this is bbc news. welcome to viewers on pbs in america. mass evacuations across ukraine as a major dam is breached. russia and ukraine each blame the other. translation: such deliberate at b the translation: such deliberate at by the russian — translation: such deliberate at by the russian occupied - translation: such deliberate at by the russian occupied the - translation: such deliberate at by the russian occupied the dam| by the russian occupied the dam and other structures such as the hydro power plant is an environmental bomb of mass destruction. destroying fields of poppies in afghanistan after the taliban ban their cultivation. but farmers ask how they're supposed to feed theirfamilies. hello, i'm sumi somaskanda. after the destruction of part of a crucial dam in southern ukraine, thousands of people have been forced to evacuate towns and villages to escape rising flood waters. the dam sits between russian—held territory to the south and ukrainian

territory to the north. the dam is a significant resource, supplying water to a host of communities as well as to europe's largest nuclear power station at zaporizhzhia. this dam is over the dnieper river, between areas controlled by russian and ukrainian armies in the south of ukraine. this video tweeted by ukraine's president zelensky shows the breached kakhovka hydro—electric dam. russia claims ukraine is behind the damage, while president zelensky blames russia. translation: the whole world will know about this russian - war crime, the crime of genocide. such deliberate acts by the russian occupiers of the dam and other structures such as the power plant is an environmental bomb of mass destruction. for the sake of its own security the world should know now that russia cannot get away with such terror. our ukraine correspondent james waterhouse has spent the day travelling to the affected area.

a breach of a barrier designed to protect. this is the major kakhovka dam, failing to contain a reservoir resembling a sea. the waters of ukraine's dnipro river surge downstream, towards dozens of towns and villages. this is effectively a front line, which separates territory ukraine controls and russia occupies. close to the dnipro's mouth is the city of kherson. officials are worried this flooding could become catastrophic. when our team arrived this afternoon, it didn't take long to find out what life here is like. "it's dangerous," says katalina. then... explosion. russia may have retreated here last year, but they're not far away. it takes a lot in these parts to make people leave. fast, fast, fast, fast, fast. ok. back upstream, you can't really see what's left of the dam and hydroelectric plant. so, who did this?

russia controls this area, but blames ukraine. kyiv is in no doubt. translation: the kakhovka hydroelectric power station. l it was an absolutely deliberate, prepared explosion. they knew exactly what they were doing. translation: tonight, | the kyiv regime comitted another terrorist crime. the kakhovka hydroelectric dam was blown up, which led to the flooding of significant territories. so what is the significance of the nova kakhovka dam? it supplies water to huge swathes of agricultural land, including in crimea. and the reservoir behind it provides water to cool the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant further up river. both areas are under russian control. the reservoir is huge. the dnipro river is especially wide here — 150 miles long, and up to 14 miles across. this is what the dam

looks like undamaged. our colleagues at bbc verify say this image of a smaller breach was taken just days ago — but since early this morning, this is what the dam has turned into. thousands of people are at risk from flooding. whole villages are underwater. here, the landscape is transformed. whoever destroyed the dam knew this would happen, and decided it was worth it. one ukrainian mp watched as the river burst its banks. "you can see how the water is coming up every second," he says. "it's starting to rise." ukraine has been ravaged by becoming a giant battlefield. a country forever remoulded, and now a region partially submerged. james waterhouse, bbc news, kherson. russia blames ukrainian saboteurs for the explosion. our russia editor, steve rosenberg has more on those claims.

well, today, we heard from the russian defence minister, sergei shoigu, who came out and claimed that the ukrainian counteroffensive that actually started three days ago, and he made a bold claim, saying that russia had thwarted the counteroffensive, and came up with all kinds of figures, claiming that more than 3000 ukrainian soldiers had been killed, he said that 71 russian soldiers had been killed over the last three days. we cannot confirm those figures and we have to be very careful about figures. we are not sure how accurate those are. but russian officials claimed that the ukrainian counteroffensive has got bogged down, but they provided no evidence for that, so i think we should be cautious about those claims. the destruction of the dam comes as reports of the long—awaited ukrainian counter—offensive entering its initial stages.

