this is bbc news, the headlines: people in sri lanka have defied a curfew to celebrate the resignation of the president following days of demonstrations. a formal letter of notice — sent from singapore — has been received by government officials. the president fled earlier this week, after protests against corruption and inflation. yair lapid, have signed a declaration promising to stop iran from developing nuclear weapons. washington says the us is prepared to use all elements of its power to stop tehran. mr lapid said only a credible military threat would stop iran. at least 20 people have

been killed in a russian missile strike in vinnytsia southwest of the capital, kyiv. ukrainian officials say the missiles fired from a submarine in the black sea hit a commercial building in the city centre. now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk. ethiopians have known much conflict in recent history but the war which broke out between the government and the people's liberation front, 2.5 years ago, has been particularly devastating. tens of thousands have been killed and millions displaced. plus there are also ethnic conflicts and other parts of ethiopia such as in

the west and the communities are restless. my guest is meaza ashenafi, the first woman to be appointed chiefjustice of the federal supreme court of ethiopia. now there is hope of making progress in the peace talks taking place but will there be justice for the victims of war? chiefjustice meaza chief justice meaza ashenafi chiefjustice meaza ashenafi in addis ababa, welcome to hardtalk. you have violence in many parts of ethiopia. you have an acute food crisis as

well, which means that 30 million of the country's 110 million of the country's 110 million population million of the country's110 million population are in urgent need of help. this is a tough hole for you to be a senior official in ethiopia? you are absolutely correct. this government and the people of the country have embarked on a promising transition but, unfortunately, we are facing the harsh reality and this has been a combination of conflicts, drought and other gross violations of human rights. yeah, it is a reality but i am hopeful that we will come through this difficult situation.—

situation. what gives you because _ situation. what gives you because to _ situation. what gives you because to be _ situation. what gives you because to be hopeful? l situation. what gives you i because to be hopeful? can situation. what gives you - because to be hopeful? can i remind people of what is going on in ethiopia, notjust what is going on in the north of the country between the north that you also have the romeo region in the west were hundreds of been killed in the past few weeks. and also have the our father and amparo regions where 1000 have been killed it is estimated. and the ethiopian human rights commission says, look, everyone is guilty of human rights violations. i don't want to get into who has done this or that because we would go on forever but that is the fact of the matter. how optimistic can you feel about the current state of affairs? yeah, what gives me hope is... is the country with a long tradition and history and

society is quite strong. that is one of the sources of my hope. but also understand that transition is transition and there is no easy transition. it is not an unexceptional — that it is now an exceptional situation and difficult situations so i am hoping that the government and people will support and will get the support and will get the support of the international community to overcome this challenge. and there is light at the end of the tunnel. as you mentioned there is discussion about resolving the conflict through a peaceful mechanism and we have a commitment and backing from the european union to try to support the reconstruction, post conflict. so these are

some of the situations that give us hope. some of the situations that give us hepe-_ some of the situations that give us hope. you mentioned international— give us hope. you mentioned international community - give us hope. you mentioned international community but | give us hope. you mentioned i international community but the fact is european community has suspended support to the government and work through non—governmental organisations and it says before it recommenced to helping the government, it wants to see a proper end to the hostilities, notjust proper end to the hostilities, not just the proper end to the hostilities, notjust the humanitarian truth declared at the end of march but it wants to see accountability for what has happened for all those victims and it once humanitarian access to people who are in dianne jolley need of help. — as you are in dire need so what has been done to assure the international community that the country is on the right track? , , ., , the country is on the right track? ,, ., , track? this is not exactly my mandate. — track? this is not exactly my mandate. as _ track? this is not exactly my mandate, as you _ track? this is not exactly my mandate, as you know - track? this is not exactly my mandate, as you know but i track? this is not exactly my i

mandate, as you know but the coalition and agreements from the government statement, as i said, i am observing progress. it is progress but that progress is not really rapid. it is a bit slow. but i hope all stakeholders and the international partners will try their best to settle this process peacefully to settle the conflict in the country. yes, it is not as rapid as we wanted to be part i feel there are positive developments and i believe that we need to push this a little bit on the government needs to push is a little bit so that they will not be a setback.-

