live from washington, this is bbc news. dozens of students have been killed at a school in western uganda by rebels linked to an islamic state group. the us secretary of state heads to china amid growing tensions between the two countries. and thousands line the streets of london to watch king charles take part in his first trooping the colour since becoming monarch. i'm helena humphrey, thanks forjoining me. we begin in uganda, where an attack by militants linked to islamic state has left scores of teenagers dead. the massacre happened at a secondary school in the town of mpondwe, just 500 metres from the border with the democratic republic of the congo, or drc. it is believed the attackers came

from over the border — the east of the drc has been the site of nearly continuous conflict for two decades. our correspondent, barbara plett usher, sent this report from nairobi — and a warning it does contain distressing details. he survived but has to live with the horror. the community stunned by this brutal attack against children. targetted in their dormitories, the militants set fire to the boys�* residence. the girls were hacked or shot to death as they fled, some abducted. translation: then | they started shooting at the windows and the door. we went to hide under our beds on the floor. as they continued to shoot out the windows, one of us was hit by a bullet and started shouting, "help! "come and help me!" those who escaped still in shock. schools are an easy target, but this was the worst attack in years. there are angry questions. if they are telling us the borders

are secured, security is tight, i want security to tell us where they were when these killers came to kill our people. the military drove the rebels across the border decades ago into the eastern congo, but it didn't defeat them. they are now linked to the islamic state group. translation: security is a collaborative work. | why do you people keep quiet when you see strangers? right now, we have deployed planes in various places to hunt them down. it's an alarming escalation and an unbearable tragedy. barbara plett usher, bbc news, nairobi. us secretary of state antony blinken is en route to beijing, making this the highest—profile visit to china by a us official since president biden took office. it's been five years since a secretary of state has met with chinese counterparts, and us officials say expectations for the meeting are low. tensions have been steadily growing between the countries. my colleague carl nasman

spoke with congressman raja krishnamoorthi, ranking member of the house select committee on us competition with china. congressman, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us. now, blinken�*s visit to china the first by a us secretary of state since 2018, the first major re—engagement between these two countries since the chinese spy balloon saga in february. what are you expecting to see out of this trip? i'm really glad it's happening, i commend the biden administration for being persistent in making sure this trip occurs. but as you know, this is going to be not an end, but a means to an end, and i'm hopeful that it leads to more dialogue, more engagement and kind of stabilising the relationship. taiwan likely to be on the agenda, we've seen several close calls in the taiwan straits. recently, a chinese warship crossed

in front of a us destroyer. what should blinken be doing to reduce tensions between the us and china? i think for some reason, the ccp believes that maybe not having military to military dialogue and having these dangerous manoeuvres and in international waters will somehow lead to us not exercising our freedom of navigation, or for that matter, all the different nations in that neighbourhood. but i think that what they do is they basically create an image of bullying, and as you know, nobody responds well to bullying, and there will be, instead of being de—escalation of the situation, perhaps pressure to escalate. and so, i think secretary blinken, i hope, will convey to them that this type of aggressive manoeuvring, this type of aggression really is counterproductive for everyone in the neighbourhood.

so i would hope that he explains, and i trust that he will, that they understand that we will continue with our transit, that the taiwan strait and the south china sea and other international waters will continue to be areas where different nations exercise their freedom of navigation. and finally, we should have military—to—military dialogue. that is very crucial. blinken said on friday that he'd be raising the issue of illicit drugs on china. i know that you've been outspoken out about fentanyl. a group of republicans have proposed there could be chinese sanctions, to stem the flow of fenta nyl from the country. is that something that you would support? i'm not sure, i'd have to look at that more closely. but what we know is that the people's republic of china is the source of the vast majority of the precursor chemicals that go into the fentanyl that is pressed and made into pills in mexico. and i think a lot of people on capitol hill

are scratching their head, wondering how the ccp would not be aware of the production and the supply chain that leads to fentanyl in america. we've also heard reports in us media that china denies that the country is setting up a spying operation in cuba. it took days for the us to shoot down the suspected chinese spy balloon. do you think the white house is being tough enough on china's surveillance programme? well, i think, as the white house, i believe, said the other day — and its public information — there's long been such operations from cuba. not something that we want to celebrate, but we have to take countermeasures with regard to and to protect ourselves. i think here's the bottom line, which is we know that the ccp operates satellites, operates other means of reconnaissance, and other nations do the same. that does not necessarily mean that our relationship needs to become worse

