this is bbc news. i'm rich preston. our top stories: the us announces a further $1 billion in military aid for kyiv, and urges allies to provide more weapons to help ukraine battle russian forces. police searching the amazon for two missing men say they've found human remains and made an arrest. more than a million children in afghanistan are facing malnutrition as the country struggles with an economic crisis. we hear from families desperately trying to survive. translation:. i feel ashamed in front of my _ translation:. i feel ashamed in front of my family _ translation:. i feel ashamed in front of my family i'm _ translation:. i feel ashamed in front of my family i'm so - translation:. i feel ashamed in front of my family i'm so poor, i front of my family i'm so poor, i can't afford to buy good food. my sons are really �*s and —— them because they are not

eating. the us central bank announces the biggest rise in us interest rates in nearly 30 years to combat surging inflation. and spain, southern france, and parts of italy swelter through an extreme heatwave: authorities are warning of water shortages. welcome to our viewers on pbs in america and around the globe. new us aid for ukraine worth a billion dollars has been announced by president biden. it includes additional artillery and coastal defence weapons, as well as ammunition for artillery and advanced rocket systems. new pledges came from nato members who met in brussels. the us defense secretary said he will move heaven and earth to ensure ukraine gets the weapons it needs to combat russia's invasion. here's a little of what lloyd austin had to say. we can't afford to let up, and we can't lose steam. the stakes are too high.

ukraine is facing a pivotal moment on the battlefield. and we're seeing what president zelensky warned us about. after failing to take kyiv and reassessing its combat aims, russia has shifted its focus to the donbas. and we can't underestimate the challenge that ukraine faces. president zelensky thanked president biden and said he was grateful to the united states for mobilising its partners to help. translation: the united states announced the strengthening - of our defences, an extra £1 billion support package. it is coastal defences, artillery and modern rocket systems. we are waiting. i am grateful for the support which is particularly important for our defences in the donbas. our defence correspondent jonathan beale has been given rare access to the us military

base in germany where they're coordinating supplies of military aid. western weapons have been arriving in ukraine and are being used to deadly effect. more recently, they've been sending more heavy equipment... ..artillery guns like this, but ukraine says it's still not enough. and they're vastly outgunned by russia. but from this us military base in stuttgart, germany, western nations are working hard to keep the weapons flowing. and the us commander of this highly sensitive operation insists ukraine is getting what it needs. we are giving the ukrainians what they need. we're co—ordinating with them daily. we have a liaison officer here, it's a three—star general, that sets their priorities, shares it with us and our allies in our daily

co—ordination sessions. and we're able to adjust very rapidly in the donations that are provided across the allies. so, you don't think ukraine's going to run out of weapons and ammunition? we're going to make sure they don't run out of weapons and ammunition. from this austere building, they're working round—the—clock to prevent russia from winning this war. the attic of this barracks behind me has now become the nerve centre, the hub for co—ordinating western weapons supplies to ukraine. we've been told we can't film inside for security reasons, but inside, there are military personnel from 26 countries trying to ensure ukraine gets the ammunition and the weapons it needs. this has become a lifeline for ukraine. these are the first photos from inside cleared by the us military. so far, dozens of soldiers from dozens of countries have

already helped deliver 66,000 tonnes of military equipment to ukraine worth nearly $8 billion. and they believe it's just the start. here, they're preparing for a very long war. it's not going to be months. well, how long is it going to be? i think we'll be here for a number of years. they're already preparing to send in american and british multiple rocket launchers. they say once they arrive at secret locations in eastern europe, weapons can get to the front line within 48 hours. ukraine still says it's not enough, but the message from stuttgart is that it's keeping them in the fight. jonathan beale, bbc news, patch barracks, stuttgart. let's get some of the day's other news. the uk government says it's disappointed the european union is launching legal action in response to its plans to change the post—brexit trading arrangements for northern ireland. the european commission said the measures announced

