stranded in space. hello, i'm catherine byaruhanga. thousands of people have attended the funeral for ugandan olympic athlete rebecca cheptegei, who was killed by a former boyfriend this month. the service was in her family's home town, bukwo. she received full military honours, having been a member of the ugandan armed forces. the 33—year—old marathon runner, who competed in the paris games last month, died after being doused with petrol and set alight. rebecca cheptegei's body was brought in from kenya, where she lived and trained. her death has renewed concern about the level of violence against women in kenya and uganda. her former partner has since died of his injuries. we are guilty as government but

also the community is guilty. it is not true that we did not know even in the local community that rebecca was facing family problems. i want to say prior to the family it is a sad moment in uganda and all of us friends. when we went to paris with rebecca, we really felt it because it was just three weeks we were together and one month of training together and it's really sad. our senior africa correspondent anne soy has more from bukwo. rebecca cheptegei was a much loved member of this community, and you can see that

from the turnout today. there were easily thousands of people here coming to pay their last respects to somebody they describe as humble, who was willing to help members of the community and who inspired many children to take up athletics. earlier in the day, local councillors met here at bukwo district and passed a motion to name a street and a sports venue after her. earlier, we heard from paris, which is the city she ran her last marathon that they are also planning to to name a sports venue after her. her death, atjust 33, has shocked many members of this community. she is the third athlete to die as a result of domestic violence in kenya, where she lived in just three years, and therefore this death has cast a spotlight on an endemic issue in the country. and those conversations are going on here today. fellow athletes are wearing black t—shirts with the inscription, say no to gender based

violence. president zelensky has again stressed ukraine needs more long—range weapons and air defence capabilities. he made his remarks after sir keir starmer and joe biden held talks on whether to permit ukraine to use western weapons against targets inside russia — but didn't announce a change in policy. the former us special representative for ukraine negotiations, kurt volker, told the bbc any change to missile policy might not be made public. some of this may get loosened up behind the scenes, you may see the us not object to the uk allowing storm shadows to go and you may see some shift in us position but just not announced as some sort of new policy. but ukrainian frustrations are palpable and i think it's justified.

meanwhile, nato's highest military authorities have been meeting in prague, for the annual military committee conference. the final conclusion of the committee is always the highest military recommendation for the political leaders of the alliance. let's speak to admiral rob bauer, the chair of the nato military committee. thank you forjoining us on the programme. your meeting has come to a conclusion. the focus at the moment in international politics is whether western countries will permit ukraine to use some long—range missiles against russia. did you come to against russia. did you come to a conclusion on that at the conference?— a conclusion on that at the conference? u, ., ., conference? good evening. no, that is not— conference? good evening. no, that is not the _ conference? good evening. no,

that is not the primary - conference? good evening. no, that is not the primary subject | that is not the primary subject in this conference because in this conference, the chief of defence talked about taking stock with regards to our readiness in regulation to all the plans we made last year in vilnius. however, if you look at this from a military point of view, it is logical from the ukrainian side to ask for this permission because if you are attacked by a nation, the aggressor can be attacked on its own nation in accordance with the un charter and the law of armed conflict. this militarily a logical thing to ask and is the right thing to do militarily if you want to prevent the attacker to continue to attack by ensuring the logistics are not coming to the logistics are not coming to the front, weapons, fuel, things like that. so if you are

able to not only defend yourself against the arrows fired at you but also protect the architecture, that is militarily the right thing to do. �* , ., , do. and president putin has pre-empted _ do. and president putin has pre-empted any— do. and president putin has pre-empted any decision i do. and president putin has. pre-empted any decision like pre—empted any decision like this saying it would be a red line, that nato countries in particular would be fighting russia. this is a warning not for ukraine but for member countries. do you believe him when he gives this warning? what would you say to people in your country who would be worried about an escalation in this conflict? i worried about an escalation in this conflict?— this conflict? i think this shows the _ this conflict? i think this shows the russians - this conflict? i think this shows the russians are | this conflict? i think this i shows the russians are not achieving any of these strategic goals they want to achieve in ukraine and i think they are frustrated and angry with their poor performance in itself there and therefore they are talking to us when they see that other nations including nato allies are helping

ukraine, 50 nations that do this since 2022, and of course it's not helping them if we help ukraine. so this is their frustration and their way to talk to us about it. what nato does is nothing else than basically help ukraine in accordance with the un charter of international law. find accordance with the un charter of international law. and where do ou of international law. and where do you go _ of international law. and where do you go from _ of international law. and where do you go from here? - of international law. and where do you go from here? this - of international law. and where l do you go from here? this would be a big step forward in terms of western commitment to ukraine. if it does not work, what more can you do when it stops stopping the russian forces in ukraine? the decision in washington set up the command in germany to make sure the coordination of training has been done by nato, the coordination of all requirements that ukraine has are reaching ukraine including logistics to the border and working with the ukrainians on the future armed forces. that

