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 and russia occupies. close to the dnipro�*s mouth is the city kherson. people were worried this fighting 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. and 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.

back upstream, you can't really see what is 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, i the kyiv regime committed 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 dam? it provides water to huge swathes of agricultural land, including in crimea, and the reservoir behind it provides water to cool the zaporizhzhia nuclear plant further up river. both areas are under russia control. the reservoir is huge. the dnipro river is especially wide here. 150 miles long, and up

to m 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. who villages are underwater. the landscape is transformed. whoever destroyed the dam knew this would happen and decided it was worth it. ukraine has been ravaged by the battle. a country forever remoulded, and now a region partially submerged. men once fighting for this land now control it. and they're enforcing the diktat of their leader. men once fighting for this

land now control it. and they're enforcing the diktat of their leader. this is a taliban anti—narcotics unit. deep in eastern afghanistan, they stop when they see a field of poppy. while the men raze it, their commander shouts at the family that owns the land: "i told you to destroy it yourselves."

hidden from view, a woman screams back in anger, but then retreats indoors. within minutes, it's all gone — the poppy that this family spent months going. their son is detained for defying the ban, so now, we have to get to more remote areas, near the border with pakistan, to find standing crop. farmers here know how harmful opium is. there are high levels of addiction in their own country. but there's no other option, says ali mohammad mia, whose field was destroyed. 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. when they hit those stalks hard, they sometimes come flying in the air.

what definitely comes flying is the sap from these buds. that's the opium residue. there is a very pungent smell of it in the air right now. the taliban go armed, and in large numbers. there have been incidences of clashes with angry locals. they're accused of profiting from opium when they were fighting against foreign forces and the former afghan regime — a claim the taliban 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 stands where poppy was once grown. niamatullah dilsoz tells us that in this taliban—controlled

the 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 had 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 they're not getting any support from your government. how do you plan to help them? translation: we know that people are very poor, - but opium causes a lot of addiction. we call on international organisations to help and afghans facing losses. but then at the same time, you have making operations and funding of aid agencies very difficult with the ban on afghan women working for them. you can't have it both ways.

translation: they should not link humanitarian issues - of political manners. opium isn'tjust affecting afghanistan — the whole world is affected by it. afghan ferried from afghan fields produces nearly all of the heroin sold to europe. how will prices be impacted? we went to kandahar, another major poppy—growing province, to find out. we met a farmer holding onto a small stash of his harvest from last year. we're not naming him to protect him. he told us the price of each of these bags is now five times what it was before the ban. he's waiting for it to rise further so it can sustain his family longer. for now, the taliban appear to have accomplished what no one else could. but there are questions about how long they can sustain it.

the land of opportunity... selling himself as a christian conservative, mike pence kicked off his campaign with a flashy video. that's why, today, before god and my family, i'm announcing i'm running for president of the united states. not one image of donald trump appears in this launch video, but mike pence cannot escape from four years of servile loyalty as vice—president. mike pence is going to have to come through for us, and if he doesn't, that will be a sad day for our country. right up until he refused to blockjoe biden becoming

president. crowd chanting: hang mike pence! "hang mike pence" was the cry from rioters who stormed the rioters who stormed the capitol onjanuary 6. now, defying donald trump and defending the constitution is a campaign pitch. i believe that anyone who puts themselves over the constitution should never be president of the united states. mr pence is on much safer ground in iowa, which will be the first state to pick a republican presidential nominee. also gripping and grinning with voters is florida governor ron desantis, senator tim scott — in fact, eight presidential candidates were all under the same roof last weekend. i want to say to you with deep conviction that god is not done with america yet. mike pence is already well—known to voters, and yet he is still trailing badly in the polls behind donald trump, the clear frontrunner. who knows? the more candidates like pence who get into the race, the more they split that anti—trump vote, and the easier they could make it for mr trump to win the nomination.

these voters didn't get to hearfrom trump himself, but skipping this event doesn't seem to undermine his support. can i ask you, have you decided who who are you supporting for the nomination? trump. yeah? or desantis. i'd go for either one, but trump first, i think. i voted for president trump last time. i love his policies. the name—calling's got to stop. mike pence will do what he can to attract attention, straddling a harley—davidson, if that's what it takes. in a very congested race, it's candidates like him versus the absent donald trump. and it's the former president who is still in the lead. 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 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 this 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 has been 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 couldn't have hacked his mobile phone because he didn't have one back then. harry replied "it could have been my mother's". how could journalists know he was at a particular pub in this article, 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

the press association the day before. harry claims that just encouraged others to take stories further by taking 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 an argument 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 decides, explains this lawyer. for the best part of five hours inside here, prince harry calmly, quietly, seriously answered the questions put to him — questions designed to show that his claims were wrong. in his witness statement, he was broad in his criticism of the media, and he raised eyebrows and some hackles when he described not just the british press, but the government as at rock bottom. but he has broken so many of the rules of being a royal, political criticism is just another one to add to the list. he, though, has found his calling — to make reform of the press his life's work.

in ukraine's eastern battlefields, the town of avdiivka is under siege. below ground, locals tune into the news from their bomb shelter. as the russian army attempts to encircle avdiivka, ukrainian troops are battling to cling on till their summer counteroffensive begins. amid the siege, two local men are keeping the town's civilian holdouts alive by running in aid supplies each day.

