live from washington. this is bbc news the heavy—hitters get ready to take the pitch at the women's world cup. the usa, england and china all have matches teed up on saturday. it's been a tense week on the global stage, with tempers rising from the black sea to north korea. we'll speak with a top pentagon official. some of the world's biggest tech firms have agreed to voluntary commitments on developing new ai technology. the women's world cup is in full swing in australia and new zealand, with two days of play under our belt already, and a big one on the schedule. in the coming hours team usa will face vietnam in group e. euro 2022 winners england and asian cup holders china also begin their world cup campaigns. those matches come

after a busy day two, with spain looking strong against costa rica, winning 3—0. elsewhere, switzerland knocked off newcomers the philippines. and canada limped to a draw with nigeria. live now to katie silver, who's in sydney for us. great who's in sydney for us. to see you, i want to start great to see you, i want to start with one of them matches we just mentioned which is spain meet in costa rica at 3-0, spain meet in costa rica at 3—0, looking strong. what message does that send to the rest of the field? the message does that send to the rest of the field?— rest of the field? the message is watch this _ rest of the field? the message is watch this space, _ rest of the field? the message is watch this space, they - rest of the field? the message is watch this space, they have | is watch this space, they have picked themselves as the team to watch here against costa rica you mentioned the score was 3—0, at times he could have been higher. spain missed a penalty and they had 46 attempts at goal. huge. they dominated. the three because they scored discord at the start of the game in the early a few minutes. after that they

took their foot off the gas. one of the star players being spoken about is the costa rican goalkeeper, she plays in costa rica, has never played internationally, as never play for a club outside of costa rica but they are saying given that she saved 43 attempts at gold, she did a good job. spain into came into this tournament with some issues. had a massive amounts of players protesting against the manager last year but what this is showing is that there read and ready for this work up and one of the teams to watch.— this work up and one of the teams to watch. today, the defending _ teams to watch. today, the defending champions, - teams to watch. today, the defending champions, in i teams to watch. today, the defending champions, in a| teams to watch. today, the i defending champions, in a few hours' time, the usa plane vietnam, what will you be looking for in this match? that's right, we are in the heart of darling harbour might just 100 metres that way is the fan zone and loads of american ex—pats and fans here to cheer on the team. they have the

conch golf tournaments and olympics having won three times in a row and they're chasing that in the workup, megan rapinoe is retiring and she would love to see that triple pete win at the workup, that is something we are watching for. how are they playing together as a team? how are they going to win this match? the quizzes and isn't how are going to win? it's by how much. it is vietnam's first ever workup in both the men's and women's division, and they are considered legends in vietnam. there's so much excitement and support for the vietnamese team. we are speaking to that star player and stryker for the team, the only vietnamese player to play a playing in the portuguese second division. she gave me an insight into what it is like to play in vietnam.

translation: there has never been any female footballers - in our country playing in foreign country, so i decided to go overseas to experience new things and to learn, as well as to pave the way for vietnam's female football players. asi as i say, huge excitement going ahead and we heard that she use the play with palmettos as well as coconuts when she was growing up because herfamily in the village could not rush up in the village could not rush up for the football. a common practice. the two teams are a sort of david and goliath matching with all the expectations that the usa we win this match. the other question is who they will use in their starting line—up? lots of questions about whether trinity rodman, i diverse, rather versatile newcomer, grew up rather versatile newcomer, grew up in newport beach in california, whether she will take the field, or some of the newer players getting an opportunity to play at the

international level in the workup to warm them up for it later matches.— later matches. that kicking off in about two — later matches. that kicking off in about two hours' _ later matches. that kicking off in about two hours' time, - later matches. that kicking offl in about two hours' time, thank you katie silver. it's been an eventful week for diplomacy around the world, with two major stories breaking through. first: tensions have escalated between north korea and the us after a us soldier cross the border from the south. and second: the ongoing fallout after russia backed out of the black sea grain deal. let's start in north korea, and us secretary of state antony blinken says he has no further updates on the condition of us solider private travis king's condition, but added that there are concerns. private king remains in custody in north korea. national security council spokespersonjohn kirby defended the deployment of a us nuclear submarine to south korea, telling cnn: "make sure that we have in the region sufficient military capability to protect our south korea allies, and quite frankly, the 38,000 us troops and families that are on the korean peninsula." meanwhile: russia has continued to pound ukrainian grain silos for a fourth straight day, causing wheat