than it is right now. just to hop in, becausejust to emphasise, this is a suspected spying operation in cuba. that would be about 100 miles from the shores of the united states. sure, but i think what the white house said the other day is that this has long been present in cuba — not that we should be celebrating it, but we need to take countermeasures with regard to it. i think at this point, we have to stabilise the relationships and have dialogue. expectations seem to have been set fairly low for this trip by blinken. in your mind, what would be a success? honestly, i think that this would be successful if there's not a spy balloon! laughter that seems to be a fairly low bar to clear. i think, in addition to that, hopefully we'll have more dialogue,

honestly, carl. at this point, we need to have more engagement and we need to have the opportunity to disabuse, for instance, notions in china that we are out to suppress them, repress them, prevent them from rising, attaining their potential. that is not what folks like myself or my committee members or anyone else wants. we want a relationship where we can engage, but with guardrails, where we can preserve our values and interests and those of our partners and friends as well. i do want to be sure to ask you — blinken has called china's systemic detention of uyghurs in the country a genocide and crimes against humanity. what can the us do for the people of western china? first of all, he's correct about that, and your viewers may know this, but upwards of 2 million uyghur people are in concentration camps right now as we speak, in xinjiang province.

i think what we have do in america is in force the uyghur prevention act. which basically tries to remove goods that are produced by uyghur slave labour, and we're going to urge the uk, as well as our friends and allies around the world, to enact similar measures, because we have to end this genocide. congressman, you're the ranking member of the us select committee on us competition with china. it's one of the rare committees in dc where you see bipartisan cooperation. what can we expect from your committee going forward this year? i think two things. we have to access the economic, technological and security challenges posed by the ccp, and on top of that, we have to propose ways to deal with it. so we're kind of simultaneously doing both. we've had multiple public hearings. we need to be humble and yet serious and act in a bipartisan way

to deal with a very, very challenging situation, to say the least. congressman raja krishnamoorthi, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us. thank you, carl. video footage has emerged showing people dancing at conservative party headquarters in the uk, despite covid lockdown restrictions in 2020. the footage has been obtained by the mirror newspaper. at the time, there were tier 2 restrictions in london, which meant people should not socialise indoors unless they were in the same household. police did investigate this event but did not issue any fines. 0ur political correspondent iain watson has more on what this might mean for the current conservative government. i think it's certainly something which is going to be very unwelcome for rishi sunak. he of course himself got what's called a fixed penalty notice, a fine, for attending a gathering in downing street. he said hejust had turned up early for a meeting, but nonetheless he was fined for what was a gathering

on borisjohnson�*s party at the time, and he really does want to draw a line under this, he wants to leave all this behind, but itjust keeps bobbing up time and time again. of course there'll be lots of attention on the issue on monday, because that's when mps will be debating a report from a cross—party committee of members of parliament which said borisjohnson had effectively lied to parliament on numerous occasions. so that will be an uncomfortable debate for the conservative party to conduct, and it will show differences and potential splits. but also the wider covid inquiry, which is expected to last for years, is also getting under way as well, and certainly i don't think rishi sunak would welcome, perhaps, some of the comments which will inevitably flow once this video has been seen from some of the families for whom this will be very, very raw. so although he's trying to move on and deal with some of the economic challenges at the moment, not least rising interest rates and mortgage rates, once again, he can't quite escape the shadow of his predecessor.

staying in the uk, another conservative mp, david warburton, has announced he is resigning from parliament, forcing another by—election for rishi sunak�*s governing party. speaking to the mail on sunday newspaper, the mp — who represents somerton and froom in south—west england — said he was resigning because he did not believe he would receive a fair hearing over allegations of sexual harrasment. he was suspended from the party in april last year after being accused of sexually harassing three women and attempting to buy cocaine. to southern ukraine, where authorities are reporting at least 16 people are dead and 31 are missing after devastating floods were triggered by the destruction of a russian—held dam, which kyiv and moscow blame each other over. out of the 16 killed, 14 were in the kherson region and two in the mykolaiv region. closer to ukraine's capital, kyiv, falling debris from russian missiles destroyed a community and has left several injured. the bbc�*s yalda hakim has more. 0n the outskirts of the capital,

the community here is busily working away, trying to clean up following that missile attack by the russians. we saw earlier the military had arrived here. they had brought in some roof panels. and you can see the clean—up operation is continuing. the neighbours are getting stuck in, trying to help each other as much as possible. this is a community that has been impacted for the second time this past year. they've said that they have been targeted by russian missiles. the housejust behind me, an 80—year—old woman lived there. she's been taken to hospital. her house looks completely destroyed. earlier, we saw plumes of smoke. and, really, you get a sense of just how bad things have gotten for the people here, just on the outskirts of the capital, kyiv. we can also see parts of shrapnel and parts of the missiles just scattered here on the ground.