is the inside command, what we are going to do. and the discussions were about how we are moving towards the set—up to make sure the command becomes operational as soon as possible. thank you forjoining us. one more development on the war between russia and ukraine — the two have exchanged prisoners of war with mediation from the united arab emirates. the russian defence ministry said its freed servicemen were currently in belarus and receiving help. uae state media said 103 prisoners from each side were handed over and that it was abu dhabi's eighth such mediation. on friday ukraine said it had received a further 49 captives from russia; they included former defenders of the now ruined city of mariupol. the government of south sudan is holding an emergency cabinet meeting hours after it announced that long—delayed national elections would be postponed by two years.

the polls were due to take place this december. president salva kiir�*s office said the election delay was necessary in order to complete essential tasks, including writing a new constitution. some south sudanese see the postponement as further evidence of a political elite being reluctant to give up power. let's get more with our africa editor, will ross. it's good to have you on the programme. what do you think lies behind this decision by south sudan's government? the? south sudan's government? they ut out south sudan's government? they put out this _ south sudan's government? they put out this statement _ south sudan's government? tie: put out this statement saying simply the country is not ready to hold these elections in december, there is too much work to be done including something to do with getting the new constitution ready but also lots of electoral reform needed, registration of

political parties and getting a vote sorted out so a lot of work to be done. but this is not the first postponement of elections and as you say, there many people including some in south sudan saying we've got a president who has effectively beenin president who has effectively been in power since 2005 and the country became independent in 2011 and quickly went into civil warfor in 2011 and quickly went into civil war for five years and after that, civil war for five years and afterthat, he civil war for five years and after that, he has then used postponement is to stay in power and there's this arrangement where is former fellow is one of his vice presidents so there are accusations that by kicking the elections down the road further, these politicians, we are notjust talking about those two but the entire political elite, remain in power. this is a country that is oil rich and there is a lot of concern about the fact that oil money is not getting to the

people of south sudan. so although some people will say we don't want to rock the boat, it is a fragile country, maybe it is a fragile country, maybe it is a fragile country, maybe it is best to postpone the elections, there are those who will say this is for the benefit of the politicians. find benefit of the politicians. and what happens _ benefit of the politicians. and what happens in _ benefit of the politicians. and what happens in terms of the security situation in south sudan? the civil war ended a few years ago but there is still quite a fragile peace. what implications have on the security situation? 15 what implications have on the security situation?— security situation? is hard to say when — security situation? is hard to say when there _ security situation? is hard to say when there are - security situation? is hard to say when there are rebel- security situation? is hard to - say when there are rebel groups are still active, at least one rebel group towards the south still active and may not take kindly to this announcement. things are relatively calm and we have to use a word relative because things have been so bad over the last ten, 15 years, that the chance of the peace agreement unravelling because of this is always going to be

there. up until now, there has been a lot of pressure from the international community, south sudan came out of the civil war thanks to a lot of pressure from different countries pushing for the water and an they have held quite a lot of sway but at the moment was so much else going on in the world with conflict, even in neighbouring sudan with the war there, i think it's unlikely there, i think it's unlikely there will be a lot of international pressure on politicians to change their decision about this postponement of the election. and imagine the conflict in neighbouring sudan. we want to point viewers to situation happening in the darfur region and el fasher. there are more reports of fighting there. tell us about what is happening in el fasher. us about what is happening in el fasher-_ el fasher. over the last few da s el fasher. over the last few days things _ el fasher. over the last few days things have _ el fasher. over the last few| days things have intensified. this fight for el fasher, the

only capital city in the darfur region that is not in the hands of the paramilitary rapid support forces but they had been trying for months to wrestle control of the city from the sudanese army and its allies. what we're from residents there is the continuous shelling and explosions as the rsf try to capture the city and the sudanese air force respond, they say they are hitting rsf targets but for the population there, it's getting more and more desperate and just this week we have had the medical charity doctors without borders warning that in one of the camps near el fasher where there has already been a famine declared, they are running thousands of children will die from malnutrition in the coming weeks unless the whole aid

operation changes because they are saying the rsf fighters are stopping the delivery of some aid and calling on the un to allow airdropped into these camps to save lives.- allow airdropped into these camps to save lives. let's get an update on typhoon yagi which has hit several asian countries. the typhoon has now caused severe flooding in myanmar with more than 230,000 people forced to leave their homes, according to officials. the country's military has called for foreign aid to help cope with the disaster. michael bristow has more. the burmese military has become isolated from the outside world since it seized power three years ago. but such is the extent of the flooding in myanmar and it's now appealing for outside help. images show burmese people rescuing what they can, including livestock from the rising water. translation: it's terrible to experience flooding - because we cannot live our lives well when it happens. it can be ok for people

