us secretary of state antony blinken holds talks with china's top diplomat on the second day of his trip to beijing, aimed at soothing tensions between the two sides. a bbc investigation casts doubt on the greek authorities�* account of the boat disaster in which hundreds of migrants are feared to have died. plus, the royal mint unveils a new 50p coin to pay tribute to the windrush generation. hello, i'm carl nasman. we begin in beijing, where us secretary of state anthony blinken is having talks with china's top diplomat wang yi on the last day of a whirlwind visit to china. it still isn't known whether he will meet china's president, xijinping. mr blinken touched down in beijing on sunday morning, and embarked on more than five

and a half hours of talks, plus a two—hour dinner, with his chinese counterpart, foreign minister qin gang. american officials described the talks as candid and constructive, but the only concrete development thus far is a commitment from the two countries to loosen visa restrictions on each other�*s citizens, and to hold more talks in washington in the future. for its part, china's state media reported that... "qin gang pointed out that the taiwan issue is the core of china's core interests, the most important issue in sino—us relations, and the most prominent risk." right now, mr blinken is meeting with wang yi, the director of the chinese communist party's office of the central foreign affairs commission — effectively the country's most senior foreign affairs official. live now to our china correspondent in beijing, stephen mcdonell. i'm sure you've been watching

the meetings closely over this whirlwind trip. right now, secretary blinken meeting china's top diplomats. what should we be watching for in those talks?— should we be watching for in those talks? the reason he is meetin: those talks? the reason he is meeting him _ those talks? the reason he is meeting him is, _ those talks? the reason he is meeting him is, in _ those talks? the reason he is meeting him is, in the - those talks? the reason he is| meeting him is, in the chinese system, wang yi is above the foreign minister, like the communist party's foreign minister, if i could put it that way. a very important person for him to meet. i think it will be similar to yesterday, similar themes. it really the main goal in this, because expectations are so low, is to re—establish the lines of communication between the two superpowers and pave the two superpowers and pave the way for more high—level meetings in future. if they can do those things, both sides will have considered it a success. of course, they are talking about other issues in theory. you mentioned making it easy for people to get visas and the like. so there are other discussions taking place,

but in terms of a concrete outcome, for example, qin gang, the foreign minister, has already been invited to washington and said he will go. in their minds, that would be a concrete outcome. as i say, the bar is very low in terms of what they hope to achieve. there is speculation today, and this is what we are looking towards in the next hours, as towards in the next hours, as to whether or not the secretary of state will have a direct meeting with china's leader, xi jinping. do we know any more about that, and what is the symbolism there about whether they end up meeting they don't? we've not had any official word that it's going to happen. but it does seem likely. we are not getting officials telling us it won't happen, put it that way. if the secretary of state antony blinken meets china's top leader xijinping, of course that sends a clear message, certainly in china. i

mean, what it shows is that beijing, at the top level, is reaching out to washington, to an extent. and i suppose it also shows, and it will be all over the television here tonight for local viewers, that washington is reaching out to beijing. so it's kind of clearing the way for more communication, showing it's ok for other government departments to be having more dealings with the us. so although only symbolic, symbolism means a lot in china, so it would be quite something if that meeting takes place. equally, there's been so much expectation built up that that is going to happen, it will be quite something if a meeting doesn't take place, i suppose. this is something ifind interesting, bill gates was meeting in china with china's president, xijinping. what does that say? the tensions are so high, but potentially not as high in terms of economic or

business meetings between the countries. xi business meetings between the countries. , , ., ., countries. xijinping had a face-to-face _ countries. xijinping had a face-to-face meeting - countries. xi jinping had a | face-to-face meeting with countries. xi jinping had a - face-to-face meeting with bill face—to—face meeting with bill gates last friday. we mentioned antony blinken was going to meet xijinping. it antony blinken was going to meet xi jinping. it would be quite something if he meets bill gates and not antony blinken. this is another reason we think the meeting with the secretary of state will go ahead. china, though, it does want to court us entrepreneurs, they want foreign investment. despite the crackdown is, despite the problems, china's doing its best to say the place is open for business. also interestingly, in the discussion between antony blinken and qin gang, the foreign minister, yesterday, a key thing they also discussed in principle, having more flights between the us and china. this is something the business community here really wants. so the fact they are talking... not only chinese

