i'm sumi somaskanda. thank you forjoining us. we start in ukraine — where russia continues its violent bombardment, despite its own domestic turmoil. the latest missile strike killed at least four and injured more than a0 others in the eastern ukrainian city of kramatorsk. it remains under ukrainian control but is close to russian—occupied parts of ukraine. moscow's attack struck a restaurant and shopping center at a time when the region's governer said the area was crowded with civilians. a witness told the bbc he could hear people screaming as rescuers tried to reach them underneath the rubble. that witness — a belgian freelance journalist — also estimated that up to 80 staff members and customers were in the restaurant at the time of the strike, and said he fears the casualty numbers could be "severe". president zelensky, meanwhile, said the attack showed the world that russia had to be defeated. the strikes comes after a weekend of instability in russia, where the wagner mercenary group nearly staged a rebellion against the leadership of president vladimir putin.

that mutiny came to a halt when wagner leader yevgeny prigozhin told his troops to stand down, just hundreds of kilometers away from russia's capital, moscow.the whereabouts of prigozhin were unknown until today. belarus�*s leader aleksandr lu kashenko announced that the wagner chief was flown to the capital of minsk, where he has started his exile. lukashenko discussed his interactions with prigozhin while speaking earlier. our first ourfirst round our first round of talks lasted about 30 minutes and we talked mostly in swear words are, almost only swear words. later, it occurred to me that there were ten times more swear words than normal words. i'm not asking for a lot, let them hand me over, shoigu. i also need to meet putin. i say no handover shoigu. you know putin as well as i do. now, the strength of vladimir putin's grip on power has been cast in doubt. earlier today, he addressed the nation's military, telling them they had

stopped a civil war following the aborted wagner rebellion, and insisted his rule was not weakened. putin also claimed today that wagner was wholly funded by the russian federal budget. he said in the past year alone — since the assault on ukraine — moscow had paid the wagner group around $1 billion in salaries. 0ur eastern europe correspondent sarah rainsford has been following these developments from warsaw, in particular the messages coming from vladimir putin. i think what we're seeing happening in today is all about trying to rewrite the narrative and to reassert this kind of image of vladimir putin as a man in control. to try to suggest that throughout this crisis he was decisive and he was on top of what was going on. so we saw those images of him flanked by his security forces inside the kremlin compound and thanking them for what he said was their heroic action during the events of the weekend, remembering the pilots who actually shot

down and killed during that much of the wagner mercenaries on moscow. although the circumstances of that are still unclear. so about, as i say, reasserting this idea that putin is strong. at the same time today we have been hearing more about what has been happening to yevgeny prigozhin. it has been confirmed by the belarusian president he has arrived in belarus, that his plane landed this morning, and that he will be given somewhere to stay there. he has been told that he can bed down there for a bit if he wants to, and the belarussian�*s will essentially look after him. and, indeed, any wagner militants who want to follow and join him in belarus. what exactly they will do that isn't exactly clear. mr lukashenko said they could join the belarusian army, the bela rusian defence ministry. one thing is clear he won't want an independent army, potentially a threat to his own power established in belarus.

we also had some very colourful details from him about his own mediation effort during that crisis. i think most of that aimed at bringing up his role and trying again to shore up this idea that vladimir putin was always the man in control. i spoke to lieutenant colonel alexander vindman, who served on the us national security council, and is currently in kyiv. thank you again for joining us on bbc news. you are in kyiv. what has been the reaction there in ukraine to developments in russia? i think a lot of people continue to scratch their heads, frankly, as they do in western capitals in places around the world where people have been monitoring this war to understand what unfolded. i mean, the president for a 24—hour insurrection, a short—lived coup in russia is pretty thin. so people are trying to understand what the implications, quite frankly, what happened, and what the implications are long—term. what about ukraine itself?