this video from ukraine's military, released in the last few days, referred to the counter offensive — and confirmed there would not be an announcement about the start. now, a us official has told the bbc�*s partner us network cbs that it is accurate to say that the ukraine counter offensive is in its opening phases but that the main thrust has not yet begun. earlier i spoke with alexander rodnyansky, an advisor to president volodymyr zelensky. thank you very much forjoining us here on bbc news. i want to start with this dam explosion. president zelensky has about 80 towns and villages could be affected. what is the impact on the country �*s energy infrastructure? yeah that's right. well, the impact is devastating, it is still to be seen what will happen exactly but it is notjust the energy infrastructure. keep in mind about 80 towns and villages are flooded, maybe more.

both sides of the river, actually the occupied side as well as our side, where ukraine has its forces. there is catastrophe both for the people living there that are getting evacuated hopefully, as well as the animals that are living there and obviously populating these areas, as well as for the poor and vulnerable. so it is a general disaster, notjust for the electricity grid, although as you set correctly there is a hydroelectric power plant that is affected and that will obviously have some negative consequences. it is also expected to have an impact of some sort on the fighting. what impact do you think you will have on ukraine's efforts to carry out its counteroffensive and also to push back against russian occupied areas? we have been prepared for the sort of eventualities from the very beginning. we knew that the russians could be planning or were planning an explosion around the dam, so it eventually happened unfortunately, so i wouldn't say that this came as a total surprise.

however, it is obviously not helpful to us, it is not helpful for ukraine, for ukrainians living there, it is probably not helpful for the military but that is for them to comment on. i suspect it is not going to have much of an effect on the counteroffensive. as soon as it will set in, as soon as it will become visible, so our troops have made preparations and i'm sure they will be up to deal with the repercussions of this flooding. we are seeing kyiv attacked almost every night with drone attacks, missile attacks. ukrainian air defences are working to prevent those attacks but what is the toll on the city and how the government is able to function on a day—to—day basis? so here i would distinguish between two things, what the actual toll is what the intention was on the part of the russians. their intention was clearly to disrupt any type of civilised peaceful life that we have here, and kyiv had become more peaceful, if you want to come over the recent months. now they failed, because almost 100% of the missiles and drones that they sent were actually shot down by our air defences, that are getting better,

so that is testimony to their effectiveness now, and we hope that all of ukraine will be equally well protected, and it's getting there, it's getting there. but of course they are terrorising us, there is constant sirens constant alerts, it is happening during the night so it is disrupting the sleep patterns of our people here and that is affecting productivity, on the psychological state, so i wouldn't say on the one hand they have succeeded in anything, if at all, they have failed in disrupting our electricity, infrastructure and somehow doing us a disfavour in terms of the lives we are leading. but at the same time it is happening and we are obviously noticing it, so hopefully they will be running out of ammunition, as they have been, sooner rather than later. as you said, we are seeing destruction in cities beyond kyiv, in cities like dnipro as well where we have seen air strikes. we spoke yesterday to timothy miller vanhoof, and he said we should start to focus on the rebuilding of ukraine now. he said the following. i think we need to help ukraine

maintain its economy and services during the war, and then after the war rebuild it as a prosperous economy. do you agree that rebuilding ukraine needs to start now, in order to ensure a prosperous economy in the future? of course, we'd like that to happen and it needs to start now and as far as that's possible. now, we know a lot of companies are not willing to take the risks right now to invest into ukraine, to really come and rebuild and start large capital investments on infrastructural projects that we desperately need and will need after the war. for that you really need unending to the fighting in order to have the certainty that whatever you are investing in is not going to disappear rather soon. that is the big issue but we can and should start now and we have started now because, again, many cities were rebuilt, for example to the north of kyiv, bucha, to some extent, is already rebuilt, you can see all the pictures,

