this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. i'm david willis. sri lanka's president gotabaya rajapaksa will step down after protesters stormed the palace and set fire to the prime minister's house. we report from the scene in colombo. these protesters want a new beginning for sri lanka, a new political culture so that they will not face a similar economic crisis in this country. the uk defence secretary, ben wallace, rules himself out of the conservative leadership contest — as the field starts to get crowded with eight people now ruling themselves in. as japan grieves for the former prime minister shinzo abe, voting begins in elections for the upper house for

the upper house of parliament. i feel very, ifeel very, very, very, very sad. and the sense of loss is just so great that i do not know how to overcome. and in the tennis, elena rybakina wins the women's singles title at wimbledon — the first player from kazakhstan to win a grand slam title. hello, and welcome to audiences in the uk and around the world. sri lanka's president gotabaya rajapaksa has announced he will be stepping down. it comes after protesters stormed his official residence and set fire to the prime minister's house. hundreds of thousands of demonstrators descended

on the capital colombo after months of protests over economic mismanagement. sri lanka is suffering rampant inflation and is struggling to import food, fuel, and medicine. from the capital, colombo, our correspondent anbarasan ethirajan now reports. the barricades were meant to keep the protesters back, but they were no barrier for the furious and desperate crowds, all suffering the effects of living in economic collapse. police used water cannon and fired shots in the air, but the crowds were more determined. and they kept surging forward until eventually they converged on the presidential palace and took over the home and office of the man they want to force from power. he had already escaped. in extraordinary scenes on a tumultuous day for sri lanka, the protesters then cooled off in the president's pool

after all the privations in this country's crisis, clearly relishing this moment. you can just make out a four—poster bed as the crowds enjoy the inside of his home, too, and his bathroom. this was president gotabaya rajapaksa in 2020, campaigning during parliamentary elections. his family are accused by many of catastrophic economic mismanagement. protests have been going on for weeks, but today marks a dramatic escalation. translation: we must chase them. _ they must go. it's time for us to think of the country. translation: we have children. we are on the streets, leaving ourjobs, because we believe in the cause. as the protests continue, sri lankans don't know where their president even is, though one report says he's being protected by the island country's navy. it has been announced

by parliament's speaker he will step down by wednesday. and this is said to be the prime minister's private residence. it was set on fire, even though he had earlier offered to resign. after a day of chaos, fury and confusion, the anti—government protesters here, they are celebrating the announcement of the planned resignations of president gotabaya rajapaksa and prime minister ranil wickremesinghe. and these protesters, they want a new beginning for sri lanka, a new political culture, so they will not face the similar economic crisis in this country. anbarasan ethirajan, bbc news, colombo. sri lanka has run out of foreign currency and has had to impose a ban on sales of petrol and diesel for private vehicles. so why is the country experiencing such turmoil? caroline hawley explains. sri lanka's best known perhaps

to the world as a place of beautiful beaches. a country of 22 million people that was recovering from a vicious civil war. like everywhere else, it was hit hard by covid — but the roots of this latest crisis are far deeper than that. these are the rajapaksa brothers, who have dominated politics in sri lanka for years. gotabaya, on the right, president now for a few more days. mahinda on the left — a former president, until recently, prime minister in his brother's government. critics blame them directly for the woes of the country. of the country. we got here because of sheer incompetence, mismanagement, and greed. and the rajapaksa family embodied that. they embodied three things that have brought sri lanka down — the first is authoritarianism, the second is corruption, and the third is ethnic chauvinism. and all of this came to a head when gotabaya rajapa ksa became president. as sri lanka's economic

problems mounted and fuel prices rose, protests broke out earlier this year. ordinary people turning their fury on the government. on the 1st of april, a state of emergency was declared, but the protests went on. on 12 april, the government announced it was defaulting on its entire foreign debt after running out of money to import supplies. in may, mahinda rajapaksa resigned as prime minister and had to be rescued from his home after it was stormed by protesters. byjune, the un was warning of a humanitarian emergency. popular anger grew as inflation hit a new record this month, leading to today's dramatic events. whatever happens next, sri lanka's new leaders will inherit the worst economic crisis since the country's independence, huge popular discontent, and all the political challenges that will bring. caroline hawley, bbc news. earlier, we spoke to human rights lawyer and activist bhavani fonseka, who was at today's protests in the capital, colombo. it's been quite the day

today in sri lanka. we saw thousands of people peacefully coming out and protesting, and then, saw the shift in terms of breaching the official residence of the president and his office. but unfortunately, violence has been seen in the last few hours, as you saw, the private residence of the prime minister was torched. and so, there remains a lot of questions and uncertainty as to what happens next. the last few months, people have been protesting for change purely because they've been really facing difficulties, in terms of getting essential items, the long queues to get fuel — i mean, it's become the norm now to see vehicles, people staying and sleeping in vehicles to get fuel, and that ranges from 3—4 days sometimes.