business, but us businesses and foreign businesses based in china. so you would have that meeting with bill gates, if they can get the slight going, this is all a means of trying to show nervous investors that china is still open for business. but there are big hurdles of course. interesting stuff, hurdles of course. interesting stuff. thank _ hurdles of course. interesting stuff, thank you _ hurdles of course. interesting stuff, thank you so _ hurdles of course. interesting stuff, thank you so much - stuff, thank you so much recovering those talks in beijing. earlier, i spoke with susan thornton, the us�*s acting assistant secretary for east asian and pacific affairs from 2017 to 2018. i want to go back to day one. it sounds like little concrete progress, but is just seeing these two diplomats sitting at the same table and talking for that many hours, should it be considered some kind of progress? yeah, i definitely think it's progress. we haven't had a us secretary of state in china

for almost five years, which is unprecedented since the normalisation of relations. i would say a meeting of 7.5 hours including dinner... they weren't really expected to come out with a long list of deliverables, it's more of an icebreaker after a long hiatus. and after a rough couple of years, i think both sides said the relationship is in a nadir and they want to work to stabilise things. the first day i thought has gone better than expected, actually. in terms of day two, beginning about now, secretary blinken meeting with china's top foreign affairs official, what should we be watching for in those talks? well, of course, these two men did meet on the sidelines of the munich security conference after secretary blinken postponed his originally scheduled visit in february.

that was a very testy meeting, because basically the us was talking a lot about whether china would ship lethal aid to russia in its war against ukraine. the chinese felt ambushed by that. so it left a very sour taste. the meeting tomorrow will probably be quite cordial, very businesslike. i think that's where we will have conversations about some of the bigger issues on their minds. it sounds like they talked a lot about taiwan on the first day. i'm sure wang yi will talk more about taiwan, it's certainly the most important issue from the chinese perspective. but i think secretary blinken and wang yi will also talk more about ukraine and some of the other problems on the global stage, problems between the us and china. you mentioned taiwan, and china saying in their statement after day one saying it was the most prominent risk

for relations between the two countries. in your opinion, how should secretary blinken go about bringing up and discussing the issue of taiwan? taiwan has always been the kind of key issue in the us—china relationship going all the way back to normalisation. the chinese always say it's the most sensitive issue. i think they would even say that if they have some kind of assurances or feel somehow that the taiwan issue is being treated seriously by the united states, then all other issues can be dealt with in a businesslike manner. there's no problems, really, between the us and china. only taiwan, in their view, is a problem. that's not exactly how the us sees it, we have a whole list of things we want to raise with the chinese. but i think what they will be

looking for from secretary blinken is more on this idea that whether or not the us is shifting from its traditional view of one china policy, which incorporates a lot of detailed things, but to some extent has been a balance between discouraging the use of force by mainland china, and discouraging moves towards independence on the part of taiwan, to see whether the us is still determined to strike that balance. so far, secretary blinken has met with a couple of top diplomats. we don't yet know if he will have a meeting with china's leader xi jinping. what kind of message do you think it would send if that meeting does not take place on this trip? yeah, it's interesting that that has become a kind of focal point for a lot of people in looking at the visit. of course, the protocol for these visits for these visits is pretty unequal.

