. whether or not we will join the election, it is still too early to call. other parties remain undecided on whether they should run in future elections. because, under the new law, if you want to run in the election, you would first have to be vetted by a committee that includes the national security police. if you fail this process, that could well mean that the police have secured enough evidence to prosecute you, while if you pass, that could be the voters' turn to question if you are indeed a pro—democracy politician. martin yip in hong kong. an investigation injapan has found that boys were able

to pass entrance exams more easily than girls, at most of tokyo's public high schools. girls' and boys' scores are treated differently to balance gender quotas. but the investigation, carried out by the manaichi newspaper, found that entrance exams for 80% of tokyo's public high schools were easier for boys than girls. in one case, 20 girls failed to win places even though they scored higher grades than boys who were successful. and in almost 30 schools, girls had to score more than 10% higher than boys to get in. so are girls outperforming boys in schools? i'm joined by dr lisa damour, a psychologist and author specialising in the development of young women. what of young women. do you make of this? is it when what do you make of this? is it when girls are assessed against other girls and boys are

assessed against other boys, the girls end up almost being penalised because the competition within the gender group is tougher and the standards are higher? that is exactly right- _ standards are higher? that is exactly right. girls _ standards are higher? that is| exactly right. girls outperform boys academically and when they get into settings where there is an effort to have even numbers of boys and girls, girls will get the short end of the stick. is this problem just unique to japan or is there evidence of it elsewhere? there is definitely evidence of it elsewhere. in is definitely evidence of it elsewhere.— is definitely evidence of it elsewhere. in the us, the colleue elsewhere. in the us, the college admissions - elsewhere. in the us, the . college admissions standards for girls are much higher than for girls are much higher than for boys, to keep gender parity in classes. girls have to outperform to be staying at a level with boys. in

outperform to be staying at a level with boys.— outperform to be staying at a level with boys. in which case, presumably — level with boys. in which case, presumably to _ level with boys. in which case, presumably to even _ level with boys. in which case, presumably to even things - level with boys. in which case, presumably to even things up, you want a situation where the boys at school are performing at the same level and achieving the same standards and grades as the girls. how do you achieve that? from the earliest grades, we see girls as a group take school more seriously than boys, they are more conscientious and they get better grades, they work harder in school. so we could change the gender standards a bit and hold boys to a higher standard, help them develop a work ethic that can hold them in good stead. we see consistently that girls and women as a group have an excellent work ethic, academically. and boys are sometimes bringing up the rear when you look in broad scale.

how does this affect outcomes in later life, their place in the workforce? interestingly it doesn't. if we look at the high levels ofjobs, they are overwhelmingly occupied by men. the reasons for that are largely due to structural sexism, no question. another factor i think is that boys often go through school by figuring out the least amount of work they can do to get the grades they want, to keep adults off their back. and they developed a lot of confidence, they spend time seeing how much they spend time seeing how much they can get by on innate talent, whereas girls often

over perform, over prepared for everything. while that delivers them excellent grades, it means they get a sense of how much strength the capacity of talent they have, they never figure out what they can do because they hardly try... i out what they can do because they hardly try. . ._ out what they can do because they hardly try... i am talking on bread _ they hardly try... i am talking on broad scale _ they hardly try. .. i am talking on broad scale of— they hardly try... i am talking on broad scale of course. - they hardly try... i am talking| on broad scale of course. very different. but there may be an element but there may be an element findings to the over performance and conscientiousness which undermines girls' confidence in themselves and what they based on look up based on at the skies, innate talent alone. that lower level of confidence may be a factor, probably a

in where women are not as well represented in high—leveljobs represented in high—level jobs as represented in high—leveljobs as men. but this telescope, in the deserts of chile, is able to see the universe as it really is, filled with a mysterious substance called dark matter. it can't be seen, but this instrument can detect dark matter by the way it distorts starlight. this is a map of matter in the universe. and that's allowed astronomers to produce this map of how it's spread across the expanse of space. it's an element of, you know, unveiling mystery. something you, you couldn't see before, and suddenly, it's there, and you think, "wow." so, what is dark matter, and where is it in space? well, let's start off with our own sun. it's one of 100 billion stars that make up our galaxy, the milky way, which, in turn, is one of countless others throughout the universe. dark matter permeates space, with galaxies like tiny gems on a tangled cosmic web. the bright areas are where dark matter is most concentrated, and it's here that galaxies form, but the map is not what astronomers expected. the matter should be slightly more clumped together. instead, it's smoother than predicted by einstein's

