this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm anjana gadgil. our top stories: wanted for war crimes — the international criminal court issues an arrest warrant for russia's leader, vladimir putin, for his alleged role in deporting ukrainian children to russia. the judges issued arrest warrants. their execution depends on international cooperation. tiktok reportedly under investigation in the united states over allegations the video—sharing app spied on journalists. police in paris arrest

more protesters, angry at the french president's pension reforms. the mystery of the millions of dead fish found floating in an australian river. the international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for russia's leader, vladimir putin in connection with war crimes. the court says there are grounds to believe that president putin is personally responsible for the deportation of hundreds of children since last year's invasion, from children's homes and orphanages in ukraine for adoption in russia. 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 evidence submitted by the prosecutor and determined that there are credible allegations against these persons for the 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, millions of people 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 bears 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,

where 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 court's jurisdiction have been committed. so 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 every day that a serving head of state is accused of war crimes and it is a signalfrom international community that they will seek justice for what's been happening here in ukraine. at home, vladimir putin may enjoy some popular support, however staged. but abroad, he now faces the possibility of arrest and trial. he probably will not be getting on a plane soon.

james landale, bbc news, kyiv. with the reaction from russia and the impact this arrest warrant could have, here's our russia editor, steve rosenberg. on a practical level, do not expect russian police to slap the handcuffs on vladimir putin and dispatch him to the hague. russia, just like america, does not recognise the jurisdiction of the international criminal court and russia does not extradite its citizens. and yet, this is an extraordinary moment. just think about it. the serving president of the world's largest country, a nuclear power, a permanent member of the un security council, the icc has issued a warrant for his arrest over alleged war crimes and that makes him even more of a pariah at a time when vladimir putin is still trying to be a global player. we have the chinese president coming in three days' time for a state visit. no wonder the kremlin is furious,

outrageous, they cried, unacceptable. and the former russian president and putin ally referring to the arrest warrant in a social media post wrote this. he said, "no need to explain where this paper should be used." and he followed that within emoji of a toilet bowl. well, earlier i spoke to former us ambassador to ukrainejohn herbst and asked what needed to happen for putin to face the icc and answer the allegations of war crimes levelled against him. i think you have already pointed out that the odds of this happening are very low, except if as a result of putin losing his war in ukraine, which is likely as long as western support remains strong, the regime crumbles in russia and the russians themselves see that putin coming to justice makes sense, but barring that, i don't expect to see him in handcuffs, as your reporter already pointed out. the icc denies these allegations are symbolic. do you agree?

i certainly agree because putin himself and his co—conspirator maria lvova—belova were saying on russian tv this is what they were doing, they were acknowledging committing a war crime. what effect do you think it will have in russia itself? will it galvanise people, or will they see president putin in a different light as a result of this? i don't think the russian people as a whole will see president putin in a different light because russian propaganda will work against it, but russian officials have already been talking about these sorts of problems for months, even on kremlin—controlled tv people have been talking about it. this will work like rust on the metal of the putin regime, as weaker—kneed russian officials may worry this might have implications for them. you talk there about xijinping, the chinese premier, going to russia to speak with president putin. how will this affect the conversation they are going to have?

again, xi put forward this piece proposal which could provide momentum for a ceasefire and a place that leaves russia in control of substantial swathes of ukrainian territory. how could he present that in good faith knowing that in that russian—controlled territory they would be taking kids and deporting them to russia ? this enables this russian war crime. the news of president putin's arrest warrant came as china announced its president, xijinping, will visit russia next week to hold talks with mr 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 of 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 a 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 be looking for 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. 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 that it could become a sort of 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, and so people are thinking if you can get those two together, could beijing also do the same thing in terms of the war between russia and ukraine? the problem is though that some analysts would say that really it is in china's interest to stop the war, if we consider the most cynical potential possibility. in a way, russia is doing china's dirty work — it's challenging the west, making the west eat up all of these military resources it has, and actually furthering beijing's geopolitical goals. that said, of course it is 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.