i mean, the secretary of state, a foreign minister, wouldn't normally meet with the presidentjust in the regular order or protocol. but it is true that chinese presidents have — generally, not every time, but generally — received us secretaries of state when they visit china. and we try to have the us president receive their top foreign policy officials as well. it should be, according to diplomatic protocol, a reciprocal kind of move. i think there is a question as to whether, given the past few years of rocky relations, given the transition we see in the relative power between the two countries, that this may be the point at which this protocol tradition is changed. i think everyone will be looking to see if that's the case here. i hope that secretary blinken would meet with xi jinping, because i think that would be important to do at this point if we are trying to restart normal diplomatic cadence

between the two countries, which i think is very important. we will be watching to see if that meeting does take place. susan thornton, thank you so much. thank you. now to greece, where the greek authorities are facing mounting questions about whether more could have been done to prevent a trawler carrying hundreds of migrants from capsizing. 78 people are confirmed to have died, but it's thought several hundred people had been on board the vessel. critics say the coastguard should have intervened earlier to escort the trawler to safety. the greek coastguard had claimed that the boat was keeping a steady course towards italy and not in need of rescue. but the bbc�*s own research suggests that the overcrowded vessel could have been in difficulty hours before it sank. the greek authorities have yet to respond to those findings our europe correspondent, nick beake is in kalamata in greece, investigating the ship's final movements. last tuesday morning, from the air, authorities spot the migrant boat. this is a surveillance photo.

a simulation we've obtained from a ship—tracking service shows civilian boats in the area in the run—up to the sinking. coastguard and military vessels do not appear. the yellow pin shows where it eventually sinks. at around 1500 gmt, a ship called the lucky sailor — which gave us its logbook — turns north and is asked by the coastguard to supply food and water to the migrant boat. soon after, says the coastguard, its helicopter finds the migrant boat on a steady course. but two—and—a—half hours later, at around 6pm, another vessel, the faithful warrior, comes to the same area and also supplies food to the boat. bbc verify has confirmed this is footage of it happening. from 7:40 until 10:40, greek officials — from a discreet distance — see the boat keeping a steady course and speed, according to their initial statement. but they later published

this close—up image, in the same time period, which shows no waves around the migrant boat, suggesting it's hardly moving. and let's look again at the activity of the last seven hours. it's all around one specific spot, suggesting the migrant boat has hardly moved. remember, all this time, greece says the vessel is not in trouble and is on its way to italy, so no rescue is needed. it is at 11pm that the boat sinks with hundreds on board. and there's a frenzy of ships coming to help, including the celebrity beyond, from where this footage was taken and later sent to the bbc. a luxury yacht, the mayan queen, is then instructed to assist and takes the 100 survivors to shore. they reach safely the port of kalamata, but leave behind serious questions about the whole greek response. meanwhile, nine men suspected of people smuggling are set

to appear in court on monday in southern greece. pakistani officials say they've also arrested several people, including an alleged smugglerfrom pakistani—administered kashmir. while bodies are still being recoverd, hundreds remain missing, including people from syria, egypt and pakistan, which has declared a national day of mourning for the victims. our south asia regional editor anbarasan ethirajan has more. many families are waiting for answers, because a significant number of pakistani youths are thought to be aboard that disaster—prone boat where many people are still missing. one father was telling the local media how the human traffickers were luring his son with the promise of a good job in europe, and they were paying more than $7,000 — and then finally, they ended up on this boat. and he's not hearing any information about his son. this is the case with many of the families, and one police officer told the local media 21 people from one particular village were on board the ship, and they were missing —

and that's why the pakistani government is now trying to find out more information on what really happened. they have already declared a day of mourning, and the pakistani flag will fly at half—mast, and the government has also formed a committee to look into this tragedy and see how they can prevent people from going in this illegal manner. voters in switzerland have backed government proposals designed to cut fossil fuel use and reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050. the final tally showed that 59% of people approved the measures. they will see more than $3.5 billion invested to help households and businesses switch away from using imported oil and gas, and move to renewable energy. the government had backed the measures, saying that switzerland needs to take action to protect the environment, and protect its energy security. but opponents said it would increase the cost of energy and put a strain on finances.

