hello, i'm helena humphrey. we begin tonight with developments out of russia where authorities have ordered the arrested of the leader of the wagner mercenary group, yevgeny prigozhin, a key figure in russia's full—scale invasion of ukraine. russia began a criminal investigation into prigozhin, accusing him of calling an armed rebellion. prigozhin accused russia of launching a deadly missile strike on wagner troops on friday. and called on russia's military to be stopped. tonight, prigozhin claims that wagner troops have crossed russia's border with ukraine in multiple locations. he vows that he and his mercenaries will "destroy everything that's in our way." senior russian generals have called on the fighters

to stand down, saying they are playing into the enemy's hands. the bbc in unable to verify prigozhin�*s claims and no images of wagner forces in russia have yet to emerge. moscow is tightening its security in response to developments. here's footage of military tanks in russia's capital. and here's new footage of tanks passing by moscow's parliament. also according to russian media, the kremlin has reportedly activated �*0perated fortress�* in the city of rostov—on—don, 100km east of ukrainian border as well as a plan to ensure all kremlin buildings are protected in moscow. and reuters reports that the governor of russia's southern rostov region that people should stay indoors and keep calm. the kremlin has said "president putin has been briefed on all events around prigozhin." it added, "the necessary measures are being taken."

and called on prigozhin to halt his "illegal actions." and all this, as ukrainian military say that all air raid alerts are ringing across ukraine, with reports of explosions in dnipro and kharkiv. internationally, the white house is also reacting, releasing a statement saying they are monitoring the situation. here's the wagner leader's message earlier. translation: they have been shooting at us, - we've been shooting at them, and that has been going on these eight long years — from 2014 to 2022. sometimes the amount of shelling and exchange of fire has increased and sometimes it has eased. on february 2a there was nothing extraordinary. now the russian defence ministry is trying to deceive the president and the public by claiming there was insane aggression on the part of ukraine and they were going to attack us, along with the entire nato block. so the so—called special military operation on february 2a was launched for completely different reasons.

meanwhile, the deputy commander of the russian ukraine campaign, sergey surovikin told wagner soldiers to stand down. translation: i addressed the command officers - and fighters of wagner pmc. together we've been down a long and difficult road. we fought with you, we rested, we suffered losses, we had victories together, we are of the same blood. you must do this before it is too late. obey the will and command of the elected president of the russian federation. stop the convoys, return to bases and places where you are stationed. in the last hour i spoke with my colleague vitaly shevchenko, bbc monitoring russia editor, about the latest developments. thank you so much forjoining us. just bring us up—to—date with the latest, what you're hearing. the situation in the russian capital seems to be relatively quiet.

all we know is that a certain number of troops have been deployed to the streets of moscow. we've seen videos and photographs of army trucks and personnel carriers on the streets of moscow, but the fact is that russia's media environment is very repressive and there's simply no independent media left to report objectively what's happening so all these statements issued by yevgeny prigozhin, they can give us an idea of what he is trying to do but it would be naive to take them completely at face value given his history of information manipulation. within the past half hour, yevgeny prigozhin issued yet another audio message which he posted on social media in which it claims his forces have crossed into russia's southern rostov region which is right on the border

with ukraine, and according to prigozhin he's trying to enter the city of rostov. what we're not seeing are credible reports of any clashes between the russian army and wagner mercenaries. that does not appear to be happening at the moment in time. so you don't have reports of that activity, as you say vitaly, this moment in time but the fact that russian authorities have moved troops into areas such as moscow for example, does that mean that they are taking these comments from prigozhin seriously? theres that and also the fact that two senior generals have made appeals to wagner and these videos are also circulating on russian