who have money, but for the people who have to work day to day for their meals, it's not ok at all. so i'm afraid of the floods. heavy rain has also caused the mekong river to break its banks, causing flooding in areas of northern thailand and across the border in laos. typhoon yagi was the most powerful storm in asia this year. its after—effects has still been felt. michael bristow, bbc news. hundreds of people have attended the funeral of the american—turkish activist, aysenur ezgi eygi who was shot dead last week by israeli troops in the occupied west bank. the ceremony has been taking place in her home district of didim, in western turkey with government officials, incuding the vice president, among the mourners. the israeli army says ms eygi was most likely accidentally killed by its soldiers during a protest. turkey says it was an

intentional killing and has requested arrest warrants for those to blame. and in zimbabwe severe drought and food shortages have led authorities to announce they will cull 200 elephants. the meat from these elephants will be distributed to people struggling to feed themselves. neighbouring namibia also carried out a wildlife cull last month because of the drought. zimbabwe is home to an estimated 100,000 elephants — the second largest population in the world after botswana. the country's previous cull was more than 35 years ago. since president putin's full—scale invasion of ukraine more than two years ago, there's been a crackdown in russia on anyone expressing anti—war views. it's revived grim memories of the soviet past, when denouncing colleagues and neighbours was widespread. steve rosenberg reports.

nadezhda buyanova is a doctor, but you'll find her in court, not the clinic. the 68—year—old paediatrician faces ten years in prison, accused of spreading fake news about the russian army. nadezhda tells me i read about this kind of thing happening to others, you know. i never imagined it would happen to me. the story began at this moscow medical centre. a patient�*s mother claimed that the doctor had told her russian soldiers in ukraine are legitimate targets. the woman recorded an angry video. her ex—husband had been killed fighting in ukraine. then she wrote this denunciation of the doctor to police. it was enough to put her on trial. 400 miles away, different trial, same charges. near st petersburg,

hairdresser anna alexandrova had fallen out with her neighbour irina over a plot of land in their village. their family feud led to anna being reported and accused of posting messages critical of the war in ukraine. she faces up to 15 years in prison. any regrets from the other side? i feel sorry for her, says irina's mother, natalia. i don't want her to get a long sentence. i want her to receive a just punishment, says irina. across the country, there are reports of russians informing on russians. one thing russia's war in ukraine has done here is turbocharge the hunt for internal enemies, for alleged traitors. and it's in this atmosphere of us against them that you get neighbour snitching on neighbour students on neighbour, students

informing on their teachers, professors on students and even parishioners denouncing priests. but one thing stalin did not give them theirfreedom. but one thing stalin did not give them: their freedom. sounds familiar. under soviet dictator joseph stalin, denunciation was actively encouraged. the prison camps, the gulag, were full of victims who'd been snitched on by their fellow citizens. what i find really remarkable is how quickly russian genetic memory has come back. how things that people who didn't live in those times suddenly act as if they did. suddenly they are squealing on others. yes, it is a soviet practice, but it's also something about the russian genetic code, or fear of trying to protect themselves at the expense of others. and in this atmosphere, look what's happening. some russians are taking the law into their own hands. on a moscow bus, two men attack 87—year—old dmitri grinchy.

they say they overheard him insulting russian mercenaries fighting in ukraine. translation: he lunged at me, flashing his eyes and gnashing i his teeth as if he wanted to bite me. he called over his son, a big guy who pressed his finger into my arm to hurt me. i've got bruises here and here. the two men forced dmitri off the bus and dragged him to the police. he wasn't charged, but the incident has left dmitri shaken and angry. translate: the russian - constitution says that everyone has the right to free speech. why should others get to say what they think and not me? under stalin, dmitri's father was arrested and executed. an innocent man. russia's past is a painful one, but it's the present

that worries dmitri. with russia once again searching for enemies and agents and heading in a dangerous direction. steve rosenberg bbc news, moscow. the trailblazing ballerina, michaela deprince, has died at the age of 29. a family statement said she was an "inspiration to everyone who heard her story". deprince was born during — sierra leone's civil war, which took the lives of both her parents. she was taken to the us as a 4—year old, where her adopted family nurtured her love of ballet. she became the youngest ever principal dancer at the dance theatre of harlem and spent much of her career promoting the inclusion of black dancers in ballet. in 2017, michaela deprince told hardtalk�*s stephen sackur how her experiences impacted her as a dancer. i think it is very important for people to not forget about the struggles that

they've been through because it creates who you are. and if i didn't go through those things, i wouldn't be as strong as i am today. because i go through horrible things every single day in my dance career, and people say things to me that maybe i would cry about but i don't, it doesn't necessarily faze me any more because of the things i've been said to before. you can use the things that you have been through to connect with the audience and that is what art is, and that's what makes it so passionate. and i mean, sometimes it is hard but at the same time you have to have the right support system, the right people who can help you bring you back into reality. two us astronauts stranded in space have said it was hard to watch their malfunctioning craft depart the international space station without them. barry �*butch' wilmore and sunita williams have been on the station for three months — and could be there for several more — but say they were trained to "expect the unexpected". pallab ghosh reports.

