this is bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: presidents biden and putin describe their first summit as positive and constructive, but serious differences still remain between america and russia. blast—off for the first astronauts to china's new space station, and the country's longest crewed mission. police in hong kong arrest five executives from the pro—democracy apple daily newspaper, which opposes beijing's tightening grip on the territory. and is blatant product placement falling flat, after cristiano ronaldo removes coca—cola bottles from a euros news conference?

welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. the first summit between president biden and president putin has ended in switzerland. the two leaders held about four hours of talks. topics included, nuclear arms control, opposition figure, alexi navalny, and alleged cyber—attacks by moscow. our north america editor, jon sopel, has more. best wishes and goodbye. he says "best wishes and goodbye" in russian. and with those words, the swiss president left them to it. there was little in the way of theatrics or fanfare, and the body language suggested a good deal of wariness on both sides as the us and russian presidents shook hands on the portico of this handsome 18th—century villa, overlooking lake geneva.

i'm not sure how this is working. in the library, they sat somewhat awkwardly. a reporter asked the russian president whether he feared the opposition leader, alexei navalny. no comment. the american president was asked whether he trusted vladimir putin. he appeared to nod. he says, "there are a lot of issues that require the highest level of meeting." the us president concurred. like i said outside, i think it's always better to meet face—to—face. there'll be subjects where they agree, but plenty where they won't. the us is most vexed by the endless cyber and criminal ransomware attacks on american infrastructure and election interference in western democracies. the president will raise human rights, and in particular the treatment of the opposition leader, alexei navalny. and the us has grown increasingly concerned about the destabilising effect of russian military activity on the ukrainian border. then, after two hours of intense talks, it was over.

on the central issues that joe biden pressed on, the russian leader either deflected or denied responsibility. president putin acknowledged the talks had been "frank and candid", normally a euphemism for a row, but he also said they'd been "constructive". translation: both sides expressed their intention | to understand each other and to seek common ground. talks were quite constructive. the president of the united states. then it was the american president's turn, once the aviators had come off. it's been a long day for y'all. he said he'd given vladimir putin a blunt message. i made it clear that we will not tolerate attempts to violate our democratic sovereignty or destabilise our democratic elections, and we would respond. the bottom line is i told president putin that we need to have some basic rules of the road that we can all abide by.

and he said he was satisfied with what had been achieved. it was important to meet in person so there can be no mistake about or misrepresentations about what i wanted to communicate. i did what i came to do. this was more "clear the air" than "new dawn". the americans had set the bar low for this encounter, and on that basis, it met expectations. jon sopel, bbc news, geneva. and our north america editor jon sopel told us more about those expectations. i think thatjoe biden will see a success as the fact that they sat down for two hours, were engaged in detailed conversation about some of the knottiest issues around. i thinkjoe biden, for a domestic audience, also wanted to prove that the america is back tour also means "i'm not donald trump". and i think he was very keen to underline that in his news conference that i attended a little while ago. but asjoe biden goes back to america now on air force one, he has said, "we will respond if russia

doesn't do what we want on cyber, on human rights and the rest of it," but respond how? that's the bit of it that is unclear, and i'm sure vladimir putin returning to moscow will be thinking, "well, he said all these things, but what's he going to do about it?" vladimir putin has seen down western leaders before. maybe he will think that joe biden is a different sort of american president, but i think that vladimir putin is going to test it and joe biden will eventually have to decide how he is going to respond. mark simakovski, a former europe/nato chief of staff in the us defense department, and now non—resident seniorfellow at the atlantic council's eurasia center, gave his analysis of the talks. you know, ithink both sides achieved their primary objectives, and you are right, there was no seeing in any one's soul, there was clearly a frank dialogue about differences between