social media. that means that this is being taken seriously. sergey surovikin, the former head of the russian forces in ukraine has called on wagner to stop and the other general who is the deputy head of the military intelligence in russia, he had spoken of a military coup and he has urged wagner to stop before it is too late. also, russian state tv which is reflective of the kremlin�*s views and intentions, earlier this evening, it interrupted its programming to broadcast what it called an emergency news bulletin which basically recapped all the official accusations against wagner and denials of targeting its bases. and also, unusually, it mentioned yevgeny prigozhin by name so that on state tv, that's rare, and it also suggests that the kremlin is really concerned about what yevgeny prigozhin may be doing. and briefly if you don't mind,

vitaly, you mentioned that some of this is unusual, particularly, for example, mentioning prigozhin by name. how significant do you think this moment could be? there's lots of speculation about whether this is real because people who've been watching russia for years, they used various games of smoke and mirrors and cloak and dagger so there's also speculation about the behind the scenes game that's being played by the powers that be in russia so a lot of people will be watching russia intently over the coming weekend.

and you of course especially. vitaly shevchenko there from bbc monitoring. great to have your reporting. thank you so much for being with us. also breaking news from ukraine — reuters reports kyiv�*s mayor vitali klitschko says drone fragments hit a parking lot in central kyiv early saturday. emergency services were dispatched and a reminder all of the city has remained subject to air alerts for more than an hour. as well as other towns. here in the united states, intelligence agencies have declassified their report on the potential links between the origin of covid—i9 and the wuhan institute of virology. the report says us intelligence found no direct evidence that the covid—i9 pandemic stemmed from an incident at the wuhan institute. for more let's cross now to our correspondent peter bowes. peter what more does this report tell us?

this report is quite narrow in its scope. it is only four pages long but the key headline which frankly doesn't really take us much further forward, it doesn't give us much new information but it is that conclusion that there is no direct evidence that a research related incident at the wuhan institute led to the covid pandemic which some people suspected it came directly from that particular research lab and it is a place that we know had been doing research into the coronavirus before the pandemic. we know that some genetic engineering work had been going on there and some workers at laboratory fell sick. nevertheless, no direct evidence that anything that was happening, any research programme, led to the global pandemic. i say that this is quite narrow in its scope because what it doesn't do is explore in any detail at all the two most broadly plausible reasons for the spread of the

pandemic, a, perhaps it spread naturally from at suspected animal or that it came from another laboratory possibly in china which of course is something that beijing denies. and peter, are all intelligence agencies on the same page in terms of how the pandemic began? know they are not and we have known for some time at the different agencies in this country have some degree of disagreement. yes, some agencies agree that it could well have been a natural spread of the virus but others like the department of energy and fbi via more to the argument that it could have originated from a laboratory, or the department of energy and their report released with a low level of confidence so far from conclusive. what there is agreement, it seems, across agencies, is that this virus was not genetically created, it wasn't genetically engineered.

and how long—awaited was this declassification? it has been waiting for us for some time. there has been clamouring in many areas for a release of more information. there was a law passed in congress earlier this year president biden signed it, and this release in the last few hours is a result of that. any people see this is crucially important. from a scientific respective stop to —— to absolutely get to the bottom of the origins of covid—i9, acknowledging that it might only be a matter of time before there is another virus that spreads around the world and everything that can be learned from the last one in terms of topping that spread or indeed preventing —— stopping that spread. must be aspired to, everything must be done that is possible to get to the root of the cause and clearly that hasn't been done yet. ailiiur hasn't been done yet. our correspondence _ hasn't been done yet. our correspondence there - hasn't been done yet. our correspondence there peter bowes. peter, thank you very much. we turn now to warnings over

the safety of the titan sub that imploded near the wreck of the titanic this week. according to e—mails seen by the bbc, the boss of the company that operated the trip repeatedly dismissed concerns over the craft�*s safety. deep sea specialist rob mccallum told oceangate ceo stockton rush that clients could be at risk and he urged him to stop using the sub until it had been classified by an independent body. in an e—mail sent in 2018, maccallum warned rush that: stockton rush replied:

earlier, my colleague sumi somaskanda spoke to our correspondent carl nasman, who's on the scene in boston. first of all, the us and canada have announced they are launching investigations into what happened, tell us more about what they will be examining. earlier of course we heard from relatives of one of the people that was on that vessel, hamish harding, they have been calling for a full investigation into this incident, it looks like they will be getting two. on the us aside, confirming to bbc news the us national transportation safety board will be involved in an investigation into this incident which will be led by the us coast guard, and on the canadian side, the transportation board will be looking into this incident as well, they have announced they are launching a probe and they will be conducting some interviews on the ground in newfoundland,

and stjohn�*s which is where all of the ships had been launched, the closest landmass to where the dive site is, so we are expecting some investigations now. we're not sure exactly when they will ramp up or how they will be co—ordinating between each other but there are now some national bodies into this. and carl, this announcement coming as we said there are more questions being asked about safety standards and oceangate. what have you been hearing? yes, there has been a chorus of concerns, many coming from that e—mail exchange from 2018, so a testy exchange, several e—mails we have seen at the bbc between the two, rob mccallum expert in the field, and the ceo himself, the late stockton rush. and this was more of the same, we have heard this from experts, concerns about the materials used in the titan, in the hull, the carbon fibre used, outside of the norm for the industry.

we also heard concerns about the lack of certification of the titan, and even seeing they should stop use altogether until there was a certification done. interestingly this was back in 2018. the first dive to the site of the titanic wreckage was in 2021, so this was several years before the titan started making these trips. and more recent concerns being raised in the last few days, the director of the movie titanicjames cameron who's also made several, more than 30 trips to the titanic wreckage himself, and he's been speaking out about similar concerns, so this is a timeline dating all the way back five years or so, even before the titan was fully operational in terms of going to those depths. and can you bring us date and recovery efforts to pick up the debris of the titan submersible? these recovery efforts are continuing, and they're being led by some of these rovs, remotely operated vehicles, there is at least one

in the area that will continue to scour the ocean floor, some 2.5 miles below the surface, looking at the debris itself, we know that five key pieces of the titan have been detected already, they'll take a closer looks, maybe send some images back above and eventually tried to recover those items altogether, bring them up to the surface and look at them closely, examine especially any bits of carbon fibre they can find, see if that material had been stressed or fatigued, maybe that led to catastrophic implosion. also interestingly they will be looking at the debris fields, a couple of them that they found, they can tell by the size and shape, approximately at what point that vessel may have imploded. a widerfield would indicate it imploded earlier into its dive. a much smallerfield would imply that it made it nearly to the bottom before some sort of catastrophe took place. joining us now is parks stephenson, the executive director at uss kidd veterans museum. he's an explorer and expert in deep

sea exploration. parks, that you forjoining us on the programme. ijust want to begin my getting your thoughts, your reaction to this tragedy? of course, i am overwhelmed by the human boss here in this tragedy. nargeolet was a colleague of mine, i've been on expeditions with him and his loss is very keenly felt, so that's the overriding emotion is the human loss in this tragedy. is the human loss in this tragedy-— is the human loss in this traced .~ . , , ., tragedy. we are very sorry to hear about — tragedy. we are very sorry to hear about the _ tragedy. we are very sorry to hear about the loss - tragedy. we are very sorry to hear about the loss of - tragedy. we are very sorry to - hear about the loss of somebody who was one of your colleagues. i understand you were approached by oceangate a number of years ago, during the construction of the titan. you didn't take that position. tell us why? yes, i was an aerospace engineer at the time and i did

