this is bbc news. i'm ben boulos. our top stories... president biden visits the city of tulsa on the centenary of one of the worst incidents of racial violence in american history. for much too long, the history of what took place here was told in silence. some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous they can't be buried, no matter how hard people try. as a belarusian opposition activist tries to cut his own throat as a protest against his prosecution, we have a special report on the dissidents whose lives have been changed forever. a special report from jordan where we go back to meet

two syrian refugees — victims of the terrible conflict in their homeland. pope francis issues the most comprehensive overhaul of laws in the roman catholic church for nearly a0 years. and — the spectacular last pictures from a drone — as it crashes into an erupting volcano. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe president biden has been visiting the city of tulsa in oklahoma to mark a century since a white mob attacked a black district killing as many as 300 people. the attack on an affluent black community known as black wall street followed an alleged assault on a white teenage girl. president biden has called on all americans to reflect on what he described

as the �*deep roots of racial terror�* in the country's history. 0ur correspondent gary 0'donoghue reports from tulsa. this is the first time an american president has come to tulsa to acknowledge the horror of the massacre. local residents showed him around the greenwood cultural centre where he got to meet the only known survivors of that murderous night in 1921 — america's worst single act of racial violence in its history. some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous they can't be buried, no matter how hard people try. in the light of the tulsa massacre and a year where racial injustice has been foremost following the murder of george floyd, the president did set out his ambition to redirect federal funding to assist minorities�* small businesses. i�*m determined to use every taxpayers�* dollar that�*s assigned to me to spend

going to american companies and american workers to build american products and, as part of that, i�*m going to increase the share of the dollars the federal government spends to small disadvantaged businesses, including black and brown small businesses. there was little such help for greenwood after 1921. in fact, the city purposely passed rules and regulations that would make it harder for black businesses to rebuild. it took decades for greenwood to recover, although it never regained its former glory. but now local entrepreneurs do want to recapture that past and they are looking to local, state and federal government to help. the black wall street liquid lounge is one place trying to revitalise the area. but while there is optimism for its future, the owner still believes the city is divided. i�*m more of a bootstrap kind of guy. so i think that the movement starts here with the citizens

and the small business owners working together. if some are thinking about greenwood�*s future, others are praying for answers about its past. archaeologists now believe that dozens, if not hundreds, of victims of the massacre were buried in mass graves, and the work to find them begins in earnest today. i feel a sense of pride, because right now we are opening up the ground where there is hidden history, a dark history. this is a murder investigation right here. a murder investigation. the work excavating the graves will take months, if not years. proof, if needed, that the past is rarely over. gary 0�*donoghue, bbc news, tulsa. a belarusian opposition activist has tried to cut his own throat in a courtroom, in apparent protest at his prosecution. a human rights group said stepan latypov had been told

that police would prosecute his relatives unless he pleaded guilty to trying to poison officers. he was taken to hospital for surgery. reports said his life was not in danger. later, we�*ll have a special report from minsk looking at how the lives of some people have been changed forever by the protests in belarus. there�*s outrage in italy after a notorious sicilian mafia boss — dubbed the slayer — was released from prison after 25 years. 64—year—old giovanni brusca — who was freed from jail in rome — detonated the bomb that killed italy�*s most renowned anti—mafia judge, giovanni falcone, in 1992. he also dissolved a boy�*s body in acid after his father turned state witness. sara monetta reports. the quiet of this sleepy sicilian village has been

shattered.— sicilian village has been shattered. ., ., shattered. the old mafia boss who controlled _ shattered. the old mafia boss who controlled the _ shattered. the old mafia boss who controlled the territory . who controlled the territory has been released from jail after 25 years. his bill it now belongs to someone else and people here are afraid he could come back. translation: i don�*t think our village can accept him back after all he has done. giovanni brusca was one of the most ruthless mobsters in sicily in the 80s and 90s. he confessed to 150 murders including the gruesome killing of a 12—year—old boy. but more than that, to all italians, he is the man who murdered the anti—mafia judge giovanni falcone, his wife, and three men in a security detail. the family members of those who were killed cannot rest easy. translation: today i do not be respected by the state. the state should have guaranteed justice for us. if he had to be released because he has served his sentence, he also should have told the truth about the bombing because we know who