the united states and russia. differences the between the united states and russia. i think there was an airing of grievances on both sides, the united states being very firm in laying out the areas it would no longer tolerate russian aggression, both here in the united states and abroad, and the costs that would be associated with additional russian aggression. and president putin likely laid out clear red lines on how far russia would go. i didn't see many concessions, clearly, president putin spent the majority of the day rebuffing accusations of cyberattacks and election hacking and mistreatment of the russian opposition at home and mr navalny. but i think mr navalny avoided any sort of accusations that he wasn't tough enough. i think clearly he laid out, and the fact that putin laid out that conversations were frank and candid, there were a number of issues the united states and russia

disagreed on, and in contrary to his predecessor, president biden was willing to confront president putin in person and highlight those concerns. what was the result? the result was limited. there was little progress made other than to continue discussions, on one issue, in particular, strategic stability and arms control. that is the issue that has the most potential for additional discussion, i think. even the joint statement released did not include any discussion of discussions on cybersecurity and cyberattacks, even though clearly the two presidents that there is a need for rules of the road on that issue. they were able to agree on the language. they were not able to agree on the language. cyber and nuclear some of the issues. some critics saying it should have been wider than that? he should not have met putin at all or dignified him with the photo opportunity, and actually president putin walks away with more

credibility on the international stage than perhaps president biden should have been giving him? of course there is concern about giving president putin that type of global stage, particularly as russia, not only continues but escalates its aggression and instability and amasses tens of thousands of troops. but things could have gone a lot worse if this meeting did not create an opportunity to de—escalate tensions and get back from the low point of relations. i applaud president biden taking a very bold stroke while he was in europe. the other piece that is important to note is why he met with putin at this time during this trip to europe. he had the wind of the us alliances at his back. us allies want to confront russia and many are interested in engaging russia, potentially. president biden knew he would have a stronger hand with our allies to have a more united approach to russia, if it continues its aggression,

if you could meet with russia if it continues its aggression, if he could meet with russia now and showcase to allies, look, i gave them a chance, a laid out risks if they continue aggression, and if they do continue, we will have a much more united front to deal with later on. mark simakovsky. let's get some of the day's other news: the chinese government has acknowledged that the fuel rods at a nuclear power plant in the south of the country have been damaged, but insist that no radioactivity has leaked. the admission comes after us media reported that the us government was assessing a reported leak at the facility. police in the italian capital rome have diffused a homemade explosive device, that was found on a car near the olympic stadium just hours before the euro 2020 clash between italy and switzerland. the bomb was reported to have been filled with bolts and gunpowder and had been put on a vehicle belonging to a local government official.

france is to lift its night—time coronavirus curfew from sunday, allowing people to leave home at night without official justification for the first time since october. and from thursday they will no longer be obliged to wear a mask outside, except in queues. china has launched its first crew to its new space station — a landmark step in establishing beijing as a major space power. that was the moment of blastoff, just a couple of hours ago. it will be china's longest crewed space mission to date and the first in nearly five years. china's space ambitions have been fuelled in part by a us ban on its astronauts on the international space station.

this latest venture follows previous succesful milestones in china's space program after missions to return rock and soil samples to earth from the surface of the moon, landing its first rover on mars. dean cheng is an expert on china's space programme as well senior research fellow at the asian studies center at the davis institute for national security and foreign policy. he's in washington. how please do you think beijing will be with this launch? obviously, the successful launch is going to make a lot of people happy. once they dock, once the crew and barks into the module and begins operations, i think everyone will be even more relieved and even happier. will be even more relieved and even happier-— even happier. what is the significance _ even happier. what is the significance of _ even happier. what is the significance of this? - even happier. what is the i significance of this? clearly, there is already an alternative, the international space station has been up that for a long time. this is

china's equivalent, a long way behind that. why is this a landmark moment? , , ., , landmark moment? chinese plans for a space — landmark moment? chinese plans for a space station _ landmark moment? chinese plans for a space station date _ landmark moment? chinese plans for a space station date back - for a space station date back literally 30 years. this is part of what is known as project one 21. it betrays a space station in competition with the international space station but the reality is they have been working towards this day for 30 years. the success of a space station, the successful launch of a mission to mars, the successful sample retrieval from the moon, to mars, the successful sample retrievalfrom the moon, show how the china's space programme is world—class and comparable to that of the us and russia and ahead of europe.- to that of the us and russia and ahead of europe. there are lots of concerns, _ and ahead of europe. there are

