this is bbc news. i'm anjana gadgil with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. the international criminal court issues an arrest warrant for russian president vladmir putin — for his alleged role in deporting ukrainian children to russia. the judges issued arrest warrants. the prosecution depends on international cooperation. china's president, xijinping, is to make a state visit to russia next week — for talks with president putin. turkey will start the process of ratifying finland's nato membership bid as the leaders of the two countries meet. a review of london's metropolitan police is expected to heavily criticise the force for racist, sexist and homophobic behaviour. plus, the benefits

of early exposure to peanut butter. why a spoonful for babies may help prevent an allergic reaction. welcome to bbc news. the international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for russia's leader, vladimir putin — for war crimes. the court says there are grounds to believe that president putin is personally responsible for the deportation of hundreds of children, from children's homes and orphanages in ukraine — for adoption in russia — since last year's invasion. it's the first time the court has ordered the arrest of a prominent, serving political leader. ukraine's president zelensky, has hailed the decision as historic — but moscow dismissed the announcement as outrageous, saying it doesn't recognise the jurisdiction of the court. our diplomatic correspondent, james landale,

reports from kyiv. it is a war that he ordered. a war that brought death and devastation. a war that sent millions fleeing for their lives. but it is one that has now left president putin accused of war crimes by an international court and even more isolated on the world stage. the judges have reviewed the information and submitted evidence submitted by the prosecutor and determined that there are credible allegations against these persons for these alleged crimes. the international criminal court based in the hague, alleges the russian leader and another official are individually responsible for the war crime of unlawfully deporting children from ukraine to russia.

in the chaos that followed the invasion, many were displaced and reports of thousands of children being sent to so—called, re—education camps in russia. alleged crimes for which ukraine's president has repeatedly demanded justice. translation: this is a historic decision from which historical i responsibility will begin. the head of the terrorist state and another russian official have become suspects in a war crime. a kremlin spokesman said the allegations were outrageous and unacceptable. the foreign ministry said the arrest warrant meant nothing legally. translation: russia is not a party to the ruling statute | of the international criminal court and bear no _ obligations under it. these are only the first arrest warrants and more are expected

for the killing of civilians in bucha and elsewhere across the country. russian forces have been accused of rape, torture and indiscriminate shelling. the man investigating these allegations and those against mr putin denied the warrants were symbolic. there are reasonable grounds to believe that crimes within our courts jurisdiction have been committed and those that feel that you can commit a crime in the daytime sleep well at night should perhaps look at history. vladimir putin may never be arrested or appear in court, but it's not everyday that a serving head of state is accused of war crimes and it is a signalfor and it is a signalfrom international community that they will seek justice for what it's been happening here in ukraine. at home, vladimir putin may enjoy some popular support.

but he faces the possibility of a a trial and probably will not be getting on a plane soon. with the reaction from russia and the impact this arrest warrant could have, here's our russia editor, steve rosenberg. did not expect them to slap handcuffs on vladimir putin. russia, dislike america does not recognise the jurisdiction of the international criminal court in russia does not extradite its citizens and yet, this is an extraordinary moment because think about it. the serving president of the worlds largest country in the nuclear power, a prominent member of the un security council, the icc has issued a warrant for his arrest over alleged war crimes that mix russia's president even more of a pariah at a time where vladimir putin is still trying to be a global player. you the chinese president coming here in three days' time for state visit. no wonder the kremlin furious, outrageous, the kremlin cries.

the former russian president and putin ally refers to the arrest warrants in the social media post today wrote this. no need to explain where this paper should be used. in the followed that with an emoji of a toilet bowl. earlier, our security correspondent, frank gardner, explained the charges and their significance. you will make they named vladimir putin and the commission for children's rights. for children's rights, lvova—belova. and what they are accused of in both cases is having an overall responsibility for the unlawful and in some cases forced abduction of children from russian occupied areas of ukraine into basically russian internment. and as james landale mentioned earlier, different forms of this, somewhere forcibly abducted, some were tricked. there have been plenty of well—documented cases where parents have

been told to hand over their children to a bus depot at a certain time and when they were told they were going off to a holiday camp or a sports camp and they were taken to places like crimea, russian occupied, or even inside russia itself, where they are being systematically turned into russian citizens, for us to forget their ukrainian nationality and adopt their entirely russian nationality, singing the russian national anthem, speaking russian, learning the russian syllabus. the numbers here pretty big. the most conservative estimates i've seen is 6000 people. now, will these arrest warrants change the war on the ground in ukraine? no. it's not going to have any great effect on the battlefield at all. is it embarrassing for the kremlin? yeah, a little bit. are we going to see president putin in the hague? not a chance. asjustice steve rosenberg mentioned there, he does not travel a great deal. he's got powerful friends, xi jinping of china who is coming

