this is bbc news. 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," the kremlin crieds, "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. so under what circumstances could president putin be arrested? here's dr angela stent, director of the georgetown university center for russian studies. it's very difficult to see that now. obviously, as your correspondents have said, he will be very careful about what countries he will travel to in the future, i don't think you will be visiting london anytime soon, so were he to go to a country that is part of the icc, and 123 countries have signed on to this rome statute, then theoretically he could be arrested but we have even had the example of the president of sudan, also under indictment from the icc, and he has been able to travel to other countries and nothing has happened to him, so i think we have to wait

and see how the war with ukraine ends, what happens to putin afterwards, but right now it's difficult to see him being arrested. but it will restrict his movement, his ability to travel around the globe, he will be restricted to only a very few countries? yes, i mean, will he go to the 620 summit in india? india is another country that has not signed onto the icc, which countries can he visit? i also think it is very interesting that this indictment was handed down today, three days before president xi jinping visits russia, because it puts him in a more awkward position because i'm the one hand china has been backing russia, and on the other hand, it also wants to appear as a peacemaker, he wants to appear as a statesman, so how does it look to arrive in a country and shake hands with a president who has now been indicted for war crimes? as you say, president xi will visit president putin very

soon, saying he has a peace plan for the war between russia and ukraine. how does that affect his plan? i'm not sure that it affects the plan very much because the plan is very vague, and it has been dismissed by most western countries, although president zelensky has said he wants to discuss it with president xijinping. i don't know whether this will give xijinping any more leverage over president putin to try to get him to come to the negotiating table, we will have to see what they say when the summit is over. we are talking primarily about the deportation of children, a horrifying idea in itself, but the list of potential war crimes is long, isn't it? is a very long, and if you look at the atrocities in bucha, it's the mass, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, energy infrastructure during the winter, so there is a long list of potential war crimes, and these are being very

actively investigated. i think the one with the deportation of the children is one that will really tear at the heartstrings of billions of people around the world who are parents and grandparents, or even if they aren't, the idea that children are taken away and forcibly given to other parents, trying to wipe out who they are, it's really horrifying. how do you think this has been received in russia itself? of course we have had only official denials that we have heard from your correspondents, and ijust wonder because the russian people, the ones that have stayed there that have not left because of the war, they know that this is happening, they know about the denials from their own government. it remains to be seen whether this softens any of the support for president putin, and whether the people who just watch state—run tv will believe that these are all lies, or whether they might begin to question what their president has actually done.

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 to today's reports thatitis 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. 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. opposition 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. opposition 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. this is bbc news. the main story this hour: the international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for russian president vladimir putin for his alleged role in deporting ukrainian children to russia. let's have more on that story now. as on that story now. a crime against children have as a crime against children have clearly been committed.

even before i was elected, i emphasised children across the world are by and large in —— invisible. what we try to do is effectively as possible use our resources to get a handle on the spectrum of criminality that we were seeing allegations relating to it, and when you look at the issue that has led to the judges issuing warrants, there was clearly evidence of crimes against children in terms of deportation. and i think it's also very powerful because these are not combatants, these are not on one side or the other, they're the most vulnerable part of humanity, which are children. and to prise them away from their homes, their care homes or their orphanages, where they have family around them, they have familiar environments, they have languages, a language they know, customs that are theirs, and to cross international boundaries, give them a foreign

passport and all the rest of it clearly was in breach of the fourth geneva convention, contrary to the rome statute, and it was about collecting evidence that we could present to judges. and a lot of this was not denied. a lot of these fundamental aspects of the case were viewed or worn as badges of honour by some of the individuals in the russian federation and the individuals subject to the warrants, and this is why it was necessary to go in that direction. kenya's court of appeal has dealt another blow to residents of a slum in the country's coastal city of mombasa. for the fourth time now, the court has postponed an appeal ruling in relation to a landmark $12 million compensation case against the government and smelting factory in 2020. since then, not a penny has been paid out to the victims of lead poisoning in owino uhuru. the bbc�*s emmanuel igunza has more. it has been eight years of pain and agony for this family, losing four grandchildren to

lead poisoning and then attending every session in 2016 hoping to getjustice. that hoping to get 'ustice. that ho -e hoping to get 'ustice. that hope has _ hoping to getjustice. that hope has been _ hoping to getjustice. that hope has been dashed - hoping to getjustice. that hope has been dashed again. translation: i hope has been dashed again. translation:— hope has been dashed again. translation: i want to ask the 'udue for translation: i want to ask the judge for my _ translation: i want to ask the judge for my sin- _ translation: i want to ask the judge for my sin. i _ translation: i want to ask the judge for my sin. i am _ translation: i want to ask the judge for my sin. i am praying . judge for my sin. i am praying for a good judge that listen to our plight, given the conversations we can get help. you can educate our children because i don't have the strength to work anymore. it has moved into the streets. these protesters say to the fourth time in three years the judgement has been postponed. translation:— judgement has been postponed. translation: people have died, children have _ translation: people have died, children have died, _ translation: people have died, children have died, animals- children have died, animals have died here at owino uhuru slums, but no—one is talking about it. the senate has investigated, the courts are corrupt people who may be want to be bribed so the compensation can be paid. the compensation can be paid. the compensation should be paid fully.

translation: i fully. translation: ., .,, ., translation: i have lost four children. translation: i have lost four children- i _ translation: i have lost four children. i have _ translation: i have lost four children. i have buried - translation: i have lost four children. i have buried my- translation: l have lost fourj children. i have buried my wife as well. i have some of pain because of the cost of postponement of this case. in 2016, 4000 slum postponement of this case. in 2016, 4000 slum dwellers from owino uhuru filed a case in the environmental court, accusing a smelting factory of exposing them to lead poisoning. four years later, they won a conversation of $12 million to pay for medical bills for the effective and cleanup of their homes. environmental activist phyllis has been at the heart of this case and says she is baffled by the delays. understand that lead poisoning evolves with time, and right now it is having an effect on the kidney and liver is of their community members, and many have failed kidneys, son, already two kidneys have failed, and at their last rent of life, and this means that they are losing hope given they have very little time left in

which to serve their lives, and therefore, the continued firing of the case means for them lots of the case means for them lots of hope in life and the possibility of death that is glaring at them every day. lawyers for the community so they have lost faith and can you positjudiciary and will seekjustice in other courts, and for the people of, each day brings more tragedy and pain. emmanuel igunza, bbc news, mombassa, kenya. residents in the australian town of menindee in new south wales have been horrified to find millions of dead fish in their river. the darling—baaka river, where the fish were found, is a part of australia's largest river system. these are the shocking pictures in the murray—darling basin with dead fish floating in the river as far as the eye can see. the summer heat is causing the fish to rot quickly. local authorities say the disaster is a result of low oxygen levels in the rivers. 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

with 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 '18—�*19, 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's was unrepeatable. and how will the river be cleaned up? are the authorities looking after it or is it down to residents like yourself? oh, 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 that experiences 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. 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? 1 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 we'd been given that opportunity, it would have been completely different. everyday life would be a normal situation, the same as it is for her brother, we just would not have to worry about her getting older and making sure she's safe as well. we are going to do some bubbles on your arm, 0k? and when they are all there, we will 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.

thank you for watching bbc news. you can reach me on twitter — i'm @anjanagadgil. there is more on all our stories on the bbc mobile app. 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 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 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