were the perpetrators but we still don�*t know who ordered it and he was there. i have not yet been told the truth. so clearly i do not feel respected. giovanni brusca it now walks free thanks to a low lot that giovanni falcone it pushed forward. guaranteeing a shorter sentence is for bosses who collaborated with the police. giovanni falcone he hopedin police. giovanni falcone he hoped in this way the cosa nostra could be dismantled but italians are struggling to accept the law. translation: he took responsibility for 150 murders. 150. among them policemen, magistrates, officers, everyone and he was only sentenced to 60 days for each merger? the murder took place 29 years ago, this is great like many others in italy is dedicated to them but people know the fight against the mafia is far from know the fight against the mafia is farfrom over. giovanni brusca coming home is a painful reminder of the long wait that is left to go.

sara moneta, bbc news. the african union has said it is suspending mali�*s membership of the organisation in response to last week�*s military coup. members of the groups had already threatened sanctions if a civilian—led government was not restored. the decision comes two days after the economic community of west african states — known as ecowas — also halted mali�*s membership of its group demanding the country stick to a timetable to restore democracy. one of the most senseless consequences of war is its impact on children and in syria, the lives and futures of a whole generation have been badly hit. it�*s now more than ten years since syria descended into civil war. our world affairs correspondent caroline hawley reports from jordan where she�*s been back to meet again children who�*ve already paid a very heavy price. mustapha and his little sister, douaa, survived a bombing raid by the syrian regime seven years ago.

both their parents were killed in the explosion that nearly took his life too. mustapha broke both his hips and still has shrapnel in his brain which doctors have told him they can�*t remove. we first met mustapha when he was five. over the years, the one thing that has never changed is his irrepressible smile. right now, mustapha has good reason to be happy. he and douaa and their grandmother are about to be given a new home on the other side of the world. it�*s time for a last play with his cousins before he goes.

as always, he does his best to keep up, but his injuries seem to affect him more than when we saw him last. his grandmother has looked after him for the past few years as if she was his own mum. she is frail now and can barely walk. for her, it won�*t be an easy move. but in the final hours before their departure when the children are too excited to get to sleep, there is a last—minute hitch. so they should actually be in the air right now but when you are a refugee you don�*t have much control over events and there has been some kind of delay. the bureaucratic bungle means it will be weeks at least before he can fly.

rahaf and mustapha don�*t know each other but they would recognise each other�*s pain. when she was three, her home in syria was hit by government shelling, setting her bedclothes on fire. her sister amma�*s burns were more severe. in 2012, we filmed amma having surgery on herface. she had so many operations over the years, so many medical procedures, herfamily have literally lost count. rahaf herself has had 12, one for every year of her life, but nothing she has been through can match the agony of losing her sister, who was also her best friend. this was the last photo taken of amma before she got ill last year with an infection her body couldn�*t fight.

rahaf is getting ready to visit her sister�*s grave. when i first met them, neither girl would look at themselves in the mirror, but both had grown hugely in self—confidence before amma died. a casualty of syria�*s conflict years after the rocket fell. so much surgery on amma�*s injuries had taken a massive toll. her family took her from doctor to doctor to try to save her and after all that she had been through and survived, theyjust can�*t believe that now she is gone.

the long reach of syria�*s war. for mustapha, there is still a new life in australia to look forward to, but that small piece of shrapnel buried in his brain that causes him so much trouble will be with him wherever he goes. caroline hawley, bbc news, amman. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: what happend to a drone — trying to film an errupting, icelandic volcano. the queen and her husband began their royal progress to westminster. the moment of crowning, in accordance with the order of service, via a signal given with the great guns of the tower. tributes have been paid around the world to muhammad ali who has died at the age of 7a. outspoken but rarely out—fought, ali transcended the sport of boxing

of which he was three times world champion. he was a good fighter, 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 world news, the latest headlines... president biden visits the city of tulsa on the centenary of one of the worst incidents of racial violence in american history. when the president of belarus — alexander lukashenko

