and the us supreme court hands the biden administration a surprising win on immigration. hello, i'm helena humphrey. we begin tonight with developments out of russia, where authorities have ordered the arrest 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." here is the wagner

leader 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 2a february 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 bloc. so the so—called "special military operation" on 2a february was launched for completely different reasons. the bbc in unable to verify prigozhin�*s claims, and no images of wagnerforces in russia have yet to emerge. moscow is tightening its security in response to the developments.

here's footage of military tanks in russia's capital, and new footage of tanks passing by moscow's parliament. also according to russian media, the kremlin has reportedly actived �*0perated fortress�* ——reportedly activated �*0perated fortress�* in the city of rostov—on—don, 100 km east of ukrainian border, as well as a plan to ensure all kremlin buildings are protected in moscow. the kremlin has said: internationally, the white house is also reacting, releasing a statement saying they are monitoring the situation. meanwhile, the deputy commander of the russian ukraine campaign, sergei 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 risked it, 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. live now to seth jones, vice president of the center for strategic and international studies. thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. watching events unfold this evening, what do you make of what is happening? this situation _ what is happening? this situation has _ what is happening? this situation has been - what is happening? ti 3 situation has been escalating over the last several months between yevgeny prigozhin and the ministry of defence. yevgeny prigozhin has increasingly berated senior russian ministry of defence officials including minister shoigu and the chief of staff of defence. they have obtained —— complained repeatedly about the failed efforts of the russian military to defend against ukrainian

counter—attacks, and providing munitions, support and others to wagner group fighters in places like buckboard. this has clearly now escalated to a level —— bakhmut. this has escalated to a level we have not seen. the wording that yevgeny prigozhin uses sounds more like a revolt against the russian military than what we have seen previously. you point out the fact _ have seen previously. you point out the fact that _ have seen previously. you point out the fact that this _ have seen previously. you point out the fact that this feud - out the fact that this feud between prigozhin and putin has been out in the open four weeks and now coming to this moment, prigozhin saying that he and his men were embarking on what he called in his own words, and "macho justice". russian generals accuse him of trying to mount a coup. do you think there is any possibility of that? i do you think there is any possibility of that? i don't think prigozhin's - possibility of that? i don't think prigozhin's wider - possibility of that? i don't - think prigozhin's wider group, they don't have enough forces to really mount a coup, but the threat if there is one, ——

wagner group. this is now a major open crack in this revolt against the russian government. the kremlin to some big grey, because prigozhin has also gone after proven —— some degree. because prigozhin has also gone after putin. this is also a potential crack in some fighting in areas near the russian border. this is what we are most likely to see, not a coup against russia itself. but to be clear _ coup against russia itself. but to be clear from _ coup against russia itself. but to be clear from what you are saying, you are raising the possibility of conflict with russian on russian forces, engaging in violence within russia? , ., �*, , russia? yes, that's possible. we have seen _ russia? yes, that's possible. we have seen some - russia? yes, that's possible. we have seen some of - russia? yes, that's possible. we have seen some of that i we have seen some of that already, some of that has likely been, this is in the region of belgorod, possibly with some ukrainian support, but this now has the potential

to escalate some russian on russian violence in areas near the russian— ukrainian border. that is very interesting, what do you think that could mean for the conflict at a time when we know of course ukrainian forces are digging in, mounting a counteroffensive, russian forces of course also doing the same. do you think that could then distract from that effort? the interesting question is if russia will actually have to move some of its forces either deployed along the ukrainian border potentially even deployed in ukraine itself. if they do move forces along those lines or even reserves that could be used for the ukrainian operation, that may actually provide some opportunities for ukraine in the donetsk and luhansk region, or even innes aparicio, to punch through russian lines. —— russian lines. —— zaporizhzhia. that

has the —— potential to disrupt what is happening in ukraine and inside the russian border. and aside from the spectre of violence which you evoked there, another scenario is how this could potentially put russian authorities in a bind. if you have a situation where prigozhin is, has been, we don't know at this stage, arrested — where would this leave the wagner group? we know that those soldiers who had been so pivotal, so important in this conflict.— in this conflict. here is the problem — in this conflict. here is the problem that _ in this conflict. here is the problem that vladimir - in this conflict. here is the | problem that vladimir putin in this conflict. here is the - problem that vladimir putin has now. if prigozhin, who is generally well liked by his wagner group contractors, is arrested, that there is going to be a broader morale issue, notjust within the russian military, there is already a morale problem, we know that from intercepted phone calls from intercepted phone calls from russian soldiers. but now you have one of the more effective ground elements,

wagner, a contracting organisation, whose leader is potentially in prison. this has the potential to continue to undermine morale of russian forces operating in ukraine. and we are also hearing reports of missiles striking care of right now. you think this is in reaction to the developments we have been seeing this evening? it's possible. missiles have been striking care from the beginning of the war. what i would also say is prigozhin has touched a chord of truth here, and this is another challenge for the kremlin, because he has said the russian military has performed poorly, and they have. there are more dead russian soldiers in the last yearin russian soldiers in the last year in ukraine then in all russian soviet wars since world war ii. but they are taking an incredible toll. this brings attention to the surface, in a