prices to skyrocket. russia's defense ministry also says its black sea fleet has practised firing rockets at surface targets in a live fire exercise. earlier i spoke with the pentagon's deputy press secretary sabrina singh about all of this, starting with north korea. sabrina, it's great to have you back on the show. i want to start with north korea escalating its rhetoric on nuclear weapons, saying that the deployment of a us nuclear capable submarine to south korea is a provocation that could meet its criteria for its own use of nuclear weapons. and according to the state run news agency, the defence minister said they would be use, quote, "in case nuclear attack is launched against it or is it is judged that the use of nuclear weapons against it is imminent"? what's your response to that? well, thanks again for having me on today. really appreciate the opportunity to be with you. look, we do not seek conflict with the dprk. our alliance with the republic of korea is

defensive in nature. and the arrival of this submarine that you mentioned is part of the washington declaration that the president discussed when president came to visit the united states just earlier this year. this is about deepening our military cooperation. again, we don't seek conflict. this is about our military strength together with the republic of korea and a commitment that we said that this submarine would, in fact, visit this port. yet we are seeing this rhetoric, these threats from north korea. do you think this is an attempt to get concessions from the us, from south korea, on its nuclear programme, or do you think these are serious threats? well, it's hard to get in the mind of what north korea is thinking. all i can really say is speak for is our representation and our partnership with south korea. again, this is an iron—clad relationship, an iron—clad alliance that is defensive in nature. it is really the north koreans who continue to fire

off ballistic missiles, conducting these tests that are in violation of international law that we are concerned about. but again, we don't seek provocation with them. this is something that was announced back earlier this year, and part of the washington declaration. and so, again, this isjust part of our military alliance with south korea. sabrina, i also want to ask you about the us soldier who is currently being held in north korea. the defence department has tried to contact the north koreans, has had, as you've said, no success. to get more information on his whereabouts and how he's doing, there's been no response. are you worried about private king's well—being? unfortunately sumi, that's correct. we have reached out at all levels of levels of government. this is a complete inter—agency effort from here at the department of defence to the state department and the nsc, working to pull all levels of government to bring private king home. at the end of the day,

that is our main priority. but of course, it is concerning, but it's not surprising. we do not have a military relationship with the dprk. so our engagements are really through other countries such as sweden. we have the united nations command that also serves as our liaison with the dprk. but again, we do not know how private king is doing, and that's our main concern. we know that his family must be under an incredible amount of stress, missing him, wanting him returned home. that's exactly what we want. and so we're going to keep working to bring him home safely and securely. but unfortunately, we have not heard from the north koreans on this issue. sabrina, i want to ask you about ukraine as well, because we've seen russia hit food exports facilities for fourth straight day, also practice navy drills in the black sea. and this comes, as we know, after russia allowed this international deal to create a safe passage for transporting grain to expire. would the department of defence support, for example, a nato's or a un mission to escort these ships? or would that raise the risk too much of a direct confrontation with russia?

well, as you mentioned, we don't see conflict or confrontation with russia. our priority right now is making sure we get ukraine, what it needs in defending itself and its sovereign territory, which comes in our security assistance packages. i don't want to get ahead or speculate of what could be done or what security assurances could be taken by nato allies or other partner countries. what i can say is that it's incredibly irresponsible that russia withdrew from this grain deal at the expense of millions of people around the world, africa and latin america and other countries that are food insecure. we've already seen the price of this wheat grain has skyrocketed. and so what we have urged publicly, and we'll do so privately as well, is to return to the grain deal. russia should return to the grain deal. this is, again, we're seeing vladimir putin take the side of continuing his unjust, unjustified, unprovoked war at the expense of really creating a food crisis