20 minutes outside of avdiivka, ihor and oleksiy grab brea kfast. thuds artillery a hint of what awaits them. distant bombing. friendship is supported in this difficult period because ihor is very positive, joking all

the time, even in a difficult situation, and this really helps to believe that we will survive. dodging russian bombs on the way into avdiivka each day is bad enough. having to do it in an old banger that seems to break down every other day, even worse. ihor and oleksiy are the last link in a chain of international aid that stretches all the way back to western europe.

humanitarian supplies are transported across ukraine, then stored at this warehouse just outside avdiivka. the last leg is down to them, running the final gauntlet to get the crucial cargo to where it's needed most. but it doesn't always go to plan. distant bombing. a stray shell could land at any moment. this is not the place you want to get stuck. shelled every day, this final stretch in is the most

dangerous. but once inside the town, the firstjob is to drop off the aid before the next bombardment. oleh sedun is a policeman from western ukraine, almost 1,000km away, deployed to help the people in this frontline town. russian bombing here is indiscriminate. anything can be a target.

music box plays tune.

while ihor�*s parents have left, others likejelena and lyudmila have decided to stay in the basements of the besieged city.

despite the horror, there is one place left in avdiivka that allows people to feel human again, if only for a few hours. in a basement beneath a damaged building, ihorand his team of local volunteers run an underground aid hub. here, you can have a hot meal, wash your clothes, charge your phone — the simple things no longer taken for granted.

distant explosions. with the day drawing to a close and the deliveries done, it's time for ihor and oleksiy to get out. guitar plays, people sing.

hello there. a number of places saw the temperature reach 30 celsius on tuesday. we saw 31 celsius in porthmadog in northwest wales, making it the warmest day there so far for wales. next few days, high pressure will continue to bring a lot of dry, sunny, warm weather, but we are losing the humidity, so we'll be a little bit fresher, more comfortable, certainly cooler

and fresher during the overnight periods. now, high pressure sitting towards scandinavia will bring a fine day for wednesday. light onshore breezes affecting eastern england — that will bring temperatures down somewhat. could just see an isolated shower, western scotland, perhaps northern ireland, but most places will be dry and we'll see those temperatures reaching the mid to upper 20 celsius. but always cooler along north sea coast , 20—22 or 23 degrees there. as we head through wednesday night, see a little bit of mist and fog develop once again. most places will be dry, any showers fading away and temperatures ranging from around 19—14 degrees. again, humidity will be lower, so a more comfortable night for sleeping. so, for thursday, then, we start off a little bit of mist and fog here and there. otherwise, it's another dry, sunny day with a little bit of fairweather cloud into the afternoon. again, just a chance of an isolated shower developing across some western areas. most places, though, will remain dry. and again, with that onshore breeze, it's much cooler along north sea coasts —

21 degrees there. it's the mid to high 20s. elsewhere now, we start to see some changes as we push towards the end of the week, this area of low pressure starts to move into western areas. that could bring a few showers, but high pressure continues to bring fine and dry weather for most of the country for friday. we've lost the onshore breeze, so it will be warmer along north sea coasts. winds will be light across the board. lots of sunshine into the afternoon, but a chance of some showers or thunderstorms pushing into the far west later in the day. but again, those temperatures mid to high 20s for most of us — very pleasantly warm and less humid. as we head into the weekend, though, it does look like this area of low pressure becomes a bit more established across the western side of the country. a few showers could get towards the east as well, but it's always bumping up against that area of high pressure, so it could take its while to reach more southern and eastern areas. but you can see it's an unsettled theme for the weekend and indeed even into next week, but for the best part, it should stay on the warm side.

live from washington, this is bbc news. welcome to viewers on pbs in america. former president donald trump pleads not guilty to federal charges in a miami courthouse. we'll have full coverage and analysis. the bbc�*s ukraine correspondent is one of the first western journalists to reach areas reclaimed from russian control. we've heard outgoing mortar fire and what goes out typically comes back. we've just seen incoming fire just a few hundred metres away. plus, the fab four meets ai. how paul mccartney is using artificial intellligence to finish off a beatles record.