the headlines. new details emerge on the whereabouts of wagner boss yevgeny prigozhin. the us treasury secretary arrives in china in an attempt to rebuild bridges between the world's two biggest economies. an eight—year—old girl is killed and 16 people are injured after a car crashes into a primary school in london. and a new rival for twitter — as instagram owner launches threads — twitter threatens to sue. we begin in belarus — or perhaps russia — with the increasingly

intriguing question ofjust exactly where the leader of the russian mercenary group yevgeny prigozhin actually is. he's been a high—profile figure in the russian invasion of ukraine — but two weeks ago — he led a short—lived mutiny — and was thought to have fled to belarus under an amnesty agreement. now the leader of belarus, alexander lukashenko, says that mr prigozhin has gone back to russia — placing his future potentially into question. our russia editor — steve rosenberg — travelled to the capital of belarus — minsk. he was one of only a handful ofjournalists in the room to speak to mr lukashenko — who the uk does not recognise as the legitimate president of the country. there are still so many questions about the russian rebellion. would he have the answers? the leader of belarus, alexander lukashenko, brokered the agreement that ended the mutiny, so we are told.

under a deal with the kremlin, wagner mercenary yevgeny prigozhin was supposed to move here to belarus with some of his fighters. but no sign yet. translation: as of this - morning, the wagner fighters, and very serious ones, are still in the camps they have withdrawn to afterfighting in bakhmut. as for yevgeny prigozhin, he is in st petersburg, or maybe he flew to moscow this morning, or somewhere else, but he is not in belarus. yevgeny prigozhin hasn't been seen in public for days, although we have seen inside what is purported to be his st petersburg mansion, these images leaked online, reportedly taken during a raid by russian security services. they show weapons, gold bars and lots of wigs. i asked mr lukashenko if the wagner leader

and his group move here would he let them use belarusian territory to attack ukraine and destabilise other countries in the region? translation: steve, we have never attacked anyone - and we are not intending to and no—one will use our territory to attack anyone. but if there is an act of aggression against us we will respond and if wagner are here, then they, just like the belarusian army, will defend our interests. ever since the wagner mutiny the main question we have been asking is what on earth is going on? and nearly two weeks on we still don't know. the deal that had been announced was pretty clear. yevgeny prigozhin goes to belarus and the wagner fighters who want to join him also go to belarus.

but we see no sign of that. from mutiny to missiles and the russian nuclear warheads the kremlin says it is moving to belarus. would mr lukashenko have a say in whether to launch them? i remind him, recently you said god forbid i should have to take the decision to use nuclear weapons. translation: joe biden could say the same and l prime minister sunak. but these are not your weapons, they are russian ones, it is not your decision to take. translation: in ukraine a whole army is fighting l with foreign weapons, with nato weapons, because they have run out of their own, so why can't i fight with someone else's? but these are nuclear, we are not talking pistols. translation: yes, nuclear, they are weapons too, - and make sure you mention we are talking about tactical nuclear weapons here.

the logic of a leader who, with an iron fist and the kremlin�*s backing, has held power for nearly 30 years. steve rosenberg, bbc news, minsk. still to come a bit later in the programme — we'll take a look at meta's newly—launched rival to twitter — �*threads'. let's take a look at some other stories in the headlines.... the united nations has issued stark warnings about the situation in myanmar saying that, the country is in a deadly freefall into even greater violence. the un human rights chief — volker turk — said civilians were living at the whims of an army, trying to enforce — its diminishing control — by razing whole villages and depriving people of food, water and aid with rebel groups now controlling half of the country. every day the military�*s ruthless so—called four cuts strategy continues to reek construction. entire villages are raized

and burned to the ground, collectively punishing civilians by depriving them of shelter, food and life—saving aid. one of donald trump's personal aides has appeared in court in miami — to face federal charges of mishandling classified government documents. walt nauta has pleaded not guilty. he's been named as a co—conspirator with the former president, after hundreds of classified documents were found at the mar—a—lago estate. last month mr trump entered pleas of not guilty to dozens of similar charges. oceangate — the company which operated the submersible trip to the wreck of the titanic that led to the deaths of five people including its chief executive, says it has suspended all exploration and commercial operations. investigators are trying to establish exactly what caused the submersible to implode, with