to see him and who is absolutely crucial in all of this. so if we were going to look at the big picture, what is more important, russia's friendship at china and are they going to get weapons from china, that is far out weighing anything that a court in the hague, which has nojurisdiction in russia might say. where it does, i think i may have an effect is all those countries outside the western bloc who are kind of wavering a bit. they are optically in favour of the invasion but also thinking, nato asked for this. not particularly when they kept expanding eastwards. russia is simply defending its own borders. the fact that russia, after 13 months of consistent denials of war crimes, is that these crimes, alleged crimes are being taken seriously enough after four visits to ukraine by one of its chief prosecutors. the fact that this has been taken so seriously

by an international criminal court that has brought to justice war criminals from the balkans and africa and elsewhere, that, i think might well, that is not going to play very well for russia in countries that are wavering on the sidelines, not sure who to believe, moscow or washington. as we've mentioned, the news out of the icc has happened as china announces its president — xijinping — will visit russia next week — to hold talks with president putin. beijing and moscow say the two men will discuss strategic cooperation. beijing is currently promoting a plan it says can bring, a negotiated end, to the war in ukraine. however, china's neutrality has been questioned — as beijing continues to maintain close ties with moscow. the announcement for the state visit was made by the foreign ministry in beijing. translation: during his state visit to russia, - president xijinping will have an in—depth exchange of views with president putin on bilateral relations

and major international and regional issues of common concern. china will uphold its objective and fair position on the ukrainian crisis and play a constructive role in promoting peace talks. here's our china correspondent, stephen mcdonell, on what beijing might want from this trip. beijing has created considerable expectation that this visit by xi jinping might lead to some sort of a breakthrough in terms of promoting peace in the war between russia and ukraine. now, the reasons for that are that beijing does have some sway with moscow, and some would say considerable sway. beijing says it's a neutral player in the war and therefore it could become an honest broker, and also, the chinese government has just come off the back of brokering this deal which saw saudi arabia and iran resume diplomatic relations, so people are thinking,

you know, if you can get those two together, could beijing also do the same thing in terms of the war between russia and ukraine? now, the problem is that some analysts would say, is it really in china's interests to stop the war if we consider the most cynical potential possibility? in a way, russia is doing china's dirty work. it is challenging the west, it is making the west eat up all of these military resources it has and actually furthering beijing's geopolitical goals. that said, of course, it has also disrupted trade, and china did have good relations with ukraine before the war started. so, for those reasons, people might say it wants to have peace. you are watching bbc news, the headlines: the international

criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for russian president vladmir putin — for his alleged role in deporting ukrainian children to russia. china's president, xijinping, is to make a state visit to russia next week — for talks with president putin. turkey says it's decided to start the process of ratifying finland's application to join nato, after long delays. but it says, more talks are needed about sweden's bid. president recep tayyip erdogan, says finland has kept the agreement the 3 countries made last year, while sweden still hadn't handed over people he referred to as terrorists. turkey has delayed ratifying the bids of the two countries — saying they haven't done enough to combat kurdish militant groups. here's mr erdogan making the annnouncement. translation: we have decided to start the protocol _ of finland's accession to nato in our parliament. i wish that this decision will be good for our countries and our alliance. the news came amid a visit by finland's leader to ankara. the nato alliance chief,

jens stoltenberg released this statement shortly after the announcement. i welcome the membership of nato. this will strengthen finland's security, it will strengthen sweden's security and it will strengthen nato. i hope that the turkish grand national assembly will vote to ratify as soon as possible. the most important thing is that both finland and sweden become full members of nato quickly. not to where theyjoin at exactly the same time. several thousand people have been protesting for a second night in paris and a number of other french cities. this follows president macron�*s decision, to force through pension reforms, without a vote in the lower house of parliment. demonstrators in paris lit fires and threw fireworks at police, who intervened to disperse the crowds. earlier, opposition parties tabled two seperate motions of �*no confidence'

in the government — for its use of a constitutional mechanism to raise the national retirement age from 62 to 64. the actor, lance reddick — best known for starring in �*the wire' series — has died aged 60. his publicist said he died suddenly on friday morning. he had recently been taking part in a press tour for the fourth,�*john wick�* movie. he also appeared in �*angel has fallen�* — and �*godzilla vs kong�*. a major review of london�*s metropolitan police, is expected to heavily criticise the force for racist, sexist and homophobic behaviour. baroness casey, was appointed to examine the met�*s standards — and internal culture — after the murder of sarah everard — by wayne couzens, a serving policeman. the bbc has been told the review — published next week — will be extremely bad for britain�*s biggest police force. our special correspondent, lucy manning, has been talking to former partners of police officers — who say the met

fails to deal with abusive officers in its ranks. sirens. they used to be in uniform, until they were convicted. since wayne couzens was arrested, more met police officers have been sentenced, many for sexual offences or violence against women. the force has faced criticism it can�*t deal with complaints against its own officers. i think it�*s easier to let these police officers stay than try and get rid of them. sally — not her real name — was the partner of a met police officer. they met when he investigated a crime she was the victim of. last year, she told the met he�*d domestically abused her, and misused police powers. how do you feel that they have dealt with him, given the fact he is a police officer? well, they haven�*t dealt with him, have they? he�*s still working. he�*s still getting paid. he�*s still going to get his full pension. get everything he asked for.