what does ukraine need to do to capitalise on the instability we have seen in russia? are you getting the sense that there is a change of strategy there in kyiv? i don't think there was necessarily a change in strategy, i think to the ukrainians were quite close to the matter, they certainly understood the dysfunction of this war. they had been watching this fued between wagner, which has tens of thousands of troops, and one of the most formidable military units that the russian federation fielded and, frankly, gave quite a pounding to the ukrainians around the city of bakhmut, even though the ukrainians inflicted heavier casualties the russians and wagner were able to seize it. they have been watching this viewed slowly boil over and the fact that vladimir putin, who could have at any moment put a stop to this, he could have said "ipay your bills, prigozhin, idon�*t want to hear anything

from you, subordinate yourself. prigozhin would have bent his knee. he did not do that. i think there was an expectation as we come to a flashpoint and in a lot of ways i think they are ready to seize the next initiative. i want to ask you about something happening on the battlefield. according to the uk, ukraine is likely to have recaptured some russian land that had been occupied since 2014. at the same time, the bbc spoke to ukrainian president zelensky last week and he said the counteroffensive is not going as quickly as they had hoped. what do you think is actually happening? i think there was a little bit more nuanced what he said it did not go as quickly as they would have hoped, but at the same time he did, because everybody tends to be a little bit of an optimist and tends to have overinflated estimates of how well they will do, but he also, as leader of his country,

and a country that has been at war for almost a year and a half, recognises how difficult these things were and he also counselled him not to think of this as days, but in terms of weeks and months. so, yes, he kind of suppressed the extremely high expectations, but he also said that ukraine is going to win. for me that resonates. for me it is quite clear that the ukrainians will actually come over the course of the summer, my expectation has consistently been that over the course of the summer they will liberate swathes of territory. right now what we are seeing is almost a war of attrition, where the russians are being ground down by ukrainian advances. there were reporting today that russian struck kramatorsk and other areas, how do you expect russia to move forward without?

— with that? it has been a many months long terror campaign. when russia can't succeed on the battlefield they shift to terrorising the population. is there a military benefit to it? not really. they were not successful in destroying ukraine's critical infrastructure and freezing the population out, they haven't been successful in forcing any kind of capitulation. so this is mainly just lashing out. russia does not have much in the way of additional resources . i would also like to ask you about something you tweeted out today about the role that the belarusian leader has been playing. what do you think has actually changed in the power dynamic between these two men? in a fundamental way i think putin has lost some

of his lustre, some of his strongman mystique. he is still pretty firmly in charge. i think he has some doubts in his own mind about how reliable the military is, how reliable the population is, how warmly wagner was welcomed. he is not a man he was a week ago, has definitely lost that lustre and i think he is weaker and he is weaker in the eyes of strongman that expect, have a particular kind of expectation for behaviour. you don't allow things to boil over, that results in an insurrection. final question, what are the global indications of all of this? do you think, for example, the instability in russia could have consequences for china's relationship with russia? i think there are some indications that already might be true. china has enormous footprints around the world. the ambassador to the uk came out and, you know, advanced the notion that china supports the territorial

integrity of ukraine. i think he fact is that russia looks weak. russia has not delivered on this quick lightning war that putin promised to xi early on in the days before the war unfolded. this war has had costs for china in terms of stability and trade and inflation and things like that. and the chinese are not looking to back a loser. so the weaker that putin looks, the weaker that russia looks, i think the more definitive china is likely to be with regards to supporting ukraine and pressing china to potentially negotiate. lieutenant colonel alexander vindman thank you so much forjoining us. thank you. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. after turning his life around, carl wanted to give back to the community that saved him. he has now set up his own company that provides funding for black—led start—ups in london. carl and two others run an

investment firm called black seed — investment firm called black seed. �* , . investment firm called black seed. �*, ., , _ seed. it's a community led by black-founders. _ seed. it's a community led by black-founders. the - seed. it's a community led by black-founders. the black - black—founders. the black entrepreneurs in the uk doesn't actually receive funding. it is more likely for a black woman to win the lottery in the saturday night than to get venture capital funding saturday night than to get venture capitalfunding in saturday night than to get venture capital funding in the united kingdom. fine venture capital funding in the united kingdom. one company that has benefited _ united kingdom. one company that has benefited from - united kingdom. one company that has benefited from black. that has benefited from black seed support a mother and daughter duo that run an online fashion and wellness brand. super, super challenging here in the uk to get access to funding, being connected to black seed has opened those doors. �* . , doors. already raised £5 million to _ doors. already raised £5 million to invest - doors. already raised £5 million to invest in - doors. already raised £5j million to invest in other companies, black seed are one step closer to achieving their goal. you're live with bbc news. the 2024 campaign trail is heating up. in the early primary state of new hampshire, former president donald trump and governor of florida ron

