this is bbc news. the headlines — the european commission has recommended that ukraine be given official candidate status in its application to join the european union. the commission's head said ukrainians were ready to die for the european perspective, but she said it was on the understanding the country still needed to make further important reforms. the british prime minister, borisjohnson, has paid a surprise second visit to kyiv to offer president zelensky a major training programme for ukrainian forces. mrjohnson pledged a uk—led operation to train up to 10,000 soldiers every four months and to supply extra equipment. in a speech to an economic forum in st petersburg, president putin described the sanctions imposed on russia as stupid and insane. he said the measures had failed to work and were impacting the west instead. he denied that russia was to

blame for the current crisis. now on bbc news, russia's foreign minister, sergei lavrov, speaks to the bbc�*s russia editor, steve rosenberg, about russia's invasion of ukraine and the impact of the war on russia's standing in the world. it's nearly four months since russia invaded ukraine. in that time, towns have been reduced to rubble, thousands of civilians killed. millions of ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes. moscow has become an international pariah. but does it care? in an exclusive interview, russia's foreign minister, sergei lavrov, will answer my questions

about russia's invasion.

hello there. friday brought the peak of the heat that's been building over the last few days.

the highest temperatures we saw across the uk were very close to 33 degrees, but look at these temperatures on friday across the south of spain, the south of france, 43—41; degrees. 35 was the top temperature in paris. that heat being scooped northwards into parts of england, wales and indeed the channel islands. in fact, jersey had its hottest june day on record. 33 degrees or very close to it across parts of east anglia, through the london area as well. whereas further north and west, with these westerly winds, we had some cooler conditions. temperatures in western scotland, for example, no higher than 16 degrees. and more and more of us are going to get into those cooler conditions as we head through saturday. we've got this frontal system pushing southwards, a cold front, introducing that cooler air. so, these are the temperatures as we start saturday morning. 9—10 degrees for scotland, northern ireland, the far north of england.

whereas further south, we're still in the grip of those warm, even hot conditions. 18 to start the morning in london. and across this south east corner, where we see spells of sunshine, it will be another hot day. across parts of the west country, wales, the midlands, east anglia, we'll see cloud bringing outbreaks of heavy, potentially thundery rain at times. to the north of that, some spells of sunshine. showers into north west scotland, maybe the odd one for northern ireland. temperatures for most of us 15—16, maybe up to 18 degrees. whereas down towards the south, highs of 27—29 once again. and with that heat, well, we could see the odd thunderstorm popping up across the south east of england as we go on into the evening, and then through the early hours of sunday, we see this heavy rain still swarming across the channel islands and the south west of england. and again, that could produce some thunder and lightning into sunday morning. so, there certainly will be some thunderstorms rumbling around, mostlyjust to the south of us on sunday. some could just clip into southern england, but for most of us, sunday is a mainly fine day, some spells of sunshine, some areas of patchy cloud, just the odd shower in the north. but with these northerly winds, we're cutting off the supply of heat from the continent, so temperatures by this stage 14—19 degrees.

it will feel significantly cooler. now, for some, those temperatures will climb again as we head through next week. a bit of rain at times, decent amount of sunshine, but it certainly won't be as hot as it has been.

this is bbc news. i'm nuala mcgovern. our top stories: russia strikes a defiant note — president putin accuses western powers of provoking humanitarian catastrophes around the world. on a surprise visit to kyiv, britain's borisjohnson announces a military training programme that he says could change the war. police in brazil have confirmed one of the two bodies found in the remote amazon rainforest is that of the missing british journalist, dom phillips. queues, caps and cancelled flights — we'll look at some of the problems facing passengers during the peak summer period. and, who will be the next host of eurovision? the uk's in talks over the singing spectacular but ukraine plans to appeal.