i'm carl nasman. we begin in pakistan where at least 44 people have been killed in what police suspect was a suicide bomb attack at a political rally in the northwest of the country. more than 100 people were also injured in the blast, which happened in pakistan's bajaur district, close to the border with afghanistan. here's our correspondent caroline davies. a sunday afternoon political rally by one of pakistan's biggest religious parties, jamiat ulema—e—islam. hundreds crowded in, flags, chanting, then the explosion. explosion. emraan mahir was one of the rally�*s organisers on stage at the time it happened. his ears are still ringing from the blast. what do you remember after the explosion? translation: it was all injured people around, l all dead bodies and flesh. it was like doomsday.

local people tried to help the injured. there were not enough ambulances so people were taking their own cars. he says that several people around him died. he isn't sure why he survived. these pictures show some of the chaos. stretchered or carried by any hands that could offer help. the district hospital declared a health emergency and a call was put out for blood donations. as the wards filled up, some were taken by helicopter to nearby peshawar. the death toll rose quickly. police have said that they have struggled to identify all of the dead. among those named is a local political leader. pakistan's prime minister, shehbaz sharif, condemned the attack. there has been an increase in violent attacks across pakistan, particularly in this province. the police have said that they've discovered evidence suggesting that the explosion might have been a suicide bomber but have not yet confirmed it.

if this was an attack, it's not clear what the motive could be and no group has claimed it. it leaves many questions about what has happened and how it could affect the build—up to pakistan's much—anticipated general election, still expected later this year. caroline davies, bbc news, pakistan. and caroline davies filed this update a short time ago. we have been speaking to people who were there either when the blast up or shortly afterwards and the scale of the destruction and damage, it makes it relatively clear why it took while to identify all of those who had died in the blast. i think they have now been able to do so. that is because some of them were identified simply through their clothes and their shoes. we have seen images this evening of some of the funerals in the last two minutes, things on social media of hundreds of people coming to mourn those who lost their lives in this explosion. speaking to the organiser, he also said this

will not stop the political party for continuing to campaign in the run—up to the election, but of course the backdrop to this is the general election so we still don't know which date they will happen on. other worries will be that even without the set election, they were already seeing political rallies being targeted. small white —— might me see in the coming few months in pakistan was to mark ——7 haiti has welcomed with great interest kenya's offer to lead a multinationalforce to restore order. haiti's foreign minister says he appreciates the expression of african solidarity. the caribbean nation is suffering from a surge in gang violence, and is in a deep security, political and humanitarian crisis. a short while ago, i spoke to jacqueline charles, the miami herald's caribbean correspondent. thank you for being here once again with us. we have seen a couple of times these previous international interventions in haiti in the past couple of decades. they haven't exactly gone very well.

what's the feeling right now in haiti about this potential intervention on the behalf of kenya? there is one what are some of the situation in haiti right now which is desperation, because we are seeing, as you mentioned, a resurgence of violence, also kidnappings, not just foreigners, but also haitians who are victims of kidnappings regardless of their role, their profession is. a doctor is being held at the former head of the provisional electoral council who has been held for over a month now. when you talk to average haitians, theyjust want help. they understand the police is doing the best they can, but once the police goes in, they really can't hold on to control of territory. games today control at least 80% of the haitian capital and we are seeing violence also pop up outside port—au—prince. just this week, you saw the state department basically order evacuations of nonemergency personnel from its embassy,

as well as us citizens in the country. what do you make of the fact that it is kenya that's volunteering to lead this mission? you mentioned the united states is evacuating most of its personnel from the country. why do you think it is kenya, not a nation that a little bit closer geographically to haiti? i think it's probably what you mentioned, we have had past interventions, other countries have histories with haiti that has not always been favourable. we've seen the states support, even writing a resolution before the un security council to support the deployment of a security force to haiti, but they don't want to lead it, they've got a record to say they've asked. canada has not raised its hand either. i've watched kenya at the un security council when it

a nonpermanent member last year, speaking of nations taking while leading role, but we also have to wait and see. as the haitian former minister said, it's a positive step, the type of game violence, heavily armed weapons they have also warrant some sort of military muscle. so we will be watching closely to see whether other contributing nations will now step forward. those with military muscle to say yes, will be part of a multinational intervention for haiti to start to bring some sort of relief. we also heard that canada, speaking of other nations, has offered to fund the creation of, essentially, a green zone or safe space for the of police officers in haiti. give us a sense of how difficult logistics of this kind of trading mission might be in a place where, as you mentioned, so much of the country is right now controlled by gangs? the training is currently ongoing. france is doing training, the united states, i visited

