ever april day. hello, a very warm welcome. i m samantha simmonds. efforts are being stepped up in sudan to try and extend a fragile ceasefire between troops loyal to rival generals. the outbreak of violence in the country has left more than 500 people dead and forced thousands to flee. the current truce brokered by the us is due to expire later on thursday. both the un and south sudan are rapidly trying to organise a three day extension to it. the sudanese army says it s approved the idea of discussing the proposal but its rival, the rapid support forces, has not yet responded. here s our diplomatic correspondent, paul adams, with the latest. there is an invitation from salva kiir, south sudan s president, to both the warring generals to try and get them to go to the south sudanese capital to sit down and talk about another three day ceasefire, to carry on when the current one expires later today. and also to talk about humanitarian corridors within khartoum and perhaps to t
mission control. a 21 year old us air national guardsman will appear in court later today charged with the most serious leak of secret intelligence documents in years. jack teixeira is expected in court in boston in the next few hours. the leaked material first appeared on an online chat forum, and has exposed details of ukraine s war plans. it also reveals the extent of the us s spying on its allies. here s what we know about jack teixeira. the 21 year old is a us air national guardsman. he was listed as a member of the intelligence wing of the massachusetts air national guard based at otis air national guard base in western cape cod. according to his service record, which was obtained by our us partner cbs news, teixeira joined the force in 2019. his identification first came on thursday when the visual investigations team at the new york times tracked him down. it s an extraordianary story. christiaan triebert from that team told the bbc how they managed it. these new
china has tried to calm tensions after two chinese spy balloons were spotted over the united states and latin america. the chinese foreign ministry has spoken to the us secretary of state, antony blinken, after he cancelled his trip to china this weekend. beijing says the matter must be dealt with in a cool headed and prudent manner. our north america correspondent barbara plett usher reports from beijing. americans are looking up to spot the spy balloon in the sky. it s actually a weather balloon that blew off course, the chinese said. but the pentagon s convinced it s more than that and that it s not the only one. we re seeing reports of a balloon transiting latin america. we now assess it is another chinese surveillance balloon. the ballon burst plans for america s top diplomat antony blinken to travel to beijing for rare talks about covid, trade disputes and the security situation over taiwan, but mostly to calm sky high tensions. this crisis shows just how fragile re
hello and welcome to the programme. we start with the political crisis in brazil where security forces have detained 1,500 people after supporters of the far right former president jair bolsonaro stormed government buildings in the capital brasilia. leaders around the world have condemned the riots as an attack on democracy. mr bolsonaro came to power in 2019 he s popular amongst his supporters someone they see as a champion of traditional values. but his administration was marked by controversy many saw his policies as harmful to the amazon rain forest, while others questioned his response to covid when he downplayed the effects of the pandemic. the new president left wing luiz inacio lula da silva was voted in last october. he has been president before and had served a prison sentence for corruption, a conviction that was later anulled. the close result in last october s election just 51% to 49% - highligted a divided country. from brasilia, our corresponden
for the country. hundreds of protesters have beeen gathering in central london to show their solidarity with anti government demonstrations in iran. president biden will visit the us border with mexico for the first time since taking office today. record numbers of migrants have crossed over recently. in his latest television interview, prince harry talks of the death of his mother princess diana, and the strain as a child of showing no emotion in public. china has reopened its borders to international visitors for the first time since the start of the pandemic. people entering the country will no longer need to quarantine but will need to provide proof of a negative covid test, and chinese citizens are once again allowed to go overseas. there have been emotional reunions at airports and the mainland s border with hong kong. this latest lifting of coronavirus restrictions coincides with the country s busiest travel season marking the lunar new year. our correspondent martin