ignition and lift—off i of starliner and atlas v. butch and suni blasted off for the international space station at the beginning ofjune. it was an eight—day mission. but three months on, they're still in space. we have you loud and clear. this is their first press conference to answer questions about how they feel about being stuck in space. you asked what we miss, right? of course, you know, the things that we always miss — our families. i miss my two dogs. i miss my friends. but you know what? like butch said, there are so many people on earth that are sending us messages and it makes you feel just right at home. butch and suni left earth with leaks in the propulsion system. some of the thrusters cut out during docking. they arrived safely, greeted with the usual hugs, but engineers wanted to get to the bottom of the thruster problems before bringing them home. they never did.

so do they feel let down by boeing, who made the starliner spacecraft? let down? absolutely not. we are pushing the edges of the envelope in everything that we do, and it is not easy. starliner is now backingi away from the station... starliner returned to earth last week without butch and suni. boeing said it would be completely safe for them, but nasa overruled them. and the astronauts said for the first time that they agreed. we found some things that we just could not get comfortable with putting us back in the starliner when we had other options. we could have gotten to the point, i believe, where we could have returned on starliner, but we just simply ran out of time. butch and suni seemed to be enjoying life on the space station. this is my happy place. i love being up here in space. it'sjust fun. you know, every day you do something that's

"work", quote—unquote, you can do it upside down. suni and butch are working with the rest of the space station crew with experiments, maintenance and having fun. stay with us here on bbc news. hello there. well, we have had a chilly run of weather for the last few days for the time of year. we started off with a patch or two of frost, even into parts of east anglia saturday morning. but then plenty of sunshine for england and wales, and temperatures lifted to 20 in both east anglia and the south—east. for scotland and northern ireland though, all this cloud worked in, and that was associated with a weather front that brought outbreaks of rain and some quite strong gusts of wind into western areas of scotland, some rough seas there in tiree. now, the same area of low pressure is slow moving to the north of scotland. our weather front pushes the band of rain across into parts of northern england, north wales overnight —

the rain quite patchy at times here. a few showers for the north—west of scotland, staying dry towards the south where it's going to be quite cold. temperatures down to around four degrees in the coldest rural areas. for sunday, our weather front still with us across central portions of the uk. another one will begin to move into scotland through the day. so this band of rain, quite weak, quite light and patchy, really, through the day for northern england and north wales, not really moving very fast so it will be damp here. a band of heavier rain works its way from west to east across scotland with some sunshine following, and towards the south and east it should stay largely dry and sunny once again. temperatures here climbing to about 20 celsius, which is 68 in fahrenheit. heading into the start of the new week, we see an area of high pressure build right over the top of the uk, and this is going to bring quite a lengthy spell of dry and settled weather. now on monday, most areas will see sunshine from the word go, but there could be some cloud and a bit of drizzle left over from that weak weather front first thing in the south. that will clear away with time, and then most of us

will have a dry day. plenty of sunshine around, temperatures high teens to low 20s once again. perhaps a little bit cooler than that though, for the very far north of scotland. but as our area of high pressure re—orientates a little bit, we'll see some of the warmest air going into the mainland of scotland through tuesday, boosting the temperatures here. a chance for a few showers for the scottish islands for a time, but otherwise it's a fine day. any early morning mist and fog patches lifting with sunshine through most of the day. temperatures hitting about 22 in the warmest spots in scotland, otherwise about 18 to 21. feeling pleasant in that september sunshine, and there's more of that sunshine to come as we delve deeper into the week, with just a chance of a few showers developing later in the week across parts of england and wales.

this is bbc news, the headlines... we are guilty as government, but also the community's guilt. thousands of people turn out for the funeral of olympic athlete, rebecca cheptegei in uganda. she was killed by a former boyfriend, who had set her on fire. president zelensky again stresses ukraine's need for long range missiles to use against russia. his remarks come as president biden and sir keir starmer meet in washington, but make no announcement in policy changes for ukraine's use of western weapons.

the government of south sudan holds an emergency meeting, hours after it announced elections would be delayed for another two years. two us astronauts stranded in space for months say it was hard to watch their faulty craft depart the international space station without them, but they are trained to "expect the unexpected". now on bbc news, it's sportsday. hello and welcome to sportsday this saturday night, with me chetan pathak, coming up on the programme. a day to remember for nottingham forest and their fans at anfield — as liverpool are beaten for the first time this season. america on top — team usa hold off europe to maintain their lead at the solheim cup.