around the world. and sabrina, one more question about the battlefield itself. we have seen the ukrainians say themselves that the counteroffensive that they've launched is not going as fast as they had desired. is the pentagon confident that ukraine can be successful in this counter—offensive? well, again, you've heard the ukrainians speak to their counter offensive operations. and while it is slow progress, there is still progress being made. we know that these minefields in front of them right now that russia has laid are a real obstacle. but we are confident in the security assistance that notjust we, the united states, but partners and allies around the world that have provided this assistance to ukraine. we are confident in their combat power and them being able to be successful in this counteroffensive. sabrina, great to speak with you again. thank you. inside russia, a prominent pro—war blogger and critic of president vladimir putin was taken into custody on charges of inciting extremism. igor girkin, who also goes

by the last name strelkov, is a russian nationalist and former military commander. he's publicly accused putin of not pursuing the war in ukraine harshly or effectively enough. our russia editor steve rosenberg has more. so let me paint a little the picture of igor girkin. he is a pro—war nationalist, a former officer of the fsb, russia's domestic security service, who has become a prominent blogger. he has been vocal in his criticism of how the russian authorities have been war in ukraine. and, more recently, vocal in his criticism of the russian president. he recently described vladimir putin as it non—entity vladimir putin as a non—entity and a cowardly waste of space. so, earliertoday, knock on the door, law enforcement officers arrive, "come with us please", mr igor girkin was arrested on extremism charges. he was brought to court, he told thejudge he has heart problems and requested house

arrest but in the end thejudge remanded him in custody of police until the 18th of september. he faces up to five years in prison. a bit more about him. in 2014, igor girkin was also known as igor strelkov, was a key figure in the fighting that erupted in ukraine's donbas region. that conflict was basically orchestrated and engineered by russia. his role there was to organise and to command pro—russian militias. last year, he was committed in absentia by a court in the hague for his role in the shooting down of the malaysian airlines flight mh—17 over eastern ukraine in 2014. since russia's full—scale invasion of ukraine last year, we have seen literally thousands of russians being detained for expression anti—war views. with igor girkin�*s arrest, it is sign that the kremlin is losing patience with some of its most vocal supporters of the war. people like igor girkin, who

are accusing the authorities of not doing enough to secure russia's victory on the battlefield. in other news... us presidentjoe biden on friday nominated admiral lisa franchetti to lead the us navy, which would make her the first woman to serve as a member of the military�*s joint chiefs of staff if she is confirmed. franchetti would replace chief of naval operations admiral mike gilday, whose term ends this fall. franchetti's nomination willjoin the list of hundreds of military appointments being held up by republican senator tommy tuberville, who is blocking military nominations due to the pentagon's policy concenring abortion. in england, the governing conservatives suffered two heavy defeats, but narrowly held onto former pm boris johnson's old uxbridge seat. that one victory means that british prime minister rishi sunak was spared the prospect of being the first prime minister for 55 years to lose three by—elections in one day. around the world and across the uk. this is bbc news.

bbc news bringing you different stories from across the uk. 20 years ago you had to head south to see these birds. black winged stilt. so slightly literal name, perhaps what is undoubtedly one of the world's most elegant birds. wildlife presenter bill oddie brought them to our tv screens from spain. now they're in kent. a pair arrived from africa back in the spring, and now four chicks have fledged on marshland. the site has been designed for wading birds that might be moving north. more than 600 acres of former arable farmland transformed over the past five years into a wildlife haven. the wirth marshes site is among a number of places the rspb have been preparing for new arrivals making space for nature as our climate changes. for more stories from across the uk, head

to the bbc news website. you're live with bbc news. let's turn now to manipur in india, where a group of women have attacked the home of the main suspect in a high—profile sexual assault case that has triggered widespread protests. the suspect was identified in a video which has been widely shared on social media. it shows two abducted women being paraded naked and assaulted by a mob. the incident happened in may during an outbreak of ethnic violence. our correspondent nitin srivastava is in manipur. he told us more about what's happened today. the police have opened a case of gang rape and they have arrested four men and they have claimed and they have said that they will be making more arrests soon. but the fact is that the question that is being asked widely, notjust here in india, but everywhere else, is why did it take them so long? precisely 62 days since the complaint was lodged by the family of the women