a little earlier, i spoke to a 12—year—old boy who was home alone at the time, and he said he rushed to the underground bunker and that's really what saved him. translation: i understood that this the missile because i heard - like, the aircraft, when it's flying, you can the specific sound. i recognise it and i had to hide somewhere. so i went to the shelter. and after that, yeah, that was it, basically. and what were you thinking when you realised there was an attack? i understood that i can die.

and what we all have here will be gone. will be destroyed. that's what i understood. is this something you've been feeling for the past year? i never felt so scared as today. i mean, it was for some time already, but today it was something exceptional. and honestly speaking, i didn't understood what happened. and when did you phone your mum? how did you get in touch with your mum? so i called my mum when i went out of the bunker because there was no connection in there. and i called my mum, but she also had no connection, so then i wrote her a message and i also sent her a video and that's how she understood what happened and came here. you must have been petrified?

translation: i was extremely scared | because i was not at home with him. | he was home alone. and you know what is funny that we quite often hear missiles, we have drones flying above our village. and normally, because it's happening for so, such a long time, recently, we started going to the cellar that we use as a shelter and we have like a room, a deep room in the house that has this two wall rules. so we follow the two wall rules. and i am so grateful to my son because even though he's 12 years old, he managed to make a decision. and if i would be home, we would probably stay in the house. you really get a sense of how much this is impacting the local community here. we heard there from that mother, who expressed pride because her son was able to think quite quickly. even though he was home alone, he rushed to the bunker and she said that's what saved him. and children here across this country have had to really think about these things over the past year — what to do when there is a missile attack, how to react. it's a reality that the people here, notjust in the capital but right across the country, have to think about.

to st petersburg, where russian president vladimir putin has been holding talks with a delegation from seven african nations who've called for peace talks to end the war in ukraine. mr putin told the south african president, cyril ramaphosa, and his colleagues that improving ties with african countries was a priority. he praised what he called their balanced position on the war. many african countries have been hit by the cut in exports of grain and fertiliser as a result of russia's invasion of ukraine. in his opening remarks, mr ramaphosa said he hoped the talks could lead to the end of the conflict. we do firmly believe that this war must be settled, and it must be settled through negotiations and through diplomatic means. the war cannot go on forever. all wars have to be settled and come to an end at some stage. and we are here to communicate

a very clear message — that we would like this war to be ended. we say so because this war is having a negative impact on the african continent and indeed on many other countries around the world. 0ur africa reporter shingai nyoka is in the zimbabwe capital, harare, and has more on the visit. those leaders of those seven countries, or representatives from seven countries, met with president putin and essentially expressed concern about the stability of the region. stability in the region. and they called on him to ensure that there's stability in the region. they also expressed concern

about food security. president ramaphosa from south africa, who's leading that delegation, presented a ten—point plan, if you like, of all the key elements. he said they were there to listen, they were there also to support previous peace proposals, that they wanted to ensure that the blockages that have stopped grain and fertiliser from moving from ukraine in the black sea, to africa, that they be allowed free passage. and as you heard there, he essentially wants russia to respect sovereignty. he also raised the issue of prisoners of war that are in russia, as well as children who have been abducted — allegedly, as ukraine says — into russia. president putin interrupted the presentations by the african delegation very briefly to defend his position, essentially saying that the reason for the instability was the coup d'etat from 2014 — it was his own version of history —

and he also said that he was open to the children being returned to their parents and that they had been evacuated for their safety. so clearly a very defensive position from vladimir putin, but that meeting is still ongoing. here in the us, after a slow start, president biden has held his first political rally of the 2024 election campaign in his birth state of pennsylvania. biden addressed union members in philadelphia, a key demographic in the battleground state. it's biden�*s 13th trip to the city since becoming president. he's also received the endorsement of america's largest union group, the afl—cio. president biden touted his success on infrastructure and what he called "biden—omics," in a speech his campaign said was designed to lay out his economic message. let me tell you what it's about — it's about building an economy, literally, not figuratively, from the bottom up and the middle

out, not the top down, because when the middle class does well, everybody does well. applause to scotland now. the first minister, humza yousaf, is urging the uk government to step up efforts to secure the release of a scottish blogger who's been jailed in india for six years. in a letter to rishi sunak, the first minister said jagtar sinthohal had been wrongfully imprisoned. mr sinthohal was in punjab for his wedding when he was arrested over an alleged murder conspiracy. 0ur news correspondent jamie mcivor has more on this. jagtar sinthohal is from dunbarton, near glasgow. he's been held without conviction on terror charges since 2016. his family claim he's been tortured and forced to sign blank confession documents — that's a claim which is strongly denied by the indian authorities. now, mr sinthohal has been detained in a number of prisons over the years.