a training session earlier this year with the head of the inl in the biden administration. but the reality is that people are leaving. we are interested in finding out how many haitian police officers are seeking to take advantage of this biden programme. we know that by the un numbers that you only have 3500 active, ready—to—go police officers on active duty at any given day throughout the country, and this is a country of 12 million people. while you're doing the training, you also face the other challenge of how you convinced the very people in charge of security to stay in the country and it's worth staying. the only challenge you have here, on one hand you have a gang violence, police officers being targeted, dozens of cops have died just this year alone, and then you also have officers who are leaving to get to the united states, to get to canada, because they can't manage anymore. is there any sense of a longer term strategy in haiti, this plan by kenya, eventually this international force would leave? is there a plan in place that might try to get the country

back on track? the assistant secretary who i spoke to on friday and who also testify before a senate foreign relations committee talked about how they said that you need a multinationalforce to intervene right now. there needs to be a long—term plan and you need to take this country to election, two years after the assassination of the haitian president, not one elected president in the country, sorry, one elected leader, no parliament, no president at all. so how do you go to elections when you have insecurity, when you have gang violence, when you have kidnappings? then you have to sit down haiti and its international partners to figure out how you get the country back to democracy, how to address the problems in the justice system because it's notjust policing, when police makes arrests, you need to have a justice system that works. you have to be able to go to disenfranchised committees because today you kill one gang leader, you jail one,

but there are other dozens of young children also part of the gangs, so you also have to address that issue. i think we have to take this step—by—step. myself, i'll watch to see what comes next. kenya says there will be an assessment team going to haiti, and in the following weeks it'll be interesting to see what they come back with and whether they feel 1,000 police officers is enough or if they will ask more resources and other countries to contribute to make sure this is something that will work. jacqueline charles, the miami herald's caribbean correspondent. thank you so much for your insights. thank you. demonstrations in favour of the coup in niger turned violent sunday as supporters of the junta attacked the french embassy in the capital niamey. protestors shouted, "down with france," setting fire to the embassy�*s outer walls, and also waving russian flags, shouting, "long live putin." the generals claiming to run the country say members of the toppled government are now hiding out in western embassies. meanwhile, a group of west african countries has

issued an ultimatum to the military leaders. the bloc known as ecowas has met, and now warns it'll launch a military intervention if niger's elected president is not restored to power within a week. the group agreed to sanctions, saying it has zero tolerance for coups. niger's democratically elected leadership has welcomed the support of its neighbours. the country's ambassador to the united states spoke earlier to the bbc world service. i will support anything that will restore legitimately elected institution. we have to learn to defend our institutions. it doesn't work this way, simply because you have to keep hte force, you decide you are the one to rule. people select who should rule them. that's democracy and that's the will of the people that goes by the ballot, not by the bullet. ukraine's president zelensky is warning that "war is coming to russia."

that's after three drones were shot down over moscow. there is a growing sense of insecurity in russia as steve rosenberg reports. it was early morning in moscow when this happened. explosion russia says it downed three ukrainian drones that were targeting the capital. two of them smashed into skyscrapers. though no—one was killed, it added to the sense of insecurity here. but the president was upbeat, marking navy day in st petersburg. russia's war in ukraine has not gone at all to plan, but there's nothing like a parade of warships and submarines to project an image of russian power. translation: in the name of russia. _ our sailors are devoting all their energy. they are displaying true heroism. they are fighting valiantly,

just like our ancestors did. �*ancestors�* — it's the key word. for it is by referencing past heroes and history that those in power here today try to nurture love for the motherland. we saw just that this weekend near moscow. they were re—enacting a 16th—century battle when the army of ivan the terrible crushed invaders from the south. russians are being told more and more that they have a glorious, victorious past. the organisers here say russians can learn from this battle how to be victorious again today. in russia now, the past dominates the present. this is a country which lives in the past, which is constantly referring to the past to try to justify what it is doing now

to portray russia's actions today as right and just. konstantin malofeev is the oligarch who organised this event. the us and the eu sanctioned him for his ties to separatists in eastern ukraine, when the conflict began in 2014. recently, the us seized $5 million of his assets over alleged sanctions violations. they'll be transferred to ukraine. translation: 2014 i is when russia woke up and i'm proud to have played a part in this. no country, including the us and britain, has the right to punish me. i am a citizen of russia. western sanctions are a scam, a criminal act and criminals should be arrested and jailed. i don't know how long it will take the russian police to get their hands on president biden. but when they do, i'd like my money back. "russians forward," they cry.