theory of general relativity, which helps determine how the matter should have spread out after the big bang. if the structures in this map are smoother than we expect them to be, which is what the results seem to hint at, it means that einstein's theory is wrong. so, you might think that that's a bad thing, that maybe physics is broken. but for physicists, it's extremely exciting, because it means we can find out something new about the way the universe really is. building on the work of einstein, carlos frenk was among a group of scientists that developed the current model of cosmology. hearing now that there may be something not quite - right with the theory, - well, it's very disconcerting. it's very alarming, and, - in a way, frightening to see that maybe my whole life's work might crumble in front of me. i but, at the same time, i it is immensely exciting. astronomers believe that we are at the start of a new revolution in cosmology that will give us a fuller understanding of how

the universe began and how it will evolve. pallab ghosh, bbc news. the oscars have been delayed for a second year running, with the date for the 2022 ceremony being pushed back by a month, because of delays in releasing films due to the pandemic. this year's ceremony was held at various locations including union station in los angeles. but next year's will be held at its usual location, the dolby theatre in la. organisers also said that films released on streaming services would again qualify for consideration. the event will take place on march 27th. the postponement also avoids potential scheduling clashes with the super bowl and winter olympics, both of which are due to take place in mid—february. you can reach me on twitter —

i'm @benmboulos. hello there. we saw plenty of sunshine today, and it felt much warmer across the board than what we've been used to this month so far. there are some subtle changes overnight. we've got a weak weather front pushing into western areas. that's going to bring the thicker cloud to many, but also outbreaks of rain across the west, initially for northern ireland, and then that rain will spill its way eastwards through the night across western scotland in towards western england and also western wales. there'll some mistiness and murkiness around, too. but the further east you are, although there will be more cloud around, it should tend to stay dry here. those temperatures no lower than around 8—ii degrees for most, so milder than last night. so here's the pressure chart for friday, then. we've got this weak weather front across western areas pushing into high pressure, so that's always going to weaken it. so, it looks like the rain out

west will slowly peter out through the course of the day, but could stay rather grey, damp and misty here. further north and east, we'll see the best of any sunny spells and dry weather, but where the sunshine does appear and pushes temperatures close to the 20 celsius mark, then we could see the odd heavy shower developing, particularly in towards east anglia. and temperatures not as high as what we've seen today. now, for the bank holiday weekend, though, we're going to see lots of sunshine around, particularly for england and wales, as high pressure continues to build in across the country. for saturday, there will be a legacy of cloud left from that weather front, so patchy cloud and sunny spells sums it up nicely. maybe the odd shower mixed into there, but most places will be dry. where you get the sunshine, temperatures reaching the low 20s celsius again. further north, where skies stay cloudy, in the high teens celsius. for sunday, though, i think it looks sunnier across the board. little bit of fairweather cloud bubbling up through the afternoon, and there will be light winds as well around this area of high pressure, so it's going to feel much warmer than what we've been used to. 22—23 degrees across the south,

20 celsius there across parts of scotland, too. now, for the bank holiday monday, we'll see this weather front push in from the north—west, affecting the north west of scotland, parts of northern ireland. but for the south and east of scotland, much of england and wales, it's pretty similar to sunday. plenty of sunshine, light winds and feeling warm, in fact, even warmer — we could make 2a—25 degrees across the south or the south east. and it stays fine, settled and sunny, particularly for england and wales as we head through the first week ofjune. temperatures holding up at around the mid—20s celsius across the south east.

this is bbc news. the headlines: china has reacted angrily after president biden ordered a fresh inquiry into the origins of the covid outbreak. suggestions that the pandemic began as a result of a leak from a chinese laboratory are persisting — beijing says us intelligence has a dark history of spreading misinformation. belarus's diversion of a passenger plane and the arrest of an opposition journalist on board is to be investigated by the un civil aviation agency. the forced landing of the plane and the detention of roman protasevich has caused international outrage. his mother is asking for international help to release him. the united nations human rights council has agreed to open an investigation into this month's conflict between israel and the militant group hamas. hamas has welcomed the decision. but israel is describing it as a moral failure. now on bbc news, the week in parliament