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narrator: pediatric surgeon. volunteer. topiary artist. a raymond james financial advisor tailors advice to help you live your life. life well planned. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. announcer: and now, "bbc news". ♪ >> i am katrina perry. >> and i am in washington. wagner boss yevgeny prigozhin is listed on a passenger on a plane that has crashed. the fate of the man who threatened putin's regime now uncertain. >> republican candidates for president in their first

while donald trump watches -- launches a counter operation online. what we can expect from milwaukee. welcome to world news america. we will get to between milwaukee and a few minutes, but we begin tonight in russia where civil aviation authorities report that yevgeny prigozhin was on the passenger list of a jet that crashed north of moscow. the authority also said that wagner's cofounder dmitry utkin was also on board. some social media accounts linked to wagner are confirming the reports, but the bbc has not independently verified whether prigozhin was on the plane. russian state media confirmed a sure a while ago that the bodies of all 10 passengers were recovered from the cache site

and search operations are complete. the russian ministry said the aircraft came down and that 10 people, including free crewmembers, were on board. the statement says everyone was killed. using data from the late tracking site flight radar 24, the jet disappeared near moscow and suddenly dropped dramatically. prigozhin had kept a low profile since his mutiny in june but the video released a few days ago suggest he was in an african country. a russian investigative committee spokesperson said it has opened a criminal case into the crash. and let's go to our correspondent joining us. good to see you. what is the latest on this story? >> what we have got from various wagner-linked channels on social

media is the closest to confirmation that yevgeny prigozhin was indeed on board that plane that crashed outside moscow earlier today. what we do not have is any official confirmation from security and rescue officials who worked at the crash site. the civil aviation 30 of russia has published a full list of people on board the plane. yevgeny prigozhin's name is there, as is the name of his closest deputy commander, his right-hand man, dmitry utkin. mr. wagner himself. his name was on the list of people registered as traveling on board the plane. if they were visiting there, that is not confirmed, but there

is an increasing amount of reports from various, reasonably credible social media accounts, websites, public figures in russia quoting various sources as saying that yevgeny prigozhin is indeed debt. set--- dead. everybody is waiting for confirmation. >> telus why news, if confirmed, is so insignificant. >> yevgeny prigozhin has played a key role in several kremlin projects, one is the war against ukraine. yevgeny prigozhin's wagner mercenaries have shown themselves as a very capable fighting force, in particular upside eastern town of berkeley -- bakhmut. before that, yevgeny prigozhin

was linked to so-called factories, i.e. fake social media accounts spreading pro kremlin narratives, trying to influence political systems in various countries such as the united states. but after yevgeny prigozhin's short-lived and failed mutiny back in june, a lot of people begin to think that he has crossed some really important redlines and rebelling against russia's top military commanders and coming very close to challenging putin himself is not something that the kremlin will forgive. several commentators said that yevgeny prigozhin was a dead man walking.

if he has indeed been killed in this crash, that would come as no surprise to them. >> thank you for that update. earlier on wednesday, u.s. president biden was asked about reports of the crash. >> i do not know for a fact what happened. i am not surprised. there is not that i did i know enough to know the answer. >> for more, we speak to freelance journalist john who is writing a book on the wagner group. what do we know about yevgeny prigozhin's movements today up until we saw this newsbreak? >> thanks for having me. i have confirmed with some sources within wagner who were close to prigozhin that it does seem he was in africa at least a couple of days ago, most likely in mali, where we saw a video

produced on one of his telegram channels. he, i heard, then arrive back in russia earlier this morning. sources i have within the organization have said with 95% certainty that he and dmitry utkin were killed. >> can you remind us what he had been doing up until this point ever since that failed mutiny in june? >> sure. there has been is so much movement and a lot of obscurity about what exactly has been going on, but, essentially, burglary had been seen moving its main headquarters from russia to belarus while at the same time we saw yevgeny prigozhin still being relatively active within the african theaters in which bogner

operates, certainly producing commentary, not necessarily all the time appearing in video but we did see an appearance of the russia-africa summit and see him moving between belarus and russia in the ring and the video in mali most recently. >> yevgeny prigozhin would've been aware that crossing putin was considered an active betrayal. was he expressing concern about his own security? do we know how he set his fate going forward? >> i wish i knew the answer. ultimately, my best guess is that these events around june 24, when he launched the mutiny war, are events that have really gotten out of his control, he was in a situation where in his own mind, he was desperate enough he required ostentatious actions to get the year and