on monday were "illegal" and there was no justification for them. a second ethics adviser to the british prime minister has tendered his resignation in a move that has taken downing street by surprise. christopher geidt said he felt it was the right thing to do. he has previously said he thought there were legitimate questions over whether borisjohnson had broken the ministerial code. the man accused of shooting dead ten people last month in the us city of buffalo has been charged with multiple hate crimes. payton gendron, a suspected white supremacist, is the first person in new york state to face charges of domestic terrorism motivated by hate. the government of el salvador has dismissed ongoing worries about its public finances after economists raised further concern about its adoption of bitcoin. a crash in cryptocurrencies has affected investors worldwide with tokens such as bitcoin losing billions of dollars�* worth in value. a civil lawsuit

brought by brigitte macron, the wife of the french president, has begun in which she accuses two people of spreading rumours that she is a transgender woman. the fake news story was spread on social media last year. mrs macron says that as a victim of cyber—harassment, she wanted to speak out and set an example. police in brazil searching for the bodies of two men, a britishjournalist dom phillips and a brazilian expert on indigenous people, bruno pereira, have found some human remains. police say a suspect has confessed to killing the two men, and he apparently led detectives to the place where the bodies were found. katy watson reports from manaus. it was a hastily organised press conference after another day of rumours and the authorities confirmed that human remains were found. they said amarildo da costa de 0liveira, who was the first suspect arrested, he confessed to killing the men and he agreed to take the search teams to the location where they were buried. it was three kilometres from the riverbanks

in thickjungle. they used helicopters, sniffer dogs and divers to access the area. the authorities say now the identification process begins, identifying the human remains, and that will take a few days. but they said they can't confirm 100% without that forensic identification. it's worth saying it was a line—up full of armed forces patting themselves on the back for a joined up search operation. this is of course after a lot of criticism that they didn't mobilise quickly enough. one of the glaring omissions was the fact that there was no—one there representing the indigenous community but it was the indigenous community who started the search well before authorities, and even pointed out and lead some of the authorities to the area where they found some of the dom and bruno's belongings. that omission, they admitted that it was wrong. they then did correct themselves when it was pointed out by the bbc that in fact the indigenous communities did

help the search operation. the wife of dom has said that although we're still awaiting definitive confirmation, the tragic outcome put an end to be anguish of not knowing dom and bruno's whereabouts. now we can bring them home and say goodbye with love. today we also begin our quest forjustice. i think that is the issue that so many people are asking, how this happened in a very remote area where there is such an absence of the state. certainly, there will be a lot of investigations as well for the motive as to why the two men were killed. 0ur south america correspondent in manaus for us there. katy watson, bbc news. more than a million children face severe malnutrition as afghanistan struggles with an economic crisis. humanitarian aid is being delivered, but there are warnings that much more help is needed. 0ur afghanistan correspondent secunder kermani reports from kabul. we're in one of afghanistan's busiest markets. there's plenty for sale,

but for most families, money is tighter than ever. this stall tells you how much some are struggling. these sacks are full of stale, leftover bread, normally fed to cattle. now more people than ever are eating it themselves. translation: the better quality | bread is on the top of the bag. i when poor people come to buy, they pick these better ones. look, this one cannot be eaten. before, five people used to buy this bread in a day. now it's more than 20 people. what does it feel like, doing this job and seeing so many people having to buy this bread? translation: i pray to god to get rid of this misery - and poverty from my country. the life of afghan people right now is like a bird which has been locked in a cage with no food or water. bread is the staple food here in afghanistan.

