hello and welcome. a potential visit to taiwan by the us house speaker nancy pelosi is stirring alarm in presidentjoe biden s administration. officials are concerned the trip may cross red lines for china, and fears there s no potential exit path . beijing, which claims sovereignty over the island, has already issued harsh warnings even suggesting a possible military response. against this backdrop, president biden is expected to call president shee on thursday for the first time in months. gareth barlow reports. this is taiwan. to beijing it is the breakaway province that must become part of the country, if need be by force. to washington, it s the territory of the us has pledged to help defend, if it ever comes under attack. an island nation of 23 million, at the centre of a struggle between two global superpowers, and it s the potential visit to taiwan by nancy pelosi, second in line to the us presidency, who, if the trip goes ahead, will be the highest ranking american
energy companies post big increases in profits as uk customers face soaring household bills. right on time! tributes are paid to the star of the railway children and narrator of the wombles bernard cribbins, who has died aged 93. and coming up on the bbc news channel. the lionesses will take on germany in the euro 22 final at wembley after the eight time champions saw off france in their semifinal. good afternoon and welcome to the bbc news at 0ne. the commonwealth games 2022 opens here at the alexander stadium in birmingham later today. this huge space seats 30,000 people and although we don t entirely know the themes of the opening ceremony, you get hints of how they want to celebrate birmingham, with a mock canal and brickwork heralding its industrial past and graffiti and skateboard ramps celebrating its gritty present. 0rganisers say it s the biggest in the event s history. prince charles will represent the queen tonight and performances will include local music and danc
that tune will be in your head all afternoon! time for a look at the weather. we need it to be fine over birmingham. yes, it s not going to be bathed in sunshine for the opening ceremony of the commonwealth games but it is looking dry and timbers easing down from 20 degrees during the course of the ceremony. where we are seeing sunshine today is to the north and north west of scotland. very limited elsewhere. whilst there is a lot of dry weather around, we have also seen some heavy rain so far today, impacting parts of northern england, into southern scotland, thundery rain through the isle of man for a time and it is edging further north. we have high pressure close by so overall, a lot of dry weather and also a weather disturbance has been brought into that wiltshire will continue to feed these outbreaks of rain, slowly a little further north in scotland but still holding the sunny spells in the north and north west. a few patches of rain or showers in wales and south west