our us partner cbs is reporting that the fbi and the department ofjustice are investigating the chinese—owned video—sharing app tiktok over allegations the company spied onjournalists. the reports come after several governments, including the us, the uk, the european union, canada and new zealand, banned tiktok on government—issued mobile devices. there are concerns that the app collects information that could be accessed by beijing. our north america correspondent david willis has more details. it appears that this investigation was launched sometime last year, and then ramped up a couple of months ago after bytedance, which is the chinese company that owns tiktok, confirmed reports here in the american media that some chinese staff had been using the app to spy on american journalists, in particular to get information about their sources of stories that had appeared about tiktok in the american media. bytedance has said in response

today's report that it is strongly condemning the actions of those staff who it says have subsequently been dismissed, but it's only a couple of months since tiktok the app was banned from government phones here and in an attempt to basically head off further restrictions, bytedance has suggested that maybe the company should keep all user data, american user data, on servers located here in the united states. it appears that that sort of compromise may well have been blown out of the water by these latest allegations of tiktok being used for spying. as you said there the us, as well as the uk, new zealand and a list of other countries have all banned their employees from having tiktok on their work phones. is there any evidence that tiktok has been harvesting data from government employees?

certainly the united states, and this goes back to the trump administration, which of course was not particularly well inclined towards china at the best of times, they were looking into tiktok, and the biden administration has come under criticism from opposition republicans for not doing enough to ensure national security through apps such as this. earlier this week, the biden administration announced it was going to demand that bytedance either sells off tiktok or face a nationwide ban here in the united states. the us is its biggest audience by far, there are more than 100 million regular american tiktok users, so that would be a considerable blow to bytedance and to tiktok, which is due to parade its ceo before a congressional panel next

week to face questions from lawmakers, probably incredibly sharp questions i imagine, about possible links to the chinese government and to the communist party in china. malawi, madagascar and mozambique are reeling from the effects of tropical cyclone freddy. more than 400 people have been killed and thousands of homes have been destroyed. freddy is one of the longest—lasting storms ever recorded in the southern hemisphere. malawi has been hardest hit with at least 326 deaths reported, and warnings of worse to come as authorities struggle to reach areas cut off by the storm. the bbc�*s rhoda odhiambo reports. this is one of the areas that was badly affected by cyclone freddy when it landed in malawi on sunday. this particular camp has about

5000 because of the large numbers of people in the camp. more people are coming in especially from areas affected by cyclone freddy. we especially from areas affected by cyclone freddy.— by cyclone freddy. we are cookin: by cyclone freddy. we are cooking food _ by cyclone freddy. we are cooking food from - by cyclone freddy. we are cooking food from the - by cyclone freddy. we are - cooking food from the premises and now we are going into crises, where they. we think this has improved the delivery of food at the camp. just before i _ of food at the camp. just before i got _ of food at the camp. just before i got to _ of food at the camp. just before i got to this - of food at the camp. just before i got to this the l of food at the camp. just before i got to this the team from the red cross volunteers who are here for these particular people were feeding a few classrooms now because the weather is foggy they will have a challenge at feeding them because people are moving around trying to find an area thatis around trying to find an area that is not fully cramped where they will be able to shelter as they will be able to shelter as they wait for the fog and the ranges subside. the challenge people have in this particular camp is that once it is closed, they do not know where to go

because their houses were completely flattened by boulders and trees that destroyed them due to the aftermath of cyclone freddy. most of them say they have also not been able to trace their families which will now be a hard task because of the whether and how it's changed. this would mean that the rescue teams now need more time to retrieve bodies from under the rubble. this is bbc world news. the latest headlines: the international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for russian president vladimir putin for his alleged role in deporting ukrainian children to russia. tiktok reportedly under investigation in the united states over allegations the video—sharing app spied onjournalists. turkey says it's decided to start the process of ratifying finland's application tojoin 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 three 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 announcement. 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 nato alliance chief jens stoltenberg released this statement shortly after that announcement. i welcome today's decision by turkiye to move ahead with the ratification of finland's membership in 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 whether they join at exactly the same time. several thousand people have been protesting for a second day 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 parliament. 0pposition parties tabled two separate 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 bbc�*s azadeh moshiri reports. anger has spread and it is engulfing president emmanuel macron. he knew there would be protests but his decision has now brought france to a standstill. police have responded with force. they have carted off hundreds of demonstrators, even his party's own mps

are asking for police protection. but the threat is not just out on the streets. 0pposition parties are furious mr macron raised the retirement age without a vote. they filed two no—confidence motions against his government. translation: something i quite fundamental happened, which is that immediately there were spontaneous demonstrations throughout the country. it goes without saying that, for my part, i encourage them because i think that's where it's going, with unions united. those unions are calling for strikes to continue. paris's bin collectors have left 10,000 tons of rubbish to pile up according to the mayor's office. workers across some of france's largest refineries are halting production. with mr macron largely silent, his prime minister has faced the brunt of the anger. now, more of his ministers are in the firing line.