but there's a deep economic crisis. international development funding the country relied on has largely been cut off and central bank reserves frozen by the west over concerns about the taliban's hard—line treatment of women. but it's poor families like hashmadullah�*s who are now struggling with rising food prices. before, did you ever used to have to buy bread from here? translation: in the past, - i used to make over $6 per day, but now i barely earn $1. i've been working since this morning, and all i can afford to buy is this bread. leftover bread is handed over by bakeries, restaurants and homes to scrap collectors like 14—year—old mohammed. but with around half the country going hungry, there's less bread, less of everything. "there's not enough work, and myjob

is very hard," mohammed says. hashmadullah is making his way home after another disappointing day at the market. he's doing his best to keep his three young sons in school rather than sending them out to work. but it means surviving mainly on stale bread, softened with tomatoes and onions. you work hard for your family. how does it feel just being able to bring this home for them? translation: i feel ashamed in front - of my family that i'm so poor, i cannot afford to provide good food. there is nothing i can do. even if i try to borrow money, no—one will lend it to me. my sons are really thin because they're not eating well. i cannot afford meat, even once a month. 0utside kabul�*s bakeries, women wait for loaves of fresh bread to be donated. even when billions were pouring into this country, corruption, the war, meant that life here was a struggle.

now the war might be over, but for many, the struggle is getting even harder. secunder kermani, bbc news, kabul. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: record temperatures as spain, southern france, and parts of italy swelter through an extreme heatwave. 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 40 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 fatherl to their apartments . in kensington palace. germany's parliament,

the bundestag, has voted by a narrow majority to move the seat of government from bonn to berlin. berliners celebrated into 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 news. our main story: the us announces a further $1 billion in military aid for kyiv and urges allies to provide more weapons to help ukraine battle russian forces. let's stay with ukraine. retired general wesley clark is a former supreme commander of nato forces. he gave me his reaction to the new funding. we're glad to see it announced and i hope other countries

will follow suit. i would say this — that the ukrainian perspective we often hear is they are very impressed and very pleased from the level of support from great britain, and i hope that britain and all the other countries in europe will follow suit behind the american lead here. what would you like to see other countries promising to give? well, look, we are at an inflection point in european and really global history here. if ukraine goes down, all of the talk about human rights and the international legal system, rules—based international order of the united nations itself, everything is thrown up in the air in jeopardy. it's a simple fact that vladimir putin is an aggressor, he wants to restore the soviet union and he wants to take away countries' independence.

that is what world war ii was about. we said after that it would never happen again and now it is happening right in front of us. so the question is — can the countries of the west, including britain, put enough armaments in there, given the ukrainians' willingness to mobilise and fight, can we give them the means to resist the russian onslaught? that's the question, and it has to be brought in there quickly because they are under enormous pressure, as secretary austin said. saying we are going to send more weapons is one thing. actually getting the artillery there, especially these heavy rocket systems, to the front lines is another matter altogether. talk us through some of the practical challenges in delivering what's needed to ukraine. well, there's three principal challenges. four, maybe. first of all, you've got to get the weapons through 700 miles of contested territory. and, of course, the closer you get to the front, the more risk there is to the delivery of the weapons.

you've got to get people trained on the weapons system and every nation's weapons are a little bit different. the french system is certainly different from the m270 launchers for the mlrs. britain has committed so far to send three of them. and the third thing is people have got to be trained on it, and the fourth is you've got to get the logistics training, including the ammunition, but also the spares, the manuals on how to do the checks and repairs on it. all of that has to be brought together, so, you know, it was one thing when you were sending an starstreak and stinger missiles and things that were hand—held. they either work or they don't, maybe you need batteries, you send occasional batteries and spares. but when you are dealing with heavy weapons, you are dealing with lots of logistics, maintenance and support, technical support, factory support, it requires a real strong

planning process, and that has been part of what has slowed the deliveries down so far. $1 billion is a lot of money, but then, by the same token, america's military is the biggest and best funded in the world, nato is the biggest military alliance in the world. are you disappointed that more hasn't been done thus far? you're asking my personal opinion? you bet i'm disappointed. i think we should have done a lot more sooner, starting with before the invasion, we should have declared a no—fly zone. but we didn't, either we didn't think about it or we didn't want to do it. maybe we thought that ukraine would only last a few days but there's two wars. the first war, ukraine won. that was the rush by the russians to get to kyiv. they lost. this is a different battle in donbas and we are in a competitive race to restructure, rebuild, retrain or train, to be able to fight mobile armoured warfare in open terrain. so, the lone javelin gunner,