he is now going through the met�*s misconduct system, on restricted duties. i think, 100%, if he had attacked me and he wasn�*t a police officer, he would have been arrested, and taken and carted off. where are you on being able to trust the met? i don�*t. i don�*t trust the police at all. and i do not understand why we report allegations against police to other police officers. there is no place in the police service for an officer like him. absolutely not. the met boss has accepted he is unable to sack hundreds of officers, and the bbc understands the casey review next week will heavily criticise the way the met tolerates wrongdoing and puts its own people ahead of the public. do you believe the head of the met when he says they are going to do better?

no, sorry. prove it. prove it by actions. don�*tjust stand there and give us a load of old words. we want proof that you�*re going to act on those words. you're brought up to believe the police are there to protect. the police should be there to protect. that's what we pay taxes for. but theyjust seem to protect themselves. natalie claims her ex—husband, a met officer, coercively controlled her. she struggled to find the right avenues to complain to the force to get them to take action. her words are spoken by an actor to protect her anonymity. i've been in police stations. i've spoken to policewomen who squeezed my arm and looked compassionate, and told me this time it would be sorted, you know? it was unacceptable. you know, then like i said, you hear nothing. and it then makes him worse. he's bolstered by this, isn't he? he's enabled, and protected. what more do you think

the met needs to do now? own up. i think they need total reform. we will take the most robust action against officers that are found to have committed these crimes. the re—vetting of officers has been stepped up. i recognise we are in a bad place. but we are committed, and absolutely determined, to turn that around, and we are going to do so. i completely understand that people will often feel nervous or hesitant to go to the police to report a crime committed by the police. but it�*s clear it�*s notjust about a few officers who�*ve been sentenced. the entire force will face serious accusations of racism, misogyny and homophobia. its reputation and ability to regain trust in serious doubt. lucy manning, bbc news. his image was one of the defining moments of the war in iraq — which began 20 years ago this weekend. ali abbas was just 12 when he lost his parents and his brother in a missile

strike — that caused him life changing injuries. photos of him lying in a baghdad hospital moved the world, and ali was brought to britain for medical treatment — where he�*s stayed, and become a british citizen. our correspondent caroline hawley has been to meet him. few iraqis carry deeper scars from the invasion than ali abbas. his father had been desperate to see the end of saddam hussein�*s dictatorship. we were farmers. my father was saying that when he see the americans coming, he�*lljust make, like, a party for them. he�*ll make a barbecue. you know, we werejust hoping for a better life. we were thinking that getting rid of saddam, we will have a good future for iraq. but it�*s never happened. i never know any family that they haven�*t lost a loved one, you know? ali�*s family had fled the capital, baghdad, for safety, but returned thinking the worst was over — just hours before their home was hit by a rocket.

i remember the house collapsed on us. the fire everywhere. ihear my... my mother screaming, and my father also. it was terrible. i felt the fire burning my body and my arms. so this picture was the first picture when i arrived in hospital. i remember my neighbour was telling me that when he pulled me out of the rubble, you know, that... because my arm was so badly burned. so, when he pulled me out, one of my arms came off. ali now has a precious new family member. hello! his five—year—old son, yusef, who�*s with his mother in baghdad, though ali hopes to bring him here. when i go back to iraq, he�*s always spoiling me, you know? he doesn�*t let me do anything. he is trying to be my carer, you know? he�*s taking good care of me.

yeah. if i�*m trying to do something with my feet, he�*lljust say, "no, daddy, i�*ll do that for you. you don�*t have to do it." he likes going out with me in the car a lot. you know, he likes my driving. i try to live independent. i do many things, i can write with my feet. i can use the phone. i can also hug him with my feet, you know. so it�*s ok with that. i just want to make a good future for my son, you know? and i hope also maybe i can create my own charity one day and help people who are like in my situation, you know? i have been through very difficult times, especially just after the injury. i have to deal with it without parents and without arms. so it was very difficult in the beginning. and i always thank god for what i have got. so i think of the positive things.

introducing babies to smooth peanut butter, when they�*re between 4 and 6 months old, could dramatically cut peanut allergies — that�*s according to a new study. researchers say the current guidance on when to introduce solids, to a baby�*s diet, needs to change. peanut allergies have been on the rise in the uk, withi in 50 children now thought to be affected. here�*s our medical editor, fergus walsh. a spoonful of smooth peanut butter twice a week mixed with breastmilk if preferred. this is how doctors say babies can be safely introduced to peanuts. hole and chopped nuts should never be given as they are a choking hazard. but when parents start? one in 50 children in the uk is allergic to peanuts and it can be life—threatening.