lots of concerns, often - and ahead of europe. there are lots of concerns, often talked l lots of concerns, often talked about, with lots of errors of chinese life and policy but that are linked with the military. that are linked with the military-— that are linked with the milita . 3 ~ , military. let's keep in mind several things. _ military. let's keep in mind several things. chinese - military. let's keep in mind| severalthings. chinese logic several things. chinese logic facilities, all of them, our military bases stuffed by military bases stuffed by military personnel. now part of what of a support force. they have responsibility for this particular mission and is headed by a pla to start general. this basic self and technology is the same system used to track incoming missiles and can be used to guide missile defence. there is a heavy military component as was reckoned recently by nato which is said space phrase are global threads that could fall under article five of the nato

alliance. —— threats. if article five of the nato alliance. -- threats. if you're sittin: alliance. -- threats. if you're sitting in _ alliance. -- threats. if you're sitting in washington, - alliance. -- threats. if you're sitting in washington, are . alliance. -- threats. if you're| sitting in washington, are you concerned by this? mat sitting in washington, are you concerned by this?— concerned by this? not by the mission itself. _ concerned by this? not by the mission itself. humans - concerned by this? not by the mission itself. humans in - concerned by this? not by the i mission itself. humans in space are extraordinarily fragile. a huge amount of any human mission is life—support, keeping people alive in what is easily the most hostile environment conceivable. where even the most minor break in the spacecraft or space it kills. in and of itself, no, but it speaks of the larger issue of china's growing space capability. we them test antisatellite systems but also the political side to this, using the space programme to message the world of china's rise, that china poses an alternative to the united states. your previous story was

about vladimir putin and international order. china is pausing its challenges to the rules space international order. , ., ., rules space international order. ., ., ., rules space international order. ., ., . ., order. great to have you on. thank you — order. great to have you on. thank you so _ order. great to have you on. thank you so much. - order. great to have you on. thank you so much. thank l order. great to have you on. l thank you so much. thank you for having _ thank you so much. thank you for having me. _ stay with us on bbc news, still to come: just what is flying high over the middle eastern countryside? find out a little later. there was a bomb in the city centre. a code word known to be one used by the ira was given. army bomb experts were examining a suspect van when there was a huge explosion. the south african parliament has destroyed the foundation of apartheid by abolishing the population registration act which, for a0 years, forcibly classified each citizen according to race. just a day old, and the royal baby is tonight sleeping in his cot at home. early this evening,

the new prince was taken by his mother and father to their apartments in kensington palace. germany's parliament, i the bundestag, has voted by a narrow majority to move the seat of government - from bonn to berlin. berliners celebrated into i the night, but the decision was greeted with shock in bonn. the real focus of attention today was valentina tereshkova, the world's first woman cosmonaut. what do you think of the russian woman in space? i think it's a wonderful achievement and i think we might be able to persuade the wife it would be a good idea if i could to get her to go up there for a little while. this is bbc world news, the latest headlines: presidents biden and putin described their first summit as positive and constructive, but the leaders made it clear, differences still remain between america and russia. the first astronauts to china's new space station have blasted off for the country's longest crewed mission.

hong kong police say they've arrested five executives from the pro—democracy apple daily newspaper in a dawn raid on its offices. the newspaper, which has opposed china's tightening grip on hong kong, says its editor in chief, ryan law was among those detained. so what we know is in the early hours of the morning, the national security police arrested five executives from apple daily, including the chief executives and the managing editor. this is the second time apple daily has been raided. the first time, jimmy lai, the outspoken critic and owner of apple daily was arrested and paraded through the newsroom. he's now in prison for charges relating to the protest movement in 2019. he is also being charged and standing trialfor violating national security law. i think the difference between this raid and the raid before is clearly the people that have been arrested, jimmy lai is not the managing

editor, he is not involved technically with editorial decisions inside the paper, he is an outspoken actor in his own right. he was arrested under those charges, because of his involvement with the protest movement. but this time we are seeing editorial staff arrested at the newspaper. some of the journalists we have been speaking to our apple daily have been livestreaming the event. the police are still outside and inside their offices at the moment. there were reports earlier in the month from some journalists inside the newspaper, that apple daily would be further targeted and even raided or even closed. so, the journalists that i have been speaking to, they felt this is notjust an attack on the pro—democracy movement, but there seems to be a shift, in their words, a shift here, that the media itself is also under attack.