little bit so that they will not be a setback. you are chief justice not be a setback. you are chief justice of _ not be a setback. you are chief justice of the _ not be a setback. you are chief justice of the federal— not be a setback. you are chief justice of the federal supreme | justice of the federal supreme court of ethiopian, meaza ashenafi, and a joint investigation by the ethiopian human rights commission, the un human rights office in november last year said when it comes to tackling this issue of bringing the perpetrators of these crimes against humanity to justice, they are concerned that national institutions may not be sufficiently addressing issues of command responsibility for the violations being investigated. they say it is important to hold the direct perpetrators, often footsoldiers, responsible but deal with impunity meaningful it is equally important to address the persons exercising command responsibility. i know that is a long quote but will you make sure that whoever is responsible, even right at the top, they will be held to account. top, they will be held to account-—

top, they will be held to account. ~ . ., , ., account. we have laws and institutions _ account. we have laws and institutions in _ account. we have laws and institutions in this - account. we have laws and institutions in this country. we have a criminaljustice system, that is well—functioning. depending on the case, the specific parts, we have civil courts. speaking about the points you have mentioned, these are cases that will come to the court in the future and i am president of the court but i am also a judge and a cannot formulate a specific opinion on possible future cases. but what i would like to say is accountability is paramount and there should not be impunity because the

widespread violation of human rights in the country for the past four years, i would recommend that we should make some transitional mechanism and we have an established commission and another forum, where we can look into additional reconciliation and healing in the country. looking at that question _ healing in the country. looking at that question of _ healing in the country. looking at that question of crimes - at that question of crimes committed, the director of amnesty international set in 2021 said it is clear that rape and sexual violence has been used as weapons of war. last year you were accused, a very prominent women's campaigner, you have been accused of

remaining silent as thousands of tigrayan women have been gang raped and they point to you to act and speak up much more. to what extent has your coral current role has silenced you to standing up for human rights? gender-based violence and _ human rights? gender-based violence and women's - human rights? gender-based violence and women's rightsl human rights? gender-based i violence and women's rights and children's rights and violation of these have occurred in this country, every corner of the country, every corner of the country, and international organisation have issued reports of these. in terms of my mandate, unless cases are investigated and submitted to the court, there is not much that i can do. there is a lot

of misunderstanding in this area, particularly because as you say, i was a women's rights activist and a very vocal community leader in my past career but now i am living — leading a very conservative institution which is supposed to be independent, and is perceived to be independent. it will be very unethical for me to now express my views on those situations that are happening. ..the whole situation, and when cases are presented to the court, and now we are establishing a very independent and impartial court, and we'll deal with this objectively and effectively.

you know, as a young girl, you said, "i'm going to go to school." you studied law in ethiopia and then in the united states. you set up the ethiopian women's lawyers association to provide legal help for ethiopian women who couldn't afford it. in 1996, there was a celebrated case where you defended a 14—year—old girl who had been kidnapped by a man who wanted to marry her forcibly. she shot him dead with a rifle. she was imprisoned for murder, she was found guilty of that. you managed to get her released, you were instrumental in getting the law to stop men kidnapping women to marry them changed. so now here you are saying to me, "i have to remain "impartial when i hear about cases of gang rape and so on." i mean, can you sleep at night with a clear conscience?

as you say, because i don't think it's very common to get this opportunity to work as an activist and now to come to the other side of the fence and be responsible to deliver justice to 100 million people. and i accept this is a very challenging position, especially given the very complex situation in which my country is at this point. but as far as my current role is concerned, as a citizen, as a woman, as a mother, i am very concerned and even disturbed about what i hear about the reports that we get and the reality on the ground. but it comes to my role and responsibility. there are procedures, there are rules and there are a lot of technicalities and the court functions in a very specific way, and that's one of the challenges when you head the judiciary.