re—enactment over, the next battle. russian fist—fighting — an ancient sport that comes with a message. russians are determined to win. steve rosenberg, bbc news, near moscow. around the world and across the uk, this is bbc news. voice-over: 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. until recently in china, it has been extremely difficult for single women to have children. but attitudes are changing, especially in the big cities, where more unmarried women are choosing to become mothers. stephen mcdonell reports. two—month—old hung—hung is being raised by his mother and grandmother. it's a lifestyle still frowned on by many, especially in rural areas or smaller towns where

beliefs are more conservative. attitudes are definitely changing towards single mothers in china, but mainly only in the big cities. this mother said she was lucky to have moved to shanghai to run a business. translation: i'm grateful l for the tolerance of shanghai. i'm from rural hunan, an area which will have a lot of discrimination against me as a single mum. she became a single mother after her boyfriend's family rejected his choice of bride because her income and status was too modest. although she was pregnant, he broke up with her. zhang meili's mother says the choice to continue with a pregnancy under such circumstances would have been impossible when she was young because of community pressure and official regulations. that this change in community attitudes has happened at this precise moment in history has been crucial. with an ageing population, the government wants more babies and yet many young couples have refused to answer

the call on financial grounds, so more and more we are seeing officials starting to change the rules which had been blocking single women from giving birth. yet peng qingqing isn't waiting for the government to sort out all the health insurance hurdles. she'll soon become a single mum on her own terms. we met her at an expo in hangzhou showcasing her online sales platform. translation: my mum always told me that women should be| more independent, confident and strong. i don't want to marry into anotherfamilyjust because of a child. the 30—year—old says the time wasn't right for marriage when she accidentally became pregnant with her much younger boyfriend. however, women's status and financial independence are shifting in china, giving more options. translation: traditionally, women relied on men - and the family for support.

as we earn more, men and women become more equal. women can even employ people to help them. the situation is patchy in china. even in some cities, single mothers on lower incomes are being denied the paid leave and health insurance needed to give birth. unmarried parents can now get the documents to, for example, process a child's school application. however, other government regulations still need to catch up with what's becoming a reality in china. stephen mcdonell, bbc news, hangzhou. with the women's world cup well under way in australia and new zealand, the amount of money female players receive for playing in the elite tournament is being put under the spotlight. before it started, fifa announced just under half of the tournament's $110 million prize pool would go directly to players. each would receive at least $30,000 for

participating, and those on the winning team would get $270,000 each. but the figures pale in comparison to the money awarded in last year's men's world cup. in fact, a recent analysis by us media found female soccer players will earn just 25 cents in this year's tournament for every dollar a male player makes. to discuss this further, i spoke with sports journalist and author macaela mackenzie. thank you for being here. we have been hearing about this gap in prizemoney between men and women with women earning, on average, 25 cents for every dollar that the men make in their world cup. what is behind that discrepancy and what is the reaction being among women players? a fantastic question because so much progress has been made in terms of reaching equal pay agreements around the world and that is dominated many headlines, that is great and is progress that should be acknowledged but there is still a $330

million pay gap in prizemoney from fifa at the world cup level. it is still a huge amount of ground to be made up. there is a lot that goes into that. it is an incredibly complicated equation but it speaks to the investment in the women's game versus the men's game. the women's game, obviously, historically has been under invested in and we see that in broadcast rights which for the first time this year was sold separately as opposed to being bundled with the men's tv rights which essentially meant that broadcasters were getting the women's tournament for free. up until this year. that kind of attitude has really absolutely spread over the game so we see many games and that is exciting but there is still a huge amount of ground needs to be made up.

in your recent reporting you pointed out another statistic. that the us women's national team this year has a record—tying number of mothers, there are three on the squad. why is that number so significant? they are tied with the 2015 roster which shows great continuity from the uswnt. what is even more exciting here is that there is an actual record in training camps in the spring training camps leading up to the final roster selection, there were five mothers included in those camps which is the most that the uswnt has ever seen and that speaks to the idea that this is notjust accommodations that are being made for one or two star players, this is deeply embedded into the culture of us soccer, with the support for mothers and that is thanks to decades of advocacy by these place. you wrote that pregnancy can be treated like a career—ending injury. what are some of the barriers that female athletes face when it comes to having children?