save the children, says more than seven hundred thousand rohingya children are facing severe discrimination and denial of their most basic rights across several different countries. the aid agency says the children are vulnerable to sexual abuse, trafficking and detention. most rohingya muslims fled their home country, myanmar, after a deadly crackdown by the military in 2017. they now live in refugee camps in neighbouring bangladesh, malaysia, thailand and indonesia. olaf bloom—queest is from save the children, he told me this is a lost generation of rohingya children. we're talking about more than 700,000 children across the region who are all denied their basic rights. essentially we are talking about a lost generation of rohingya children, they all live lives on the margin with constant risk of abuse and exploitation. they lack legal status, they are denied citizenship in myanmar and that follows them

wherever they go, denied refugee rights in other countries, and this really impacts their ability to attend schools as well and to get a quality education. across the countries we looked out there is almost not a single rohingya child who is able to access quality school. statelessness, lack of education, what is happening to them now, that will live with them for the rest of their lives, which is a hugely damaging prospect for them. what are what about the actual countries where they are though? they don't exactly have a lot of resources to try and fix this. that is true, but we do also think that there are things that these governments can do in the short term to adjust these problems. when it comes to education for example, we really want to see rohingya children be included in the public school system of these countries, notjust rohingya children but all refugee children, and the fact that a lot of these countries

actually treat refugee children as criminals has an incredibly harmful effect on them. there were rohingya boys and girls we spoke to in malaysia who said they were afraid to leave their home, to go out and play with their friends because they thought they might be arrested and deported by police, but at the same time this is not something that these countries can handle on their own. we need to see much more international support for these just on that international support because clearly this report and the numbers, it throws the world's attention back on what is happening there which of course has been happening for so many years now. what is the level of international support and what more is needed? it is dropping and that is extremely concerning. we can probably expect it to drop for a while longer given the financial impact of the pandemic. just in the last couple of months we saw the news from the uk about the reduction in foreign aid, we saw a drop in foreign funding to bangladesh,

so that is extremely worrying. this is definitely not the time for international donors to cut back on humanitarian funding, in particular to rohingya communities. most of these children depend on aid agencies or communal agencies just to get by every day for everything from food to schooling, to healthcare, so we need more support from the international community, not less. now, is it time to rethink the age—old advertising practice of product placement? a couple of major sponsors of the european football championship have this week suffered the embarrassment of top footballers shunning their products. courtney bembridge reports. now, is it time to rethink the age—old first it was portugal's cristiano ronaldo. as he sat down at a press conference on monday, he shuffled two bottles of coca—cola out of shot. he then held up a bottle of water, apparently encouraging people to drink that instead. the small gesture took the fizz out of coca—cola's share price,

which fell in the hours that followed — wiping $4 billion from the company's value. but coca—cola, which is still worth around $2110 billion, knows better than to pick a fight. the company issued a statement saying, "everyone is entitled to their drink preferences." but cristiano ronaldo isn't just anyone. when you consider that cristiano ronaldo has 299 million followers on instagram, what he does is big moves every time he does something. and it wasn'tjust ronaldo. one day later, french footballer and practising muslim, paul pogba, removed a heineken beer from of the table in front of him. it turned out the beer was non—alcoholic but many are asking whether this kind of product placement has had its day. the trend here is that fans will become more wary and the kind of heightened profile of these examples will have brands kind of talking behind the scenes now, to see what they want

