more than 5,000 athletes from 72 nations and territories will compete over the next 11 days. and the return of the tiger, why nepal kept its promise to double numbers in the last decade. it s 8am in singapore, and eight in the evening in washington, where presidentjoe biden has spent more than two hours on the phone with his chinese counterpart, xijinping. taiwan emerged once again as a key point of tension between the two leaders, this time sparked by a possible visit there by the us house speaker, nancy pelosi. although the visit hasn t yet been confirmed, mr biden told xijinping, that washington strongly opposed any unilateral moves that would change the island s status, or undermine stability across the taiwan straits. president xi said: those who play with fire will only get burnt. joe biden responded to that with on taiwan the us policy has not changed. so where does that leave diplomatic relations? well, with an assessment of that phone call, here s the bbc s barba
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
to actor bernard cribbins, famous for his many roles including in doctor who, the wombles and the original railway children who has died at the age of 93. a report looking into events leading up to the death of a 13 month old boy in cumbria has found that the woman who killed him misled social workers about her mental health, her alcohol use, and her debts. leiland james corkill was killed injanuary last year by laura castle, a woman who had hoped to adopt him. a safeguarding report found that relevant information about castle was not shared between agencies. it concluded that checks on people who want to adopt should be strengthened. first, our special correpsondent ed thomas has this report, it contains some distressing details. mummy, please don t be sad. i miss you so much too. i m safe. it s so beautiful up here. but i do worry when i see you cry. laura inhales sharply the words of laura corkill read at the funeral of her son, leiland james. .. and what do you re