over its economic crisis, and he s landed in the maldives. mr rajapaksa left aboard a militaryjet, ending a family dynasty that has ruled the country for decades. he had been in hiding, after crowds stormed his residence on saturday. they are still there. sources have told the bbc his brother, former finance minister basil rajapaksa, has also left the country. the president had promised to resign, but by remaining in position, he kept his immunity from prosecution. many sri lankans blame him for the economic crisis which has crippled their country, leaving it short of funds our correspondent rajini vaidyanathan was with protestors outside the presidential palace in colombo when the news of president rajapaksa s departure was made public. there is a real party atmosphere here at colombo seafront, which has been a protest site for many weeks, one of the main demands protesters had was for gotabaya rajapaksa to go. their slogan, their chant was go home, gota . we now know that
the same to declare a climate emergency. here we are. we don t know why the white house stopped short of making this emergency declaration on climate today with of course president biden standing in front of a once-fired coal powered plant being converted into an offshore wind manufacturing facility. there s speculation a tough time to roll out that announcement amid high gas prices and recession fears and since can it be used as a legal basis to drop oil and gas drills. congressional republicans say pain at the pump is the point. i think the administration does want us to suffer. the secretary of transportation said yesterday you don t like the cost of gasoline, buy an electric vehicle. so some announcements did come from the president s remarks plan to propose wind mills in the gulf of mexico and a record of amount of fema funding for infrastructure, neil. jackie, thanks for that. let s go to jeff block right now. he s in philadelphia. witnesses this for himself. the
nicolas cruz pleaded guilty to gunning down 17 people, at his former high school. live from our studio in singapore, this is bbc news it s newsday. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in the uk and around the world. we begin in western france which is facing what experts are calling a heat apocalypse , as extreme temperatures continue to hit much of europe. they say temperatures could reach record levels in 15 regions of the southwest, with firefighters battling wildfires and thousands forced to evacuate. wildfires in spain, portugal and greece have forced thousands more to flee. our europe correspondent jessica parker has the latest. into the forest and the front line of an exhausting battle, and one that, today, we were given special access to. up in the woods, you can see guys tackling the fires. there s a huge amount of activity down here, and it is hot, it is smoky just look at the haze in the trees. the smoke thickens the further in we go the flames sudd
have gone over it. the overnight temperatures did not drop below 25 degrees for some, emily more in yorkshire was one of the hottest spots. the daytime has certainly gone, as ipm spots. the daytime has certainly gone, as 1pm the first a0 celsius day in the uk at heathrow. wales saw their hottest day yesterday, not quite so hot today, potentially getting hotter in scotland to break the national record under northern ireland things have already started to cool down. and in northern ireland. in western areas we have the first signs of some fresh air pushing on, across central and eastern parts of the heat continues to build. temperatures will drop a little across the southernmost counties, they be dropping a little london areas but from london northwards towards parts of the east midlands, lincolnshire and yorkshire we could she democracy temperatures topped ai we could she democracy temperatures topped a1 or a2. temperatures will drop further across northern ireland in weste