our rich preston spoke to greenpeace switzerland climate expert georg klingler who started by explaining what the new vote means. i think this vote is a really important step towards reaching the paris agreement, and i think what's unique about it is the swiss people said, "yes, we want to go to net zero, we want to quit oil, gas and coal," and we decided on a linear reduction path from 2030 onwards, and we also decided on rapid admission cuts like, as you said, $3.2 billion will be invested in getting businesses and households on this net zero path. it's interesting you mention the swiss people voted for this, because critics of these proposals say that this will push up energy costs — if that is indeed the case, why do you think the people were convinced this was the right thing to do?

i think this narrative about higher energy costs when we go to the energy transition, when we switch to solar, wind and water energy, it's just wrong. and people understand this because it's an investment that we will pay back. so we need to invest now more money than we would. it would be much cheaper than staying with climate—wrecking fossilfuels or going for nuclear energy. i wanted to ask you about nuclear energy there, because finland is concerned about its energy security — it buys a lot of fossil fuels from russia, so it's gone down the nuclear path. why did switzerland not consider that? i have to say this vote didn't say anything about nuclear, it said much about quitting fossil fuels. and it said that we will invest in renewable energies. so i think the nuclear path is just not attractive

in switzerland because nobody wants to invest in it, we can't find any companies that want to go down that path. but we see lots of households that want to put solar on their roofs and we see communities that favour wind energy, and switzerland already has a lot of water, so 60% of our electricity already comes from water energy, so we are in a good position to go to 100% quite quickly. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. bringing you different - stories from across the uk. it really looks clear to me that these are marketed for children. these e—cigarettes have been confiscated from pupils at harrogate grammar school, but this hasn't deterred many from continuing to vape. many, many headteachers across all the networks that i'm in are all talking about the issue of vaping in schools, which seems to have emerged post—pandemic. 11 headteachers in the harrogate district have now signed a letter

expressing their concern about children possessing vapes at school. the dangerous levels of metals, that we're just starting to understand, that is in some of these vapes — that really worries me about what we're doing for these young people. without id, it's probably easier for me in town to get a vape than it is to buy a pint or something. it's just not as big a deal as drinking or drugs. for more stories . from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. you're live with bbc news. scotland's former first minister, nicola sturgeon, has appeared in public for the first time since her arrest a week ago. she was released without charge as part of a police investigation into the finances of the scottish national party. speaking outside her home she maintained her innocence. i can't say very much just now. what i will say is... reiterate the statement

i issued last sunday. i am certain that i have done nothing wrong. i intend to be back in parliament in the early part of the week. i'll make myself available for questions then, obviously within the constraints that i'm referring to right now. to colombia now, and a closer look at an extraordinary story of survival after four children were found in the jungle a0 days after a plane crash back in may. the bbc�*s visualjournalism team has been mapping the massive search effort that found them. mimi swaby breaks it down. the plane the children were flying in crashed over colombia's southeastern amazon on the 1st of may. now, the body of the mother, the pilot and an indigenous leader on board were all recovered at the site. however, the children, now 13, nine, five and one, were then missing for a0 days before they were found by a search party consisting of 160 soldiers and 70 indigenous people. now, all the children were found malnourished, exhausted and dehydrated,

but they were found alive. the bbc�*s visualjournalism team has been mapping out a possible route the children took. they found multiple items during the a0 days, including a nappy and parts of a bottle thought to belong to the youngest sibling. so these were found in the middle area here, and later on, there were more fruit parts found such as passion fruit pits, peel, and then footprints later on in the a0 days. but heavy rain really made this operation hard, as it washed away a lot of the footprints. day after day, soldiers with sniffer dogs and local indigenous groups scoured the jungle area. now, the search was split into one—kilometre squares, and it's thought that teams walked more than 2,600 kilometres in total. so, again, a huge area. two patrols, actually in opposite directions, zigzagged across the area, making sure that nothing was left unturned and there was no possibility they would