or the lone man standing behind a tree that hits the tank from behind when it's stuck on a road, that was the last war. we won that war. this one is entirely different. it's going to take mobile artillery, target acquisition, armoured fighting vehicles, some improved tanks. and here's the problem — there isn't really enough left in the old warsaw pact stocks that are held by our east european nato allies to do what ukraine needs, and some of that equipment is no good anyway. so we're going to have to start transitioning them to nato equipment. that means challenger tanks, that means logistics, that means a whole set of training that has got to be done during wartime. it's going to be a tough matter but we've got to get going on this. the us central bank has announced a rise in interest rates of three quarters of a percentage point, the largest since 1994. the federal reserve is trying to curb inflation,

which reached an annual rate of more than 8.5% last month. nina trentmann is from the wall streetjournal. i spoke to her earlier on. she told me why this interest rate rise was happening now. basically, because of recent inflation figures that came out of friday, at 8.6 for may, which is an increase from 8.3 in april, and a similar rate to what we saw in march. i think we just saw in recent days that there was this momentum building up in the markets and among market participants, and also then, federal reserve officials are saying, well, ok, maybe we shouldn't wait untiljuly to increase rates by that much, but we should do it now, given that the fed also faces criticism of having waited too long before it started raising rates and wound down its quantitative easing programmes that were launched in the pandemic to help the economy. and now, of course, we're seeing inflation being persistently high,

influenced by various factors and the fed just trying to take action and trying to tamp down inflation. practically, what does this interest rate rise mean for day—to—day living for most people? i think one thing to watch will certainly be mortgage rates. mortgage rates have gone up quite significantly in recent months, and so the expectation is that that's going to continue with rates increasing. we will also see increases in financing costs for companies, as well as increases in, sort of, interest charged for consumer loans as banks start to pass on these high interest rates to their customers, which includes consumers, corporate clients, so this is going to be of course gradual, because rates are still comparatively low after a very long time when they were near zero. so, it's going to take time

until they are at a level where one would say this is now a significantly higher rate, still remember we are going to be at 1.5 to 1.75 for the federal funds rate, which is still, historically speaking, relatively low. but still, it will show — and consumers, as well as businesses will see it. germany has accused the russian state—controlled gas giant gazprom of attempting to push up energy prices further by sharply reducing supplies. gazprom says it's limiting the daily amount of gas it sends through the nord stream pipeline by more than half. gazprom also announced a sharp reduction for italy. both countries are heavily reliant on russian gas, but are looking at how to reduce their dependency. state tv in saudi arabia has shown authorities seizing rainbow—coloured toys and children's clothing, which they claim encourages people to be gay. officials were seen removing t—shirts, pencil cases and hats. shops found to be selling them would face legal penalties.

an official said the items were against islam and public morality. he said they were promoting what he called "homosexual colours for the younger generation." spain's second heatwave in less than a month is dragging on with temperatures expected to reach a0 degrees celsius in parts of the country — that's 104 fahrenheit. the hot air is also pushing into france and there are warnings of water shortages in italy. mark lobel reports. five days on, spain's searing heatwave is all the talk at the school gates. translation: there's fainting, heatstroke. _ children who are unable to pay attention in class. translation: i have thought of taking the kids swimming l and not to school, at least this week while it's 40 degrees. but even by the pool in madrid, people are being urged to take care. translation: when we have these high temperatures, - it's crucial to hydrate, use sun protection, and wet your cap every half an hour. waiting tables is also becoming a challenge.