you can google it, of the places that were destroyed last year and how they look now. we need to rebuild the energy infrastructure, we've done that, so we have begun with a lot of infrastructural projects and recovery projects already and the other thing we can already do is make preparations for the larger recovery. we can create institutions that will need to be there in order to guide that recovery and that is happening slowly and we can obviously consolidate our international partners and the future donors that will help rebuild ukraine, so all of that is essentially starting the process and that can already happen now. great to have you on the show. thank you. as we heard, there are safety implications at the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. upstream, the facility relies on water from the dam to cool its reactors. here's the head of the un nuclear watchdog. our current assessment is that there is no immediate risk to the safety of the plant.

around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. picking up rubbish as you are manoeuvring a boat is no easy task, particularly when there is a bit of wind like there is today but where there is a will there is a way. this litter picking exercise taking plastic bottles and other rubbish out of the canal in nottingham city centre is part of a much wider litter sweep on our waterways throughout the country. we find it is from the common things like plastic bottles to the more unusual finds — things like an inflatable flamingo, a chair, a garden fork. all sorts really. rivers are the arteries that carry the water out to our oceans, causing untold damage there as well. children as well as adults are being encouraged to take part. the big paddle cleanup has got another ten days to go but the hope is that the public can be reminded of how important it is not to litter. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc

news website. you're live with bbc news. over 80% of the world's opium used to be produced in afghanistan. but last year, the taliban banned opium poppy cultivation. the bbc has found evidence the taliban government has had major success cracking down on it, with satellite images that experts say show opium farming down by as much as four—fifths in a year. but in a country reeling from an economic crisis, farmers say this is another blow. 0ur correspondent yogita limaye has this report from afghanistan. men who were once fighting for this land now control it. and they're enforcing the diktat of their leader. we've been given rare access to the taliban's campaign to eradicate poppy in nangarhar province.

we have to get to more remote areas near the border with pakistan to find standing crop. so the field to the right, that's already been destroyed. and we're walking to another one, which they are in the process of destroying right now. this field belongs to ali mohammed mir. i asked him why he defied the ban. translation: if you don't have enough food in your house - and your children are going hungry, what else will you do? if we grew wheat instead, we won't earn enough to survive. the taliban go armed and in large numbers. there have been instances of clashes with angry locals. afghanistan used to produce more than 80% of the world's opium. the taliban are accused of profiting from it when they were fighting against foreign forces and the former afghan regime — a claim they deny.

but now, from what we've seen and from satellite images, there's evidence of an unprecedented reduction. this is helmand province. it used to be afghanistan's opium heartland. wheat now stands where poppy was grown. this man tells us that in this taliban stronghold area, farmers have all but complied with the order. translation: we are very upset. we can't meet our families' needs. i've had to take a loan. hunger is at its peak and we haven't got any help from the government. we met the main spokesman of the taliban government, who told us they banned opium because it's harmful and goes against their religious beliefs. farmers say they're not getting any support from your government. how do you plan to help them?

translation: opium causes a lot of harm. | we call on international organisations to help. but then, at the same time, you're making the operations and the funding of aid agencies in this country extremely difficult by the ban on afghan women working for them. you can't have it both ways. they shouldn't link humanitarian issues with politics. the whole world is affected by opium addiction. for now, the taliban appear to have accomplished what no one else could. but there are questions about how long they can sustain it. yogita limaye, bbc news, kandahar. that report from yogita limaye and you can see more of her reporting from afghanistan on our website, bbc.com. let's take a look at some of the other news: here in the us, two people have been shot dead and five others wounded after a gunman opened fire in a park in richmond, virginia, on tuesday, as high school graduates and their families left a commencement ceremony.