miss the children. now, the search commander said that this wasn't just a search for a needle in a haystack, but more for a tiny flea in a vast carpet because they kept moving. so it really is a miracle these children were found in such a difficult terrain to navigate. in the uk, the royal mint is unveiling a new 50p coin marking the 75 years since hmt empire windrush�*s arrival to tilbury docks. it's one of the first in the uk to depict black people and pays tribute to the many british caribbean and commonwealth citizens. the bbc has been given rare access to the royal mint, as greg mckenzie reports. these are the first pictures of the new 50p piece which pays tribute to the many british caribbean and commonwealth citizens who arrived in the uk on board the empire windrush between 19a8 and 1973. thousands came to help rebuild the country following world war ii.

it was multidisciplinary artist, bristol—based valda jackson who was chosen to design the windrush 75th anniversary coin. she arrived in the uk from jamaica at the age of five. it's quite an honour, really. a privilege to be given the opportunity to represent us and the generation before us in this way. valda started work on the image almost two years ago and spent months perfecting it. once valda had finished her artwork, it was sent to the royal mint, who used specialist 3d software to turn the paper drawing into a coin. only then was it ready to be approved by his royal highness, king charles himself. they are meeting several times a year with his majesty the king, and the legal entities around him, where they sign off, he personally signs off to say

he is happy for this to appear on his coinage. there are three coins available, all of which go on sale today, ahead of thursday's official windrush day. two are limited edition collectibles in gold and silver. the third is a commemorative coin. the prince of wales, prince william says he wants to wants to make it his mission to tackle homelessness in the uk, and has plans to build social housing on duchy of cornwall land that he receives income from. he made the pledge in an interview with the sunday times. later this month he will launch "a really big project" to help improve living conditions for people in the uk. back to our colleagues in london. stay with us here on bbc news.

hello there. the rain came pouring down on sunday. there was some flooding in places and, for a while, a lot of thunder and lightning as well, but the storms have eased. the rain, though, continues to be heavy and it continues to push its way northwards away from northern england, coming to rest in scotland by monday morning. and it's muggy air that follows behind that rain, so temperatures around 1a or 15 degrees. but we start with that wet weather in the morning in scotland, heavy rain to begin with. it'll move away to the north—west, clearing away to be replaced across the uk by sunny spells and a scattering of showers developing, the odd heavy thundery one in the afternoon for northern ireland and scotland. for england and wales, there'll be fewer showers, particularly in the south, and you may get away with a dry day. it will be warm in the sunshine, the winds a little bit brisker, perhaps, but temperatures in the mid 20s. much better weather for the cricket at edgbaston. but low pressure continues to bring the threat of some rain as we move into tuesday.

we've got that muggy air coming in on that southerly breeze, but that's where the wet weather is moving in from as well. so we've got this heavy, potentially thundery rain moving northwards across england and wales on tuesday morning, up into scotland. some sunshine around outside of that rain, but that could trigger some more thundery showers here and there. and temperatures may not be quite so high on tuesday, 20 to 22 celsius, probably nearer the mark. heading into wednesday, and again, some more warm sunshine, but more heavy, slow—moving, thundery showers breaking out, in particular in scotland, northern ireland, perhaps the north—west of england and north wales. it's drier and it's brighter and it's sunnier towards the south—east and that's where it's warmer as well — 25 or even 26 degrees midweek. may see a little area of high pressure coming in from the south—west on thursday before this rain arrives in from the atlantic on friday. there are some heavy, thundery downpours very close by in the near continent, but thursday should be a drier day. ridge of high pressure,

the air�*s descending more, limiting the amount of showers, limiting the heavy showers. a lot of places will be dry and quite sunny. we will see the highest temperatures again towards the south—east. out towards the west, it is just a little bit cooler. so we've got the chance of some showers for the next few days that could be heavy and thundery. particularly in the south—east later, it should turn drier, but also quite a bit warmer as well.