— ordered a ryanair flight to divert to minsk and arrested a dissident who was on board, opposition activists still inside the country were shocked and scared. the mass protests that began last summer have been crushed with fear driving people off the streets. the bbc�*s sarah rainsford and matthew goddard have just returned from minsk where they met some of those, whose lives have been changed forever by the protests. in belarus, they tried to topple a president. the response has been brutal. it�*s a very dangerous occupation in this dangerous time. now, president lukashenko has diverted a plane to catch a critic. the west is punishing him with sanctions, but russia has his back. and yet the demand for

change has gone nowhere. on the streets of minsk, life looks calm now, orderly. but last summer, a presidential election ignited a political crisis in belarus that�*s still smoldering. i went to meet one of many here whose lives have been transformed. levon ran a bar, but he was an opposition activist, too. and last august, he was arrested. he didn�*t see miki for six months. last year, vast crowds came out demanding change in belarus —

an end to a quarter of a century of one man�*s iron rule. alexander lukashenko teetered but never fell. levon�*s time with his son is limited. he still has to serve a year of correctional labour somewhere farfrom home. many have already fled. those who remain are mostly keeping their heads down. belarus has seen cycles of protest and repression before, but not on this scale. there are hundreds

of people behind bars. i�*ve never known belarus like this, not in all the years i�*ve been coming here. people now are just terrified to speak out because with the crackdown, with all the arrests, you never know who they�*ll be coming for next. now they�*re coming for the journalists. vasil was nervous about meeting, but his wife, a prominent news editor, has just been arrested. he was waiting to hear whether marina had been charged. so is there any news, anything new? there are no news. no news? no news. of course, i hope. but the hope is a little one. tut.by has now been closed down, the website blocked, and marina and half her team are in custody, accused of tax fraud.

marina was ready. it�*s a very dangerous occupation in this dangerous time. but vasil believes belarus has reached a turning point. the people were tired. and theyjust wanted to... to have a chance to change. there�*s no way back from that? yeah. we cannot express our position. we cannot demonstrate. but nobody has changed his mind. during the protests, there were red and white banners and bits of cloth draped from monuments and hanging from balconies all over this city. these days, there�*s not a trace of that stuff left any more. and today, people are even getting arrested for wearing red and white socks. olga�*s husband has already

spent a year behind bars. all that time, these letters were their only contact. when we met, the couple had just seen each other in court. pavel got seven years for organising mass protests.

so the protesters have been squeezed off the streets — their challenge crushed. alexander lukashenko even forced a plane down to catch a dissident. as the west cuts ties, russia is now a criticalfriend. pope francis has issued the most comprehensive overhaul of roman catholic church laws for nearly a0 years. the new laws criminalise the grooming of children for sex and possessing images of child abuse. the pope reminded bishops to follow the letter of the law rather than leaving it to their own discretion. it�*s his latest attempt to tackle the problem of child abuse that continues to dog the global church. the changes come into effect in december. earlier, i asked thomas

reese, a senior analyst with religion news service, why it had taken so long to introduce these changes. what we have in the code of canon law is a collection of the laws of the church. since 1983 when the last code was gathered together, the last collection of laws, there has been a lot of changes in the laws of the church and so what the pope wanted to do was gather together all those changes and put them down in one place where people could find them and so he could urge bishops to enforce them. in the old code, there was a lot of emphasis on compassion towards sinners, trying to convert them, etc. this time, what they are recognising is the need to also emphasise justice for victims of these crimes. and this is a very important change in the rules

and the laws of the church. so i wouldn�*t say it�*s taken all this time to do it, it�*s been done gradually and what the pope now is doing is gathering it all together in one place. you say the focus has to be on justice for the victims. but critics of these new laws point out that it still does not refer, the law in the church, does not refer to sexual offences against minors, it still speaks of abuse as a crime, a violation of priestly celibacy. why didn�*t the pope go further and make that a specific outlined point in the new law? i think, the way i read it, is it is both now, it�*s not just a violation of celibacy, but it�*s also a crime against the dignity of persons, that is extremely important change in the laws here. so i think it is both now.

