this is bbc news, i'm gareth barlow. our top stories... 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. as japan grieves for the former prime minister shinzo abe, voting begins in elections for the upper house of parliament. ifeel very, very, very, very sad. and the sense of loss is just so great that i do not know how to overcome.

the uk chancellor nadim zahawi has added his name to the conservative leadership contest — joining a field of eight including sajid javid and jeremy hunt. and in the tennis, moscow—born elena rybakina wins the women's singles title representing kazakhstan. sri lanka is in the grip of chaos and uncertainty after a dramatic 2a hours which has seen the country's president and prime minister pledge to step down. they were left with little choice after demonstrators stormed or set fire to to their official residences — a howl of anger after months of protests about economic mismanagement.

sri lanka is suffering rampant inflation, and is struggling to import food, fuel, and medicine. our correspondent anbarasan ethirajan reports from the capital, colombo. 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 imposed a ban on petrol and diesel sales 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 country's woes. 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. voting has begun in elections forjapan�*s upper house of parliament, just 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. a warning, this report from our correspondent rupert wingfield—hayes — 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. let's get some of the day's other news... police in southern ukraine say they've opened criminal proceedings against russia's military, accusing it of deliberately destroying crops in the kherson region. they claim russian forces used incendiary shells to set crops alight, scorching patches of forest and hundreds of hectares of wheat, barley and other grains. ukraine accuses russia of weaponising food supplies, targeting or blockading supplies in areas kyiv controls, damaging agricultural infrastructure, and stealing grain in areas under occupation. moscow denies the allegations. the us secretary of state, antony blinken, is in thailand on the latest leg of a diplomatic tour aimed at shoring up washington's relations with southeast asia. mr blinken and senior thai

leaders are expected to discuss how to restore democracy in neighbouring myanmar. hundreds of pro—gun demonstrators have been protesting in the brazilian capital, brasilia, to demand further relaxations to firearms laws. president bolsonaro's son, eduardo, who's a federal deputy, told the crowd that if people were armed, criminals would think twice. staying in brazil, deforestation in its part of the amazon rainforest has hit a six—year high. an area five times the size of new york city was destroyed in the first half of the year, according to data from the national space agency. campaigners blame president jair bolsonaro for rolling back environmental protections and emboldening loggers, and others who clear the land for profit. for more on that story, we can speak to dr luciana gatti — a researcher at the national institute for space research

in brazil, which authored the report on the scale of amazon deforestation. doctor, thank you so much for joining us. with regards to this report, what exactly have you found? give us an understanding of the scale of the defour. —— deforestation. this is a vision of how to make progress economically very, very old, you know, it's like 50 years ago, the idea for economic development was destroying the forest, sell the wood, grate the cattle, sell the beef dust create the cattle. and after 2003, soybean arrived in the amazon. and today, the scenario is

terrible, it's terrible. because these people have the vision that economically, this is the right choice. but it's not! we know that the community that lives there can have economic activities without destroying the forest. but this is a very hard time in brazil where the science is not listened to. we are like the enemy, you know, because we are saying that this is not the way, this is terrible for brazil and the whole world. the consequences in destroying the forestry is major for everywhere. we are accelerating the climate change. find everywhere. we are accelerating the climate change.— the climate change. and why is it caettin the climate change. and why is it getting so — the climate change. and why is it getting so bad, _ the climate change. and why is it getting so bad, though, - the climate change. and why isj it getting so bad, though, what is the issue? why is it so much worse than it previously was? what we understood in our study

was the correlation between deforestation and the carbon emissions from the amazon. when you — because the trees participate in the precipitation information. during this process, the cool the atmosphere. the new form the atmosphere. the new form the precipitation, reduce the temperature, and you remove the carbon —— then you form the precipitation. but if you do forest, you are reducing the trees, decrease precipitation and the temperatures, and putting more carbon in the atmosphere. it's the opposite. amazon can work like climate change protection — but deforestation becomes a climate

change accelerator. and this is a very important message, that we need to strongly say everywhere. and i would like to say that economically, the whole world could help us protect the amazon without consuming the wood that comes from the amazon, the soybean, the beef — because the people that are deforestation are promoting this kind of economic activity there. it’s promoting this kind of economic activity there-— activity there. it's a huge issue, and _ activity there. it's a huge issue, and unfortunately| activity there. it's a huge i issue, and unfortunately we activity there. it's a huge - issue, and unfortunately we are always running short on time to really truly understand the full extent of it. but doctor, thanks so very much. 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. as japan grieves for the former prime minister shinzo abe,