access to putin. it seemed after the mutiny that he was doing the best he could to make things appear as business as usual. whether or another was anxiety under the surface, i am sure he would never admit it himself, but it is certainly difficult to tell. >> s about the wider implications for the wagner group itself. writers are still in africa and ukraine. what would this mean, if confirmed, for their movements? >> it is still too early to tell. destructor -- structure of wagner and its relationship to the state has always been fluid and context dependent. our assumption previously was that we would receive more continuity than change, especially in africa, because bogner ultimately is -- wagner is ultimately a product of

russia's willingness to reject former military force. how this will play out in the russian ministry of defense is still something to be seen. i do not think a lot the bogner commanders necessarily see a promising future. ultimately, a this will ultimately come down to individual decisions. >> help big is this conflict between security forces with the bogner group and russia's defense. >> wagner is ultimately a network of individuals. for the most part, it is people who sign on to a fixed contract and fight with wagner. the contract is over, they are

no under with the organization. the number of employees it has can vary considerably. maybe up to 50,000 one point in ukraine but it is probably closer to 10,000 now. obviously a small number compared to the russian military itself, but none the less some of wagner's top commanders represent some of the greater military talent that russia has there. it will be interesting to see where these guys end up and in what type of structure. >> implications would be significant if this lease is confirmed. thank you for joining us. this is a developing story. we will keep out of the latest details. you can follow our live page on bbc.com for updates. let's go to katrina perry in milwaukee, where several republican candidates for president will take the stage tonight. katrina: welcome to milwaukee.

tonight is somewhat of a conservative festival atmosphere. you can probably hear a and -- a band. 8 candidates will take the stage to have their chance to become the nominee. one person missing is a former president. donald trump has said he will not do any of the debates and has opted for a prerecorded interview with tucker carlsen heading that you will air at the same time is a debate. one of the candidates, doug burgum, suffered an injury on tuesday while playing basketball. he arrived at the venue on crutches a while ago. joining me to discuss these developments is anthony. if we can start with the north dakota governor, what is his status? is he going to take part tonight? >> p is year ended the

walk-through on crutches. it appears he will be participating in the debate. there will be 8 people on stage. donald trump was offered a spot but five. larry elder wanted to be on is filing a complaint doug burgum will be there if he can. >> the stakes are high. >> obviously they want to make a first impression. ron desantis was viewed as a consensus guide behind donald trump for much of this year but he has been following back recently. that will be an interesting thing to watch. and donald trump will cast a shadow. everybody will have to talk about him and there will be friction with people like chris christie, who has been critical of him, and vivek ramaswamy, who

is been reductive. and ukraine and what happened with the plane crash and also you will have individuals on the stage have been critical of continued your spport for ukraine and others like mike pence he sees this as a defining battle that the u.s. has to stand by ukraine to stand by ukraine to standup to russia. katrina: with the former president so far ahead in the polls, is it a done deal that he will be the nominee? any point to all of this? >> it is a big deal for any of these candidates to part company has as big of the is donald trump has right now, historically, something dramatic has to happen to shake that off, but this is a battle to see who could be that second person. we do not know what could happen before voting starts. there could be something dramatic. it would not be the first time in american politics that we

were caught offguard. katrina: if donald trump is the nominee, there will be a gap for the name of his vice president. >>'s political action committee has created a website that has the candidates on stage. they have cartoon cutouts. they are billing this is the vice presidential debate and are asking people to vote on who should be his running mate. vivek ramaswamy leads. katrina: donald trump has recorded an interview with topical carlsen -- checker process. what can we expect from that? >> tsn is -- he has said that sparks will fly. they have had their issues in the past. there were the messages were tucker carlsen had sent donald trump's presidency was a disaster and he would be happy to see him exit the stage. there may not be a perfectly collegial atmosphere between up,

but they both obviously have bones to pick with fox news, the conservative television network hosting this site. their agendas aligned tonight and they are going to try to draw some attention away from this today. katrina: not everybody is a fan of donald trump but they will be watching this debate >> if you look at the polls, donald trump has majority support among republicans right now but it is not rocksolid. about half of donald trump's support in an iowa pooll -- poll has a said they are willing to entertain other candidates. the strategies you feel his supporters away, you either do a chris christie or asa hutchinson and take him head-on or you are vivek ramaswamy, trying to

position yourself just like trump that may be different enough. katrina: we will give an eye on that tonight. anthony, thank you. earlier, i spoke with jason miller, senior advisor on donald trump's campaign, about this debate. jason miller, senior advisor for donald trump, his campaign, thank you for joining is. first, why is he skipping the debate? >> president trump is ahead by 50 points in the primary. looking ahead to the general election, he is the only republican candidate meeting joe biden. he is focused on getting this country back on track. he has said he will not get any debates until further notice, not unlike what ronald reagan did years ago. but there is no reason when you have a candidate like president trump at 62% in the polls and

candidates like asa hutchinson who are at less than 1%, to go in there, that is not how we will fix inflation and other issues. >> nevertheless, wisconsin is an important state. the convention will be here. there a risk he is offending quote was by not turning up? >> not at all. a number of local republicans here gave me high and handshakes as we entered the arena. this definitely is trump country. there is a reason why the president is ahead by so many points. nobody is going to tell joe biden he needs to debate rfk junior. but president trump is ahead by so much it would not be a good show. if you are 17-0 in the regular season, why would you mess around with somebody who is 0-17