who were stripped and paraded by a mob. and after video became viral on social media. that is when the police acted. that is the big question. but now there is more anger on the streets. yesterday evening, thousands of people from the kuki community, the kuki christian community from which the women belong to, they protested. they wanted more action, more assurance from the government. the meiteis have also protested beforehand against alleging violence against them. so it's all sort of boiling down to blame games, accusations and both the parties blaming each other for the continuing ethnic violence in this beautiful north indian state. what's have the authority said as to why it's taking them so long to look into this?

authorities are saying it i've been overloaded with complaints. there been more than two months of at violence and 16,000 people have been displaced, no higher than 130 dead, they say they're doing with almost 6000 complaints so it's not possible for the administration to do with everything immediately. but the response really has been slow, it could have been much better. especially in cases where rape, incidents of violence and crimes, has been committed and there has been proof. the white house has announced that some of the country's biggest tech firms have agreed to voluntary commitments on developing new ai technology. the seven companies making the commitment include open ai, amazon, and meta. president biden outlined the commitments earlier, saying they underscore safety, security, and trust. first, companies have an obligation to make sure their technology is safe before releasing it

to the public. second, companies must prioritise the security of their systems by safeguarding their models against cyber threats. third, companies have a duty to earn the people's trust and empower users to make informed decisions, labelling content that has been altered or ai generated. and, finally, companies have agreed to find ways for al to help meet societies greatest challenges, from cancer to climate change, and invest in education and newjobs. but there's no exact outline for how the white house can ensure accountability from these companies. in their commitment to safety security and trust, the tech giants have promised to take part ininternal the tech giants have promised to take part in internal and external red—teaming regime of models or systems that raise societal risks or national security concerns working towards closer engagement and information sharing with the us government investing in cybersecurity

and insider threat safeguards to protct unreleased data creating incentives for third parties to report issues when discovered. watermarking ai—generted audio or visual content, and developing and deploying frontier ai systems to help address society's greatest challenges such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, early cancer detection and prevention, and combating cyber threats. earlier i spoke to president/ceo of the bsa software alliance, victoria espinel about today's announcement. if you look at the white house's announcement, these are companies that are also competitors working to create the best and most powerful ai tools. so why would it be in their interest to work together and to abide by these voluntary rules? so, sumi, thanks so much for having me. it's great to be here. you know, i think speaking from the perspective of bsa, the business software alliance, we represent the enterprise software companies. and i think for our companies, we recognize that al presents opportunities, but we also need to promote trust and responsibility.

bsa members have long recognized that, they've committed to it, and that's why we welcome steps towards an effective regulatory framework. if you look at the framework that has been introduced by the white house, it includes this commitment on al safety. quote, "the companies commit to internal and external security testing of their ai systems before their release". "this testing, which will be carried out in part by independent experts, guards against some of the most significant sources of ai risks, such as biosecurity and cybersecurity, as well as its broader societal effects". so from your perspective at the bsa, what would be effective in making sure that these systems are tested externally? i mean, who should be testing these systems and how to make sure, of course, that the companies also adopt recommendations? i think that the announcement the administration has made is a helpful step. in terms of starting to form what the architecture around regulatory guardrails can look like. ultimately, i think we need to have legislation in the united states

that applies to high risk ai. but i also want to say that the risks and the benefits of artificial intelligence transcend borders. so we heard president biden talking about legislation and we agree with that, but we also heard him talking about an international framework. and i think that's very important. you mentioned legislation. we've seen hearings and discussions in congress, of course, on regulating ai, as you know. and we spoke to congressman seth moulton earlier about the use of ai in the military, and this is what he told us. my basic argument is because congress moves too slow these days, we're not going to be able to regulate the whole ai industry very effectively. i don't think we'll ever keep up with the pace of technological change. and so what we should do is focus on the most dangerous cases. do you agree with that perspective? yes, let me say that there are a couple of things that i would say to policymakers. one, i think focusing on the highest risks that we can address, and i think there are a number of those, i think should