voting begins in elections for the upper house of parliament. here in the uk, the race to succeed borisjohnson as conservative party leader — and therefore prime minister — is getting a bit crowded. eight candidates are now in the running, including serving cabinet ministers nadhim zahawi and grant shapps, and former cabinet ministersjeremy hunt and sajid javid. 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. 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 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 boris johnson's final demise, has confirmed he's standing, as hasjeremy hunt — beaten in the final two last time round, pitching now to win back trust. jonathan blake, bbc news. each year, a number of countries in southeast asia are at risk of being covered in a smoky haze which is caused by people using fire to clear land. for the last two years this hasn't been an issue with pollution levels much lower than usual. however, a new report says that the haze could return this year — driven by an increase in land clearing to grow food as commodity prices soar. well, for more on this, let's speak to associate professor simon tay, who is the chairman of the singapore institute

of international affairs. simon, thanks so much for joining us on bbc news. why is theissue joining us on bbc news. why is the issue returning this year in particular?— in particular? well, i think the first— in particular? well, i think the first of— in particular? well, i think the first of all, _ in particular? well, i think the first of all, let - in particular? well, i think the first of all, let me - in particular? well, i think the first of all, let me say| the first of all, let me say that you are absolutely right, the last two years have been quite good years. the weather has been kind and, because market prices were down, people were clearly less land. and the indonesian government was quite alert to this problem. now this year, the main moving parts are the market forces — the price of palm oil, one of the products that causes this land clearance and deforestation, has soared on the back of food price inflation and the problems we see across supply chains in the world. the price has gone up about four times. therefore we are putting out an amber warning that hayes could — not a red light, but saying dangers are there until

policies continue to be stern. . how do we balance the need for peeple _ . how do we balance the need for peeple to _ . how do we balance the need for people to earn _ . how do we balance the need for people to earn a _ . how do we balance the need for people to earn a living, - . how do we balance the need for people to earn a living, to | for people to earn a living, to reduce and consume food, to also then protect the forests which are threatened, and protect people living in towns and cities who are at risk of the haze? it's a tricky balance to find, surely. it the haze? it's a tricky balance to find, surely.— to find, surely. it is, and we've got _ to find, surely. it is, and we've got it _ to find, surely. it is, and we've got it wrong - to find, surely. it is, and we've got it wrong in - to find, surely. it is, and we've got it wrong in the to find, surely. it is, and - we've got it wrong in the past. in the past like brazil, there was a headlong land clearance and there was a massive haze. i'd like to say that the government presently in indonesia has the balance right, it's put moratoriums into place so land clearance has stopped. it's more protective of her smallholders, to help encourage them to put up to help encourage them to put up their productivity, and also promoting the large companies to supply a very important source of edible oils for the world. so in a sense, indonesia has been very responsible. it also helps that indonesia's

weather, though drier than normal, has been less severe than you've seen across the world in california, and australia, etc. so in this sense, we've got the balance right so far in the last two years — but the new tipping factor potentially is these prices. we might see again a rise in illegal planting, clearing land as quick as possible, and therefore using fire rather than other means. simon tay, thank you for explaining the issues here on bbc news. explaining the issues here on bbc newe— at wimbledon, elena rybakina has become the first player from kazakhstan to win a grand slam title. she dropped the first set, but went on to triumph on centre court, beating ons jabeur of tunisia. rybakina was born in moscow — but switched allegiance to kazakhstan in 2018. our sports presenter chetan pathak reports from wimbledon. in a year where wimbledon banned russian and belarusian players following the invasion of ukraine, it is still

a player born in moscow that's won the women's singles title. elena rybakina is not a name we were talking about as a contender at these championships before the start of this tournament — and yet, she walks off with the venus rosewater dish. she started nervously against ons jabeur, the world number two and third seed who, back in her homeland of tunisia, is called the minister of happiness. her rise through the game across the last 18 months has been extraordinary. she was the favourite going into this final, jabeur, she talked about how desperate she was to win this title for the people back home on the first day of eid. she gave herself the best possible start by winning the first set. but then, nerves and even fatigue started to set in, and rybakina found her powerful serve, herall—round power again, to get herself over the line. rybakina, at 23, makes history — the first kazakhstan player to win a grand slam singles title. and she gave a muted response when she won at the end —

something we've got used to seeing from her. she often talks about her poker face, but even she couldn't hide her smile when she lifted that venus rosewater dish. wimbledeon has often given us unexpected winners, especially in the women's draw. but with her all—round game, rybakina is someone we should expect to see here time and again. the men's final takes place on sunday, we will bring you that on bbc news. let me show you these images of a rare "cave cloud". it's a special kind of natural mineral deposit within a cave. it was discovered by a joint sino—french cave exploration team — in south china's guan—she—jwang autonomous region. the cave cloud covers an area of 300 square metres and is only the second such structure to have been found in china.

remarkable images. you can reach me twitter — i'm @garethbarlow. 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