translation: we try to rotate colleagues - between inside and out so that we can get a bit of time with air conditioning, which is very nice. these temperatures are of particular concern to spain's feathery friends. translation: this early and intense heatwave, i which will be more frequent in the future due climate change, especially affects birds that are breeding and baby birds. many will die scorched or will have to jump out of the nest before they're ready to and fall to the ground. with temperatures in spain expected to ease over the weekend, france is expecting its dose of extreme weather, where temperatures could peak above 40 celsius in the south—west between thursday and saturday, with the entire country set to experience a hotter—than—usual spell. translation: it's - a farming out of hot air. this hot zone in france

will, on sunday, move to central europe, italy, the alpine countries. and the south of germany will also be affected. in italy, officials have warned that a lack of rain in the north means drought—like conditions will worsen. water levels in italy's longest river, the po, have fallen and some districts have been asked to suspend water distribution overnight. some fruit growers fear for their crops as many europeans are now forced to cope with this heatwave that has been described as an invisible and underestimated social burden. mark lobel, bbc news. there's lots more background to all the stories we're covering on our website, including the us announcement of a bilion dollars of new aid for ukraine. you'll find it all at bbc.com/news or you can download the bbc news app. you can reach me on twitter. i'm @richpreston. thank you very much for being with us. it is 4:30am here in

london, the sun is starting to come up. thank you very much been with us and we will see you next time. bye—bye. well, we're certainly turning up the heat over the next couple of days. for southern parts of the uk, this is going to be a short—lived heatwave. and this is the peak — by friday, london and the south—east up to around 33, perhaps even 34 degrees. look at the average — so we're significantly higher compared to what we would normally see this time of the year. not unprecedented — the record is actually a little above 35 degrees. so we're not beating any records, but it's not that far away if you think about it. now, this is what's happening on the satellite picture. here's the heat coming in from the south. we've got cooler air in the north atlantic. that cooler air will eventually win. i think by the time we get to saturday into sunday, things will start cooling off and storms will come our way as well, but not in the short term.

this is what it looks like thursday morning — clear skies across england and wales, a bit more cloud in the north—west here with these atlantic weather systems just brushing the north—west of the british isles, and bits and pieces of rain. some of the showers could turn a little heavy in the western isles, perhaps the north of northern ireland through the day. there's another weather front heading our way, but that's to come thursday night. but look at the temperatures — 28 in london, widely mid—20s into yorkshire, for example. we could actually hit 30 degrees on thursday. now, here's a reminder of the pollen levels — if you've been struggling with your nose and itchy eyes, the pollen levels are very high. and also, it's worth mentioning the uv levels — we are approaching the longest day of the year, the sun's high in the sky. you know, make sure you're very careful if you're out for any lengthy period of time in that sunshine. so, here's a look at the weather for friday. this is actually going to be the peak of the heat, so these south—south—westerly winds draw up that hot air from the south, 33 or 34 degrees,

all the hot air coming in from france. the north—west of the country, much fresher here — this is that cooler atlantic air already starting to spread in. 17 degrees in glasgow. and this is what happens during the course of saturday — so that cooler atlantic air wrapping around this low pressure spreads across the country, here's the cold front. the heat is pushed to the south, back into france, and we get into this area of storminess. so, come the weekend, whether you like it or not, after a hot and sunny friday, it's all going to go "bang".

this is bbc news, the headlines: the united states has announced a new package of military aid to ukraine worth $1 billion — and urged allies to provide more weapons to help kyiv. the aid includes artillery, ammunition and advanced rocket systems. new pledges have also come from nato members meeting in brussels. police in brazil searching for the bodies of two men, a britishjournalist dom phillips and a brazilian expert on indigenous people, bruno pereira, have found human remains. detectives in the city of manaus, in the amazon, said a suspect has confessed to killing the two men. the us central bank has announced its biggest rise in interest rates since 1994. the three—quarters of a percentage point increase is an attempt by the federal reserve to combat surging inflation.

rising prices are continuing to hit president biden�*s poll