way that russia has not had to deal with. way that russia has not had to deal with-— deal with. what do you think these latest _ deal with. what do you think these latest developments l deal with. what do you think l these latest developments say about vladimir putin's grip on the country and this conflict? well, it is certainly starting to crack. i would not say it is starting to crumble but it is cracking. his forces have not performed well on the battlefield, this entire mirage of a special operation has turned out to be a grinding war of attrition that the russian population has been lied to from the beginning of this war, and russian soldiers have been lied to from the beginning of the war. so this is a crack, it's probably all that is at this point, but we will see if it grows. to this point, but we will see if it grow-— it grows. to borrow your phrase. _ it grows. to borrow your phrase. if _ it grows. to borrow your phrase, if this _ it grows. to borrow your phrase, if this crack - phrase, if this crack eventually precipitate into a crumble, and i know it is difficult to look into a crystal ball, but taking into account what we have seen these past few hours, what do you think potentially could happen here? i

think potentially could happen here? ~' ., , think potentially could happen here? ~' ~' , here? i think the most likely otion here? i think the most likely option is— here? i think the most likely option is for— here? i think the most likely option is for further - option is for further crackdowns by the russian state against anybody that is attempting to conduct armed rebellion against the state. so i think we would see the russians probably fighting on two fronts, one in ukraine and then one as an intelligence, police and potentially military response against any wagner group contractor who decides to take up arms against the state. that is probably what is likely, the kremlin response is a massive crackdown in russia. and that, once again, would be another significant escalation. seth jones there, another significant escalation. sethjones there, vice president at the centre for strategic and international studies, thank you for coming on. . ~' studies, thank you for coming on. . ~ , ., y studies, thank you for coming on. . ~' , ., , . 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.

i spoke with our correspondent peter bowes for more on this story. what more does this report tell us? this report is quite narrow in its scope, it's 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. but 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, that it could have been spread naturally, perhaps from an infected animal, or indeed that it did come 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? no, they're not, and we've known for some time that 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 veer more to the argument that it could have originated from a laboratory or, it's got to be said, the department of energy in their report was 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's been waiting for us for some time. there's been clamouring in many areas for 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. many people see this as crucially important. from a scientific respective to absolutely get to the bottom of the origins of covid—i9, acknowledging that it may well be 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 stopping that spread or indeed preventing it, 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. our correspondent there peter bowes. peter, thanks a lot. the us supreme court on friday handed the biden administration a major victory on a key immigration case — ruling that republican—led states do not have the legal right to challenge a policy concerning federal immigration enforcement. the justices in a rare 8—1 ruling cleared the way for the biden administraiton to reinstate rules prioritising the deportation of immigrants based on serious criminal records, national security threats, and migrants who recently entered the us. writing for the court, justice brett kavanaugh rebuked these claims, writing: we turn now to warnings over

the safety of the titan sub that imploded near the wreck of the titanic this week. according to emails 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 email sent in 2018, maccallum warned rush that: he went on: stockton rush replied:

earlier, my colleague sumi somaskanda spoke to our correspondent carl nasman, who's on the scene in boston. carl, it's great to see you. 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, we believe, by the us coast guard. and on the canadian side, their 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 as 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 coordinating between each other but there are now some national bodies looking into this. and carl, this announcement coming as we said there are more questions being asked about safety standards and oceangate. —— at oceangate. what have you been hearing? yes, there has been a chorus of concerns emerging, 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, an expert in the field, and the ceo himself, the late stockton rush. and this was more of the same. we have heard this from several experts — concerns about the materials used in the titan, in that 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 saying 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 also, 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. 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 carl, can you bring us date on 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 try 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. they'll also, interestingly, be looking at the debris — there's 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. well, in the last hour, i spoke with 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 loss here in this tragedy. ph 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. and we are very sorry to hear about the loss of somebody who was one of your colleagues. now, i understand that you were approached by oceangate a number of years ago, during the construction of the titan. you didn't take that position. tell us more about that decision. 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? can you give an example? you mentioned there, for example, materials? yes, from a very basic level, when you're 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, the — 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 the fittings that attach the halves of the sphere should be of the same material, should be homogeneous. this design was cylindrical in shape. there was a cylindrical body with two end caps. the materials used were not homogeneous. you would have titanium end caps glued to a carbon fibre body. now, just, in my opinion, that was a very basic flaw. i do understand that they were trying to be cutting—edge on it but it seemed to be violating some of the basic tenants

of physics of operating in the deep — to my mind. 0k, well, 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, for the engineering of the sub, for 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 guillermo said in his recording, i wasn't there. i was diving in other similar submersibles at the time that oceangate were deploying their sub during the time of their testing. 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 say from that is why are we talking today? well, as 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 was 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... ..it 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. you're watching bbc news. i'm helena humphrey in washington. for more, head to our website. we are back at the top of the hour and i will see you then. 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 fair amount 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 first thing. 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.

voice-over: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top and all the main of the hour, straight after this programme. after this programme.

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