this is a bias that exists in many, if not most industries. we see that in the lack of paid leave programmes and the lack of child care benefits and most glaringly in the pay gap between between working mothers and working fathers. sports takes that bias and makes it extremely explicit. this is an industry that actually says aloud that we think you are going to be worth less once you become a mother and on the surface i think that can seem sort of logical, you know, this is a job where your body is extremely relevant to your performance professionally which makes pregnancy relevant. so for decades, you know, we have had women athletes speaking out about the fact that they felt pressured to either retire or become a parent but could not do both at the same time. we are starting to see that change thanks to support from sponsors and others but the shift has recently,

only recently we have been able to see what happens after a woman gives birth. is she really going to be worth less as a competitor? we see so many examples ofjust why that is not true. how does the us women's team support mothers? alex morgan is a big star and she is a mother. julie ertz as well. what is going on with the team to be able to make sure that they can still compete? there are three really important ways that us soccer supports their athletes and it starts with paid leave so they are given six months of paid leave around pregnancy and support for their return to competition during the postpartum period. then there is child care benefits. the team brings in a nanny for competitions and that allows parents to be able to show up as their full selves without sacrificing time with the children. i want to ask you, this

women's team, of course, they famously sued for equal pay and better working conditions. what kind of message do you think the us women's national team is sending beyond just sport? this team have always understood that their fight is bigger than just them. they know the outsize influence that sport has on culture and i think as it comes to equal pay and when it comes to the support for mothers in particular, you know, for us soccer to be able to find a way to support mothers throughout this transition but, more importantly, to see the value in doing that speaks volumes. i do not think us soccer does this because they have a soft spot for mothers or because they think it is the right thing to do, they understand that as a business supporting women throughout the many stages of their career has a huge benefit to them. macaela mackenzie, journalist and author, thank you so much for your insight.

stay with us here on bbc news. that's all from us here in washington. we leave you with these live pictures of london as we hand off to our colleagues there. hello. july has been a very wet month across the uk. and as we look towards the very end of the month, and, indeed, into the start of the new one, well, there's more rain on the way. spells of wind and rain this week, rather cool as well. now, looking back at the rainfall we've had so far, these figures are valid up to 10am on sunday. can see that in preston 285% of the averagejuly rainfall. that means preston has had close to three times the rainfall we would expecting in a typicaljuly. and those figures got a further top up as sunday went on because we saw a band

of heavy rain pushing northwards and eastwards in association with this frontal system still with us for monday morning. all tied in with this area of low pressure, which will be wobbling its way eastwards through the day. so a band of rain pushing northwards across scotland, some sunshine, at least for a time in the north of scotland, and then to the south of that, for northern ireland, for england and wales, large amounts of clouds and mistand murk, some splashes of rain and, actually, some really heavy and persistent rain across the channel islands that mayjust graze into southern counties of england at times. temperatures 17—21 degrees in most places. so at the oval for the cricket, i think we are going to see some showers at times. i'm hopeful of some lengthy dry spells as well to allow some play to take place. and then as we move through monday nights, well, quite a mishmash of weather. some areas of clouds, a bit of mist and murk, some splashes of rain. we mayjust see a few more

clear spells working into the mix by the end of the night, temperatures of 12 or 13 or 1a degrees. now, tuesday looks set to be one of the drier days of the week. i can't promise it's going to be completely dry. there'll still be some bits and pieces of rain, some showers around. but we should at least get to see some spells of sunshine and some decent dry gaps between the showers. rain, though, you'll notice, returning to the far southwest of england later in the day. and temperatures at best 17—21 degrees, not particularly impressive for the first day of august. and then for wednesday, well, this deep area of low pressure pushes eastwards. this is a very autumnal looking weather chart. there will be some really strong winds, particularly on the southern flank of this low around the southwest of england, also through the channel islands can be very windy indeed. some outbreaks of rain, and then it looks like staying decidedly cool towards the end of the week.

voiceover: this is bbc news. we'll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i stephen sackur, and _ welcome to hardtalk. i stephen sackur, and today _ welcome to hardtalk. i stephen sackur, and today i _ welcome to hardtalk. i stephen sackur, and today i am _ welcome to hardtalk. i stephen sackur, and today i am in - welcome to hardtalk. i stephen sackur, and today i am in west l sackur, and today i am in west sussex in the south of england. this land, 25 years ago, was intensively farmed, but today,

it is an internationally acclaimed example of re— wildling. that is a form of land management that aims to reverse the degradation of ecosystems and reverse the extinction of species. my guest is isabella tree, the co—owner of this knepp estate. as her passion for re— wildling represent an indulgence or a pathway to a healthier planet? isabella tree, welcome to hardtalk and thank you so much for inviting us to your estate here in sussex.— here in sussex. pleasure. absolute _ here in sussex. pleasure. absolute pleasure - here in sussex. pleasure. absolute pleasure to - here in sussex. pleasure. | absolute pleasure to have here in sussex. pleasure. - absolute pleasure to have you. i'm sorry it's a better weather. it

i'm sorry it's a better weather.— i'm sorry it's a better weather. . , , weather. it is actually still for