people don't understand that, and we have to follow the rules and we have to follow the procedure, otherwise, if i started judicial activism, then the whole principle of the rule of law will be violated. alright. 0k. other concerns raised by the joint investigation by the ethiopian human rights commission and the un is that they have serious doubts as to whether the ministry ofjustice in ethiopia, a part of the executive, you're not, but that is headed by gedion timotheos, who's from the ruling prosperity party, and they say that this means that it could exercise power with political considerations and that therefore its investigations are selective in nature and that they won't look, necessarily, properly

at violations by state forces. so this is a criticism which you hear also from within ethiopia itself. so as somebody who's working in the field ofjustice in ethiopia, do you share those concerns? i am not sure why the person you have referred to has made that opinion. the ministry ofjustice would be in the best position to respond to that, zeinab badawi. i'm sorry i can't... all right. ok, you raise the fact that there's a national dialogue going on. you were appointed chiefjustice in 2018 by the prime minister, abiy ahmed, when he assumed power. and in february this year, you swore in members of a national dialogue commission, and you said that this should facilitate "an inclusive "dialogue and reconciliation "process that would heal wounds". do you want to see a kind of truth and reconciliation commission of the kind that we saw after apartheid in south africa?

i don't think the south african commission and the dialogue commission interpret exactly parallel, because the dialogue commission here is mandated to facilitate citizen dialogue as well as elite dialogue, unfortunately or fortunately, in any political setting. we can't avoid elite dialogue, as well. the south african reconciliation commission is more focused on issues of healing and rehabilitation in the transitionaljustice. so, the commission is setting up its office and designing its strategy, and they have not launched it. they have a programme of works so far, from the information that i have, but going forward, it will be focusing on national dialogue.

the commission will identify key issues of conversation and will gather and synthesise public opinion on those national agendas. well, before it's even got properly started, i give you one criticism, which is reflected in quite a few areas in the country. rahel bafe, chairwoman of ethiopia's political parties joint council, which is a coalition of more than 50 opposition groups, says, "the ruling prosperity party is approaching "the dialogue as though it were the arbiter of the process "rather than another equal stakeholder against whom "accusation will be levelled." and she says that the selection process of the commissioners for the national dialogue was not clear and that they were mostly sympathetic to the abiy government. what's your response?

i know some of the commission members, and from what i know, they're very independent professionals, and some of them have been staff at the united nations, senior staff of the united nations and came back after retirement. so the process, the selection process, has been very transparent. it was based on public participation. but i'm sure rahel must have a reason to say what she has said. all right. well, the national dialogue, it is still working out what it's going to do, and it's rather vague in its sayings, but it is supposed to, we understand, to tackle fundamental questions such as ethiopia's future

as a federal or unitary state, as it's a very complicated argument and it's a very polarised debate. some support the existing federal system, which divides the country into 11 federal states based on language and ethnicity, and others are opposed to this. but whatever the outcome, are you confident that this dialogue is going to ensure that democratic and civic rights of citizens are protected, whoever they are, wherever they are? well, i can't for sure talk about the success of the dialogue commission. it all depends on how they set their agenda, how they plan to engage the population as well as the political elite, and also it depends on the kind of support they get from the government as well as the people

in general. so for now there's a lot of hope to... ..there's a lot of hope to make the dialogue commission a success. but i don't think there's anyone who can talk about the outcome of the commission beforehand. it depends on a number of factors. all right. as chiefjustice of the federal supreme court of ethiopia, obviously the role of the judiciary is very critical in upholding citizens' rights. you're one of the three branches of government. you've got the executive, the legislature and you, the judiciary. and you have said you want to restore public confidence in thejudiciary and maintain its independence from political

interference, right? for example, you've submitted a budget to parliament, not to the ministry of finance, and you've assumed the administration of 4,000 federal court employees from the civil service. but to what extent can you act as a balance to executive power? that is exactly the role of the judiciary more and more, and departing from a previous tradition of the judiciary, as you mentioned. the independence of the judiciary as an institution as well as independence ofjudges have been asserted over the last three years. and i'm very proud of this achievement. independence of the judiciary is at this point quite transparent, particularly through judgments that have