deep ocean exploring, largely concerned around titanic at the time. oceangate had approached me with an offer for employment to be an on board titanic expert. at that time, the submersible titan was being constructed and i got a look at some of the conceptual drawings of the vessel and i had some concerns on a very basic level. granted, this is my opinion. i was not directly involved in the construction or the selection of materials used in the submersible but what i saw in these drawings ran counter to everything in my engineering and my diving experience. how so specifically? _ and my diving experience. how so specifically? can _ and my diving experience. how so specifically? can you - and my diving experience. how so specifically? can you give an example? you mentioned materials?— materials? yes, from a very basic level, _ materials? yes, from a very basic level, when _ materials? yes, from a very basic level, when you - materials? yes, from a very basic level, when you are i materials? yes, from a very i basic level, when you are down in the extreme deep, pressure is your greatest enemy and it's going to be pressing in on all

areas of the container that you're in. air is incompressible and the outside pressure is trying to press in on that container and release that air so therefore, in my opinion, the ideal shape for a pressure vessel should be spherical in shape. it should be made of the strongest metal available, titanium. and all of the fittings that attach the halves of the sphere should be of the same material, should be homogenous. this design was cylindrical in shape. there was a cylindrical body with two in caps. the materials used were not homogenous. you would have titanium and caps glued to a carbon fibre body —— end caps. in my opinion, that was a very basic floor. i do understand they were trying to be

cutting—edge on it but it seems to be violating some of the basic tenants of physics of operating in the deep—to my mind. i want to play you what the co—founder of oceangate, guillermo soehnlein, had to say, and get your thoughts. let's listen. any expert who weighs in on this, including mr cameron, will also admit that they were not there for the design of the sub, the engineering of the sub, the design of the sub and certainly not for the rigorous test programme that the sub went though. parks, were you satisfied with the test programme that the sub went through? well, as dmo said in his recording, i wasn't there. i was diving in other similar things at the time of the time that they were deploying the sub during the time of their testing —— guillermo. i received word, second hand,

admittedly, that titan was not passing her certification trials. and that she never obtained a proper certification. so, guillermo is correct. i was not there. i was not there to oversee it. but there are certain standards in every other submersible in the community followed and, to my knowledge, titan was the only vessel that failed to follow those standards. crosstalk. what i can — those standards. crosstalk. what i can say _ those standards. crosstalk. what i can say from _ those standards. crosstalk. what i can say from that - those standards. crosstalk. what i can say from that is i those standards. crosstalk. | what i can say from that is why are we talking today?— are we talking today? well, as ou sa , are we talking today? well, as you say. very _ are we talking today? well, as you say, very sadly, _ are we talking today? well, as you say, very sadly, we - are we talking today? well, as you say, very sadly, we are i you say, very sadly, we are having this conversation and just to go back to that moment when you declined to take up a position up at oceangate, i wonder, did you communicate your concerns to the company and what was their response to what you had to say? i and what was their response to what you had to say?— what you had to say? i was contacted _ what you had to say? i was contacted by _

what you had to say? i was contacted by who - what you had to say? i was contacted by who i - what you had to say? i was contacted by who i assume j what you had to say? i was i contacted by who i assume was not one of the top level individuals. this certainly was not stockton rush himself, it was one of the members of his staff, and ijust said that the design does not go with... does not make me feel comfortable and i regretfully declined to accept their invitation. that was the extent of it. they accepted that and i never heard from them again. find accepted that and i never heard from them again.— from them again. and so for other people _ from them again. and so for other people participating i from them again. and so for other people participating inj other people participating in these voyages, citizen explorers, for example, do you think they were sufficiently apprised of the risks? and do you think for those kinds of citizen explorers, for example, these kinds ofjourneys should continue? i these kinds of “ourneys should continue? ., , ., these kinds of “ourneys should continue? ., ., these kinds of “ourneys should continue?— continue? i was not on any oceangate — continue? i was not on any oceangate expeditions i continue? i was not on any oceangate expeditions so | continue? i was not on any| oceangate expeditions so i cannot speak first—hand about what they told their suppose admission specialists, their paying passengers, though i don't want to really comment on