desantis held competing campaign events earlier. the two candidates remain the frontrunners for the republican nominees, with the former president still in the lead, despite facing the legal repercussions of his documents case. meanwhile, ron desantis is campaigning vigorously to grow his base of supporters. mr trump addressed the ongoing trial over the confidential documents that were found at his mar—a—lago estate the most important step to draining the swamp is to finish the abusement of law enforcement to stop political dissent. fix, enforcement to stop political dissent. �* ,. ., ., enforcement to stop political dissent. �* ,. , dissent. a high school student asked desantis _ dissent. a high school student asked desantis if _ dissent. a high school student asked desantis if he _ dissent. a high school student asked desantis if he believed | asked desantis if he believed violated the peaceful transfer of power, a key principle of american democracy.- of power, a key principle of american democracy. here is what i know. _ american democracy. here is what i know, if _ american democracy. here is what i know, if this _ american democracy. here is what i know, if this election i what i know, if this election is about biden�*s failures and our vision of then future, we're going to win. if it's

about relitigating things that happen two, three years ago, we're going to lose. a long—awaited report into cricket in england and wales has found that racism, sexism and class—based discrimination is widespread and deeply rooted within the game. the report says most ethnically diverse players experience racism, women are treated like second—class citizens — and cricket is dominated by players from private schools. 0ur sports editor, dan roan, has more details. from perceptions of exclusion and troubling stories of sexism and racism to fears of an elitist culture — just some of the testimony revealed in a damning report into discrimination in cricket. our findings are unequivocal. racism, sexism, class—based discrimination, and elitism are widespread and deep rooted throughout the game. the stories were absolutely horrific and it goes to show that the culture

in cricket is rotten. the report called holding up a mirror to cricket heard from more than 4000 people with 50% saying they had experienced discrimination in the game. 75% of those who suffered it did not reported to the authorities. been stokes the issue. meanwhile, the most powerful figure in the sport told me he'd used this moment to reset english cricket. to he'd used this moment to reset english cricket.— english cricket. to those individuals _ english cricket. to those individuals that - english cricket. to those individuals that have - english cricket. to those l individuals that have been discriminated against excluded, all of those individuals, the game, the ecbt game as a whole, owes them a real genuine apology, a heart—felt apology. among many failings the report found that women were treated as second—class citizens. there

was little to no focus on addressing class barriers that many people felt excluded because of a heavy drinking culture in the game and that the ecb had failed to support black cricket. maurice chambers said he experienced racism at the club, an investigation is ongoing. the club, an investigation is onauoin. ., the club, an investigation is ongoing-— the club, an investigation is onauoin. ., . , , ., , ongoing. how many people of my background _ ongoing. how many people of my background you — ongoing. how many people of my background you see _ ongoing. how many people of my background you see playing - background you see playing professional cricket? not light these days. not many of them r there? is this the kind of sort of stuff i'm going to face with whatever club i'll be playing for? nobody wants that. we both en . land's for? nobody wants that. we both england's men's _ for? nobody wants that. we both england's men's and _ for? nobody wants that. we both england's men's and women's - england's men's and women's teams hosting ashes series, this was meant to be a summer to saviour but as lord prepares for a full house here ahead of the start of the second test against australia tomorrow, as well as excitement, there'll be grave concern about one of the most chastening reports to rock english sport in recent years. the report's 44 recommendations include equal pay for the

professional women's game, the removal of the annual match between eton and harrow schools from lord's between eton and harrow schools from lords and a new regulatory body entirely separate from the ecb. while the report said private schools dominated the talent pathway, it did praise efforts like this at warwickshire, sport of the chance to shine initiative designed to expand cricket's reach. i designed to expand cricket's reach. ., , designed to expand cricket's reach. . , ., reach. i really love the teammate _ reach. i really love the teammate teamwork. | reach. i really love the| teammate teamwork. i reach. i really love the - teammate teamwork. i love reach. i really love the _ teammate teamwork. i love when i'm feeling _ teammate teamwork. i love when i'm feeling and — teammate teamwork. i love when i'm feeling and catch _ teammate teamwork. i love when i'm feeling and catch the - teammate teamwork. i love when i'm feeling and catch the ball, - i'm feeling and catch the ball, that's— i'm feeling and catch the ball, that's self—esteem, because the support— that's self—esteem, because the support you get from your teammates is amazing. english cricket was _ teammates is amazing. english cricket was already _ teammates is amazing. english cricket was already reeling - cricket was already reeling from the yorkshire racism scandal exposed by the county's former spinner. scandal exposed by the county's formerspinner. now, the scandal exposed by the county's former spinner. now, the ecb hasjust three months former spinner. now, the ecb has just three months to come up has just three months to come up with a plan to salvage trust across the whole sport. dan roan, bbc news. earlier this year the uk's first organ—trafficking plot was exposed. a wealthy nigerian politician, his wife and their middleman were alljailed. they had targeted a vulnerable lagos street trader and brought him to the uk for kidney removal.