? >> mike pence come in nikki haley, chris christie know him well. what if they attack him and he is not here to defend himself? >> he can handle himself, pushback back, but the challenge that a lot of these candidates have is why are they running? you look at the entire field. nobody is really distinguished themselves, particularly on policy ideas. to the extent that policy even comes up, they will just be cheap imitations of president trump. >> is that mean that you are not looking to any of these people as possible vp candidate? >> i would never take that off the table. several people on the stage tonight we really like i am not necessarily going to throughout names, but i think vivek ramaswamy could probably have a good night and so could tim scott.

pressure tonight is on ron de- sanctimonious. he is dropping like a rock, on the fifth at reboot of his campaign. he has a new spoke spam. that spokesman. it is not going well for him. i think the calls for him to drop out will intensify. >> donald trump has reported an interview with parker carlsen that will start five minutes before hand. what can we expect from that? >> i think tens of millions more people will watch the interview then the other -- then tuning in for the other candidates combined. president trump is where the ratings are, where the action is. he has already won tonight's debate. >> can you win something if you do not turn up? >> he has already won. he will have more viewers. they -- and the candidates will spend their entire time talking

about president trump. they want to be president trump but they cannot be. from can the fighting. >> will the president be watching on tv? >> not sure. he has not said. he is in bedminster, new jersey. but i know he will be watching the interview with tucker carlsen, which will get tens of millions of years. >> jason miller, senior advisor with the trump campaign, thank you for joining us. turning to georgette now where more people accused of conspiring with donald trump to try to overturn the 2020 election have turned themselves in. former president trump, meanwhile, said he will hand himself into authorities on thursday. the latest to surrender was david schaefer, is the as ray

smith. and the george abela bondsman and lawyer john eastman turned himself in. sidney powell also surrendered earlier on wednesday, but rudy giuliani is also surrendered. he is accused of advancing claims that the 2020 election was stolen. along with mr. trump, the former mayor faces the most charges of the defendants. speaking after his arrest, giuliani criticized the district attorney prosecuting him. >> fanni willis will go down in american history as having conducted one of the worst attacks on the american constitution ever. she has violated the first amendment right to advocate, to

petition the government for agrees and says, like an election that they believe was poorly conducted. biden and the biden state does not have a right to tell you what the truth is. >> turning us now from atlanta is barbara. rudy giuliani surrendering today. what can you tell us? >> he had to pay 150,000 dollars bond, which is a lot of money. he was seen coming out of a bail bonzie colson. donald trump will have to pay 200,000 dollars. and he has the same number of charges as mr. trump, 13. he was mr. trump's personal lawyer after the 2020 election. he took the lead role in promoting these falsehoods about election fraud and the charges that the election had been stolen, including here in georgia quite actively.

he has been charged under that racketeering law, which alleges that all 19 defendants engaged in a conspiracy to subvert the results of the election. with mr. giuliani, it is ironic. when he was a federal prosecutor, he made a name for himself racketeering cases. now he is being charged in one. >> what can we expect to happen tomorrow with the former president is due to be there? >> is going to be booked for a fourth time. he will be fingerprinted. this time, there will probably be a mugshot. that would be the first time. and he will have to pay the 200,000 dollar bond with particular conditions attached. he is prohibited of intimidation of codefendants, witnesses, victims of the case, including on social media. in other times when he has

surrendered himself, he has made a spectacle of it. we can expect that you probably have been here as well. he has posted that he will "proudly" be arrested thursday afternoon. >> thank you for that and thank you for joining us. >> thank you for watching. have a good night. ♪ narrator: funding for this presentation of this program is provided by... narrator: financial services firm, raymond james. narrator: funding was also provided by, the freeman foundation. and by judy and peter blum kovler foundation; pursuing solutions for america's neglected needs. ♪ ♪

geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the newshour tonight, republican presidential candidates looking to unseat donald trump, as the gop frontrunner prepares to debate for the first time this election cycle.