it is recognising this is notjust a sin against the sixth commandment, this is a violation of people and persons. it�*s not just about sex, it�*s about destroying the dignity of a human person. the united states is to suspend all oil and gas development in the vast national wildlife refuge in alaska, halting the trump administration�*s controversial plan to expand arctic fossil fuel development. the us interior department said it was notifying firms of the freeze, pending a comprehensive environmental review that will determine whether leases should "reaffirmed, voided or subject to additional mitigation measures," the agency said in a statement. alaska—based nature conservation groups have welcomed the suspension. a drone trying to film

a volcano in iceland has crashed into a lava spew. youtuberjoey helms wanted a mesmerizing close up view of the spectacle, but the flight didn�*t go quite to plan. you can reach me on twitter —

i�*m @ ben m boulos that is it for the moment. i will see you soon. hello again. tuesday was the hottest day of the year so far. a title that will last until, well, later today when temperatures are expected to get a little higher still. most of us had skies like this, then, plenty of sunshine around and it was warm widely. 26.1 celsius was the highest temperature — that was in cardiff where we have the heat as far north as northern scotland at kinloss at 25 celsius. here, just 11 celsius. here we had low clouds and fog. there is another batch waiting to move across the north sea over the next few hours. meanwhile, over in france, we have some thunderstorms beginning to spread their way northwards. now, those thunderstorms coming from a cloud called altocumulus castellanus. you quite often don�*t get much rain from it, what falls can be big blobs, but you can get pretty dazzling lightning displays and lots of thunder. you might see some of that

in the channel islands in the next few hours, before those downpours spread into southwest england, where we could get some heavier rain mixed in. now, as that kind of air comes up from france, it�*ll start to feel much more humid across southern areas. eastern coastal areas of both england and scotland starting the day sunny, but late morning, i think we probably will see some areas of low clouds and fog move back in, particularly from about north yorkshire northwards, so it will be a lot cooler for these areas. temperatures, 27 celsius, wouldn�*t be surprised if we saw 28, just depends how much sunshine we get. on into thursday�*s forecast, well, the low pressure bringing the showers is still with us. this cold front�*s important — to the east of that, we could see some showers break out just about anywhere. now, there certainly will be some showers going across northern england and into scotland. but across england, well, this is where the cold front is, so we could get storms breaking out just about any time as we go through thursday, some of them could be really heavy as well. temperatures, still pretty high, 211—25 celsius across eastern areas of england, but otherwise,

those temperatures coming back down closer to average. now, thursday night, even into friday, we could still see some storms affecting parts of eastern england, but eventually, the whole of the uk will get into that fresher air that�*s come off the atlantic. so temperatures will be coming back closer to average. still, though, with some spells of sunshine around, it�*s not going to feel cold at all. it�*s going to be pleasant in the sunshine. temperatures about 19 in cardiff, 23 in london, 18 in glasgow. that�*s your weather.

this is bbc news.

the headlines — joe biden has become the first sitting us president to visit the city of tulsa in oklahoma, where a century ago, hundreds of black americans were massacred by a white mob. mr biden met the handful of surviving members of the affluent greenwood neighborhood where the killings took place. a belarusian opposition activist has tried to cut his own throat in a courtroom protest at his prosecution. he was one of those detained last year in a violent crackdown on dissent after the disputed results of the presidential election. doctors say his life is not in danger. aid agencies have issued a warning about the plight of syria�*s refugee children — a decade after the nation descended into civil war. the conflict has cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, and seen millions more displaced inside syria or forced to flee. now on bbc news, hardtalk.