questions raised over the safety of the vessel. the us treasury secretary janet yellen is expected to meet the chinese premier li qiang on friday — as washington and beijing continue their efforts to ease diplomatic tensions. ms yellen flew in to china on thursday. on her agenda, american worries about chinese restrictions on us corporations while she'll also likely face some questions about why washington is barring chinese firms from some of its markets. all this comes as china looks to revitalise an economy which was hit hard by covid. so — janet yellen�*s visit is clearly important to beijing — but what will washington hope to achieve from it?0ur north america correspondent jessica parker has more. it's interesting, both ahead of the recent blinken visit and now ahead of janet yellen�*s visit as well. expectations of any kind

of breakthrough in relations very much being played down. what the biden administration seemed to be trying to do, as you were saying, is to kind of cool down tensions after relations really hit a bit of a rough patch. of course, people will remember the downing of what the americans said was a chinese spy balloon over us skies. the chinese said it was a weather balloon that had been blown off course. and then recently there have been these what some described as near misses between us and chinese military as well. and so when antony blinken went out there, there was talk of trying to establish lines of communication, crisis communication, tojust avoid anything spilling over into any kind of conflict. and i think nowjanet yellen to some degree going with the same message, saying these two hugely important countries need to keep talking and to just try and smooth out what is sometimes a bit of a a rocky economic relationship as well.

indeed, because despite those tensions, trade between the two countries has actually been growing and they both kind of need each other economically. economically, don't they? yeah. and janet yellen in a recent speech spoke about that, basically saying i'm paraphrasing, but there's no question of decoupling from the chinese economy, as you say, trade between the two grew in 2022. and she said that would be disastrous for both nations and destabilising for the rest of the world as well. but there has been what's described often as a bit of a tit for tat in terms of curbs on exports recently, particularly in tech. so that continues to be a source of tension. but also with these visits, the americans do try and emphasise things that they might be able to talk about on a more constructive basis. so shared interests, such as tackling climate change, for example, which if you're really going to want to make a difference globally, surely you're going to need to the world's two biggest

economies on board and at least talking to each other about what can be done to tackle that very pressing issue. an eight—year—old girl has been killed and 16 people were injured when a land rover crashed into a primary school in wimbledon in south—west london. it happened at a girls school for children aged between 4 and ii — during what was thought to be a garden party for the last day of term. 10 people were taken to hospital. a woman in her 40s has been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving. our special correspondent lucy manning reports. tables, chairs and mats laid out. a sense of excitement about the last day of term. the young girls celebrating the end of school for the summer. now a terrible, heartbreaking scene. this outdoor party

crushed beneath the car. just before ten this morning the land rover smashed into one of the buildings at the study prep school. the damage done to the small children by the heavy car hard to think about. it appears it crashed through a fence and across the grass into the girls. i was able to witness children that were put inside ambulances, i'd say roughly five of those. and the damage i was able to witness, it was very severe and for quite a few of the children that i saw it seemed like they could be very life—threatening. standing alongside colleagues from the ambulance, fire brigade and the school's governor and head teachers, the senior police officer couldn't hide her feelings about what had happened here hours before. our officers, along with colleagues from other

emergency services, provided first aid to a number of people who have been injured. shakily: very sadly, one of the children, i an eight—year—old girl, died at the scene. our thoughts are with herfamily at this incredibly difficult time. the driver of a car, a woman aged in her 40s, stopped at the scene and has since been arrested for causing death by dangerous driving and remains in police custody. the trauma clear on the faces of the governor and head teacher. this is absolutely devastating for the school, can you give us your thoughts as to what this tragedy means for you, the parents and the pupils? you will perhaps appreciate that the school community is profoundly affected by this tragedy and at the moment we are really not in a position to make any further comment about it. we will be in communication with all those in the community about the further steps that we as a school will be taking. some parents have come

to the police cordon, giving their child's details to officers, every parent desperate to know that their child is safe, but not every parent has been so lucky. ambulances, the air ambulance, police and fire brigade rushed to the scene shortly after the crash to take a number of casualties to hospital. a major incident was declared. 16 people were treated at the school and ten were then taken to hospital. i think what was happening was the traditional year three end of term school breakfast and that is probably why more children were outside than otherwise would have been. this evening on the back of a police lorry the car was removed from the grounds. officers are investigating whether the driver suffered some sort of medical incident. what should have been a joyful day in class, saying goodbye to friends for the holidays, has left a school broken, a family bereft and the girl's young friends hurting. lucy manning, bbc news.