today was quite remarkable in terms of the numbers that turned up, in a context where people don't have fuel to travel in vehicles. so, many actually walked for hours to get to the protest sites, and the numbers that turned up were quite amazing. and i mean, it was peaceful until the evening today, many were just on the streets demanding for change. so very, very remarkable in this sense. and there was this excitement and hope that this change will transfer into something positive in sri lanka. now what happened in the evening, with the torching of the prime minister's private residence raises a lot of questions and needs to be looked into. but it raises this fundamental question whether the law and order situation is even under control. so there's multiple challenges, despite what we saw —

a remarkable display of people coming out peacefully to protest. we've more on the crisis in sri lanka on our website, of course. articles include this piece on daily life in a country that's gone bankrupt. that's bbc.com/news — or bbc.co.uk/news for all that. here in the uk, the race to succeed borisjohnson as conservative party leader — and therefore prime minister — is getting rather crowded. eight candidates are now standing, including serving cabinet ministers nadhim zahawi and grant shapps. former cabinet ministers jeremy hunt and sajid javid are in, too, and there could be even more to come — as our political correspondent jonathan blake reports. who's the best shot, so far? at the forefront of britain's response to the war in ukraine, ben wallace was seen as a strong contender

for prime minister. the defence secretary's popular with conservative members, but he's taken what he said was a difficult decision and wished the candidates good luck. the frontrunner, for now, is rishi sunak. the former chancellor says he'd "grip the moment" and be honest about the challenges ahead. he has supporters and detractors. he's got the experience, he's got the ability, he's got the vision. and i think, at this moment in time, we need to move to someone who's going to walk into number ten and take over the reins of the country, they need that level of experience and ability. is of saying he wants low unfortunately, because rishi's record is of saying he wants low taxes and then putting them up, he's now got to double down on that record during in this campaign. waiting to make an entrance, another grassroots tory favourite, the foreign secretary, liz truss, expected to enter the race soon. do you think you'll make a good prime minister? i

good evening. in the mix too, the senior backbencher tom tugendhat, talking up his time in the military. i've spent 10—15 years serving our country in uniform. i've spent 6—7 years now serving our community in parliament, and i'd like the chance to serve again because i think this country matters. among the candidates with cabinet experience, grant shapps, the transport secretary, stressing his loyalty to boris johnson, while others were plotting. nadhim zahawi, chancellor since tuesday, confirmed tonight as a contender for the topjob. and suella braverman, the attorney general, who was the first to say she'd stand. less well—known, but tipped as a rising star, kemi badenoch who's taken an uncompromising stance on cultural issues. and tonight, sajid javid, whose resignation as health secretary triggered borisjohnson's final demise, has confirmed he is standing, as hasjeremy hunt — beaten in the final two last time round, pitching now to win back trust. jonathan blake, bbc news. voting has begun in elections

forjapan's upper house of parliamentjust two days after the assassination of the former prime minister shinzo abe. there are suggestions his murder could boost support for the governing liberal democratic party, of which mr abe was the leading statesman. campaigning was briefly halted after the attack, but resumed on saturday. our correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes sent this report — which contains some flashing images. the site where shinzo abe was gunned down on friday has now become a place of pilgrimage. many hundreds lined up this morning to lay flowers and pay their respects. it's an old cliche that japanese people don't show public emotion. not today. at lunchtime, the hearse carrying mr abe's body arrived at his home in tokyo. here, too, the emotion was palpable. as a stream of friends and dignitaries came to pay their respects.

outside, we met a close friend of mr abe's, a right—wing political ally. ifeel very, very... very, very sad. and a sense of loss is so great that i do not know how to overcome. it has been striking to see the continuing outpouring of grief and anger today, notjust here but from around the world. it's hard to think of another japanese politician whose death would have inspired days of national mourning in places as far away as india and brazil. there are now serious questions being asked about what happened yesterday in nara, not the least of which is the performance of mr abe's bodyguard team. this video shows how the gunmen was able to approach mr abe from behind. completely unchallenged. the team of bodyguards are all looking the other way.