now the bbc has learnt that, in a separate investigation, an indian man in his 60s has been arrested in the uk on suspicion of conspiring to exploit a person for organ removal. he's since been released on bail. mark lobel reports. this young man's brave steps into a police station near heathrow last year revealed a crime never seen before in the uk — forced organ removal. his journey began thousands of miles away, selling from this wheelbarrow in nigeria's commercial capital, lagos. one day, he got an offer of a job in the uk and left without telling his family and friends. speaking for the first time in secret in nigeria, they told us he just vanished. he left school early to support his family, working seven days a week. my father and siblings have been crying every day because of daniel, crying because someone has kidnapped and carried him away. he was a gentle boy who would never harm anyone. what happens next to daniel

involves another nigerian in their 20s too. sonia ekweremadu. her father is this man, ike ekweremadu, a very senior nigerian politician for many years. his daughter, sonia, has a rare kidney disease. it's called nephrotic syndrome. either i stay on dialysis for the rest of my life or i get a transplant. daniel was brought to the uk to give sonia one of his kidneys. he says it was not something he was expecting as part of hisjob offer. the doctors stopped the process, suspecting daniel had been financially coerced, which would make the transplant illegal. that's when daniel ran away from his traffickers and told police what had happened. sonia's father was arrested as he flew into heathrow and convicted alongside his wife and a middleman in a ground—breaking case that has alerted uk authorities to more cases of organ trafficking. the bbc�*s file 0n 4 can reveal a separate investigation

into organ trafficking has resulted in the arrest of an indian man in his 60s who's currently on bail. plus, we've learnt about a number of new investigations over the past year into organ trafficking, notjust on uk soil but a handful of paid for transplants abroad that are being treated here. daniel's historic case beat the odds, even thwarting attempts by these nigerian senators who visited the uk to get that case moved to nigeria. but such is the influence of sonia's family in nigeria, daniel and his family fear revenge attacks from their supporters, which is why he remains under police protection in the uk, possibly never to see his family again. artificial intelligence could be used in the treatment of more cancers — after a uk study found it could free up radiologists' time. the technology works by speeding up the process of drawing around healthy organs — that's a vital step to ensure healthy tissue is protected. kate lamble reports.

radiotherapy is a life—saving treatment for cancer patients, but before machines like this can start to shrink tumours, there's a laborious task for doctors. well, you can actually see here... the radiation target needs to be precisely mapped. medics want to avoid weakening bones or damaging organs. so, somehow, we've got to kind of avoid dose from each of these areas. if we weaken these bones... carefully plotting each area typically takes between 25 minutes and two hours per patient. it's time medics could spend getting through a backlog or supporting families. so researchers at microsoft have spent more than a decade thinking about how artificial intelligence could take on that work. what ai can truly help with is really reducing the burden that's placed on clinicians. that was the model that we collaborated on... aditya's team worked with doctors at addenbrooke's hospital in cambridge, who further trained and evaluated their code on real patients —

including frank, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer. the people who are looking at this stuff all day long must get quite tired. whereas a computer, it doesn't get tired, itjust keeps doing it. how did it feel to be part of something like that? to be part of a trial? a privilege, i suppose. yeah, a privilege. doctors still check and sign off the al's work, but in tests, they found two thirds of the time, medics didn't feel the need to make any changes. actually, what we found is that our consultant colleagues preferred to start with the work of the ai than even the work of their consultant colleagues, which is quite interesting. the ai is consistent. it doesn't get tired or have its own way of doing things, and raj and his team are now about to give their programme for prostate and head and neck cancer to a manufacturer, which will ultimately allow any nhs trust to access the technology. this is the first time

an ai programme developed within the nhs will be released as a medical imaging device. these hospitals expect to reduce treatment times for their patients. i think it's fantastic that we're able to do this. and what we've agreed with the manufacturer is effectively that the nhs will be able to deploy these models at cost. those involved believe this could bejust the beginning for al in healthcare. kate lambert, bbc news. the welsh government will ban price promotions such as meal deals on foods high in fat, salt and sugar. it will mean that from next year products deemed unhealthy can't be included, or discounted unless they are about to go out of date. 0ur wales correspondent, hywel griffith has this report. three, two, one. off you go. a gentle push towards being healthy or punishment for eating fatty foods. the plan to ban discounts on things high in sugar, salt and fat is meant to lighten the load on the nhs in wales, where a quarter of adults are officially obese.