around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news. let's take a moment to bring you some of the tennis headlines from wimbledon now — here's chetan pathak... trying to win back to back titles, the defending champion, elena rybakina, looked nervous at times on thursday. alize cornet causing her problems despite injury, but elena rybakina in the end safely through to the third round in straight sets. no such joy for casper ruud, a man who has reached three of the last four grand slam finals. he's still figuring it out on grass, and the british wild card, liam brody, took advantage, winning a five set thriller. elina svitolina is the highest ranked ukrainian player at these championships. she found a way past elise mertens in three sets, understandably emotional afterwards. elina svitolina reached the quarterfinals of the french open recently, having come back

from maternity leave. friday here should be a cracker. we are going to see novak djokovic, iga swiatek, last year's beaten finalist, ons jabeur. you're live with bbc news. india stop court is set to deliver its verdict on whether same sex marriage can be allowed. its a proposal that has sharply divided opinion in the country. while the government and religious groups have opposed the idea, the lgbt community is hopeful that the court will give its approval — five years after it decriminalised homosexuality. arunoday mukharji reports. i'm just saying we want to get married. you are not a normal human being. how are their lives getting i affected by people like us? the fight for rights

is louder than ever. forging ahead. demanding change. excited and hopeful that the supreme court will now recognise same sex marriage. it's what these men have been wanting a college romance. they have been together for 15 years in fifth. they want to get married and have what every indian married couple has — equal rights. we both want to be parents. we want to start a family. and we can't adopt children. and we can't start a family. we can't go for surrogacy. jointly owning property or even things like if there's a medical emergency, what right does he have to take decisions on my behalf? so just sort of emotional reasons but also practical reasons. this judgment means a lot for our day to day life. the supreme court deliberations are already a win.

even that was unthinkable when they were growing up. there was a lot of mockery and phobia in society, even though we were best friends for everyone. if there was like an intimate moment between two guys, it was a butt ofjokes. i was always terrified and scared. i mean, anyway, i'm not going to have a personal future, but this would end my social life and this would end my professional life. marriage is not only. a question of dignity, as if that were not enough. it is also a bouquetl of rights that lgbtq people are being denied. india's constitution is key to this issue. it promises equality to all. opposing sides have fought it out in the country's highest court. right to get a particular social relationship recognised as a marriage is not a fundamental right. a formerjudge of the delhi high court agrees. thisjustice claims its against india's culture. he and 20 other formerjudges

wrote to the supreme court against the proposal. translation: what is same sex marriage? i it's an abnormality. a marriage should be between a man and a woman. how can same sex couples adopt society? but why should society interfere? are they not part of the same society? so if they are part of the same society, then shouldn't they have the same rights? but that's only if they comply by the existing societal norms. it took 70 years for the supreme court to legalise gay sex in 2018. the verdict triggered hope that the right to marry might not be far behind. it's rare to see members of the lgbtq+ community claim public spaces like these in a country like india, where social stigma and taboo are still very much associated with sexual identity. people over here say that

gatherings like these are a show of strength. global estimates say the community is now 10% of india's population. this decision is notjust about same sex marriage, but also about the path the country takes for equal rights. arunoday mukharji, bbc news, delhi. saturday marks a year since the death of shinzo abe — japan's longest serving prime minister — with a 42 year old man awaiting trial for murder. one of the issues which emerged from the investigation is an allegation that the suspect attacked mr abe because of links to the religious group unification church. it's since been confirmed that his mother is a member, and had donated large sums to the organisation. and the question of how closely the ruling liberal democratic party — or ldp — is linked to the group, is still being debated. jeffrey hall is a lecturer injapanese studies from the kanda university

of international studies, and he explained what the japanese government has done about the unification church over the past year. well, over the past year, the ldp has conducted a self—investigation at an individual level, asking members to self report any ties to the church and cut them. not a very strict investigation. they've also passed a law that will provide relief to people who, after the law was passed, are perhaps scammed by the church and other religious organisations. and the government is currently conducting an investigation of the church that may result in it losing its official religious status, which would mean that it would no longer have tax exemptions. but that is a process that will last many months and will involve probably a lawsuit at the end. there have been a lot

of revelations about the ruling party mps having quite close ties to the unification church. have they managed to sever ties? well, we don't really know because as i said, they only self—reported any ties to the church and there isn't really a level of scrutiny from the government and holding people accountable whether or not they did have ties to the church and whether they really have cut ties to the church. and from now on, perhaps the church will still support certain candidates, but in a less open way, perhaps through individuals acting as some members who are not part of the church to volunteer for campaigns and other means. and in recent local elections in april, about 90% of candidates who had public ties to the church disclosed in the media were re—elected. so there probably isn't much fear within the ldp that they really need

to actually take this seriously. let's take a look at some of the stories in the headlines in the uk.... a 23—year—old man has been found guilty of the murder of ellie edwards on christmas eve. miss edwards, who was 26—years—old, was shot dead by connor chapman outside the lighthouse pub in wallasey where she was celebrating — just before midnight. liverpool crown court heard that mr chapman was involved in a gang feud in the area and ms edwards was an innocent bystander. the uk cabinet office has lost a legal challenge, to block the handover of borisjohnson�*s unredacted whatsapp messages, notebooks and diaries, to the covid inquiry. the government argued it should not submit material that it said was "un—ambiguously irrelevant" but high court judges said the government shouldn't decide what was releva nt. it has until monday afternoon to hand over the documents.