be the first priority. and second, i think looking and using the power of government to try to encourage beneficial uses of artificial intelligence, i think is also very important. so even if these companies do abide by voluntary recommendations and there is some progress in congress, bad actors will not abide by this. so how effective can these types of frameworks be? i think creating kind of a culture of what appropriate uses and what the appropriate steps are that companies, whether they're developing artificial intelligence or using artificial intelligence should take, is very important. it is true that there are going to be bad actors, as there are with any technology. and so we would need to use the enforcement tools that we have in other areas of technology or other industry sectors to deal with bad actors. but the fact that those will exist shouldn't stop us from trying to set as ambitious a high standard to promote trust and responsibility as we can. and again, i would come back to i think it's very important

that the united states act, but i think it's very important that the world act together and that as many countries as possible come together. i think there's a limited window of opportunity that we have to set a globally harmonized approach to artificial intelligence. i think this is that moment. and so i would encourage the united states, the uk, governments around the world, to come together as quickly as possible to work on that harmonized approach. how should those governments deal with international bad actors? there are concerns about how china and russia might use this technology. so again, i think there are going to be, there are going to be a variety of views and there are going to be i wouldn't even point to a particular country. there are going to be individuals and organisations that are going to be looking to see how they can weaponize artificial intelligence technology as is true with all kinds of technology. so again, i think in that way this is the tools that we use internationally

to try to address actions and stop bad actors are the ones that we should be using. i do think it's very important that governments have the focus and the resources and the capacity so they can be going after and stopping those bad actors when they use artificial intelligence for outcomes that are not societally beneficial. what do you see as the most important next steps not only for creating frameworks but also to implement them? so i think one is i think policymakers need to think about the long haul. they need to make regulatory frameworks that are going to work not just in this moment, but over the next two to three, ten years as the technology continues to develop. and then the second next step is, i would go back to working together. i think we are going to be most effective in terms of addressing the risk, but also seeing the greatest potential of artificial intelligence if we have governments working together effectively. so that is something that i think is very, very important as notjust the next step, but an immediate step. victoria, thank you so much for your insights. thank you for having me.

hello. it's going to be a wet one for many of us this weekend. in fact, it'll feel more like september, perhaps even early october, with the strength of the wind — really not a pleasant picture at all. the weather systems are lining up in the atlantic. here's the satellite picture. multiple weather fronts heading in our direction and that cloud has already spread across the uk. it has been raining and the rain will get heavier in some areas as we go through the morning and into saturday afternoon. now, over the next two or three days, we will have rather a lot of rain in some parts of the country where you see the deeper blue colours here, the darker blues. that's the rainfall accumulating to around 50 millimetres of rain or more, so about a month's worth of rainfall in a couple of days. so the forecast for the morning shows that rain across many parts of the country. the north of scotland, however, will have had clear skies and in fact, really chilly in the sheltered glens, maybe 4—5 degrees in rural spots, but for most

of us, it's in the range of around 12—14. so a lot of cloud in the morning. the winds will also be strengthening in southwestern parts of the country to near gale force along some coasts. notice that the north of scotland escapes the rain. in fact, for ourfriends in lerwick we're anticipating mostly sunny skies, and indeed northern parts of mainland scotland also enjoying some sunshine. all the weather action will be way to the south. outbreaks of rain turning heavier in northern ireland, parts of wales and also the northwest of england. all of this does not bode well for the ashes. interruptions are likely, and it also is not idealfor golf either. the forecast then for sunday. the low pressure is still with us. it's in a process of moving away into the north sea. but this long weather front here, well, it's trying to pull away, but it's doing so at a glacial pace. so that does mean more rain to come, especially across parts of northern england and wales. now, come monday and tuesday,

that low is across scandinavia. the weather does tend to improve a little bit, but the air is generally coming in from the north atlantic, so that means that the temperatures will remain subdued in the week ahead. and, actually, the weather outlook is still looking fairly unsettled with all of these shower symbols here in the outlook. wherever you are, have a good weekend.