there has been a threefold increase in recent decades partly driven by faulty advice to avoid peanuts altogether until the age of three. that was dropped in 2009. the current, official and advice is that introducing peanuts should begin at around six months as part of the weaning. a study by allergy experts says it should begin earlier, between four and six months. they estimate peanut allergy could fall by 77% if this was done. that would mean around 10,000 fewer children with a peanut allergy each year in the uk. so we know if babies eat peanuts it sees it as harmless in the body does not develop an allergic reaction to them. contrast that with the baby that foresees peanuts on the skin, the body then tends to develop a peanut allergy.

sienna is two and a half and allergic to peanuts. her mum has followed official advice and she was not that early on but my wishes she had been. if we had been given the opportunity it would be completely different. everyday life would be a normal situation as it was for her brother and we would just not have to worry about her as she gets older and he sure she is safe as well. we will do some bubbles on your arm. 0k? and when we are all done we will go pop, pop, pop. she is not being tested for other possible allergies. sienna is now being tested for other possible allergies. the researchers are urging the nhs to change the guidance to recommend peanut products the issue is between four and six month. and say it would make a huge impact on safeguarding the health of children in years to come.

a former professional australian surfer, has broken the world record for the longest surf session. blake johnston eclipsed the previous mark of 30 hours and eleven minutes — at the cronulla beach in sydney, clocking up more than forty hours on the ocean. he�*s raising money for youth mental health projects and said he felt "pretty cooked" after catching more than 500 waves. despite risking infected ears, dehydration, hypothermia and drowning, he�*s set a new benchmark of forty hours. and before we go, and share with you a duel from nature, this footage was filmed in florida — just after an alligator had emerged from the water, apparently with dinner in mind — and it chose this crane. but the crane was not to be scared — and the two creatures ended up in a stare—off. the crane stood its ground — and eventually... it seemed to scare the alligator off.

you can reach me on twitter — i�*m @ anjana gadgil. hello there. the weekend is getting off to a mild start. we will certainly stick with those mild conditions throughout saturday. there will be some spells of sunshine, but there will also be some pretty heavy thundery showers around for sunday. perhaps a little cooler for some of us and a little drier for a time as well. now, on the earlier satellite picture, we can see various clumps of cloud. the cloud has been bringing some showery rain in places and all of that cloud and those showers rotating around an area of low pressure which will be dominating the scene for saturday. and this little frontal system wriggling its way up from the south, well, that will bring a pulse of more persistent rain up across southeast england and into east anglia. also, this band of rain swinging across northern

ireland and into the western side of scotland in between some spells of sunshine. but some showers will pop up, some of which will be heavy and possibly thundery. turning a little bit brighter through the afternoon across parts of southeast england and eventually east anglia. it�*s going to be mild again, 15, maybe 16 degrees, a little bit brighter in northern ireland through the afternoon as this band of rain progresses into scotland. in fact, some quite heavy rain across the far north of the mainland into orkney. although shetland should hold on to some sunshine, the rain will arrive across shetland as we head into saturday night. elsewhere, this band of cloud and some spots of rain pushing south east was a bit of mr. murk around here and there. south east was a bit of mist and murk around here and there.

but most places by sunday morning will be dry and clear and a little bit chillier. there could be very locally just a touch of frost to start sunday, because sunday will bring this ridge of high pressure, quite a transient feature. but it brings us a window of drier and brighter weather, a little bit of low cloud and mist around first thing, but then some good spells of sunshine. northern ireland, though, will cloud over through the morning. some rain getting in here during the afternoon. that rain perhaps just getting into the far south west of scotland by the end of the day. still mild, maybe not quite as mild. eight to 13 degrees covers it for most of us. and then into the new week, while that ridge of high pressure clears off into the near continent and is replaced by frontal systems running in from the atlantic, and that will bring bouts of heavy rain, some quite strong winds at times. but throughout it is set to stay mild. it mayjust get a little cooler in the north for the end of the week.

this is bbc news, the headlines... the international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for vladimir putin and his children�*s commissioner — accusing them of war crimes over the unlawful deportation of children from ukraine to russia. it�*s the first time the court has ordered the arrest of a prominent, serving political leader. china has annoucned that its president xijinping — will visit russia next week to hold talks with president putin. beijing and moscow say the two men will discuss strategic cooperation. beijing is currently promoting a plan it says can bring, a negotiated end, to the war in ukraine. the head of nato has welcomed turkey�*s decision to start, the process of ratifying finland�*s application to join the bloc.

butjens stoltenberg stressed it was important that sweden