virginia police have arrested a suspect, a 19—year—old man, and plan to charge him with two counts of second—degree murder in addition to other possible offenses. former newjersey governor chris christie is the latest republican to throw his hat into the us presidential race. this marks his second bid at the white house, after vying for the gop nomination in 2016. considered a longshot to win the nomination, christie was an advisor to the party's current frontrunner donald trump, before the two fell out over trump's refusal to accept his defeat tojoe biden in 2020. a british woman says andrew tate choked her until she lost consciousness while they were having sex and then subjected her to threatening behaviour. the woman, who was 20 at the time, says she first met the controversial social media influencer in august 2014. tate said he vehemently denies the allegations against him. golf's pga tour has agreed to merge with the saudi arabian—backed rival circuit liv golf in a deal that is set to end a contentious split in the multibillion—dollar

sport. the surprise announcement comes after a year of disruption in the men's game following liv�*s launch. it means pending litigation between the tours will now be halted and they will move forward as a larger enterprise. the international council of nurses has said the recruitment of nurses from poorer countries is "out of control" after the bbc uncovered evidence that ghana's hospitals have been left extremely short—staffed. ghana's medics say lives are at risk because of the number of people leaving for nursing jobs in the uk and other high income countries. our global health correspondent, naomi grimley, reports. everyone's working hard in intensive care at hospital in ghana but there's a problem for the management here. the icu nurses are leaving, and they are our main resource. they are those who take care

of the seriously ill, they're experienced — in fact, their training, a lot of things went in. so if it happens that we are losing them, it's a great bother to us. so where are they going? going to the uk, the us, for greener pastures. right. yeah. so how many are you losing per month? within the six months, almost 20 icu nurses. four fours' drive away, the waiting room is full. even in this more remote location, nurses are leaving for wealthier countries where the pay is noticeably better. those who are left take the strain. if even one person leaves, it becomes a headache for the rest of us because the patients come and we don't have enough forces to work on them, and then the workload becomes too much for all of us. in cape coast, the idyllic beaches disguise the fact that this is one of ghana's more deprived regions. the head doctor in this small clinic fears for the health

of his patients if more staff leave. the impact is enormous. services like immunisation of children — if we lose public health nurses, then the babies that have to be immunised will not get their required immunisations, and we will have babies die. back in kwaso, mothers have brought their babies to this vaccination clinic — but one of the outreach nurses says she wants to leave for britain. it won't stop, the exodus of nurses will not stop because of our poor condition of service. like, it's nothing to write home. within two weeks you spend here, it's from hand to mouth. the international council of nurses is increasingly worried. my sense is that the situation currently is out of control. we have intense recruitment taking place, mainly driven by 6—7

high—income countries — but with recruitment from those countries who are some of the most weakest and vulnerable who can ill afford to lose their nurses. the uk insists it does not recruit actively from countries with fragile health care systems but the ghanaian health minister recently revealed there have been talks about a possible deal between the two governments. we are engaging with the government of the united kingdom about signing a agreement after cabinet's approval, to begin sending nurses to go for training and work there, and come back home after three years. ultimately, it's the patients who stand to lose the most. translation: because the nurses here are few and the patients are more, it can cause deaths in the hospitals. so if you can, please offer us help

in ghanaian hospitals. naomi grimley, bbc news. prince harry has become the first senior member of the royal family to give evidence in court in 130 years after taking to the witness stand in his civil case against mirror group newspapers. he's accused the publisher of using unlawful methods including phone hacking to get stories about him, something they deny. our media editor, katie razzall, has been following the case at the high court in london and has this report. in a cul—de—sac in central london, the world's media... ..focused on itself and one man. others have settled claims over the years, but here was prince harry, determined to have his day in court, telling those inside a packed court 15 and an overflow annex that every single article written about him had caused him distress