that. as far as it should explorations continue, i think absolutely, they should. i'm not against tourist dives to titanic. titanic has a worldwide fascination. people are endlessly hungry for information about the ship and not everyone has an opportunity to go. so, providing some people with an opportunity because even on the tourist dives, information comes back, things i learned about the ship, so i'm not against tourist dives, i'm not against continued exploration and in fact, i encourage it. we want to establish titanic as an archaeological site and listen to the stories that the wreck still has to tell us about the disaster. but i think that all passenger carrying submersible should be required to carry a certification, to meet a certain standard to ensure that its met at least minimum safety requirements. you travelled to the ocean

floor with james cameron in the challenger deep. was that sub classified at the time and with hindsight, would you still make that decision? i did not travel to challenger deep with james cameron on that expedition. i was with him on the titanic expeditions. i have dived into the heigl deep and another similar submersible with another explorer and that submersible was a full open depth rated submersible gone through complete testing and was certified for a full ocean depths dive —— hadal zone. that submersible has gone to challenger deep on more than one occasion. it's still with us today. one occasion. it's still with us today-— one occasion. it's still with ustoda . . ~ , ,, us today. parkes stevenson, thank you — us today. parkes stevenson,

thank you so _ us today. parkes stevenson, thank you so much _ us today. parkes stevenson, thank you so much for- us today. parkes stevenson, thank you so much for being | thank you so much for being with us on the programme. thank ou for with us on the programme. thank you for having _ with us on the programme. thank you for having me. _ we want to bring you our top story again — russian authorities have ordered the arrest of the leader of the wagner mercenary group, yevgeny prigozhin, with claims he and his men have crossed the borderfrom ukraine into russia and will "destroy anyone who stands "in their way". so far, there's no evidence of their advance. it comes shortly after russia began a criminal investigation into prigozhin, accusing him of calling for an armed rebellion. i'm helena humphrey in washington, dc. we will continue to bring you up to date with more on that story as we get it. for now, thank you for watching and do stay with us if you can. goodbye for now. hello. after what's been another fairly warm week for many of us, the weekend is set to bring something even warmer. in fact, i think the days at times will feel quite hot and the nights will be very warm and humid as well.

but as we head into sunday, we are going to see a bit of a change. some thundery downpours swinging in from the west courtesy of a frontal system which is a long way away to the west of us right now. for the short term, high pressure isjust about in charge and around this area of high pressure, particularly as these weather fronts squeeze in, we've got a feed of humid air wafting its way across our shores. so, quite a warm and humid start to saturday morning with a fairamount of cloud, actually, and some mist and murk around some of the coasts and over some of the hills. a lot of the cloud will tend to break through the day to give some spells of sunshine. a bit of rain moving across the far north—west of scotland. there's a small chance for the odd shower in parts of northern england, down into the midlands, but wales and the south of england likely to see the lion's share of the sunshine and wherever you are, it is going to be a warm day. 2a degrees for belfast, 25 for aberdeen, 29 the expected high in london. and that warmth does not ebb away quickly as we head into the evening. in fact, temperatures holding up at around 23 degrees

in london and in sheffield at 10:00 in the evening, so it could well be a little bit uncomfortable for sleeping. those temperatures falling a little bit further into the early hours of sunday. but with the humid air in place, sunday is going to turn into another very warm day. however, this frontal system pushing in from the west will bring a change for some of us with a band of heavy, thundery rain already in place across northern ireland. that will push its way eastwards and ahead of it, some showers will pop up across parts of northern england, eastern scotland. these could be heavy and thundery in nature. but further south and particularly further south—east, it should stay largely dry with lots of sunshine and that warmth being squashed into the south—east corner. so, temperatures in london likely to get to 31 degrees but just 19 for belfast. fresher in the west. and that fresher air will move across all parts of the country as we move into the start of the new week. there are, though, further frontal systems lying in wait, so we will see further outbreaks of rain at times and potentially some quite strong winds as well, particularly towards the north and the west of the uk.

not as much rain further south and it is not going to be as warm as it has been.