he's accused of funding the purchase of weapons used to assassinate hindu political and religious leaders. he claims his arrest was politically motivated. now, his family in scotland continue to fight for his release — and earlier this week, his brother met the new first minister of scotland, humza yousaf. it was a really positive meeting, to the extent straight away after the meeting, he's called for his release, and he promised to write to rishi sunak, and he's done that. i don't know what else he can do because it's not within humza yousaf�*s reach to be able to go to india and bring him back home. but it is within the uk government's reach. i've got a statement here from the uk foreign office, it says it has raised its concerns, including the allegations of torture, with the indian authorities on more than 100 occasions. and it also says that consular staff visit him regularly to check on his welfare. the most recent visit was last month. meanwhile, the uk foreign secretary, james cleverly, most recently discussed mr sinthohal�*s case with india's external affairs minister in march.

thousands of people turned out to watch king charles take part in his first trooping the colour since becoming monarch. he became the first monarch to take part in event on horseback in more than 30 years. 0ur royal correspondent nicholas witchell has more. finally, it was a birthday parade for him. guards! royal salute! present arms! god save the king plays king charles took the salute in his own right as monarch. the king was on horseback — a ratherfriskier mount than he might have wished. princes george and louis and princess charlotte were taken to watch from a window overlooking horse guards as the parade got under way.

0n the dias, queen camilla in an outfit modelled on the uniform of the grenadier guards, of which she is now honorary colonel. and the princess of wales in emerald green — she's colonel of the irish guards. for the first time in more than 30 years, all five of the foot guard regiments were on parade. the colour being trooped was that of the welsh guards. and then back up the mall to buckingham palace. a carriage ride for the children, with george leading the waving. the king led the principal members of the family onto the palace balcony for the fly—past, which couldn't take place on coronation day because of the weather. but in the clear skies of summer appeared the battle

of britain memorial flight and some of the raf�*s latest and loudest jets, including 18 typhoon fighters spelling out the letters cr, charles rex, in tribute to britain's new king. nicholas witchell, bbc news. in other news: teachers in england will go on strike for two more days injuly, in their long running dispute with the government over pay. the national education union says teachers will take action on wednesday, july 5 on wednesday, july 5 and friday, july 7. the uk government says the strikes will cause damage to learning and disruption to parents. iam i am helena iam helena humphrey i am helena humphrey in washington, dc. thanks for your company and do and friday, july 7. stay with us here on bbc news.

hello there. we saw a lot more cloud around on saturday, and it signals a change in the type of weather. we did manage some sunshine, mind you, and temperatures, 27 celsius in the south—east of england, where it is much better weather for a fly—past this time. but things are really going to kick off on sunday, especially later on in the afternoon, through the evening, a lot of rain developing, could be some large damaging hail. torrential rain likely to bring some flooding, and a lot of thunder and lightning, as well. we start the day with some sunshine, but may well be some sharp showers from overnight in the south—east of england and east anglia. and as temperatures rise, so the cloud builds up, and we'll see more of those downpours developing, particularly across england and wales and into northern ireland. probably not so many showers in scotland. more in the way of sunshine here, and temperatures around 22—24 celsius — and again, it'll be quite muggy. now, we may well have some thunderstorms

across northern ireland, but the worst of those will be developing across parts of england and wales. and through the latter part of the afternoon, into the evening, really wet weather will push its way northwards up into northern england, away from southern england and the midlands, and wales, and eventually that wetter weather arrives overnight into scotland. some torrential rain likely to bring some flooding, a lot of thunder and lightning in there, as well. that wet weather still across northern scotland on monday — it does tend to ease off. following on from that, there'll be some sunny spells, a scattering of showers, 1—2 of them on the heavy side perhaps. many places may well be dry. still quite warm, temperatures again around about in the mid—20s, more likely, across the midlands and eastern parts of england. now instead of high pressure that's brought dry weather for some areas of the country for so long, it'll be low pressure that's sitting close by over the week ahead, which will bring the threat of some more heavy and thundery downpours. there'll be some sunshine around as well on tuesday, and it should be quite warm. many eastern areas likely

to be dry — it's out towards the west that we've got most of those thunderstorms developing, and again, there could be some localised flooding. so temperatures around about 22—23 celslius on tuesday. and we'll keep temperatures over the weekend around the mid—20s or so. there will be some further heavy, perhaps thundery showers over the weekend. maybe turning a little less humid, a little fresher, and perhaps some southeastern parts of the uk later in the week will be a bit drier.

on information with the security services and fear tactics.