but at this fitness session in swansea, it divides the room. it should be an individual choice. i think there's so much you can do to help people, but then forcing people into it, then you know you're prone to getting backlash. the more that people educate us in the shops as to what we should buy and what we shouldn't eat, it's got to be a good thing. for many, meal deals have become a default dining option. the labour government in wales wants to take out the unhealthiest items. after going through more than two million different options, public health wales found that 75% of meal deals exceed the recommended calorie intake for lunch. if you ate an average meal deal five times a week, at the end of the year, you'd have put on six lbs or nearly three kilos in weight. that goes up to 47 lbs or 21 kilos if you always opt for the high calorie choice. plans to limit food promotions in england and scotland don't go quite as far, with concern over the cost to consumers.

some fear the changes in wales won't hit the mark. the problem is we're actually sort of going after the wrong types of people, you know, because the evidence would suggest that patients with a lower family income will make poorer food choices. but ministers insist the plans do add up. what we want to do is shift the market so that promotions are on healthier foods and also encourage reformulation of some of the most unhealthy foods. that may meet resistance with the welsh retail consortium, saying the government's plans are irresponsible and they should let industry lead the way. hywel griffith, bbc news, swansea. and before we go — a fresco in the italian city of pompeii is providing new and possibily delicious insights into life 2,000 years ago. archaeologists have uncovered a painting which depicts what might be the precursor to pizza. italy's culture ministry says the flatbread depicted "may be

a distant ancestor of the modern dish". but it lacks the classic ingredients to technically be considered a pizza — in case you didn't know that's tomato sauce, cheese, pepperoni, orwhatever your particularly fancy. the fresco was found in the hall of a house next to a bakery during recent digs at the site in southern italy. thank you for watching bbc news. i am sumi somaskanda in washington. we will be back with more news at the top of the next hour. hello there. it looks like today will be the warmest day of the week, feeling quite humid, especially across england and wales, and it's across england and wales where we should tend to stay dry for much of the day. but there will be a band of rain pushing in across scotland and northern ireland that will continue its journey eastwards during tonight. so, we're in this wedge of warm and humid air, especially for england and wales. this cold front, though, will be pushing rain initially into northern ireland and then into scotland as we run through the day and behind it,

it'll turn brighter, but there'll be some cooler, fresher air here and the rain will tend to ease down as it pushes its way eastwards. but much of england and wales will stay rather cloudy, generally dry, bar the odd heavy shower and some glimmers of brightness here in there. but it will be warm and muggy, 22 to 25 degrees here. but the mid to high teens, further north and west where it brightens up behind the rain band. but through wednesday night, it looks like that rain band then starts to pepper up as it reaches the midlands, southern and eastern england. so send the rain may turn out to be heavy by the end of the night. and again, it'll be quite a warm, muggy night in the southeast corner, much cooler and fresher further north and west. this is the pressure chart for thursday. there's that weather front, very slow to clear from the southeast. so, it could be quite a wet day here. but elsewhere, it's brighter start to have sunshine around. one or two showers will develop as the cloud bubbles up mainly across the north and west of scotland. it'll be breezier, but it'll be wet across east anglia in the southeast, i think,

for much of the day. in fact, some very welcome rain here. of course, temperatures are lower across the board, away from the very far southeast. we're looking at 15 to 18 in the north and the west, 20 to 22 for much of england and wales. for friday, though, another set of weather fronts start to spread down across the country thanks to low pressure. so it'll tend to stay quite cloudy and damp, but more isobars on the charts, too. so a breezier day to come on friday, especially around irish sea coast across scotland and northern ireland. it's here where we'll see most of the rain, the heaviest of the rain. but we also some patchy rain pushing into western england and wales. further east that you are tending to stay dry with variable cloud, maybe some glimmers of brightness which could push temperatures up to 22 degrees. otherwise for most, it's the mid to high teens, so feeling fairly fresh for the time of year. into the weekend, low pressure continues to bring sunshine and showers mainly to the north and the west of the country. better chance of staying drier and a little bit warmer further south and east.

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