been given byjudges. sometimes quite sensitive cases have been decided, judgments that did not make the government exactly happy. so this is a very good indicator of independence of thejudiciary. and there is also a new development in some sort of legislative reform. now there is an administrative procedure that gives mandate to the judiciary to review any decision of the executive branch. and this is again another very revolutionary approach in terms of establishing the accountability of the executive branch. all right. you rebut the criticisms from

people like dr simeneh kiros from addis ababa university, who doubts the judiciary�*s ability to hold other branches of government accountable in the case of wrongdoing, clearly, in that answer. finally, chiefjustice, briefly, how will youjudge whether you have been successful as chiefjustice of the federal supreme court of ethiopia? er, well, i can tell you, recently there was an independent survey which is commissioned by usaid independent of the court, and 70% of the court users, according to that survey, are stating that the court service has improved in many ways and that the court is at this point providing a service independently and impartially. if ijust give you one important data, this year, the court has disposed 80%

of the cases within one year. and this shows that the efficiency of the court has improved, and we are working on the effectiveness of the judiciary, not only on the effectiveness but also on the efficiency of the judiciary. and we have concrete data in terms of the progress that has been registered. meaza ashenafi, chiefjustice of the federal supreme court of ethiopia in addis ababa, thank you very much indeed for coming on hardtalk. thank you very much.

hello. we've seen a bit of a lull in the heatwave conditions over the past 2a hours or so. it was a little bit fresher on thursday and into friday too but intense heat is on the way, particularly by sunday into tuesday. the met office have issued an amber warning for extreme heat across much of england and wales. we're likely to see widespread impacts from this spell of severe heat. health impacts notjust for the vulnerable — we could see transport disruption, potentially disruption to energy supplies as well. so, certainly some severe weather on the way with those exceptionally high temperatures sunday to tuesday. back to the here and now, for friday morning, we're going to be seeing a few splashes of rain across scotland, northern england, too. any showers quickly clearing from northern ireland. stays dry all day for southern england and wales. plenty of spells of sunshine coming through and again,

it is going to feel warm, so, highs in the south 25—26 degrees. we're looking at the high teens or low 20s across scotland and northern ireland. moving through into friday evening, any of those showers in the north fading away fairly quickly, so it is dry, it's clear. we'll see a little bit of a warmer night as we head into the early hours of saturday. still reasonably fresh across parts of scotland and northern ireland. we could see single figures here but down towards the south, we're are looking at mid—teens, i think, to start off your weekend. now, through saturday, a bit more cloud and a few spots of rain for the far north—west of scotland. dry elsewhere with strong sunshine — very high levels of uv this time of year — so those temperatures starting to pick up. even further north and west, we're looking at the mid to the high 20s. by the time we get to monday,

that heat becomes more extensive across the map, so more of us will see temperatures in the mid, possibly high 30s, potentially record—breaking temperatures by the time we get to tuesday. one or two spots potentially 38—39 degrees as well, so temperatures like that, we don't see them very often here in the uk. they are going to cause some significant disruption. do make plans for monday into tuesday. we could see those temperatures near a0 degrees in a few spots. thundery breakdown at last on the way by wednesday. bye— bye.

this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. sri lankans take to the street to celebrate the resignation of the president, following days of mass protests about the economy. italy lurches into a political crisis as the prime minister offers his resignation, but the president refuses to accept it. translation: it really seems to me to be madness _ translation: it really seems to me to be madness at _ translation: it really seems to me to be madness at this - translation: it really seems to me to be madness at this time i me to be madness at this time with the country recovering. translation:— with the country recovering. translation: , , ., translation: this is not good, we should come _ translation: this is not good, we should come to _ translation: this is not good, we should come to an _ translation: this is not good, | we should come to an agreement. spain is struck by a record breaking heatwave as searing temperatures force hundreds to evacuate their homes and sparks numerous wildfires. and donald trump pays tribute to his first wife, ivana trump, who's

died at the age of 73.