to be affiliated to. both coca—cola and heineken are official sponsors of the euros and may well feel their investment has fallen flat. courtney bembridge, bbc news. so often when we talk about lebanon, we're bringing you bad news. it's a poor country that's experienced decades of sectarian division, and has had to provide shelter to thousands of refugees. but it's also the home of unesco world heritage sites and a beautiful landscape. three french adventurers wanted to witness it first hand in an unusual way. tim allman reports. for all its troubles, let there be no doubt, lebanon is truly stunning. a country of history, mystery and of spectacle. for these three men, there's only one way to truly appreciate it. fred, vincent and aurelian are wingsuit flyers, so if they want to have a look

around, they take to the skies. jumping out of a helicopter, they glide across the lebanese countryside, seeing the country's highest peak and flying through the khadijah valley in the forest of the cedars of god. like a trio of caped superheroes, they seem to defy gravity in a fairly nonchalant way. translation: it's cool that we're the first people to fly over this country. in the end, reality asserts itself, and they parachute down—to—earth. an unprecedented an extraordinary trip across an extraordinary country. tim allman, bbc news. that is about it from me, as always, plenty more online and do remember to download the bbc news app as well. if you are

online, on social media, get me there on twitter. this is bbc news, goodbye. hello there. over the next few days, bouts of thunderstorms will be affecting parts of england, bringing a risk of some localised flooding. now, wednesday was another very hot day in the capital. 29 degrees celsius, that was the highest temperature recorded in the whole of the uk. it was also very muggy. but we had some thunderstorms that started to break out as well across northern france, and these have been tracking across the english channel into southern and eastern areas of england. really anywhere from around about dorset, somerset north—eastwards at risk of a storm overnight, but really it's a more general area of rain with some thunderstorms mixed in. that's kind of what we'll have over the next few hours. now, across the north—west, it should become largely dry here. a fresh night, ten degrees, comfortable for sleeping, but very muggy in eastern england. 18 degrees as we start the day on thursday. now, through thursday, a wet start, i think, across the south—east of england, east anglia,

a good part of the midlands as well, with outbreaks of rain. still a risk of a few thunderstorms mixed in. most of that rain will clear off into the north sea with the weather becoming drier and brighterfrom the south—east, but still with a lot of cloud around. best of the sunshine, scotland, northern ireland and north—west fringes of both england and wales probably having some bright and reasonably fresh weather as well. but it will still be very humid in the east. thursday night, well, it should become dry at least for a time before the next batch of storms begin to make inroads from the south. and then through friday, again, we're looking at another pulse of thundery rain kind of affecting the same sort of areas really. southern england, the midlands, east anglia, parts of lincolnshire and yorkshire. and within this area of rain, there will be some hefty downpours bringing a risk of some localised flooding. still relatively fresh weather across the north—west, with some bright or sunny spells coming through. now, friday night, the rain slowly pushes its way northwards and eastwards with the thunderstorms as well. saturday does look a little

bit drier generally. there'll be a few bright or sunny spells around, perhaps one or two showers here and there as well. and then through saturday night, more storms work up from europe. but this time, the rain's going to be more widespread, and it will push right across into northern ireland and scotland as well, still with the risk of some thunderstorms embedded in that area of rain. so, all in all, very unsettled for the next few days. the biggest storms capable of bringing a lot of rain in a short space of time, which could bring the risk of some localised flooding. that's your latest weather.

find out a little later.

this is bbc news. the headlines: both the us and and russian presidents have spoken positively about their summit in geneva, but significant differences were laid bare. president biden said he'd told mr putin that the us would respond to actions that threaten its interests. the two leaders held about four hours of talks. the first astronauts for china's new space station have blasted off in the gobi desert, for the country's longest crewed mission to date. it is china's first crewed mission in nearly five years, and a landmark step in establishing beijing as a major space power. hong kong police say they've arrested five executives from the pro—democracy apple daily newspaper in a dawn raid on its offices. the newspaper — which has opposed china's tightening grip on hong kong — is owned byjimmy lai, who's already been put on trial over similar accusations.