and agreeing he had felt hostility to the media, even before he knew about their methods. he was asked about this line in his witness statement: prince harry told the court he was talking about journalists responsible for causing a lot of pain, upset, the press in general. asked if he was in the witness box to "put a stop to the madness," he replied, "that is my hope." harry's case is that specific articles in mirror group newspapers from 1996 to 2011 were based on phone hacking and other unlawful information gathering, often by private investigators. today, he's being questioned about them in detail. he says the journalist behind this story, about a visit from his mother on his 12th birthday, was a known user of private investigators. mgn's barrister told him journalists could not have hacked his mobile phone as he did not have one back then. harry replied, "it could have been my mother's." how could journalists know he was at the particular pub

as reported in this article, prince harry asks. "isn't it likely the celebrity chef "owner contacted the paper," mr green suggested. and mgn's barrister told him this story of a thumb injury had already been reported by the press association the day before. harry claims thatjust encouraged others to take stories further, using illicit methods for that extra information. he says he was often teased at school after these kind of articles. it caused him paranoia and distress, led him to dump friends, even to distrust his own brother, william, when a disagreement leaked. mgn denies phone hacking and unlawful information gathering for the articles under scrutiny, in a civil trial in which a judge, not a jury, will decide, explains this lawyer. on the balance of probabilities, is it more likely than not that the mirror engaged in phone hacking? or is it more likely than not that they didn't? that they're weighing up just to see where that balance tilts so it is a slightly different standard — a lower

standard, if you like. the prince also had sharp words for the former daily mirror editor, now tv presenter piers morgan, saying he makes him physically sick and that he wants to hold him and others accountable for their vile behaviour. mr morgan denies wrongdoing. it has been an intense day for prince harry. the first time a senior royal has been cross—examined in more than a century, and there is more to come tomorrow. katie razzall, bbc news. that's it for us here in washington. we'll hand you over to our team in london where dawn is breaking. more news for you at the top of the hour.

hello, there. you've probably noticed the weather not really changing very much over recent times, and that's because high pressure's been firmly dominating. and with high pressure around, it's not rained very much anywhere. but in warwickshire, in church lawford, you have to go back to may 11 — that was the last time it rained — so that's nearly four weeks of dry weather. some of the warmest weather has been across in northern ireland, county tyrone. it's been very warm in castlederg for the last nine days, but five of these recent days have seen temperatures reach 2a degrees — that's six above average. now, it's the west that had the highest temperatures again on tuesday, but england, stuck underneath this area of cloud, had much lower temperatures in many areas — for example, in leek, in staffordshire, 18 degrees on monday, 12 degrees on tuesday. we also had some cloud dropping the temperatures in parts of west scotland as well. now, over the next few hours, we're seeing that cloud again thicken up across parts

of england, wales, northern and eastern scotland. you might find a few spots of drizzle, although predominantly, it will be a dry start to the day on wednesday. the best of the early—morning sunshine, like recent times, will be across these western areas of the country. could be a few mist patches clearing and lifting, and then the sunshine comes out. i think there is a better chance of seeing this cloud break up across the midlands, east wales, so you probably will see some sunshine. but there could be some areas of eastern england again that keep the cloud all day. where that happens, temperatures into the teens — but otherwise, i think more of us will see temperatures into the low 20s. and with those sunny conditions out west, we'll see some very high levels of pollen building in across parts of england and wales, so it could be quite a sneezy day for hay—fever sufferers allergic to grass pollen. now, for thursday, again, there could be a bit of cloud around across eastern areas — probably east scotland, northeast england, the favoured spots for holding on to that. but otherwise, plenty of sunshine around, and those temperatures again reaching the mid—20s in the very warmest areas. we then do start to see a change, courtesy of this storm system —

storm oscar — that's been bringing some torrential rain to madeira. what that's going to do — it moves to the southwest of the uk, and it shoves a load of humid air across the country. and so, we'll see a change in the weather conditions as we head into the weekend. as it turns more humid, we'll start to see some showers and thunderstorms break out. and although the rain from these will be hit and miss in nature, some could see the first significant rain for four weeks.