the first shot missed mr abe. but the gunman has time to fire a second shot. a nervous—looking nara police chief this afternoon admitted something had gone badly wrong. "it is undeniable that there was a security problem that caused a serious result," he says. "our security measures must be immediately reviewed." that is an understatement. police today recovered a stash of home—made weapons from the suspect�*s home. but this is a country where there was just one gun fatality in the whole of last year. little wonder that on friday, the police were taken by surprise. rupert wingfield—hayes, bbc news, in tokyo. this is bbc news. the headlines... sri lanka's president gotabaya rajapaksa will step down

after protesters stormed the palace and set fire to the prime minister's house. the uk defence secretary, ben wallace, rules himself out of the conservative leadership contest as the field starts to get crowded, with eight people now ruling themselves in. the foreign ministers of china and the united states have met for the first time in nine months. both have expressed concern about relations between their countries. after five hours of talks at the g20 meeting in bali, indonesia, china's wang yi said they'd agreed to work on improving ties, but listed numerous greivances, including over taiwan. earlier, us secretary of state, antony blinken, expressed concern over china's alignment with russia, saying beijing's professed neutrality over the invasion of ukraine did not stand up to scrutiny. i don't think that china is engaging in a way that supports neutrality.

it has amplified russian propaganda. going back, even as russia was massing its forces, president xijinping has aligned himself with president putin. fast forward to just a few weeks ago, 13 and june, in his call with president putin, president xijinping has made clear he stands by that decision. earlier i spoke to neil thomas, china analyst from the eurasia group, about the "candid" exchange between blinken and yi. we did see some positive signs coming out of the readouts from both the united states and china. there was an agreement to improve consular interactions, as well as some promises on things like climate change and public health. if we look at the bigger picture, we saw no major change

in this intensifying dynamic of strategic competition with china and the us, and indeed we heard the chinese foreign minister in his readouts warning the secretary of state that there was increasing trying out phobia in the united states, and that china was concerned about us—china relations, and the us support for taiwan. —— china—phobia. i suppose there could be an degree of pragmatism from the united states seeking to improve ties with china, as they need to remove some of the tariffs to fight inflation? i think the best research out there indicates that the removal of even all of the tariffs that the us pressed on china would only have a moderate

effect on inflation, which is caused by a lot of things including russia's invasion of ukraine. i think what this meeting reflects, and what rumours of a likely call betweenjoe biden and xijinping indicate is both sides see little prospect of a new era of co—operation or hope, but both recognise that this new dynamic of strategic competition is potentially dangerous, and increases the potential for miscalculation, especially in security hotspots like taiwan and the south china sea. and there is a need for clear and consistent communication between top officials to make sure that this competition does not boil over into conflict. it's an important relation, isn't it, between the two leading economies in the world? and of course, president biden was elected on a promise to set

about countering the economic rise of china — has he succeeded in doing that, do you think? he's certainly trying. and we sawjust the other month, when biden was on his trip to korea and japan, he launched an indo pacific framework, which seeks to improve the standards of economic trade and investment between america and a group of about a dozen economies. that's better than nothing, but it also falls short as to what a lot of indo pacific partners of the united states one, which is a regional trade agreement, like the partnership that the united states walked away from under the trump administration, and are struggling to get back politically. it is politically toxic in washington, dc. we are seeing that the g7 promised a $600 billion over

five year infrastructure, and china's potentially and china's potentially spent over $1 trillion, this money from the west has not materialised, so they will be hoping that there is more commitment now from both the united states domestically, as well as its allies and partners in the g7, and the indo pacific. twitter and elon musk are in a standoff over his more—than—sao billion deal to buy the social media company. the world's richest man wants to pull out of the deal, claiming he's not received the data he asked for about the number of fake or spam accounts on the platform. but twitter�*s board says it will sue mr musk to enforce the deal. james clayton reports. in april, elon musk

seemed excited. he had a $41; billion bid for twitter accepted. "yes," he exclaimed predictably on twitter. but since then, elon musk has had a very public spat with twitter�*s chief executive. twitter does have a problem with fake accounts, sometimes known as bots. what elon musk wanted to know was how many users, actual people, does twitter have? in a filing to the market regulator, he claimed the responses he received from twitter weren't adequate, that twitter was in breach of contract, and he was pulling out of the deal. but twitter�*s board hit back, saying mr musk could not pull out of the deal, and that they expected the sale to go through at the price agreed. i imagine there's some very dramatic talks happening as we speak. but unless something comes to fruition over the weekend, they come to some kind of terms or a renegotiated price for this deal, i would imagine a lawsuit is either being

drafted currently and being filed, or will be filed on monday. there has been some speculation that elon musk has an ulterior motive. with the economy looking worse than it was, the deal was looking like an increasingly bad one for the world's richest man. whether mr musk now has to buy twitter will be decided in a us court with some very expensive lawyers — which, fortunately for him, elon musk can very much afford. james clayton, bbc news, san francisco. earlier, i spoke to gerrit de vynck, a tech reporter at the washington post. he gave me his view on how elon musk withdrawal from the deal might actually work out. it's likely this will go to court, which could take months, years to come to fruition. it'll be very painful — especially for twitter, which has already been very distracted over the last several months, people have been quitting saying they don't want to work for mr musk. the company hasn't been able to make any major moves from a business perspective because it's been wrapped up