the mother of stephen lawrence says she is "bitterly disappointed" that four retired detectives who ran a failed investigation into her son's murder will not face criminal charges. baroness doreen lawrence said her "hope has been in vain" and the crown prosecution service announcement was a "disgrace". stephen was 18 when he was killed in a racist attack in south london in 1993. twitter�*s new rival — threads, which was launched by facebook owner meta — has attracted 30 million users in less than 2a hours. now, twitter is reportedly considering legal action against them for intellectual property violations. our north america technology correspondent james clayton reports. threads launched 2a hours ago, yet it's had a rise that's really incomparable to any other social media company. mark zuckerberg says that 30

million people havejoined up. to put that into context, it took instagram two months to get to 1 million users. behind me is the global hq of twitter. i've been inside it, and there are floors with just no one working in them. elon musk has sacked hundreds and hundreds of people. i've been speaking to some of those people today. they say how sad it is that a product they've spent years, often, working on is under threat. elon musk is also a twitter fanatic. so much so, that he spent $41; billion acquiring it. and yet his stewardship of twitter has been sometimes chaotic and has taken a toll on the billionaire. this is what he said to me in a surprise interview with the bbc in april. it's been really quite a stressful situation, you know, for the last several months, not an easy one. but apart from the pain... so, it's been quite painful, but i think at the end of the day, it should've been done. were there are many mistakes made on the way? of course. threads bares more than a

passing resemblance to twitter, and there were reports tonight that mr musk�*s personal layer threatening to sue meta over the stealing of trade secrets and intellectual property. it's still far too early to tell how threads is going to do. it's one thing to have a million new users, it's another to keep them. but it's pretty clear that threads represents the biggest challenge to twitter since elon musk purchased the platform. james clayton, bbc news. a p pa re ntly apparently threads is becoming the most record downloaded the app. that is it for this edition of the programme. back with businesses shortly before and now thank you so much for watching the programme and stay with bbc news. hello there. thursday was a better day for play at wimbledon

and for the start of the test at headingley. there was quite a lot of cloud generally, but we did see temperatures peaking at 23 degrees. however, into friday, we're tapping into some heat and humidity, and temperatures may well peak as high as 29 celsius, 84 fahrenheit. there was some cloud and rain around, though, and you can see quite clearly where i'm talking about on the satellite picture. this is a frontal system bringing some wet weather, fairly showery first thing friday morning across scotland and northern ireland. slowly brightening up into the afternoon. but with that southerly wind direction dragging in that warm, humid air as we go through the day, producing clear skies across england and wales, temperatures will respond. highs of 29 celsius in one or two areas by the middle of the afternoon. so that means for the tennis at wimbledon, we could see temperatures as high as 27. it has the potential to be the best or the hottest day of this season's championship. and it'll be similar story as well for the men's ashes. thunderstorms perhaps threatening as we go through the weekend.

as we go into friday evening, it will be a relatively quiet one. during the early hours of saturday, we've got this front pushing in from the south—west, but temperatures not falling very far. it's going to be a humid night, an uncomfortable nght for getting a good night's sleep, particularly in the south—east, as temperatures only as low as 18—19 celsius. and with that front continuing to move in from the south—west, bumping into that humid air, that has the potential to spark off some sharp, thundery downpours. they will drift their way steadily north and east, so saturday will not be a wash—out by any means. but if you do have outdoor plans, it's worth bearing in mind that there could be some interruptions with some sharp showers. top temperatures as we go through saturday still on the warm side at 20—211 degrees, maybe 27 across parts of east anglia and the south—east. need to keep a close eye on sunday. there's a risk of some really sharp, thundery downpours moving up from france, but just where they will appear

is still subject to question so keep abreast of the forecast for the second half of the weekend. just to summarise then, our weekend is going to start off on a humid note. there will be some decent sunny spells around from time to time, but also the risk of some sharp, thundery downpours. take care.

the us treasury secretary kicks off her visit to beijing — on the agenda, easing ties between the world's two largest economies. and after a blistering post—covid rebound, the chinese economy is now showing signs of slowing.