translation: we are | carrying out this reform, which is difficult, which is not popular. it is true that the majority of french people do not support it and we are perfectly aware of that. it is a difficult reform that we are making to balance the pension system by 2030. mr macron made pension reform a key part of his campaign. but now that he has done it, he must whether one of the greatest challenges to his authority yet. azadeh moshiri, bbc news. residents in the australian town of menindee in new south wales have been horrified to find millions of dead fish in their river. these are the shocking pictures in the murray—darling basin with dead fish floating in the river as far as the eye can see. i asked a concerned local resident, graeme mccrabb, about the situation where he is. yeah, it is very disturbing. the vision you can see —

dead fish in the background, and the smell here is just something horrendous, to be honest. yes, i was going to say that. it must be, especially with the heat and them rotting, it must be a horrible place to be right now. yeah, it is not ideal, and i think the thing that adds weight to the disappointment and the frustration and the anger is that it was avoidable. it's a pure water management issue of the lakes, and water new south wales have failed this community again. we were flooded out about six weeks ago, and here we are again now with millions of dead fish, and an issue that's going to be ongoing for weeks from here. so, explain how it happens then in your view. is it a case of bad water management there? yeah, absolutely. so, the water comes into the lake system, it can be let out at several outlets. they chose the wrong outlet because that was easy for them and now we've ended up massive amounts of dead fish and they're drifting down river. so i'm just below town, so at the moment there is a massive amount of dead, rotting fish just floating through the township. it's just unbelievable and unfathomable, to be honest. so, is it preventable?

yes, it isjust pure water management and better data collection. we were warned about the fish kills, after to �*is—�*i9, we were told we needed better data or the state government was told they needed better data. they haven't done anything about it, and here we are again with a biggerfish kill and a more disturbing event than what we had last time, and everyone thought last time was unrepeatable. and how will the river be cleaned up? are the authorities looking after it or is it down to residents like yourself? no, there is not much you can do now. you can see — probably a bit hard to pick up there, but those fish are floating downstream now, they will probably move about ten or 15 kays today. three or four days of flows like this and the fish will move their way down and eventually rot and sink to the bottom. so there's just too many there to clean up. and do you expect something like this to happen again? i am really concerned that the next section from us down further, another ten kays down, if they experience what we have here, we'll have lots of murray cod,

golden perch and silver perch die there. we've had small numbers or reasonable numbers of those die at the moment, but, certainly, there is a big risk that we could lose a lot more fish in the weeks to come. a new study suggests that introducing babies to smooth peanut butter between the ages of four and six months could reduce the risk of allergy dramatically. researchers are now calling on the government to change official weaning advice. here's our medical editor fergus walsh. a spoonful of smooth peanut butter twice a week mixed with breast milk if preferred. she really seems to like the peanut butter! yeah! this is how doctors say babies can be safely introduced to peanuts. whole and chopped nuts should never be given as they're a choking hazard, but when should parents start? i 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 nhs advice is that introducing peanuts should begin at around six months, as part of weaning. but a study by allergy experts says it should begin earlier, at between four to 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 that if babies eat peanuts, the gut sees that as harmless and the body does not develop an allergic reaction to them. if you contrast that with a baby that first sees peanuts on the skin, the body then tends to develop a peanut allergy. splash, splosh... sienna is 2.5 and allergic to peanuts.

her mum followed official advice and she was not fed them early on, but now wishes she had been. if i had another opportunity, it would have been completely different. everyday life would be a normal situation, the same as it is for her brother, and we just wouldn't have to worry about her getting older and making sure she is safe as well. we are going to do some bubbles on your arm, 0k? and when they are all there, we are going to go pop, pop, pop! yeah! sienna is now being tested for other possible allergies. the researchers are urging the nhs to change the guidance to recommend peanut products are introduced between four and six months... pop the bubbles. ..and say it would make a huge impact on safeguarding the health of children in years to come. fergus walsh, bbc news. a former professional australian surfer has broken the world record for

the longest surf session. blakejohnston eclipsed the previous mark of 30 hours and 11 minutes in sydney. despite risking infected ears, dehydration, hypothermia and drowning, he's set a new benchmark of a0 hours. very a new benchmark of a0 hours. impressive indeed! 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 and 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 0rkney. 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 southeastwards, 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 southwest of scotland by the end of the day. still mild, maybe not quite as mild. 8 to 13 degrees covers it for most of us. and then into the new week, 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. our us partner cbs is reporting that the fbi and the department ofjustice are investigating the chinese owned video—sharing app, tiktok, over allegations the company spied onjournalists. several governments, including the us, the uk, the european union,

canada and new zealand, banned tiktok on government—issued mobile devices. several thousand people have been protesting for a second day in paris and a number of other french cities.