in this deal — and it looks like this potential legal fight could drag out. and so, the board have said they want to enforce this deal, they want elon musk�*s money because they've gone through all this pain over the last few months because of his commitment to buy it. but at the same time, it could just cause more chaos for the company. but elon musk has already put pen to paper on this deal — how could he get out of it now? i mean, if you talk to lawyers, which i've been doing, they are very sceptical of his arguments. you know, he knew about the box before he agreed to buy the company — it was actually one of the reasons he himself cited as wanting to buy the company, he wanted to fix this bot problem, and now he's saying, "oh, this bot problem is why i want to get out of the deal." so most legal minds are saying, look, he doesn't have a very strong argument, and a court will likely side with elon musk regardless of how long that takes. but of course, mr musk has shown over the years that he's very willing to fight hard in the court of law to, sort of, have his way, even

when lawyers are telling him, "dude, slow down, you won't win this one." he's more than willing to go and fight all the way. so it's possible this could just be so painful for twitter, they just say, "fine, pay a smaller fee, the $1 billion deal break—up fee, and we'll just walk away." at wimbledon, elena rybakina has become the first player from kazakhstan to win a grand slam title. our sports presenter chetan pathak reports from wimbledon. the roll number two and third seed who back in her homeland

of tunisia scored the minister of tunisia scored the minister of happiness her rise through the game across the last 18 months has been extraordinary. she was the famous going —— favourite going into this to her, she talked about how desperate she was to win this title for the people back home on the first day of eden. she won the first set, but the nerves and fatigue started to set in, and she went and got herself over the line. at 23, she makes history as the first kazakhstan player to win a grand slam singles title, and she gave a muted response when she gave a muted response when she won at the end something we've not been used to seeing from her. she often talks about her programme face, but even she couldn't hide her smile when she lifted that venus rose water dish. wimbledon has often given us unexpected winners, especially in the winners draw. but with her all around game, she's someone we should expect

to see here time and again. that's it from us on bbc news, thanks for your company. hello. very little rain in this forecast — but there is heat to talk about. and in fact, as temperatures head up during sunday, parts of wales, the wider area of england, begin three consecutive days with temperatures in the mid—to—upper 20s, some spots low 30s, which will qualify it as a heat wave right underneath this area of high pressure. there will be cloud to begin with, though, misty low cloud into northern ireland, western scotland, parts of northwest england, north wales. a lot of that's going to disappear and mayjust linger around some irish sea coasts, far northwest scotland staying cloudy, in the northern isles, rain clearing away from shetland. for many, though, it'sjust a case of plenty of sunshine, mid—to—low 20s, the warmest parts of northern ireland through eastern scotland, mid—to—high 20s, much of wales and england, 30 in southeast england, somewhat cooling sea breezes around the coasts.

it's going to be a hot one on centre court — and notjust wimbledon players and spectators will need to protect against the strong sunshine with high, or indeed, very high uv levels. sunday evening, well, stays fine, very warm, bit of misty low cloud returning towards northwest scotland and maybe still around some irish sea coasts going into monday morning. overnight temperatures mid—to—low teens, but the nights are getting a bit warmer, as well. then during monday, there will be a bit more cloud filtering into scotland and northern ireland, though it will still feel very warm with some sunny spells. an increasing breeze and some rain, some rain heading into the western isles later in the day. for wales and england the sun will turn hazy, but it will still be there and it'll feel hotter. more places getting to that 30 or above celsius mark. and then, going into tuesday, there's a cold front that's moving its way southwards, but it will have barely any rain once it moves through scotland and northern ireland, and it willjust be a band of cloud, really. so behind it for scotland and northern ireland,

feeling fresher on tuesday, some sunny spells the chance of a shower. although there will be some cloud filtering through wales and england, it will still feel very warm or indeed hot in places, and in fact could well be a hotter day still on tuesday in southeast england into the low 30s before then. just turns a touch cooler going into wednesday. in fact, for the rest of the week, scotland and northern ireland temperatures in some spots below average for the time of year. it will stay very warm across southern areas, and there is the potential for another burst of heat, maybe extreme heat, into next weekend, which we are watching.

this is bbc news, the headlines: sri lanka's president gotabaya rajapaksa will step down after protesters stormed the palace and set fire to the prime minister's house. hundreds of thousands of demonstrators descended on the capital colombo after months of protests over economic mismanagement. sri lanka is suffering high inflation and is struggling to import food, fuel and medicine. as japan grieves for the former prime minister shinzo abe, voting begins in elections for the upper house of parliament, two days after his death. there are suggestions his murder could boost support for the governing liberal democratic party, of which mr abe was the leading statesman. the uk chancellor nadhim zahawi

has added his name to the conservative leadership contest, joining a field